I recently worked with a client who insisted the design should be catered around ‘the fold’. Subsquently, the site design suffered hugely and I was unable to put the site in my portfolio as it did not represents work that I was capable of – I was happy with my original design but when put under the limitations of ‘the fold’ rule the website looked like a different animal.
What is ‘the fold’?
The fold is an imaginary line seperates the content that is visable without scrolling horizontally when the website first loads up.
True, catching the users eye is key and efforts should be made to strategically place items on a page to attract their attention, however the concept of ‘the fold’ is flawed and therefore should not dictate your design.
With the amount of different resolutions there really is no concept of a true ‘fold’. You might not even be sure they are using a desktop computer or laptop – they could be using one of the vast array of mobile devices.
Elements such as your logo, navigation and maybe a strapline is important nearer the top of the page, as Internet users are fickle and you need to grab their attention.
People are willing to scroll
If you have your good stuff nearer the top of the page then people are willing to scroll to get the information they need. It goes without saying that the more important details should be outlined nearer to the top but so long as your navigation around the site is easy to use then users will find what they are looking for.
So less time concentrating on ‘the fold’ please, and more time concentrating on what may make your site stand out from the crowd.
Posted on July 12, 2011 in Web Design
Totally agree. As long as a visitor can get the general impression of a page from the area towards the top then there shouldn’t be an issue.
I haven’t really heard people talking about the fold for a long time. I think it was more of a popular concept a few years ago – though it was still wrong then, in my opinion anyway.