It’s OK to Scroll

Web design is not print design. Designers shouldn’t try to force web pages to fit into a screen-sized box. The browser is not a magazine, so let long pages scroll! Even UI curmudgeon Jakob Nielsen said (five years ago) that users expect vertical scrolling on websites.

True, the most important information should still remain above the scroll (that is, be seen without scrolling). But as I tell clients, not everything needs to be above the scroll. The design can encourage users to scroll for the rest of a longer page page, such as with the cut-off technique.

Don’t cram everything into a single screen. Don’t force your users to click though multiple screens to read an article that could simply be an easy-to-read single scrolling page. Remember: on the web there is no page fold.