Web users have a limited attention span. People prefer sites that get right to the point and are quickly navigable. On the internet, there is a general reluctance to read more words than necessary and scrolling is too much extra work.
In the 1990′s when the World Wide Web was new, internet users had to be taught the concept of scrolling. At one time AOL wouldn’t even accept sites that didn’t completely fit onto a computer screen.
So OK, these days we all get scrolling, but that doesn’t mean we like it. If you want me to scroll, you have to give me a pretty good reason. Internet users spend 80% of time studying information “above the fold”. Despite the fact that they also use scrolling some of the time, only 20% of their attention is distributed on what is not on the first screen. The “first screen” is a term that refers to the part of a web page that is visible when you first land on a web site without having to scroll down.
“Above the fold” is a term borrowed from an older form of media – newspapers. It originally referred to the upper half of the front page where an important news story or photograph is located. Papers are displayed to customers folded so that only the top half of the front page is visible. So an item that is “above the fold” is one that the editor feels is most important and will entice people to buy the paper.
Sometimes, users do read down an entire page. It does happen occasionally. With blogs and articles, readers would rather scroll down to read an article in its entirety than have to click to a “next page”. But he basic rule of thumb for websites is still that visitors should be able to land on your site and understand what it is about by what is visible without scrolling.
Three conclusions for for web design
- Things that are important for business should be placed above the fold on your landing page. Name of your company. Phone number. Navigation bar. Introductory paragraph. Key photos. (Yes, a picture is still worth a thousand words.)
- People scroll pages quickly, so it is necessary to adjust page layouts for quick viewing, not for scrupulous reading. Columns are easier to read than text that runs across an entire screen.
- Don’t forget the bottom of the page. Footers should always have navigation buttons repeated. Also include the business name, phone number again along with an address and an email link.
And it never hurts to add something interesting as a reward for scrolling all the way to the bottom. A photo, quote or something visually interesting is a nice payoff.
Want to know exactly where the fold falls on your web page for different monitors? Check this out at http://www.whereisthefold.com/.
