In Website Design getting visitors past the fold line is as vital as getting on the first page in SEO. There are a variety of strategies for attracting users below the fold as described well in this posting. But one of the most popular is vertical scrolling. So now scrolling is becoming mainstream from sport sites [click on a screenshot to visit the scrolling website]:
through art venues:
to News sites:
As you might expect a wave of tools in JavaScript and WordPress have come to the fore to support the move down a web page. Some of the most popular are vertical sliders or infinite scrolling tools. The key ingredients are:
1- Sticky menus and footers – see free WordPress plugin with 5 star rating
2 – Easy Scroll – a free plugin to lazy load pages, posts, custom posts type anywhere on a page.
3 – TimeLine Express – builds a vertical time line of events which can be filtered.
4 – JavaScript Scrolling tools has a wonderful set of JS scrollers. And because WordPress supports the latest jQuery library plus has support for JavaScript on specific pages/posts through a great free plugin, these tools are easy to incorporate on your Web Pages. Here are a few of the many JavaScript scrolling highlights:
a)jQuery Scroll Path – any which way you want to go
b)Animate Scroll – move to parts of file with easing effects.
c)Scroll Me – provides a variety of effects as one scrolls down a page.
d)Super Scrollorama – for neato scrolling effects as you move down & up a page.
e)Vivus – add SVG writing to your down & up scrolling
There is a wealth of great routines available here for styling your scrolling – not to be missed just for the ideas.
5)Ajax Load More – provides lazy loading options for your WordPress Posts
6)Vertical Reel Slideshow – plugin moves images up from deep below the foldline.
7)Alternate Fixed & Scrolling Backgrounds – very nice code.
8)Background Image Supersizing – a free WordPress plugin that plays a full-page background image slideshow. See here for an example.
9)How to use infinite scrolling in WordPress – some useful coding hints.
In short, there are now many resources for bringing below-the-foldline scrolling to your Web page designs.
Much of this infinite scrolling trend was inspired SPA-Single Page Apps built with JavaScript frameworks like Ink, Bootstrap and Foundation. And it looks like scrolling down is catching on as the IBM sponsored Grand Slam tennis sites move to infinite scrolling as seen at the Australian Open [see screenshot above – the website is WordPress with several JS libraries] and the French Open at Rolland Garros[exclusively JS framework]. See not just infinite scrolling but also the use of sticky menus, sticky footer plus extensive use of image grids for story highlights – click on the screenshot below:
Web Designers are working full time to get users below the foldline with sliders and image grids offering visual sitemaps, tabs and accordions stretching the user under the fold and now a range of infinite scrolling and animation goodies to draw users down under.