today i want to dispell another myth. The "users will not side scroll" myth. i have been studying nui design (natural user interface) and how the lines of nui have blurred the lined for gui (graphical user interface). i am now encouraging you to take it one step further. design to the left and right and let them scroll! the advent of all our touchscreen mobile devices has retrained web user to slide to the right.in the post i proclaimed that: An artist's job is to rethink the boundaries of their medium. Whether it's a canvas or a web browser, our job is to improve its value and use.
if you build it... they will scroll!
one of the latest web 2.0 design trends is the side scroll. the side scroll has emerged as a fantastic way to build html sites that work on just about every touch screen device. what i like about this trend is that it is being driven by our behaviors on mobile devices and seems to be working back to the web. i challenge you to try it.
great consumer centric design does not give equal weight to all the content in a site. It puts its most valuable messages at the top and throughout the design. If you present compelling content and use proper design queues and tools then your users will find and grab your content... +read more
here are some new examples of how designers are designing sites which use the simplicity of the scroll bar to present new ways viewing everything the browser has to offer.
Collider: http://collider.com.au/
http://www.becausestudio.co.uk
http://yesyesyall.org
http://matthewwilliamson.com/collections.php
i even did it with my own site: joannapenabickley.net
try designing something like this. have the courage to present and test it. then write me.
related post: on: the "above the fold" design myth.
Research used for this post:
- ClickTale's HeatMaps
- ClickTale's Scrolling Research Report V2.0 - Part 1
- Jared Spool UIE Brain Sparks:Utilizing the Cut-off Look to Encourage Users To Scroll
- Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox: Changes in Web Usability Since 1994
