"Reaction [beta]"
Unfolding the fold 29 Dec 2006
It's always nice to see an old usability myth put to bed. This time it's the turn of "Users don't scroll".
Clicktale (a web analytics company) examined data from 120,000 page views recorded during November and December 2006, finding that:
- 76% of web pages with a scroll-bar, were scrolled to some extent.
- 22% of web pages with a scroll-bar, were scrolled all the way to the bottom.
- Visitors are equally likely to scan the entire page no matter the page size.
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4 comments so far
Colin Scroggins 29 Dec 2006 06:50 PM
Sorry, but Clicktale's report really does not convince me of anything. Key metrics and considerations, such as the target audiences of the sites being measured are missing.
Being a UX designer for a national lab, I know from our intranet testing that the fold is a reoccurring issue for our users and not just a myth. The fact that people do scroll all the way to the bottom does not have any correlation to the effectiveness or clickthrough of content placed below the fold.
Etre 29 Dec 2006 08:28 PM
@Colin: We blogged Clicktale's study to help debunk the myth that "users don't scroll" - a blanket statement that many treat as "usability law". (In the past, we've had clients tell us not to place any of their content below the fold, such was the strength of their conviction in this belief!).
Our pointing out that "users do scroll" isn't the same as us saying that "it doesn't matter whether content is located above or below the fold" however. In terms of its propensity to be seen, read and clicked on, content located above the fold does indeed outperform content located below the fold (at least, it does on the whole). We weren't trying to suggest otherwise and we're sorry if you interpreted our post this way.
Boris Savic 13 Apr 2007 11:17 AM
Hello,
I have two pages with scroll-bar, and I'm very satisfied with their functionality.
Donyell 22 Aug 2011 07:07 AM
Always the best content from these prodigious wirtres.