Expert Guide Series

What Information Should Go Above the Fold?

Users spend less than 3 seconds deciding whether to engage with your app or bounce to something else, and most of that decision happens based on what they see before they scroll anywhere. I've built apps that looked fantastic once you explored them but died in the first week because we buried the most important information too far down the screen, and I've built apps that weren't particularly pretty but succeeded because users understood their value instantly. The difference between these outcomes usually comes down to about 300 pixels of screen space.

The content you place in the first view determines whether users stick around to see anything else at all

After working on mobile apps for more than a decade, I've watched this principle play out hundreds of times across healthcare booking systems, financial services platforms, shopping apps, and education tools. The apps that succeed are the ones that understand what information belongs at the top of the screen and what can wait until users are actually interested enough to scroll. This isn't about cramming everything into a tiny space, it's about making smart choices about what matters most in those first few seconds when someone opens your app.

Understanding Above the Fold in Mobile Design

The term "above the fold" came from newspapers (where the most important stories went on the top half of the front page so you'd see them when the paper was folded), but the concept works differently on mobile screens. On a phone, above the fold means whatever appears on screen when your app loads without any scrolling or interaction from the user. That's your entire first impression right there.

The tricky part is that this space changes based on dozens of factors... the device size, the operating system version, whether the user has their phone in portrait or landscape mode, and even things like whether they have large text enabled in their accessibility settings. I've seen apps that looked perfect on an iPhone 12 but completely fell apart on an iPhone SE because the designer never checked the smaller screen.

The biggest shift I've noticed over the years is that users have become less willing to explore apps that don't immediately make sense. Back when apps were still fairly new, people would tap around and figure things out, but now they expect instant clarity. Your first screen needs to communicate what the app does, why they should care, and what action they should take next, all without requiring any mental effort or guesswork.

What Users Actually See on Different Devices

The visible area on mobile screens varies quite a lot depending on the device, and I've learned this lesson the hard way more than once. An iPhone SE shows roughly 550 pixels of vertical content before you need to scroll, while an iPhone 14 Pro Max shows closer to 850 pixels. Android devices are even more varied because there's such a wide range of manufacturers and screen sizes out there.

Navigation bars take up space too. On iOS, the status bar at the top and the home indicator at the bottom eat into your available space, and if you have a navigation bar within your app, that's another 44 to 88 pixels gone before you even start showing your actual content. I always design for the smallest common device first (usually an iPhone SE or similar Android device) because if the layout works there, it'll work everywhere. This approach is similar to building your first app where you start with constraints and work your way up.

Device Type	Approximate Visible Height	Safe Content Area
iPhone SE	550-600 pixels	450-500 pixels
Standard iPhone (12/13/14)	700-750 pixels	600-650 pixels
Large iPhone (Pro Max)	800-850 pixels	700-750 pixels
Typical Android	650-800 pixels	550-700 pixels

Test your app on an actual iPhone SE or small Android device, not just in a simulator with a shrunk-down view of a larger screen... the experience is genuinely different and you'll spot problems you'd never see otherwise.

The First Three Seconds Matter Most

I've done eye-tracking studies with users testing apps we've built, and the pattern is remarkably consistent... people scan the top third of the screen first, then their eyes dart to any buttons or interactive elements, and then they either scroll to see more or they leave. This whole process takes about 2 to 3 seconds, maybe 5 if you're lucky.

During those first few seconds, users are asking themselves three questions without even realising it: what is this app about, is there something here for me, and what am I supposed to do now. Your first screen needs to answer all three questions quickly and clearly, or you've lost them. I've seen apps with great functionality fail completely because the opening screen showed a generic hero image and a vague tagline instead of actual useful information. This visual design challenge connects to broader principles of user perception in interface design.

The apps that retain users best are usually the ones that get straight to the point. A banking app should show your account balance and recent transactions immediately. A fitness app should display today's activity summary and what workout you might want to do next. An e-commerce app should feature products relevant to what the user has browsed before, not just whatever the marketing team wants to promote this week.

Building Your Content Priority Framework

When I start a new app project, I always create a content priority list before we write a single line of code or design a single screen. This list ranks every piece of information that could appear on the first screen from most important to least important, based on what the user actually needs to accomplish and what drives business value. It sounds simple but clients struggle with this constantly because everything feels important to them. This prioritisation process is crucial to feasibility analysis and should be established early in your planning phase.

Deciding what to show first requires understanding what users came to do, not what you want to tell them

The framework I use has three tiers. Tier one is critical information that must appear before any scrolling happens... this is usually your core value proposition, the main action you want users to take, and any personalised content that makes the app immediately relevant to that specific user. Tier two is supporting information that helps users make decisions or provides context, which can appear just below the fold where users will see it after a small scroll. Tier three is everything else, which belongs on secondary screens or much further down.

Primary Content Goes First

Your primary content is whatever the user opened the app to find or do. For a food delivery app, that's probably restaurant options and their current order status. For a meditation app, it's today's recommended session and their streak information. For a banking app, it's account balances and recent activity. This sounds obvious, but I've worked with clients who wanted to put promotional banners or feature announcements ahead of this core content, which almost always hurts engagement.

Secondary Elements Support the Primary Goal

Secondary elements include things like search bars, filter options, category navigation, or quick links to commonly used features. These belong on the first screen but they can sit below your primary content because users who need them will scroll a bit to find them. I usually place these elements in the middle third of the screen, after the main content but before you get into tertiary information.

Essential Elements for Your First Screen

Based on hundreds of app projects across different industries, there are certain elements that almost always belong on the first screen regardless of what type of app you're building. The exact arrangement changes based on your specific use case, but these building blocks remain fairly consistent. When designing scalable app architecture, these foundational elements become even more critical as your user base grows.

Value indicator or status: show users something personal to them immediately, whether that's their account balance, current progress, items in their cart, or today's activity summary
Primary action button: make the most important thing users can do extremely obvious, usually with a prominent button in a contrasting colour positioned where thumbs naturally reach
Personalisation signals: include the user's name or photo or reference their recent activity to show them this isn't a generic screen
Navigation or search: give users a way to find what they need if the first screen doesn't have it, but don't let this overshadow your primary content
Contextual updates: if there's time-sensitive or new since their last visit, show it clearly but don't let it dominate the entire screen

What doesn't belong on your first screen is lengthy explanations, multiple competing calls to action, marketing messages that don't help users accomplish their goal, or anything that requires reading more than one or two lines of text to understand. Every pixel of that first screen is valuable real estate, and if something isn't actively helping users achieve their purpose, it's just creating noise. For fitness apps specifically, personalised workout recommendations work particularly well in this prime screen space.

Common Mistakes That Push Important Content Down

I see the same mistakes over and over again when reviewing apps that have retention problems. The most frequent issue is letting promotional content or announcements take over the top of the screen, pushing the actual useful information down below where users need to scroll to find it. Marketing teams love this real estate because they know everyone sees it, but using it for promotions instead of core functionality is like covering up your shop window with posters.

Another common problem is oversized headers or hero images that look impressive but serve no real purpose. I worked on a healthcare app where the original design had a big photo of a doctor at the top of every screen, taking up nearly half the visible area before you got to any actual information about appointments or health records. Users consistently said they found the app difficult to use, even though the information was all there... it was just hidden below a decorative image. This is particularly relevant when considering international users who may have different expectations for visual hierarchy.

Large banner images that don't convey information
Multiple notification banners stacked on top of each other
Introductory text blocks explaining what the app does (users who downloaded it already know this)
Excessive white space that looks clean but wastes screen space
Complicated navigation menus that expand and push content down
Cookie consent banners or permission requests that cover the entire screen

Record a video of yourself opening your app for the first time and watch what you can see in the first 2 seconds before you interact with anything... if the purpose and main action aren't immediately obvious, you need to rearrange things.

Testing What Works for Your Audience

The only way to know if your content priority decisions are correct is to test them with real users and measure what happens. I always set up analytics to track how far users scroll on their first session, how quickly they take the primary action, and what percentage bounce without engaging at all. These metrics tell you whether your first screen is working or not. Understanding these patterns early is crucial, especially if you're building an audience before launch.

A/B testing different layouts can reveal surprising insights about what your specific audience responds to. I ran a test for a shopping app where we tried three different first screens: one with featured products at the top, one with personalised recommendations based on browsing history, and one with category navigation. The personalised version had 40% better conversion rates than the others, but we never would have known that without testing because the client was convinced featured products would perform best.

Metric to Track	What It Tells You	Target Range
Time to first interaction	How quickly users understand what to do	Under 5 seconds
Scroll depth in first session	Whether users need to scroll to find value	Most users shouldn't need to scroll past 2 screens
Bounce rate from home screen	How many users leave without engaging	Under 25%
Primary action completion	Whether users do what you want them to do	Varies by app type

User interviews help fill in the gaps that analytics can't explain. I make a point of watching at least 5 to 10 users interact with any new app design before we launch it, asking them to think aloud as they explore. The things they comment on or questions they ask usually reveal exactly where the first screen is unclear or missing important information. This user-centered approach becomes even more important when considering simple interface design for different device types.

Even if your initial launch doesn't meet expectations, these testing insights become valuable for recovery strategies. Apps with poor first-screen design often show early warning signs in user behavior that can help you recover from launch problems more effectively.

Conclusion

The information you place above the fold determines whether users stick around long enough to discover everything else your app can do. Getting this right requires understanding what users actually came to accomplish, making hard choices about what matters most, and testing your assumptions with real people using real devices. I've seen simple changes to first-screen content increase retention rates by 30% or more, just by moving the most relevant information to where users can actually see it without any effort.

The best approach is to design for the smallest common screen size first, focus on personalised and actionable content rather than generic marketing messages, and constantly measure whether users are finding what they need quickly enough. Your first screen isn't a place to show off or explain everything your app can do... it's a place to prove your value and give users a clear starting point for whatever they came to accomplish.

If you're working on an app and want a second opinion on your content priority or first-screen design, get in touch and I'd be happy to take a look at what you're building.

Frequently Asked Questions

On smaller devices like iPhone SE, you have roughly 450-500 pixels of safe content area, which typically accommodates one main heading, a key piece of personalised information, and one primary action button. The key is choosing quality over quantity - three well-chosen elements that serve your users will always outperform six elements competing for attention.

Personalised content almost always wins because it immediately shows users the app is relevant to them specifically. I've run tests where personalised account balances or activity summaries increased engagement by 40% compared to generic featured content, even when the generic content was objectively more polished.

Letting marketing banners or promotional content push the core functionality below the fold. Users opened your app to accomplish something specific, and if they have to scroll past advertisements to find their account information or main features, most will just leave instead.

Track time to first interaction (should be under 5 seconds), scroll depth in first sessions, and bounce rates from your home screen. If users consistently scroll past two screens or leave without engaging, your most important content is probably buried too deep.

The principle stays the same but you have more space to work with on tablets, so you can include secondary elements alongside your primary content rather than stacking everything vertically. However, you still need to prioritise what goes in the top-left area where users look first.

Absolutely test different content arrangements, especially the order of personalised versus general information. I typically test three versions: one focused on user status/data, one highlighting the main action, and one with balanced content to see what drives better engagement for your specific audience.

The content should update automatically based on user behaviour and real-time data, but the layout and priority structure should only change based on user testing results. Don't rearrange elements frequently just because you can - users need consistency to build familiarity with your app.

Design these overlays to take up minimal space and dismiss easily, rather than covering the entire screen. Users need to see your app's value before dealing with legal requirements, so show your core content behind a small banner rather than blocking everything until they accept terms.