As UX professionals we’ve heard them all before. The grand pronouncements and mores of web and software design that if violated result in instant failure. With the increase in interest in User Experience and the efforts of many very good researchers we are discovering that these rules that we have taken for granted are not nearly as hard and fast as was once believed. Rather than hard rules they should be considerations in the design process.

1. All important information must be above the “fold”.
Nope, research tells us that users are quite adept at scrolling and have been for quite some time. While it is advisable to to position important information prominently it is not a do or die situation to force everything high on the page. The most common user behavior is to scan the page, scroll to the bottom and back to the top.  So yes, if you can keep your data and controls on the screen without a scroll or designing a hot mess, more power to you. However generally it is better to place enough information above the fold so that a user can determine what the purpose of the page is and if it must scroll indicate that yes, the page has more data below the “fold”.

BTW- There is no “fold” any more. We are not paper but I suppose the term will be yet another archaic artifact of paper that the digital medium will inheirit much the same as the term “Leading” lines of text. (lead as in the metal if you didn’t know)