Above the Fold: a Non-Issue?
Is the “Above the Fold” print philosophy relevant to website design?
Web designers sometimes hear clients speak the phrases “Above the Fold” or “Over the Fold”, which is a term newspaper publishers coined to reference the top half of a newspaper. A newspaper is delivered in a folded format, and the most critical information is typically positioned above the fold point, where readers often look first.
However, in web design, and especially modern Web 2.0 website design, the term “Above the Fold” is only relevant for the website identity logos and slogans, the website primary horizontal navigation and the web page headlines. As far as website content is concerned, being able to scroll horizontally to view an entire article or information resource is a great benefit that transcends the limitations of printed media.
And yet, some people have the misconception that web page users do not know how to scroll or resist scrolling, even though there are vast amounts of research that prove the contrary.
This image shows the average position of what could be referred to as
Fact #1:
Jakob Nielsen wrote about the growing acceptance and understanding of scrolling in 1997, yet 12 years later we are still hearing people claim that website users don’t scroll.
Fact #2:
ClickTale.com researchers used their proprietary tracking software to measure the activity of web pages. Their research gives data on the vertical height of the page and the point to which a user scrolls. In the study, they found that 76% of users scrolled and that a good portion of them scrolled all the way to the bottom, despite the height of the screen. Even the longest of web pages were scrolled to the bottom.
Are Long Pages Bad?
As shown here, the research shows that website visitors do scroll to the bottom of webpages. However, if the web page is very long, 10,000 pixels for example (the equivalent of 17 web pages ‘above the fold only’ ), is the website visitor less likely to scroll to the web page footer?
The answer is no!
Visitors are equally likely to scan the entire page no matter the page size. The the research proves it!
This image shows the average web page height in pixels. Courtesy Clicktale.com 1997
AOL performed research on web page scrolling in 1997 and here are their results:
Fact #3:
Performance data for AOL websites show that website content at the bottom of web pages are being widely viewed. For example the most clicked web page content on the TMZ.com homepage is the link at the very bottom of the page that takes users to the next page. It’s important to note that the TMZ.com homepage is often more than 15,000 pixels tall, which is the equivalent of 25 ‘above the fold only’ web pages. This data supports a trend in research that web page scrolling behavior is independent of screen height. If users are engaged in the content of a website, they will follow it down to the bottom of the web page and then anxiously click to the “next page” to see more.
Fact #4:
The AOL News Daily Pulse had poll at the bottom of the page, with vote counts well over 300,000 each. This meant that webpage visitors not only scrolled over 2000 pixels to the bottom of the page (the equivalent of 4 ‘above the fold only’ web pages), but they also took the time to participate in a poll.
Fact #5:
Researchers discovered that on the AOL Money & Finance homepage, website visitors use the recent quotes and personalized portfolio website applications, even when these applications are placed well beneath the 1024×768 fold. (1024×768 refers to the standard computer monitor screen size of 1024 pixels wide by 728 pixels tall).
Fact #6:
AOL Money & Finance had a photo gallery titled: Top Tax Tips. The photo gallery was 2500 pixels down the page, the equivalent of 5 ‘above the fold only’ web pages. Yet, this gallery generated between 200,000 and 400,000 page views.
This image shows the average web page views that had a scroll bar, and how many of those web page views were scrolled. Courtesy Clicktale.com 1997
Global Statistics show that 91% of web page views had a scroll-bar, 76% of web page views with a scroll-bar, were scrolled to some extent, and 22% of web page views with a scroll-bar, were scrolled all the way to the bottom. Many web page views are repeat views where the visitors have previously scrolled all the way to the page bottom, so an overall bottom page scroll of 22% should be considered a high number.
These statistics demonstrate that the vast majority of web designers are designing pages with scrolling, that the majority of users do scroll and that a significant portion of them scroll all the way to the page bottom.
The research shows very clearly that “the fold” has become irrelevant. Website visitors are scrolling and finding the web page content they seek. The best way to encourage web page scrolling is the website content itself, not the position of the content. If website content is compelling, website visitors will follow the content where ever it leads them.
The biggest lesson to be learned here is to not be concerned with web page height, but rather, to design a page footer that is as compelling and informative as the page header. If the user scrolls all the way to the bottom of the page, that means they were engaged with your content. Take advantage of that momentum. Provide the web page visitor with the same, or greater level of information and interaction at the bottom of the webpage in comparison to that presented at the top of the web page. Because, once the visitor reaches the bottom of the page, they need a destination to continue. If you dont’ provide the website visitor with a compelling footer, their next destination may very well be your competition.
