This week, some colleagues passed around this interesting read on debunking the myth of the page fold. The argument being made is users don’t really mind scrolling to access content below the fold and there’s data from user testing to back it up.

I’ve certainly observed this anecdotally in recent years and usability testing aside, I think a large part of this growing acceptance is  due to a combination of 1) advances in hardware (scroll wheel on the mouse, touch pad dragging) which make scrolling down the page an afterthought and 2) media brands setting precedence with longer pages which has reinforced the notion of necessary scrolling to access non-featured content . Indeed, “A quick snoop around the web will show you successful brands that are not worrying about the fold either.”

Awesome Jon sent this gem as a response and noted “I think the industry education is on the ads side of things…”. Agreed.