he term was coined by Steve Thompson, principal of w8r.com, a freelance Web design and development firm, in the mid-90s. Thompson's approach to usability came from his decade-long media background in broadcast and print. He moved professionally into new media from traditional media in 1994-95, when he began designing scroll-free Web sites, including the most heavily trafficked Web site at Penn State, the Department of Meteorology. Thompson used the term as a specialty in client portfolio pitches on elance.com in 2000.
Thompson was hired in 1998 as Creative Project Manager for [World Wide] Web Associates, an Internet start-up in San Luis Obispo, CA, whose clients included Apple, HP, Lucent, and others. His expertise in Macromedia Flash, a vector-based software technology important for allowing browser constraint of content independent of screen resolution, addressed critical concerns with cross-browser design support for Web site interfaces. Talks at Web Associates for client-based initiatives included Thompson's above-the-fold approach to Web usability. Thompson took his above the fold approach with him to academe in 1997 as an instructor for designing Web sites with the Learning Tree in Thousand Oaks, CA, and in 1999 while helping the University of Phoenix in Southern California implement its Bachelor of Science in Information Technology program with course instruction in its Web Track, since deprecated.
Key to Thompson's 'above the fold' approach to Web design has always been insistence on bringing major, critical elements of the interface design immediately upfront for the user. While at Web Associates as an Integrator brainstorming on usability design issues, an initial problem leading to this concern with select clients was design of the interface to keep the user from jumping off a Web site prematurely, either before finding what was being sought, or because the site might lack intuitive navigation for ease of use. Thompson's design solution was to...