In ye olden days of newspaper and other print design, the phrase ‘above the fold’ was a critical part of deciding where various elements or stories should be placed. The more important the story, the closer to the front page is was placed. The most important stories of the day were placed near the top of the front page, which would make them visible to the casual passerby that saw the newspaper in a rack on the street. Everything below the fold would be hidden from view without picking up and unfolding the paper, and thus the ‘above the fold’ rule was invented.
As newspapers and other print materials slowly adapted to the web as a delivery platform, however, this physical limitation was no longer seen as important. It didn’t matter where the story was on the front page, just that it was there. Over time, though, ‘above the fold’ re-entered the arena in a slightly different pretense. Web pages, like newspapers, have a limited amount of real estate that can be visible at the same time. Visitors may not need to physically unfold a website, but their monitors are only so large, which forces the user to scroll their window to see the full content of longer pages.
In the web-based, digital world, ‘above the fold’ represents what is visible on a user’s screen without scrolling the browser window. What makes this concept more difficult to implement online than in print is that the fold is not a static, consistent line for every user. Depending on how large their screen is, what the resolution is set to, and even what kind of device (netbook, desktop or mobile phone?) they are using, the folding line will move vertically and horizontally around the page.
To remedy this problem, Google has recently unveiled a new tool called Browser Size that helps you determine what visitors actually see. Type in the URL to a web site and Browser Size will overlay percentage charts that visually demonstrate what percentage of users will see various elements. This tool allows the designer to determine if an under-performing link or button, for example, is due to its placement — too far to the right or too far down the page, and a certain percentage of your visitors might not ever see that shiny graphic no matter how attention-grabbing and creative it is!
Browser Size is a free, web-based tool that is part of Google Labs. Read more from Google’s official blog announcement or see Browser Size in action for yourself.