Above the fold

There is no single fold on the web, because it moves with screen size, browser chrome and zoom level. On a laptop it might be 700 pixels; on a phone it is a fraction of that, and the same page shows a completely different amount of itself. Designing for "the fold" therefore means designing for a range, not a line.

The concept still matters because attention decays with scrolling. What a visitor sees first carries disproportionate weight in whether they stay, so the headline, the audience and the primary action belong there. What does not belong there is everything: a hero that tries to show the whole offer above the fold ends up showing none of it legibly.

The practical test is to look at the page on a phone at a normal zoom and ask what a stranger would understand from that screen alone. If the answer is a logo and a photograph, the fold is being wasted.