[drharris]

Can any UX people illuminate the modern popularity of these things? I find them very distracting, and typically unusable. When I'm scrolling down the page, the function I'm performing is consumption of content. With a sidebar there begging me to click away (or worse, display ads and social media junk), it considerably reduces my desire to perform this function. It just reminds me of the Java applets in 1996 for sidebar buttons.

[bluetidepro]

I think there is value in these types of sticky sidebars when they are used in the correct way. The correct way is when the sticky sidebar is a key of some sort. Links that jump around the current article for quick jumping. However, I agree, I can't stand when sites use these for ads or social media junk.

[drharris]

That's an excellent point. The sidebar on railstutorial.org is quite functional, and aside from some bright social icons not very distracting. I think that is the perfect use case for a sticky sidebar, navigation or additional information related to the actual body text. I guess I just see it used more as a new sidebar, basically emulating what framesets did for us back in the 90s.

[jakechance]

I agree that it all comes down to usage and content of the site. If the developer of the site uses something like this correctly to present always present useful information or links to the user, then they're great additions.

[knewter]

theverge is a GREAT example

[jarin]

It's very useful for top-level navigation when using the "infinite scrolling" that seems to be so popular these days. It makes it so you don't have to scroll all the way back up when you're 10 pages deep.

[riffraff]

how does this compare to having a "to top" button on the bottom of the page which appears when scrolling?

I mean, I understand the difference between showing actual actions or giving more space to content, but I'd like to know of some real studies on it.

[jarin]

It's an extra click

[knewter]

at the bottom...of the infinite scrolling page?

whoosh

[riffraff]

no, at the bottom of the window/viewport when scrolling.

[drharris]

Ah, not a fan of endless scrolling either, so that may explain my feelings here. :)