Bottom Feeder

So Derek had an interesting post on his site recently about the importance of putting something at the bottom of your pages to reward those dedicated souls who actually read all the way down. I hadn't thought specifically of adding the kind of bottom navigation/highlights section that Derek does, but I did give some consideration to those who read down when I redesigned my site recently. It's why the archives are listed near the bottom of the sidebar (so when you're done reading the most recent entries, you can explore the older ones if you want), and why I've always had previous and next navigation at the bottom as well as the top of my archive pages. Derek's really onto something, though, when he talks in terms of rewarding dedicated readers rather than punishing them. It makes me want to add more goodies down below.

On a related note... Ever heard the expression "above the fold"? Of course you have—and you don't even have to be a newspaper journalist to know what it means. The term is used all the time in web design circles, even though there's no "fold" on a web page. Conventional wisdom says that if you want a site visitor to see something, it has to be "above the fold"—or visible in the browser window at the default size. (Whether this is 600 pixels high, 724 pixels high, or more is up for debate.) Common sense will tell you, however, that if something worth reading starts above the fold and then continues below it, the reader will scroll down.

Stats bear this out, too. A colleague of my husband's told him recently that at his last company, all the research they did on clickthroughs showed virtually no difference between items placed above the fold and those placed below. Even folks who don't follow the text of an article below the fold are willing to scroll to find what they're looking for.

My blogging time is limited these days, so I don't have an opportunity at the moment to explore these ideas further, but allow me to summarize: At the very least, it's a good idea to give people who scroll down the same navigation options you give people who don't. And if you can, give those dedicated readers/explorers even more: ways to dig deeper, to explore further, to get somewhere worth going.

Posted by Lori in bloggity goodness at 3:20 PM on September 30, 2005

Comments (2)

Word.


That is all.

Lori [TypeKey Profile Page]:

You rock. ;)

Comments

Word.


That is all.

Posted by: ratphooey [TypeKey Profile Page] at September 30, 2005 7:35 PM

You rock. ;)

Posted by: Lori [TypeKey Profile Page] at September 30, 2005 8:37 PM

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