my thoughts
a bit like a blog, but with less opinion.
Does the fold still matter?
Posted
to Usability
by Dominic Winsor
on 07 Jan 2010
Updated: 07 Jan 2010
Got 3 minutes? Two short articles on the fold for you:
Whilst www.thereisnopagefold.com has the shock tactics, there is more to consider. I’m working with my client's obsession with the page fold. Here is a short article in which Jeff Atwood explains how the fold is used effectively for for his site (stackoverflow.com/ an IT Q&A site).
Revisiting the fold:
www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/001307.html
It references CX partners’ recent usability study on page scrolling which makes a compelling argument to present to your stakeholder when in the situation where everything must be above the page!
Design tips to encourage scrolling
- Less is more – don’t be tempted to cram everything above the fold. Good use of whitespace and imagery encourages exploration.
- Stark, horizontal lines discourage scrolling - this doesn’t mean stop using horizontal full width elements. Have a small amount of content just visible, poking up above the fold to encourage scrolling.
- Avoid the use of in-page scroll bars - the browser scrollbar is an indicator of the amount of content on the page. iFrames and other elements with scroll bars in the page can break this convention and may lead to content not being seen.
Get the full details – summary of the UX study:
www.cxpartners.co.uk/thoughts/the_myth_of_the_page_fold_evidence_from_user_testing.htm
My client's style guidelines lend themselves to strong horizontal lines that may discourage users from exploring content below the fold. So this is a hot topic for me.