57 ms·

Yes, all the recent user research we've done (I work at Yahoo) says that users have got a lot more comfortable with scrolling since Nielsen's original research

by seldo 17y ago

Yes, all the recent user research we've done (I work at Yahoo) says that users have got a lot more comfortable with scrolling since Nielsen's original research in the 90s. We officially Do Not Care About The Fold now. Anecdotally, for some applications (documentation, news) a single really long document is preferred to lots of pagination. I haven't seen research to that effect though.

Periodic 17y ago
I thought that above-the-fold still has to do with first impressions. If I get to a website and I see a link that I looks a mostly-like-what-I-want, but a link that is definitely-what-I-want is further down the page, I'll probably click the mostly-like-what-I-want link because I saw it first and it looks "good enough." Let's do a thought experiment. If you put the ads all at the top of the page, and all the non-ad search results below the fold you'd probably get a reasonable click rate on the ads. Now, let's think about if we put all the non-ad search results above the fold, and all the ads down at the bottom. Do you think people would get to those ads and read them nearly as much?
- DougBTX 17y ago
  > I thought that above-the-fold still has to do with first impressions. Sure, the original version (lets call it the "strong" version), was based on the idea that "Users don't scroll", but now we know they do, so the strong version has fallen. The weak version could well be to do with first impressions, part of a more general, "Put the most important stuff first" rule. I distinctly remember a forum I used to post to, where they put very large banner ads at the top of every page. I'd have started scrolling before the page finished loading - you soon learn where the real content is on a page. Add in "banner blindness", and all bets are off. Hence the increasing popularity of putting ads between sections of content... I'm looking at you, StackOverflow.
vaksel 17y ago
I bet it has to do with improved mice. Having to move towards the \/ and keep hitting that to scroll = pain in the ass. Now you just click on the mouse wheel and scroll
- qeorge 17y ago
  That's really interesting. I've always assumed it was a knowledge / teaching problem, but I'd forgotten how much the addition of mousewheels changed my entire browsing experience.
dhimes 17y ago
I never understood that preference, actually. In the early/mid 90s the connections were sporadic, and I always preferred to get the entire page when I (finally) got a working connection. If I found a page that I had to follow links to keep reading, the experience was often read->click->wait............read->click->wait.......... I personally preferred downloading an enormous page, even going away from the computer for a few minutes, but then having it all available.

by seldo 17y ago

Periodic 17y ago

I thought that above-the-fold still has to do with first impressions. If I get to a website and I see a link that I looks a mostly-like-what-I-want, but a link that is definitely-what-I-want is further down the page, I'll probably click the mostly-like-what-I-want link because I saw it first and it looks "good enough." Let's do a thought experiment. If you put the ads all at the top of the page, and all the non-ad search results below the fold you'd probably get a reasonable click rate on the ads. Now, let's think about if we put all the non-ad search results above the fold, and all the ads down at the bottom. Do you think people would get to those ads and read them nearly as much?

DougBTX 17y ago
> I thought that above-the-fold still has to do with first impressions. Sure, the original version (lets call it the "strong" version), was based on the idea that "Users don't scroll", but now we know they do, so the strong version has fallen. The weak version could well be to do with first impressions, part of a more general, "Put the most important stuff first" rule. I distinctly remember a forum I used to post to, where they put very large banner ads at the top of every page. I'd have started scrolling before the page finished loading - you soon learn where the real content is on a page. Add in "banner blindness", and all bets are off. Hence the increasing popularity of putting ads between sections of content... I'm looking at you, StackOverflow.

vaksel 17y ago

I bet it has to do with improved mice. Having to move towards the \/ and keep hitting that to scroll = pain in the ass. Now you just click on the mouse wheel and scroll

qeorge 17y ago
That's really interesting. I've always assumed it was a knowledge / teaching problem, but I'd forgotten how much the addition of mousewheels changed my entire browsing experience.

dhimes 17y ago

I never understood that preference, actually. In the early/mid 90s the connections were sporadic, and I always preferred to get the entire page when I (finally) got a working connection. If I found a page that I had to follow links to keep reading, the experience was often read->click->wait............read->click->wait.......... I personally preferred downloading an enormous page, even going away from the computer for a few minutes, but then having it all available.