Hyperlink at the top of page with smooth scroll to a form at the bottom

Question

I've been tasked with creating 3 new web pages for our site. Each page has a hyperlink above the fold that takes the user to a form at the bottom of the page just above the footer. None of these pages are ridiculously long, the form is in the bottom 1/4 to 1/3 of the page with promotional content inbetween.

There is plenty of white, decluttered space all around, and the forms are quite visible and large if the user scrolls down. It has been suggested that we use a smooth scroll effect for the links to the forms. I tried this out using jQuery animate and it works well, however, I have not had any luck finding information as to whether the smooth scroll effect is favored by users over jumping directly to the form, or vice versa.

And I'm thinking an A/B test that correlates scrolling behavior to form submission might not be a fair test. But I could be wrong. Are there any studies or other knowledge or ideas you might know of that could shed light on which way to go?

Answer 1

It hasn't as much got something to do with whether "people like it or not". It's not a "certain percentage that likes it" or doesn't.

It's about location awareness.

By jumping to the content instantly, it might as well be a really quickly loaded new page. The user wouldn't know the difference.

By scrolling slowly to the bottom of the page you show that, "hey, this is on the same page!"

So, if anything, the questions you could ask are either "how fast to scroll" (hint: quite fast) or whether having it on the same page is that useful.

Those are, as mentioned, different questions though.