Way back when in the dark old days of the Internet before people learnt to scroll (yes, really, apparently) graphic designers (web designers were few and far in-between then) migrated the concept of "the fold" from newspaper land to web pages.
Essentially: in newspaper land, the important stuff should be set above the fold so readers will see it first before they unfold the paper. When translated into Internet land, this meant: put everything above the minimum vertical resolution of a monitor so for (supposedly the majority of) users who don't know how to scroll they will not miss out on anything.
This may have made some sense for the first few years when just about everyone had a similarly-small monitor with about the same resolutions (either 800x600 or 1024x768). Common monitor resolutions nowadays range from 960x640 on a phone through to 2560x1440 on a 27" desktop monitor. The fold is different (or even non-existent) on different monitors!
The fold is a leftover myth. It does not make sense now. And yet many an ad agency, or graphic designer, or even some clients, are still limited by this belief.
That's the problem with belief. They may have made sense once, but once they become a blind "truth", they can and often will hold us back.
The article Life, Below 600px, beautifully supported by its layout, is a timely reminder for us all to dispense with useless myths.
Love it!
Thanks to Natalie Shell for this link.
