George Sandoval — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 12:29:19 GMT

I remember similar conversations while at AOL. There is a distinction though regarding what the fold actually means to a user. For instance, when a user is perhaps the most focused on “search” and “filter” actions, the fold truncates the options available on a landing page.

Here useful information is certainly given priority and is placed above. As Ads do contribute greatly in allowing us to provide an experience the process then become a ballet for UI, Product, Project, and Visual Design stakeholders to focus the product so as to provide those “query-related” bits of information clearly as the user approaches the product or site.

However, after users have found the material their looking for, following these paths of interest from the initial page, content is no longer as task-oriented, rather it takes on a new meaning, “juicy” for consumption. In this regard users are not just more likely to scroll but will scroll to take it in fully.

Monitors certainly contribute to what and where assets are placed, however the move has been to look beyond. As we become more mobile and demands for information are greater it then becomes a UX priority to restructure the experience for a more use-, rather than task-oriented approach.

Chris Butler — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 11:11:24 GMT

Thanks to Milissa and Jeff for dealing with this topic! I’ve found that this becomes a major point of contention when working on a web project- especially in the context of planning for advertisement content. There emerges a major contradiction when the client wants to flood their sites with ads, yet is irate when site content ends up ‘below the fold!’ I added a link to this podcast next to the original ‘blasting the myth’ article link on a blog post I wrote recently on the topic, which you can read here: http://www.newfangled.com/getting_your_website_content_ab….

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