We will be adding articles to this section from time to time. Future topics include: target width sizes for web page design, search engine optimization and choosing the ideal technology platform for your website. Read the first article below:

The Truth About "The Fold"
Thoughts on Scrolling Web Pages

There has been, for some time, a lot of talk about "the fold". Some clients come to us with no knowledge or opinion about the fold. Others request to keep everything important above the fold. Others still are more stringent, wanting the pages to be designed with absolutely no scrolling anywhere in the site.

The fold, for those who do not know, is the place on a web page where the content gets cut off at the bottom if the viewer does not scroll vertically (horizontal scrolling is generally always avoided). Though it is impossible to determine exactly where that point will fall on every user’s screen, a web developer can make an educated guess as to what area of the design will always be safe (provided that the audience is not using monitors from 1996!).

Yes, it is important to keep certain key element above the fold: the logo, for instance, in order to really hammer in your branding; main navigational elements so that users can easily move from page to page while searching for whatever they came for. Content, however, really does not have to be limited in this way. Returning to the newspaper metaphor, sure it helps to have the big headline on the top of a folded newspaper. It helps consumers choose which paper they would like to purchase, as does the name of the newspaper and the date. But no one pays for a newspaper if they don’t intend to unfold it and read everything that interests them. If a visitor is looking for certain information, they will scroll to read it.

Web pages that are all designed to be only above the fold only make sense if the content is presented in a page by page sequence and given a tool for flipping through them, but this isn’t really the way a website works best. Printed stuff is limited to the size of what it is printed on, but web pages are organized by content, not by the size of the page. And once arriving at the page with the desired content, the information is organized vertically, and thus should scroll.

Sometimes remaining completely above the fold is necessary. And certainly, considering the fold for many elements is essential. But one size fits all approach, or blindly overstating the fold isn’t generally very wise. In the end, let the content itself, the project goals and the target audience, as always, be your guide.