Footers , and why they’re important to designers

Maryum M. Shute
Nov 4 · 3 min read

What’s a footer, anyway?

A footer is this neat little section at the bottom of websites that can contain all sorts of helpful and magical information like site maps, social media links, contact information and a customer service number for when you’re having an especially confrontational day. You might have seen one if you have ventured outside of your bedroom in the past two decades. I mean, the very first website was essentially just one really sad looking footer:

First web-page ever created (1991). screenshot from http://info.cern.ch/

First forms of footers

Footers — like a lot of web components we see today — originate from their counterparts in the mystical, ancient world of print. Footers were originally seen in books and magazines, and were reserved for page numbers and footnotes. Similar to footers in web, footers in print provided the user a quick, consistent place to find relevant information.

While footers are still often designed as an afterthought, they have been around since the 90’s, and this was a time where design and usability weren’t quite given a thought yet. Even in the early days of the internet, designers and creators recognized the importance of footers in websites.

Photo of The New York Times website (1996) screenshot from http://web.archive.org/web/19961112181513/http://www.nytimes.com/

Common components of website footers

Digital footers, the ones we see in websites and in mobile apps, are a lot more complex and versatile in comparison to print footers. Typically, you can expect to find some of the following within a website’s footer:

Why footers are more important in design than you think

Often, in design we tend to think of footers as less important than the rest of the website. It makes sense, or so we think, that if the rest of the website is looking and functioning well, the footer won’t really matter. Just grab a template, add some links and you’re good to go. But, we might actually be overlooking the importance of a comprehensive footer.

A study from Chartbeat shows that a lot of users actually start scrolling downwards before the web-page even finishes loading. This means that even though you’re spending time trying to perfect the landing page above the fold; a good portion your users are immediately looking elsewhere. Sigh.

A usability test done by User Testing Inc. also found that adding call to action and sign up links in the footer of their page increased their sign-ups by 50%. This provides the designer a fantastic opportunity to lightly nudge the user and remind them “C’mon, sign up! I know you scrolled past it the first time, but it’s not too late, do it”.

You can also look at it from a user’s perspective. Let’s say you’re on a website specifically looking for a sub-page such as “careers”. You’re going to skim the links at the top and since the navigation menu has to be condensed, you might not find the page you are looking for. Naturally, you will scroll all the way down to the footer and try to find a link there.

I didn’t read your article, can you, like, condense it……

Okay, just think of the footer as a one-stop-shop for anything the user might be trying to accomplish on your site. As a designer, you need that user to do a whole bunch of things on your site, so why not use the footer to your advantage and make those things as easy and obvious to find?

MyTake

Smart Insight Communities

Maryum M. Shute

Written by

UX Designer/Illustrator and self-appointed “okay human” residing in Canada, Earth

MyTake

MyTake

Smart Insight Communities

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