Above the Fold
1 min read · Reviewed 17 Oct 2026
In short
What a visitor sees before scrolling.
In plain English
The part of a page visible on arrival, without scrolling. The term comes from newspapers, where the top half of the front page was what you saw on the stand.
On a phone that is a much smaller area than most people design for.
A real example
A visitor should be able to tell what you do, who for, and what to do next without scrolling.
Why it matters
It is where the decision to stay or leave gets made. A page that explains itself beautifully in paragraph four has already lost most of the people who would have found paragraph four useful.
