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womble
Posts: 5721
Joined: 3/14/2005
From: Living on the edge
Status: offline
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To scroll or not to scroll, that is the question - 4/22/2005 4:29:12
I know that horizontal scrolling is a big no-no, but now I’m pondering upon vertical scrolling. I know there’s no definitive answer on this one, and to a large extent it’s a matter of personal taste and content dependant, but just wondered from a stylistic point of view what everyone’s views are? How much horizontal scroll is acceptable?
Personally I’m aiming for all on one page without scrolling. I want to try and make the site as uncluttered and clean as possible – also, I don’t want to use frames.
My problem is this. I’m embarking on a re-vamp of my site. Currently the index page has quite a bit of information and a fair bit of vertical scroll. In a way I feel that all the information that’s on there needs to be, because it’s about what the organisation is, but I’m considering alternatives.
The next major problem is that the organisation has a rule that says all information produced must be in at least 12pt for those with visual impairments (I did try explaining css to them, but…). At 12pt I don’t think there’s any way I can fit all the text on there, let alone any graphics to break it up. I’m thinking of moving the nav horizontally under the main title as I feel how I have it at the moment down the left-hand side with big chunky buttons is kind of wasted space. I’m aiming for a more streamlined look. I feel that just sticking all the text on there isn’t going to be terribly visually appealing. I wondered about using a frames type effect, but without frames (does that make sense?). What I mean is having say, the text chunked into 3 sections and in effect having 3 pages that look like the index page, with the page navigation down the left-hand side say, but with the different chunks of text on the right. I have a feeling though that would make the navigation very complicated and confusing to users, not to mention create a lot of unnecessary code.
My final problem is where to put the news feature – latest updates that we really want people to notice. Now I know the best place to put anything of importance is on the ‘Z’ (see attached pic – I know I’m not explaining myself very well), so ideally the news feature should be diagonally across the page!  Do I put very basic info on the organisation on the index page and concentrate on the ‘news’ and stick all the other info elsewhere, or stick with the organisational info on the index page and a news link?
Sorry for rambling, and I hope this makes sense - just my thoughts as they’re coming. Just batting a few ideas around here because talking to myself I just keep going round in circles. I’m not sure if this belongs here or in site critiques, but as I’m just at the ‘thinking about it’ stage and haven’t got an alternative to show as yet, I plumped for here.
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Reflect
Posts: 4769
From: USA
Status: offline
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RE: To scroll or not to scroll, that is the question - 4/22/2005 15:12:24
I have always excepted horizontal scrolling. The rule of thumb, IMHO, is to put whatever action for that page above the fold. Everything below the inital page view is where I put things that I am not worried about, if at all possible.
I pulled the above tip from an on-line marketing book I was studying around a year ago. They called it the "prime real estate" area or money spot.
Take care,
Brian
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Larry M.
Posts: 2906
Joined: 2/20/2003
From: Greenville, South Carolina, USA
Status: offline
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RE: To scroll or not to scroll, that is the question - 4/22/2005 17:34:39
womble,
The six (6) pieces of clipart "below the fold" don't contribute value to your website especially in relation to the space they occupy. By removing them and tabling "Who Are We", "What is Ddeaf Equality Forward?" and "What does DdEF do?", content will be moved up appreciably. Also, take a tip from the internet "Bigs" by bookmarking these topics "above the fold" which, when clicked, directs the site visitor to them.
I'm not in total agreement with Relect re: vertical scrolling; I think some is acceptable. I certainly do agree that the "money spot" is above the fold. From what I've read about visitor behavior, vertical scrolling should be confined to no more than two (2) page down commands.
_____________________________
Larry M.
"Veni, Vidi, Velcro"
(I came; I saw; I stuck around)
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d a v e
Posts: 4194
Joined: 7/24/2002
From: England (but live in Finland now)
Status: offline
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RE: To scroll or not to scroll, that is the question - 4/23/2005 3:43:57
also the 12pt min sizing must surely only apply to the organisations *printed* material, whcih obvisously cannot be resized like it can in a browser - afterall you shouldn't be using points for the web (except in a print style sheet) rather use relative units or leave them at the users default browser settings (i.e. 100%).
i would look into using some basic css as well to style your text and othe simple bits
(links on this forum and http://www.w3schools.com/css/default.asp )
you could take some space from the header - that takes up quite a bit of room and some from around the sign language image. maybe move the text only and standard buttons to somewhere to the right-left of the header
where abouts are you based btw? just curious as i'm originally from mansfield ;) oh see it's in Chesterfield Law Centre :)
the amount of scrolling is acceptable for me though you could make it a little more compact. there's also a lot of space before "Who are we?" part way down the page
as long as the important stuff is above the fold then there aren't pages and pages left to scroll through then you should be ok. obvisously spliitting the information up into smaller chunks and maybe divinding more content into different pages is a good but don't so it just to save one page's worth of scrolling if the shifting of that info to another page is not a natural thing (for the flow of the text)
you can put a link to top as well at least users (that don't use the Home button next to their keyboard number pad) can quickly return to there. use a BOOKMARK (in FP terminology ;) called 'top' or whatever you like and then link to it from the bottom of the page.
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David Prescott
Gekko web design
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