A system and method for managing a scalable list of items for display in a display device of a small footprint device. A client program running in a small footprint device may instantiate a "list container object" and add "list item data objects" to the list container object. The list container object may instantiate a fixed number of "item renderer objects", which are responsible for appropriately displaying the list item data objects. Each item renderer object may correspond to a row in the displayed list. The list container object interfaces with the set of item renderer objects, in order to manage the display of the list. In one embodiment, the item renderer objects are instances of a class that supports an "item renderer interface" that includes methods for interacting with the item renderer objects. Thus, a general framework is described in which any of various types of objects may be displayed, by implementing the item renderer interface methods appropriately for different item renderer object implementations. The list container object may keep track of the set of list item data objects being displayed at any given time. As a user interacts with the list, e.g., by scrolling up or down, the list container object may receive method calls or user interface events indicating the user's action, may determine the new start index for items to display, and may instruct each item renderer object to redisplay the appropriate list item data object, e.g., by calling an item renderer interface method for each item renderer object, passing the corresponding list item data object as a parameter.