Pagination at bottom of pages only

Question

I'm considering having the pagination menu shown only at the bottom of pages on my website

Also to save screen real estate on mobile devices

The pagination looks like this

PAGE 1/3   >>

or

<<   PAGE 2/3   >>

or

<<   PAGE 3/3

I'm pretty sure users will never need to know or link a specific page, as the contents are updated and changed constantly

To me, it makes sense to have it at the bottom, AFTER all the content is read.. "oh there's more? ok let me see".

But should I show the pagination at the top too when the user is on page 2 out of 3? If so, why?

Answer 1

Show it at the top.

In my experience on ecomm product grids, users are more likely to visit subsequent pages if you tell them up front that they exist. It gives them awareness of the number of available options. It also allows them to jump ahead quickly if they already know the first pages doesn't have what they're after.

Granular control when necessary

If you're only going to have two or three pages, the next/previous approach is viable. If your pagination has the potential to get deep, you might want to consider offering page-jumping of some kind. A space-saving solution is to make the current page number an input that can be used to jump around.

Answer 2

It likely depends on what navigation controls you have on your page.

If pagination is the only way you can navigate, then for sure having pagination on both top and bottom would be helpful.

If you have filters or faceted search, then that will just clutter up the screen. Users have better ways of finding what they need. They're more likely to refine their search than to go through pages and pages of results.

Also if mobile/small screen support is a large consideration, you may actually want to replace pagination with "click to load more" button if there's no significance to specific pages. That'll be easier to tap on than your multiple pagination links. You probably want to show an item count so they have an idea of how many more items are there left in the list.