I really enjoyed reading this post over at Boxes and Arrows, because I’ve long held the belief that users aren’t resentful of scrolling. I haven’t really looked for any data to back up the assertion, so it wasn’t something I’d pick a fight about, but instinct said that the web had evolved enough in this regard to not be tied to its print brethren any longer.

Blasting the Myth of the Fold

We are all well aware that web design is not an easy task. There are many variables to consider, some of them technical, some of them human. The technical considerations of designing for the web can (and do) change quite regularly, but the human variables change at a slower rate. Sometimes the human variables change at such a slow rate that we have a hard time believing that it happens.

This is happening right now in web design. There is an astonishing amount of disbelief that the users of web pages have learned to scroll and that they do so regularly. Holding on to this disbelief – this myth that users won’t scroll to see anything below the fold – is doing everyone a great disservice, most of all our users.