The ‘Users don’t Scroll’ myth
In 1996 a claim was made that ’only 10% of users scrolled on web pages’. User studies were put forward re-enforcing the claim. The problem was that the user studies proposed that 10% of pages weren’t being scrolled to display new navigation, but made no distinction between scrolling for navigation and scrolling for content. Some six years later it’s still common to find people who preach that "You must have all your navigation and content at the top of the front page".
It’s now the year 2005, and people know that they can scroll on web pages. Everyone’s a lot more proficient with ’the web’. It’s always going to be important to have your most important messages at the beginning but it’s less important that all your messages be crammed on the front page with it.
The Summary?
It’s still useful to have obvious and visible navigation but people will scroll if the content you provide is engaging and cleanly presented.