Upgrading Gracefully & Above the Fold, Part Two

I realized with the launch of the new Flying Chimp website that it was a little odd to write about Above the Fold, Upgrading Gracefully and prioritized content, when so much of the new design is not above the fold. While it may seem a little inconsistent, it actually makes a lot of sense upon further review.

Example: The New Home Page

On the new home page, at 1024 x 768, the last thing you see (before a scroll) is the “Learn More” link in the first paragraph (or there about). While there is a lot more to see on the homepage, there is no doubt about the branding of the website, or about what we do. If a person chooses not to scroll, they know enough to make an informed decision if they are in the right place or not. But, we also gave encouragement to someone to scroll.

We broke the portfolio element on the fold to inspire someone to want to scroll. Upon scrolling they can learn there is much more to the site, BUT that information is not critical to the navigating of the site. The Twitter feed? Eh. Latest Blog entry? Eh. Really, the key is the branding, the brief information about what we do, and a visual to show what we do.

Could we have reduced the branding and increased the portfolio component? Sure. I thought long and hard about that. This was a deviation from our normal “style”, but overall I am quite pleased with this direction.

Future Flexibility

One reason that Above the Fold is bad is because it reduces the ability for a site to stay future-friendly (I call it Upgrading Gracefully). As screen resolutions increase, more and more fit on the screen. So while today the standard is 1024 x 768, but in 2 years that standard might be 1280 x 960. That means the average computer will see more of the screen, so the benefits of additional content are increased. Further, it does not consider how many computers today (and in the future) exceed the standards by significant amounts.

Jakob Neilson states that everyone should have the largest monitor size they can afford. Heck, he recommends at LEAST 1600 x 1200, and that was 3 years ago!!! http://www.useit.com/alertbox/screen_resolution.html

If that is the case, then allowing a longer, more scroll oriented design allows for much improved user interface. As long as the most important information appears at the top. Which, in the new site’s case, it does.

Choices and Concessions

In the end, you need to make choices. Decide what is prioritized and what isn’t. By creating a site that scrolls, you may lose some of the cool factor of a tight website (culinairefl.com for example), but you can also gain in other ways. We design for both and choose the best for the client’s needs.