‘The Fold’ Keeps Moving Further
Great news for any web designer confronted with the concerns of clients who fear “the fold.” According to the W3C Schools, more than 85% of users are now on devices with a resolution setting higher than 1024×768:
http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_display.asp
Only 13.8% of users are at 1024×768 which has been the standard width for “fixed-width” website designs for the last few years and almost no one is on web browsers with lower resolution settings – except of course of Mobile users.
Assuming that you’re targeting visitors on Mobile devices separately using media queries or scripts that include additional stylesheets based on the width of the browser window, this is good news for website and web application design in the sense that your canvas is now essentially taller. This increase in space should allow web designers to allow a comfortable amount of white space and to be able to position important elements in their designs effectively without worry that they have to force everything into the top 600-700 pixels of the browser.
Daniel Warner
Fear of the fold has always been irrational and is becoming more so as browsing devices diversify and on-site experiences become more user specific. A site with catch-all content designed for fully maximized browser windows looks like a big, confusing antique to anyone who came to your site for a reason.
Also, time for a change in terminology “above the scroll” seems more appropriate that “above the fold.” That is, after all, what the phobia is about, right?
Zhuoshi
Screen resolution in no way dictates browser size. I, for one, always keep my browser smaller than my screen, probably no more than 1200×800 even on the smaller screens of laptops. I know I might not represent the majority, but there are certainly a number of people like me, and there is also a significant number of people still using the 1024×768 resolution. I’d say that if there were still such thing as “the fold” (which I don’t believe in), then it would be still around 700px. Maybe a bit more.