Designing effective interfaces

Chapter 9. Layout: The Fold, Images, and Headlines

There are many common questions about UX design that you will get throughout your career. And some that you should get, even though you won’t.

The Fold

One of the most popular old-school misconceptions is about “the fold.” In case you’ve never heard of it, this is the part of your design that is visible before the user scrolls. Everything above the fold will get maximum visibility. However, from the studies I have seen, 60 to 80% of users will scroll immediately if they expect to find something useful below the fold.

Whatever is above the fold should inform users about what is below the fold. If user’s don’t know what is down there, they might not be interested enough to find out.

Careful: It is popular right now to use huge background images at the top of the page. If it looks like the site ends at the fold, people might leave instead of scrolling. And if you need to add a graphic that says “scroll down,” your design is weak.

To learn more about the fold, go to http://thereisnofold.tumblr.com/.

Images

Many UX designers treat images as if they are not functional, but images can lead the user’s eyes, so you should think about them.

Images of people, specifically, draw more attention than anything else you can use in your layout. As a general guideline, the more emotion an image adds, the more engaging it is.

Protip

For images of people, try to get the eyes of the person in the image to look in the direction you want the user to look. It’s ...