[phlsa]

From a user interface perspective, paging has one great benefit. It provides structure, especially to long texts with no images or layout cues. Think of it as an extended version of the paragraph: a tool of composition that gives readers subtle navigation cues within a text.

If paging means more load time, bad results in search or the like, that's obviously a bad thing.

[randomdata]

Pagination feels like it was one of those things born out of need by computational limitations, and then was taken as "just the way things are" by designers.

In a world of infinite computing resources, I see no reason to provide multiple pages at all. Designs can accommodate the data to make it work nicely for the end user.

[phlsa]

Pagination -- from a user's perspective -- has nothing todo with computation.

To appreciate what pagination does, just imagine a 500 page book. Now imagine having to read it on an ancient scroll. Pages make it easier for our brains to segment the information of a book or a long article by giving us a higher order rhythm within the content.

Or just take it one step further: why not eliminate line breaks? They're just as arbitrary as page breaks and there is no technical limitation on horizontal scrolling. But again, segmentation helps to form a mental model of the content.

[randomdata]

A common way to break the flow of long pages of text is to encapsulate sections within boxes, so to speak. You've probably seen this in word processors, or PDF viewers, to name a couple of prevalent examples.

This also is how many of the popular "reader" applications display the paginated content, and there is no reason a web page couldn't be designed that way from the beginning as well. Or, with the number of amazing designers out there, maybe something completely different.

I agree breaks are important, I'm just not sure multi-request pagination is the best interface for that. We only accept it because it is often necessary due to computing limitations.

[jes5199]

I dislike the page metaphor, because, at least in PDFs and most word processors, it means that the page is a fixed width and the text won't reflow to fit my window. If I zoom in, I have to scroll left and right as I read each line! Very annoying.