Momentum (aka. smooth or interia) scrolling plugins (example here), while marketed as enhancements, are a plague upon the internet. They disrupt the natural, efficient, and predictable web browsing experience in countless ways, by they often degrading usability, accessibility, and performance. Here are ten reasons why they ruin the web for everyone.
Users know how scrolling works. It's been the same since the dawn of the web: you scroll, content moves. Momentum scrolling plugins hijack this fundamental behavior. Instead of instant and predictable movement, users get some bizarrely animated experience that feels more like playing a bad video game. Muscle memory? Tossed out the window. It's like giving people a steering wheel in a car and making it turn the opposite direction—just for kicks.
Impact: This disrupts muscle memory and established habits, which users rely on for efficient navigation. The experience feels artificial and clunky, making users feel like they're fighting against the page instead of interacting with it naturally.
Not everyone wants a theme-park ride when reading an article. Momentum scrolling plugins introduce floaty, swoopy animations that feel like watching a shaky cam on repeat. Users prone to motion sickness or vertigo (and there are more than you think) can't handle these unnecessary flourishes. What's worse, many sites don't even offer an option to turn it off, leaving people stuck feeling queasy just trying to read your blog post.
Impact: Users prone to motion sickness or vertigo may find the website literally nauseating to use. Is your content so unimportant that you'd rather users leave than scroll down? Probably not.
Web accessibility is a right, not an optional feature. Momentum scrolling plugins laugh in the face of inclusivity. They disrupt assistive technologies like screen readers and keyboard navigation by introducing timing delays. For users with disabilities, such as motor impairments or visual limitations, these delays can render a site unusable. A feature that excludes millions of users isn't a feature—it's a flaw.
Impact: Users with disabilities may struggle to interact with the site. Do you really want to alienate an entire demographic just to make scrolling look a little fancier? Accessibility isn't optional—it's a baseline requirement.
Momentum scrolling plugins don't care if you're on a state-of-the-art gaming rig or a five-year-old budget phone. They load JavaScript that can lag, stutter, or outright break on older or lower-end devices. Why make your website cater only to people with perfect hardware? The web is supposed to work for everyone, not just the ones who can afford shiny new gadgets every year.
Impact: Instead of feeling "Momentum," the page feels broken on weaker devices. Great job—now you've ensured your site only works properly for people with high-end tech. Good UX means working for everyone, not just the rich.
Power users exist. They're the ones who zoom through documentation, rapidly scroll through pages, and want precision. Momentum scrolling spits in their faces. It slows down their workflow by forcing them to endure molasses-like animations. They're not here for your slow, cutesy effects—they're here to get things done. Stop standing in their way. It's like making a racecar driver go 20 mph because it "looks prettier."
Impact: These users will hate your site. And let's be clear, power users are often the ones most likely to recommend or share content. Do you really want to alienate your most enthusiastic audience?
Momentum scrolling plugins add bloated JavaScript libraries, extra dependencies, and more CPU cycles to render animations. Guess what? That comes at a cost.
Impact: Slower load times annoy everyone. On mobile networks, especially in areas with poor connectivity, your fancy scrolling makes the page slower and less accessible. Congrats, you've sacrificed performance for aesthetics.
Modern browsers already include Momentum scrolling settings for users who want them. Adding third-party plugins often overrides or conflicts with these native features, breaking custom scroll gestures or momentum scrolling.
Impact: Your site ends up less functional than the browser it's displayed in. Users who expect their preferences to work (e.g., system-wide reduced motion settings) will feel betrayed. You just took something that worked and made it worse.
Momentum scrolling animations introduce a delay between action and result, making it hard to tell exactly where you are on the page. Combine this with long pages, and users are left feeling lost.
Impact: Users now spend extra time figuring out their position. Nobody likes a website that feels like a guessing game. Quick navigation becomes a chore instead of a feature. Great job, you just turned scrolling into a problem.
Momentum scrolling plugins aren't "set it and forget it." They need regular updates to stay compatible with modern browsers, operating systems, and devices. And every update risks introducing new bugs.
Impact: You've now created extra work for your development team, all for a feature nobody really asked for. That's time and money that could've been spent making your site faster, more secure, or better optimized. But sure, keep chasing that "Momentum" scroll.
Users come to your website for content, not for an overly choreographed scrolling experience. Overriding default scrolling assumes your vision of scrolling is better than the user's preferences or needs.
Impact: By enforcing Momentum scrolling, you're essentially telling users: "We know better than you." That arrogance doesn't go unnoticed. Respect your users' autonomy—don't dictate how they interact with your site.
Momentum scrolling plugins are the web equivalent of turning a functional bike into a unicycle because it "looks cool." It adds unnecessary complexity, degrades usability, and frustrates users. Instead of reinventing scrolling, stick to what works: native, predictable, fast scrolling behavior.
Don't make scrolling a thing. Just let people scroll.
And if you're still not convinced, go to the smooth version and try to tell me it's better.
Inspired by the geniuses behind Motherfucking Website.