That’s How We Scroll
Here at Hardly Square we’ve come across the discussion of scrolling many times. Often times scrolling is unfairly categorized by clients as a negative act. I’m sure you’ve heard it, “Ummm… Yeah I’m gonna have to have you move that image, copy and 3 links up above the fold.” Why jam everything within the top 600 pixels? Why not entice your viewer to look further with a thoughtful design and utilize a reveal? Sure, I guarantee you can whip out a report stating people rarely scroll. I’m willing to bet those studies were either:
A: Done years ago
or
B: Tested on poorly designed websites
A: I’ll end with the extra fun stuff, web design examples that feature kick-ass scrolling techniques. Anyways, yeah… so it’s 2011 people. We are more than used to scrolling by now. Blogs → Scrolling. Facebook → Scrolling. Not to mention the Multi-Touch trackpads these days make it easier… 2 finger scrolls, 4 finger swipes and new 3 finger drags. Seems to me we’re obviously moving to a more scroll friendly environments.
B: Ever think that visitors aren’t scrolling to more content because you squashed everything up above the fold, destroying any kind of negative space and overwhelming your visitor? They’re not scrolling because they left 3 seconds after you abused their eyeballs by unloading a visual assault.
There are a lot of ways to use scrolling to entice your visitors. You can tell a well paced story as they scroll to the climax, prize or call-to-action. There are also web design techniques you can utilize with scrolling like parallax scrolling. Parallax scrolling is trending right now and is a technique that creates the illusion of depth where multiple backgrounds seem to move at different speeds. Don’t let the statistician scare you. Let the numbers apply to all those websites battling to look and act the same. Rules are meant to be broken. Broken by creative people like yourself.
Ok, so here are some examples of my favorite web designs utilizing scrolling. Go ahead scroll through and view some of the sites.
If this hasn’t swayed you then you probably have some exceptional reasons to why you disapprove of scrolling. I want to hear them. Please comment.
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