Further to Alex's post below and some other comments in this thread, the usability testing I've done also demonstrates very different behavior these days compared to the 1990's, with respect to people whom I would characterize as novice users.
As the risk of repeating the obvious, in the early days, any content below the fold really was at risk of being missed. Most novices could not be counted on to scroll the page. These days, on the other hand, scrolling seems to be ingrained behavior for anyone with a mouse in their hand. In a web site design I tested last year, for example, the design offered two options for viewing a list of search results: via paging, or in 1 long list. Almost all users - regardless of experience with computers - elected to scroll vertically through the whole list of results, rather than page through the list. And regardless of the option selected, I observed vertical scrolling in practically any page where the user had interest. Paul Eisen Principal User Experience Architect tandemseven -----Original Message----- I have discovered that "the fold" has different levels of relevance according to the audience. For example, working for a tech company with an audience composed primarily of engineers, we discovered that so long as the information was easily navigable (anchored properly, etc.), users preferred a long page to multiple pages for tech specs, tutorials, case studies, etc. But a news site benefits from chunking pages and offering a "print" or "single page" option for the minority that desire a single page. Right now I work for a social network in which our user profiling shows several strong minorities of browser and resolution, so we can be flexible in design. So long as there is a clue that scrolling down leads to interesting information or apps for them, we're good :-) bests, Alex O'Neal UX manager ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
