Above the Fold.

Above the fold is the portion of a web page that a visitor sees immediately when it loads, before they scroll down at all. Everything website visitors see on a web page before scrolling is above the fold. Everything below that initial visible area is, by definition, below the fold. The phrase comes from print journalism. A newspaper folded in half on a newsstand shows only the upper half of the front page. That space, the part of the newspaper page visible without unfolding it, had to carry the most important headline, the most striking image, and the most compelling reason to buy the paper. The same logic applies to websites. Above the fold in web design is always a relevant topic in UX design because of one simple reality: not all visitors scroll. A portion of every audience lands on a page, reads what is immediately visible, and leaves if nothing in that space earns their continued attention. The content below the fold only gets seen by visitors who were given a reason to keep going. This is why the above-the-fold area carries the heaviest strategic weight on any page. On a homepage, it typically contains a headline that states what the business does, a sub-headline that clarifies who it serves or what result it delivers, a primary call to action, and sometimes a hero image or video. All of that needs to work together to answer the visitor's first question in seconds: is this for me? On a landing page, the above-the-fold section is even more critical. It is where the page either captures attention or loses the visitor before any persuasion has happened. Screen size affects where the fold falls. On a large desktop monitor, the visible area before scrolling is significantly larger than on a mobile phone screen. This means the above-the-fold content on your page must be designed and tested across different screen sizes, not just how it appears on your own laptop.

The above-the-fold section is the only part of a page every visitor sees. It is not optional real estate. What you put there, and what you leave out, determines whether visitors stay or leave within the first few seconds of arrival. For any page with a conversion goal, this area should be treated with more care and intention than any other part of the design.