22 comments

  • Jim SilvermanJim Silverman, almost 6 years ago

    ironically, this page would be much more effective if the "further reading" began above the fold.

    18 points
  • Duke CavinskiDuke Cavinski, almost 6 years ago

    My heat maps beg to differ! It's definitely somewhere, just not where we thought it was.

    12 points
    • Andrew Richardson, almost 6 years ago

      Heat maps do beg to differ but page design and the users' job to be done has a huge influence on if a fold exists or not. I've seen pages were 50% don't scroll past they "fold" and pages were 75% scroll all the way to the bottom.

      I think the thought should be "The fold is real but you can design around it". It's not a simple black/white as it exists or doesn't.

      5 points
    • Florian GrauFlorian Grau, almost 6 years ago

      Same here.

      "The fold is a myth!!111" is the new "It needs to be above the fold!!11".

      4 points
    • Dirk HCM van BoxtelDirk HCM van Boxtel, almost 6 years ago

      Also consider:

      The 50% that doesn't scroll might not do so because they decided this is not the site/product/service they were looking for.

      ... because it's not necessarily a bad thing!

      1 point
  • Brendan Appe, almost 6 years ago

    What we ended up seeing (while working at digital ad agency) was that while placing a call to action above the fold resulted in more clicks, ultimately a smaller percentage followed through with what that call to action was advertising (i.e. signing up for a new credit card).

    Placing the call to action below the fold resulted in fewer clicks, but a larger percentage of those clicks followed through with the process of signing up.

    I guess it depends on which metric is more important to who is calling the shots.

    10 points
    • Simon DuncanSimon Duncan, almost 6 years ago

      Was it a larger % and a smaller total number? Or were both metrics larger?

      2 points
      • Brendan Appe, almost 6 years ago

        As I remember (though this was a long time ago) more sign ups where achieved by placing the call to action below the fold.

        The point I was trying to get to was why we still had to deal with clients demanding everything be scrunched up above the fold, even after educating them of this. We dealt with marketing departments, and the only metric they cared about was click-through from their promotional pages.

        Getting people to complete the sign-up process was somebody else’s problem (probably the product owners).

        3 points
  • Bryant HughesBryant Hughes, almost 6 years ago

    This would be useful if it wasn't so snarky. No way I could send clients here to try and convince them of a point they already don't' believe.

    5 points
  • Ben Patterson, almost 6 years ago

    I guess it's a myth if you think first impressions are also a myth.

    "Above the fold" is a term referring to newspapers, but maybe it's more relatable to think about book covers here.

    People can open books and flip through pages without instructions. We all know how to use them. But book covers are still designed with the goal of getting you interested enough to open the book. They are not "a myth."

    So, expect your users will know to scroll, and that they probably will scroll. But, the "cover" of your website is going to have a huge influence on how they think about and use your website, and it should be carefully considered.

    5 points
  • Craig RozynskiCraig Rozynski, almost 6 years ago

    The fact that we're still talking about this shows there's no silver bullet.

    There'll always be bullish clients who can't be reasoned with on this point.

    Rather than dive into technical points, I like to say that if the content is engaging, people will scroll.

    If you're worried people will click away without scrolling, your content and its presentation has failed.

    If they still say no, I let it go. Personally I've found if I hold my ground and stubbornly push a view on the client, like The Fold, it does more harm than good.

    If the client sees I'm willing to be flexible and compromise, the sooner they're likely to give me their trust.

    3 points
  • Peedu TuiskPeedu Tuisk, almost 6 years ago

    Fold is adaptive/responsive. Fold is at 100vh, not at a specific number of pixels.

    1 point
  • No NameNo Name, almost 6 years ago

    What exactly is this trying to prove? I mean, I get it—the fold is too abstract now with so much variability from device to device... but, this website doesn't really explain anything.

    1 point
    • P GBP GB, almost 6 years ago

      It's succeeding in proving that the 'fold' is a myth. It's a shame we still have to.

      2 points
      • Andrew Richardson, almost 6 years ago

        It's not succeeding in proving the 'fold' is a myth. It's succeeding in showing that you don't need to cram all your content "above the fold" if you design the page in a way that keeps the 'fold' in mind.

        The headline is misleading because the website actually consciously acknowledges the 'fold' and gives users a cue that there is more beyond it, which is almost always necessary. Imagine if the page was simply a background color. How many would scroll down the page to the rest of the content? I'd imagine very few.

        6 points
    • Marius Feraru, almost 6 years ago

      It gives you loads of articles that explain/document everything. And us scrolling to the bottom of the page to get that information is proving this point exactly.

      2 points
      • Interested Curious, almost 6 years ago

        the target is designers though, not a shopper in a hurry and comparing between sites, Ecommerce is the main place the fold is relevant. So long as it's not an entirely blank webpage, the content is typically present above the fold. Even if you send the user further down, thats just a part of the journey.

        2 points
  • James Young, almost 6 years ago

    One thing I have observed time and again on commercial sites is that many users still remain confused by the simplest things - one of those is often the lack of a permanently visible scroll bar on some OS indicating that scrolling is available.

    This leads to those stupid animated arrows so many sites end up putting in their hero header mega banners.

    0 points
  • Aaron Wears Many HatsAaron Wears Many Hats, almost 6 years ago

    What I see in this: Edgy design student thinks they are better than battle-proven conversion/lead generation concepts

    0 points
  • Bugsy SailorBugsy Sailor, almost 6 years ago

    Brylcreem!

    0 points
  • Tyson KingsburyTyson Kingsbury, almost 6 years ago

    a good buddy of mine from QBN posted this on linkedin... which i immediately re-posted.... a bit old, but still relevant...

    https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20141106045300-4688016-the-fold-is-dead-long-live-the-fold

    0 points