Nowadays it's totally common to see mobile UIs without any visible scroll bars.
But I'm wondering if there actually are benefits with adding a vertical scroll bar on a mobile UI and if these benefits outweigh the possible drawbacks. ( ← this is the question)
The first benefits I can think of are :
- The possibility to judge the page height on a single glance.
- In the same vein, avoiding non-viewed content when the overflow isn't apparent (text/image not cut at the bottom).
- The possibility to tap the bottom of the scrollbar in order to reach the very bottom of the page.
- The possibility to scroll faster.
As for the drawbacks, there is the loss of horizontal space (when you don't want to have your scrollbar float above your content).