Website Fold
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- nb0
Above the fold is becoming less important with each new internet device that is developed. "The fold" becomes impossible to define as screen size, orientation and resolutions become more diverse in the future.
The trick to convincing your clients/boss/users that the fold doesn't matter is to pretentiously brush it off as outdated old-world thinking.
"The fold? This ain't 1996, bro. What's next, you gonna ask me to fax you my business card so you can file it in your rolodex? Lulz."
(Make sure to pronounce "lulz" properly.)
- jetSkii0
Why is it that they only tell designers to design above the fold? They should tell writers who write long articles that they need to write above the fold instead.
- exador10
a lot of this depends upon your audience.
for example, quite a few of my projects recently have been for some major banks in Canada....a few internal UI designs etc. some internal portal work as well...
90% of these people are using older, smaller monitors, and are also definitely using ie6.....and are unlikely to be upgrading any time soon.....these sort of things are a big factor in the layout and design.
and you better believe the fold is important to these folks....on the other hand, different demographics will have different use cases, so to speak, and the fold will either matter more or less depending on what the site is for etc...
i personally like the idea of ignoring the fold as much as humanly possible....but professionally i know that certain gigs need 'special handling'....
- "The audience" is sometimes the client who CAN'T UNDERSTAND his experiencec isn't universalvaxorcist
- oddslob0
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- orrinward0
Fuck the fold. It is in your best interest to grab the attention of your audience without them needing to click on anything or move the browser window.
In that respect, you should make sure that the most eyecatching and pertinent material should be above the fold, but in reality, people really don't mind scrolling down.
A lot of the nicer, modern web interfaces have content below the fold but they still don't require scrolling due to smoothscroll navigation or other fancy methods.
If there is no important content on my screen when I land on a page, but the page is visually interesting, I will happily make the effort to navigate further into it.
- thatboyneave0
It's not really a black and white issue.
Yes, it's true that there's no standard resolution anymore.
You need to build a visual hierarchy, and one of the things that contributes to that (along with size, contrast and all that) is how far up the page it is.
If you want people to see something further down the page give them a reason to scroll down.
If there's a client/account director giving you a hard time about it they might well listen to you if you can give them well articulated reasons not to jam a million things into the top 600px.
- ...your reasons will probably vary depending on the gig.thatboyneave
- the last sentence is a good weapon to win useless arguments....vaxorcist
- thatboyneave0
You could always argue that moving things up the page means you will have to make the logo smaller. Them watch their brains go into an infinite loop. It will be like a falling cat with a piece of buttered bread strapped to its back.
- mydo0
target audience.
I have a lot clients who hate scrolling. surely they are representative of millions more normal people. the same people who double click on hyperlinks, and use file menus for cut and paste.
You know it's true.
- pillhead0
I would like to know who the fuck come up with the name Fold when it has fuck all to do with web design and all to do with print and paper design. Move the fuck on already, and start using original terminology for the web.
- http://www.qbn.com/t…set
- Why do we call them buttons? They have fuck all to do with fashion.Amicus
- Why do we call them links when they have nothing to with securing a bike to a pole?Amicus
- set0
The above the fold area and consideration for it does have it's uses in my opinion.
I'm not going to bother scrolling if what I see when I first arrive at a site doesn't engage and interest me.
- vaxorcist0
Why do fold-trespassing Blogs usually get more hits than brochure websites that fit in the fold?
Because they have... uh... actual content that people want to SEE and actually READ.... not the usual brochure website copywritten crap that means nothing....
People will scroll to read and see interesting stuff, but they won't scroll if the content is meaningless PR, so clients who are obsessed with gettiing it all above the fold are actually admitting that their website is MEANINGLESS PR....
- thatboyneave0
The best way to win it is probably to user test the scrolling design.
Be prepared to roll with the results either way however...
- i_monk0
Posting at the bottom of page 2. Nobody will read this!