Dave Lull — Fri, 01 May 2009 20:52:43 GMT

I’d just like to add (and I haven’t really read all the comments here) that there are two important things about the fold. I’ll define the fold line as whatever the user sees on entry without scrolling. The first communication a visitor has with the site, intranet, application, etc., is going to be what they see on entry without scrolling. This sets the first impression of the company, organization, whatever, and must be treated that way (so the real question is how important are first impressions? VERY). The second issue is that all navigation and truly important information should appear on entry (as alluded to in the article). An analysis should be made in design as to what information is really important to users and what is secondary. Usually this is not a huge or difficult task and of course will come out in usability testing to some degree.
Another comment is that the whole issue of the fold relates mainly to news-type sites or pages, where the entry view is of content that is very important and may act as a contents list. Not all sites really have a direct correlation.

Boxes and Arrows: Comments by Dave Lull