Full-screen sites are generally designed to show the content above the fold – like a book or a magazine, with the content displayed on a fixed size or resolution – and transitions are needed in order to navigate through the content (like page turns). On the other hand, with scrolling sites the content is overflown vertically and must be scrolled.
Sample full-screen site: http://www.tatchies.com/
Sample scrolling site: http://www.qzwei.com/
Mobile displays
Nowadays people access the web everywhere, using mobile devices. The touchscreen is a great technology to navigate across websites but unfortunately doesn’t play well for full-screen sites. Meanwhile, the vertical gesture on a touchscreen made scrolling sites a unique and excellent alternative for smartphones and tablets.
Different screen sizes or resolutions
In the past you could design sites for a 1024 x 768 monitor and be relatively sure that it would look the same across most of the computers. In today’s environment this is no longer the case. A web developer can tell you that any good-coded site will adjust pixel per pixel on a large screen monitor, but as soon as the browser’s width and height starts changing it can quickly become very difficult to make the content look good across the different dimensions. In opposition, on scrolling sites the content adapts perfectly to a vertical environment, allowing the site to have variable heights.
It took some time for scrolling sites to become the best choice regarding functionality, but the adaptability of the content to the different mobile and desktop dimensions is the best way to generate the visual impact that every business should be aiming for.
