Online marketers need not fear the fold

The take-out from cxpartners' recent user testing and eye-tracking results is that, when designing a website, marketers need not fear the fold.

First, a definition. The "fold" is most commonly used when referencing broadsheet newspaper layout - due to the size of the sheets the papers were generally folded in half. Therefore, any news stories that were under the central fold line were often lost to view when on display and so the "big" stories were placed "above the fold" to ensure prime placement. The same practice was carried through to direct mail creative development.

Hence, for years, creative attention has focused on that space above-the-fold or, when talking about websites, that part of the display visible to users without the need for scrolling.

But now, cxpartners have come up with data that show consumers are willing, and able, to scroll down a webpage to discover more information. No longer is the fold, or scroll-line, a barrier. Out of 800 user-testing sessions over the last six years, only on 3 occasions did the page fold stop users find what they were seeking.

In fact, in the eye-tracking hotspot study chronicled in their blog, cxpartners found that most users look at the scroll bar to estimate the webpage size and that having less above the fold encouraged users to scroll down for more.

Of course, vital messages and consumer information sometimes needs to be highlighted near the top of a webpage, but this new data shows that website designers need not feel the need to cram every nugget of information above the fold. Instead they should concentrate on guiding visitors, with visual and text cues, to the content they are seeking.

Tags: above the fold, creative design, Internet marketing, webpage design