EBlog
Does the fold matter? Will they scroll?
July 27, 2007 | Posted by: Jeff
Fascinating post by Milissa Tarquini in BoxesAndArrows called Blasting the Myth of the Fold. It addresses those burning questions, “When does the fold matter?”, “Will they scroll?” and “Where is the fold?” And not just an opinion piece, there’s research in there too.
Bottom line, “Stop worrying about the fold. Don’t throw your best practices out the window, but stop cramming stuff above a certain pixel point…The biggest lesson to be learned here is that if you use visual cues (such as cut-off images and text) and compelling content, users will scroll to see all of it.”
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design web design web sites information design
Categorized in: Observations and Random Musings
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Comments
by Bob
I think this is a half-truth as it relates to B2B communications. For most B2B websites the fold is of utmost importance. For a large proportion of B2B sites the objective is to very quickly communicate what the company is about to a new prospect. In relation to this objectives Milissa acknowledges that “The most basic rule of thumb is that for every site the user should be able to understand what your site is about by the information presented to them above the fold. If they have to scroll to even discover what the site is, its success is unlikely.”
The “Stop Worrying About the fold” statement needs to be taken in context - the “fold” research she quotes is primarily in respect to Blogs and News sites or sites where people are involved in the content as opposed to being a new visitor.
by Bob
Actually, upon further reflection - the question is not “Will they scroll?” but “Will it blend?”
by Marty
Another question may be do we break the “quickly communicate” barrier by cramming too much information above the fold - making it too convoluted or confusing to communicate that message. Is it quicker to make it obvious that more information is available below the fold with cues that are easier digested with less above-the-fold clutter.
November 04 2007 - 05:33 PM | by Nicholas
B&A;has posted an update on this post in the form of a podcast.