Comments on: There is a fold

By: Dan Donald

Dan Donald — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 11:01:14 +0000

You’re kind of right…IMO

There is no fold – people do scroll, but you’re absolutely right in that it’s about priorities and working with a client to find the importance of certain bits of content and have those clearly viewable without scrolling. It’s common sense in some ways – the most important stuff should be seen first.

I get the sense that with many web folk (myself included) that the words or phrases we use that come from print or other media have started to get a bit irksome. They don’t sit as well as they did. Talking about a ‘fold’ doesn’t fit with the model we’re using. Perhaps it did when the web was purely static files but I like to think we’ve moved past that ;)

There’s is no fold but there is work to be done to help clients assess the priorities of their content and the space you see before scrolling is bound to be more important space on a site…

By: Gareth Trufitt

Gareth Trufitt — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 21:54:59 +0000

Haha, you’re welcome!

Yea, I read that article too, and while there are valid points but, as always, it all
comes down to what is best for the website and it’s vistors.

By: Ant

Ant — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 17:53:29 +0000

I read that I Am Paddy post as well and thought at the time it went too far against the idea of the fold. It made the point about how newspapers use ‘above the fold’ to grab attention, and then went on to ignore the fact it’s a great idea to be used online as well.

By: Phil Thompson

Phil Thompson — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 16:54:29 +0000

Thanks for the comment Gareth and thanks also, for making sure your gravatar matched my colour scheme – much appreciated.

I read this post, Life below 600px last week and it’s very good. The author/designer has made the design work very well for the point he is trying to make and it definitely encourages you to scroll and read the full content. However, you wouldn’t want an ecommerce/brochureware site to start with a gigantic 600px header just because it looks good and people may scroll.

For the record, that is not what that author suggests at all but I do get the feeling that some web designers think they can just ignore all the rules for the sake of what they think looks good.

By: Gareth Trufitt

Gareth Trufitt — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 16:32:19 +0000

You jumped on this before me, I was going to write a very similar article about the existence of ‘the fold’.

It’s all very well everyone shouting about how users know how to scroll but the fact of the matter is, on site that need to sell something or get a point across then what the user sees when they land on the site is obviously the most likely to be clicked on.

The ‘fold’ may be different for different users but is sure as hell exists, in my opinion, and, like you said, it all comes down to education of clients about usability and what is going to be the most successful layout for them.