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RE: New WebAIM Site Released

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From: Alastair Campbell
Date: Jun 12, 2006 8:10AM

Jukka K. Korpela wrote:
> No, it's a good design principle. Early studied in web usability
> indicated, according to Jakob Nielsen, that
> "only 10% of Web users would scroll a navigation page to see
> any links that were not visible in the initial display.

That was from 1994, and revised in 1997. You're quote was misleading, as
he was describing what happened in 1994. For that time (still almost 10
years ago) he wrote:
"In more recent studies, we have seen that most users scroll when they
visit a long home page or a long navigation screen."
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9712a.html

In usability testing I've not seen it create an issue for a while, even
for people with screen magnifiers and other assistive devices.

By all means optimise what is 'above the fold', but please stop quoting
Neilson on this!

(Takes a deep breath ;)

Personally, I do think the IA is still overly complex, and it's
difficult to understand the relationships between the various types of
navigation (top nav, training/evaluation/Design & delivery, solutions
for, community etc.). It's mixing navigation for types of audience and
concrete concepts, which can cause problems.

Going to an external person/company is usually a good idea for
developing an IA, as it can help cut through the internal perceptions
and issues. However, as you said, it's a bit late now.

Kind regards,

-Alastair

--
Alastair Campbell | Director of User Experience

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