Unquiet

After some really spotty internet access for the past couple days due to inclement weather moving over this ‘paradise’ island (including lightning storms that messed with our power…), I’m back in the saddle again. Unfortunately, I’m also headed to work in a little over an hour…

Derek Powazek is [urging designers to ‘embrace your bottom’][1] in a recent post; he reminds me of all the effort made in the late 90s and early [Naughties][2] to ensure that all important information fell ‘above the fold’ — in the portion of the browser window visible without scrolling. At the time, it seemed like a good idea - based on the concept of ‘hooking’ the person reading/viewing the page, based on still-immature browser technology and users that were still adjusting to a new medium.

I believe that most users have matured in the way they use the Web, and that ‘embracing our bottoms’ is yet another instance of moving away from the portal craze (cramming ungodly amounts of stimuli ‘above the fold’) and toward a simpler, more straightforward view of content. I know the designs I’ve been gravitating toward myself tend to show less, rather than more, information per page, focusing instead on a central content idea. Less information vies for my attention, while at the same time, well-placed pointers to other content provide me with a path to related information.

Perhaps this is a result of the maturation of search technology. Or perhaps we’re suffering from a collective level of information burnout.

I like the idea of a useful footer. On almost every blog I visit, however, the bottom of the page is nothing more than a disappointing _denouement_, a smattering of links to check XHTML and CSS validity, a copyright notice, perhaps a contact link. On [Dan Cederholm’s post][3] on the topic, the comments talk about the bottom of the page as a ‘next action’ area, which makes a __hell of a lot of sense__. By the time I get down to the bottom of your page, I’d like to know what I can do… subscribe to your posts, find related posts on your blog (and elsewhere), learn more about you, get in touch with you…

Not everything belongs ‘below the fold’, obviously. Main navigation does well to be both at the top _and_ bottom, and the sidebar would make a great place for sidenotes (a much more contextually appropriate solution for the web than footnotes, in my humble opinion.)

I’ll be using this in some of my upcoming designs. Thanks to those who have been rethinking the way we do things, and those who have bucked the trend all along!

[1]: http://www.powazek.com/2005/09/000540.html
[2]: http://wired-vig.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,32769,00.html
[3]: http://simplebits.com/notebook/2005/09/13/scroll.html