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What is the common/correct term for the "overscroll" feature very prominent in touch interfaces when scrolling a list of items?

Description: When scrolling a list of items, the user can scroll over the end of the list, and after releasing the touch the list just bounces back. The point is to convey that the application "succesfully" reached the bottom - that the touch event got interpreted correctly as "scroll down", but there's just no more items to display.

Ilari Kajaste
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  • +1: Good of you to ask. Now I know how to tell people how much I dislike the bounce scroll feature. – Bernhard Hofmann Oct 26 '11 at 07:25
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    @BernhardHofmann :D I just love it, personally! Though it always does feel a bit like I'm about physically break the list if I pull it too far. Who knows, maybe that will happen one day. :) – Ilari Kajaste Oct 26 '11 at 08:14
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    @Bernhard Hofmann" why do you dislike it? Do you have an alternative to let the user feel that he is at the end of a list without having him think his touch gesture is ignored? – Bart Gijssens Oct 26 '11 at 08:48
  • Ps.: Note that the bounce effect is patented. http://thisismynext.com/2011/04/19/apple-sues-samsung-analysis/ – Bart Gijssens Oct 26 '11 at 08:51
  • In Android's API it's called just overscroll. @BaGi: I made an image scroller that makes the phone vibrate when you reach the bounds. If anyone wants to try it... The only thing is that I couldn't get the vibration to be proportional to the force (phone limits). That would be great. – bigstones Oct 26 '11 at 10:50
  • @BaGi Subtly flashing the border would be my choice for an alternative, if I was looking for one. – Ilari Kajaste Oct 26 '11 at 12:16
  • @bigstones If there aren't any strong sources for this, Android API seems like valid naming convention source. Add it as an answer with a link to the relevant online API doc? – Ilari Kajaste Oct 26 '11 at 12:18
  • @BaGi Thanks for the patent link! Though pretty much everything patented anyware. Considering the miserable state the industry's in, I expect there to be a patent even for "representing voice communication in sequential graphic atomic glyphs corresponding to distinct phonetic components". And it would probably be perfectly viable for lawsuits too. I wish somebody would go and patent the patent litigation process itself, and use that patent to prevent anyone from suing... – Ilari Kajaste Oct 26 '11 at 12:25
  • I believe the bounce effect is great because there is no better way to show that you are at the end of a list than actually giving a peek beyond the borders and showing that there is actually nothing there. It also combines greatly with flick scrolling. – Bart Gijssens Oct 26 '11 at 12:37
  • @BaGi I recall "overscroll" effects (and thought they were sweet) in Windows Vista's Tablet features before the iPhone was released, I don't see how it could possibly stand up in court to say that Apple invented it. – Ben Brocka Oct 26 '11 at 18:42
  • @Ben Brocka: I just mentioned it because it is a fact that Apple has got a patent on it. Whether it will stand in court is something I cannot judge. It's a discussion I don't want to get into, there are other forums for that ;) – Bart Gijssens Oct 27 '11 at 05:58

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Well, if the way Apple describes this effect means anything to you, then they simply call it "bouncing"..

Here's the documentation for their basic UIScrollView control that implements this behavior:

bounces
A Boolean value that controls whether the scroll view bounces past the edge of content and back again.

And I do recall a story about Steve Jobs playing around with the earliest prototypes of the touch interface of the iPhone and being really impressed by the "physics" of scrolling and the bounce effect. Although I can't find it online now.

Assaf Lavie
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  • Worth noting that in the OS X equivalent NSScrollView, the setting is called NSScrollElasticity (with the allowed values being NSScrollElasticityAutomatic, NSScrollElasticityNone and NSScrollElasticityAllowed). – Kit Grose Sep 11 '14 at 03:35
  • They also have a global defaults write command for disabling/enabling the mode called NSScrollViewRubberbanding (so it looks like Apple has no real standard naming convention for it). – Kit Grose Sep 11 '14 at 03:56
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Android API, since 2.3, supports overscrolling and calls it that way. See Android 2.3 Platform - API overview, section UI Framework.

Actually "overscroll" is just the name given to the event of trying to scroll over limits. The API offers means to define how to react to overscrolling, and specifically calls the effect of "bouncing back" as springback, which actually sounds more technical to me.

bigstones
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For what it's worth, Steve Jobs called it the "rubber banding" in his presentation revealing the original iPhone.

aaaidan
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