First off — what is “The Fold?”  It’s the location on a web page under which it is expected that the user will have to scroll to see content.  Its origins stem from newspapers that were folded in halves or quarters to keep their carrying/shipping size down.  The idea is that all the headlines or super important information needs to be at the point where no folding is necessary for the user to digest it.

Into THE FOLD

But how much truth remains of this concept in modern-day web design?  The answer is LOTS.  It’s critical that the user immediately get the idea and context of your site without having to do anything at all.  Contributors to a successful first-time experience are not just text that is clear, clean and concise, but the visual design, layout and images used on your site.  There is a time and a place to really push the boat out design-wise and create something truly unique, but most times you want to capitalize on the common understanding attributed to a particular layout.  For example, blogs have a common format — either two or three columns of text-based content, a header with a logo/title at the top, and information about the blog, the author(s) and how to subscribe are all in one or both of the side columns towards the top.  Not to say that you can’t be creative inside of those parameters, but when people land on a page that looks like that, they can immediately say to themselves, “Oh, I get it, this is a blog!”  That instantaneous response saves the user precious time trying to figure out what your web page *does* and allows them to get straight to your message.

All of that happens incredibly quickly, however, so what happens after that?  If the user is confident they are in the right place because the cues are there for them (clear logo/title/brand, clear message, not too many ideas/visuals competing for dominance), they’re going to look for the information they need.

If you can give that to them without the user having to do anything, that’s great, but most times there is enough content on your site that you not only have to break it out into a number of pages, but you have to ask the user to scroll.  If the user can scroll on the landing page without having to click anywhere, that’s a good thing.  It’s also the web designer’s job to define where the fold *is.*  It needs to be instantly recognizable and visible without any scrolling at all for the average monitor resolution (1024×768 + browser toolbars/buttons).  By defining your fold line you are empowering your site to leverage that fold to entice people to scroll.  Show the top of a photo that the user may want to see more of, or place the start of intriguing content there..   Use your below-the-fold area to give a little more information about what’s on some of your other site pages to lead people to those pages to find out more without even having to figure out and use your site navigation.

And finally, give the user some payoff when they *do* scroll, be it visual or content-wise — engage them in some way.  If we continue to treat the bottom of the page as a footer with necessary-but-boring links and the dregs of page content, users will continue to treat it that way.

So, the fold is important, the fold is useful, and the fold can be leveraged, but it is not the be-all-end-all of the page.  Give your users some breathing room, give them engaging content, get them to your site and then INTO it.  We know that they’re scanning and not reading, and they will do that above *and* below the fold relative to how interesting the content is.

Web Marketing Therapy Related Links:

• Choosing a Navigation Model
• Going Through a Website/Branding Facelift? Expedite the Process With an Optimized Coming Soon Page
• Kaizen!

Categories: Art Therapy

Tags: web design

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