I think so to, but usability research done by a partner company of ours showed, to their and our surprise, that "ordinary users" prefer this page turning effect.
I would have to know more about the study to know if this is meaningful. When people see something novel (to them) they often think they prefer it to whatever the old thing is simply due to the novelty. But they might change their mind if they were actually forced to use the new method for some time.
Case in point: touchscreens replacing dials and switches in cars -- cool right? So flexible! But no, in reality they suck and you can't use them at all without becoming a danger to yourself and everyone else on the road. Physical dials and switches are way better because they can be controlled without actually looking at them. But this is something that takes a while to become obvious to people (in fact, car makers are still fucking this up).
I would question this result in almost every meaningful demographic. I've sat and watched people fail to discover non-standard navigation methods countless times in testing of products across 12-18 and 20-60 (students and teachers separately) every time one is provided as part of a supplier product. Unless there was some kind of conscious or subconscious prompting going on I would doubt that anyone would genuinely favor it.
You can easily, to the detriment of results, create an environment where people say they like something when really they like the impact the the thing had on them the first time ("oh, cool") when really they don't prefer it at all but the record only reflects their initial impression.
Demographics are more varied than that though - they also vary by Country. Take Denmark, the birthplace of several of the major players in flip catalogs - online flip based catalogs are so common that every internet going user knows what they are, and how to interact with them.
With such a common use of them, we can start looking at how to optimize the catalog format itself, rather than stick with the scrolling vs. catalog format discussion.
Usability and prefer are two words that are dangerous when used together. While it worked, I found it completely unusable on my phone and tablet. I'm not sure the mouse would serve any better either.
what sort of usablity research? did you show users a page with and without page turn effects and ask them which they prefer, or did you actually monitor their usage over an extended period and see which pattern encouraged more use?
because of course your users say they like the flashy effects, but you should never listen to your users when they say things like that. that's the sort of thinking that leads to sounds when buttons are pressed.
Case in point: touchscreens replacing dials and switches in cars -- cool right? So flexible! But no, in reality they suck and you can't use them at all without becoming a danger to yourself and everyone else on the road. Physical dials and switches are way better because they can be controlled without actually looking at them. But this is something that takes a while to become obvious to people (in fact, car makers are still fucking this up).