To scroll, or not to scroll: is it even a question anymore?

You’re afraid the average Internet user – a slightly attention-deficit, click-happy web surfer – will never pick up on what your website is all about. Their eyes are dashing around, judging whether or not your site is worth their time.

Unfortunately, this fear leads to the desire to cram every bit of significant information onto the screen as it pops up. A bit of classic newspaper journalism terminology, above the fold refers to exactly that – the content area above the creased fold of a printed newspaper.

Since a newspaper lies flat, there would be no way for readers to see the rest of the paper unless they unfolded it – one extra step to access information. Website design clients see this extra step in print journalism equivalent to the effort it takes to scroll down a page.

However, web design experts and modern studies say this just isn’t true.

• Users actually do scroll. A study from the 2006 Clicktale Scrolling Research Study of 120,000 page-views shows:
• 91% of the websites with page-views had a vertical scroll-bar, and 76% of these views scrolled the page to some extent.
• Screen resolutions vary from user to user, ranging in the most popular resolutions from 800×600, 1024×768 and 1280×1024.
• Not only do screen resolutions confuse the exact location of the fold, but so do wide-screen monitors and their unique displays that stretch and distort layouts.

There are better ways to ensure users easily access and understand your website.

• Reorganize content to include more divided sections and less clutter.
• Users are more apt to understand your message with a simple, clean layout.
• Cut down on the copy – readers online tend to skim content.
• Put a few highlighted features near the top of the page, and then use links to guide users to read more about other topics.

Follow these recommendations and you can breathe easy about the fold and let the scrollbar live.