
There is no fold - hownottowrite
http://thereisnofold.tumblr.com/
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scott_s
Please label your axes. The units are not obvious.

I think the x-axis is pixels, where 0 is the top of the viewable part of the
browser, and increases downward, but it took me a long time to figure that
out. (My initial guess was milliseconds into a page view, but that makes no
sense since I assume the y-axis on the second graph is seconds into
engagement.)

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devindotcom
The concept of the fold is a valuable and flexible one, to be interpreted
within the context of the page or platform on which it is supposed to exist.
Organizing and prioritizing presentation of data relies on recognizing certain
patterns of display and activity, and the fold is wrapped up in that. Why try
to deny the existence of a well-known and useful term and construct rather
than help redefine it, the way we've done with other terms dating from the
relatively distant past? (edit:sp)

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protonfish
"The fold" is where a newspaper folds in half. Unless your users are folding
their computers in half, it really has no place in digital screen design. I
agree that the closer to the top of a document you place something, the more
prominence it has, but this has nothing at all to do with a "fold."

~~~
dragonwriter
In digital content, "the fold" has its own meaning (which is, certainly,
inspired by the _literal_ fold in newspaper.)

This is one of many digital design that are inspired by terms from print, like
"page" (which also is inappropriate for digital if you take the print meaning
literally.)

And, anyway, laptop users do fold their computers in half, but that's a
completely different thing.

~~~
e12e
> In digital content, "the fold" has its own meaning

Does it? I suppose it could mean "outside the first screen", as in on the next
"card" in a mobile "slide deck", or "below the scroll" in a browser (that is:
content that is on the virtual page, but outside the viewport).

But my impression is that people are _not_ using it like that -- in which case
"the fold" is probably a poor/wrong metaphor/term?

> This is one of many digital design that are inspired by terms from print,
> like "page" (which also is inappropriate for digital if you take the print
> meaning literally.)

Not really. In (magazine/newspaper) print, a page typically holds various
assorted content. Especially so for the front page. Now, with scrolling,
"page" will often mean "all of a document at a given URL" \-- and that would
typically be different from a print page. In that case "viewport" would be
more appropriate. But I think the confusion really lies in the print world:
"page" means both "what the user can see at any one time" (viewport) and
"largest section of connected layout" (the physical page).

> And, anyway, laptop users do fold their computers in half, but that's a
> completely different thing.

But mobile users did, at least for a while. There were/are some phones with a
small screen on the back of the "flip". AFAIK all of these only have enough
real-estate for a small icon and simple scrolling text message though. And
aren't really meant for showing a preview of some random web page, but rather
to alert the user to incomming email etc.

~~~
chrismcb
"The fold" in the browser is the bottom of the first screen, below the fold is
everything you need to scroll to see. This is what you mean... So what is it
you think other people mean? I've never seen anything to indicate otherwise.

~~~
e12e
Well, I didn't have the impression that it had a clear, and universally
accepted definition in web design, akin to what it has in print. To some
extent wikipedia seems to agree with me (that it can mean no just "above the
scroll", but also "upper part" or "first 1000px" etc):
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Above_the_fold#In_web_design](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Above_the_fold#In_web_design)

Not that that means much.

So that part of the comment wasn't just a rhetorical question. Are there any
well-known, more canonical definitions of "the fold" as used in web design?
Does it make sense in the current climate of wildly varying designs for
desktop and mobile?

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ebbv
This is true and it isn't true. It depends on context. What content are you
placing? Who needs to see it? What kind of mentality will they be in when
they're looking for it? In a rush or browsing? All of these factors will
determine what kind of placement is optimal.

If you're talking about an info box with a CTA in it, maybe it doesn't need to
be near the top of the page or viewable on initial load.

But if you're a service based company, and you're talking about a support
link, having it anywhere other than prominently displayed immediately on page
load is going to aggravate your customers. In that case there is definitely "a
fold."

The fact that there's 4k different devices viewing your page doesn't change
the fact that their browser window has a bottom, it just means that the
location of that bottom is volatile. If you really care, your page design can
be responsive to not just the width of the browser window but the height as
well.

Abusing the concept of a fold is lazy and ignorant. It shouldn't be treated
like the only aspect of web browsing that matters. But at the same time,
ignoring the fact that some of your content will be immediately viewable to
users upon loading the page and other content won't, is also lazy and
ignorant.

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JStanton617
This is 100% ripped off from [http://blog.chartbeat.com/2013/08/12/scroll-
behavior-across-...](http://blog.chartbeat.com/2013/08/12/scroll-behavior-
across-the-web/)

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Animats
Sounds like a justification for that horrible Wordpress theme with small
blocks of text in a huge font, alternating with images that scroll at a
different rate than the text.

~~~
sparkzilla
Those are called "parallax" themes.

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hammerbrostime
Then I must be blind or delusional, based on what I've witnessed during
usability tests.

I highly doubt we'd see the same breakdown for new users vs. return users. IE,
return-users know they can scroll, new-users don't have that knowledge.

~~~
notatoad
Are you designing a fold into your pages? If you design around viewport height
and position:fix things to the bottom of the screen, then there absolutely is
a fold and users will be biased to things above the fold. If your content
clearly doesn't end at the bottom of a page, users are perfectly capable of
and willing to scroll down to find the rest of the content.

~~~
hammerbrostime
This is primarily an issue I've seen with my students' work. They haven't
always internalized the issues with folds, and the need to design around them
to make sure that there appears to be a continuous flow of content.

Saying something like "There is no fold" is not going to help students
recognize the issue.

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smacktoward
It's not so much that there is no fold as that there are a _zillion_ folds.
Where the content of a page rolls down off the bottom of the screen depends on
so many things: display size, resolution, browser window size, browser chrome,
add-ons, toolbars, etc. etc. etc...

So I always find it a bit amusing to hear people talk in the Web context about
"above the fold." Oh, that goes above the fold? OK, which one?

~~~
brokentone
So "there is no _single_ fold" perhaps makes the most sense?

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ronilan
Twitter should take note of Tumblr usage here.

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Kiro
I may be stupid but I don't understand the graphs. What are the axes?

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chuckcode
Darn it, the internet just broke advertising again...

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sparkzilla
This is great research, and confirms to me that readers are not put off by
long pages, and are actively looking to scroll for information.

~~~
timme
If a 4 word claim with a few overstyled charts qualifies as research then
we're doomed anyways.

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ztnewman
Why on earth would you post this as a series of tweets.. and then embed them
in a tumblr post.. without any additional commentary..

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acjohnson55
100% this! I'm seeing more and more tweets that are entire pages of text in
JPEG format. I can't really say it's a failed medium, because obviously
Twitter has massive usage, but it doesn't really seem like progress.

