AI / Design Communication & Image Prompting
What belongs on the first screen
Re-rank the first screen around the one task the user came for
This is my page: [screenshot or content inventory]. Review the information priority of the first screen: 1) List what is actually visible above the fold and rank its current visual weight by area and contrast; 2) Decide the single task the user came to this page for, and name the one element the eye should land on first — only one; 3) Point out what competes for attention without earning it — decoration, duplicate entry points, promotional blocks; 4) Give a reordered version using four levers, size, contrast, position, and negative space, and annotate each change; 5) Run a cover test: if only three elements could remain, which three, and why. Do not use the word 'clearer'.
How to use
Answer "what is the one thing the user came here to do" yourself first; a different answer produces a different ranking.
Good for
- A data page and promotional blocks share one screen; growth wants conversion front and centre and design wants more breathing room — converting both into first-screen visual weight is the only way the conversation moves.
- A self-check before a redesign review — confirm where the eye lands first, so you are not the one who cannot answer what the user is supposed to look at.
Not for
- The page is a single-purpose utility, such as sign-in, a QR scan, or payment confirmation — there is one task, and ranking it is busywork.
- You do not have real copy or real data volumes yet — a first screen ranked on placeholder data will be rearranged by the first real headline length.
Example
Input
A B2B dashboard, 1440×900: four KPI cards across the top, a line chart in the middle, three announcements on the right, and a New report button bottom-left in the same grey as the KPI cards
What you get
It decides the user's task is to confirm whether anything went wrong yesterday, so the eye should land on the anomaly in the line chart, not the KPI cards. The four KPI cards take 32% of the area but are all neutral grey, while the announcements win attention purely through a red dot. The reorder moves announcements below the fold, compresses the KPIs into one row at 2pt smaller type, and gives the primary button the only saturated colour on the screen. The cover test keeps the chart, the anomaly label, and the date filter.
Common mistakes
- Reading 'put what matters on the first screen' as 'put everything that matters there' — when everything is important, nothing has priority.
- Substituting a click heatmap for judgement — a heatmap tells you what people clicked, not what they should have seen.
Try tweaking it like this
- Add one version per user type — new users, returning users, and admins have different tasks, so the first screen can branch by role.
- Turn it into a deletion test: if five elements had to leave the first screen, which five — easier than ranking forwards, and it exposes redundancy faster.