Posts Tagged ‘design’
New tool from Google Labs to help you understand “the fold”
UPDATE: I found this which succinctly summarises things for you.
“The fold” is a “line” that gets drawn across the screen on your website by the bottom of the visitor’s browser. It relates to the physical fold you experience in printed newspapers and as the early web was seen as simply a translation across from printed media the name stuck.
Sadly some people believed (and still do) that users would not scroll past the fold and so did everything in their power to cram content “above the fold” to maximise exposure. What this approach failed to recognise was twofold (pun intended):
- Users scroll. That’s a fact.
- User operate on different screen sizes with browser viewports open in a myriad of different ways, thus meaning the fold was never the same.
Recently I found an interesting article from CX Partners on some user research into the fold: The myth of the page fold: evidence from user testing, which helps support the case that the fold isn’t a barrier. Also here’s another article from 2 years ago that helps by Blasting the Myth of the Fold from Boxes and Arrows.
To help with understanding how people might view your webpage and potentially to dispel the myth of the fold, enter Google Labs from stage left with their latest gizmo: Browsersize. This great little tool helps illustrate in a very visual way how much of your content will be seen by the user without scrolling. It’s based on probability not fact, but does give you a strong indicator when looking at the content and design of your homepage.
Uploaded via Flickr
Popularity: 15% [?]
Tuesday, January 5th, 2010
What makes an effective IFA or financial adviser website? – part 2
This is part two of a small series that explores the best practice for financial adviser websites. You can see part one here.
Popularity: 7% [?]
Friday, December 11th, 2009
Book review – The Zen of CSS Design
“The Zen of CSS design”
The Zen of CSS Design: Visual Enlightenment for the Web (Voices That Matter) to give it it’s full title is authored by Dave Shea and Molly Holzschlag – two stalwarts of modern web design. It’s essentially a deep dive into modern techniques that should be used when designing and building websites. It’s aimed at the professional web designers and coder, however it does also work as a useful history lesson and book of inspiration for the less tech-savvy.
Popularity: 7% [?]
Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009
Learning web design
A back to basics post, but worthy of posting nonetheless. I spend a lot of time over at numerous forums and on Twitter and am regularly asked for support with getting started in web design. So with this in mind I’ve decided to create a big list ‘o links offering my take on useful resources for anyone looking to learn web design either as a profession or to better understand the web design process and approach.
Popularity: 10% [?]
Thursday, October 29th, 2009