Emily Smith explores the history, research and controversies around the topic in her article, “The Fold Exists but Does it Matter?”  She concludes that “since we have no control over how people access our sites and what portion they see, we need to focus on the things we can control.” She offers several suggestions for making careful and educated decisions about the content above the fold, and providing indicators that encourage people to explore the rest of the page.

Do you want to see what areas of your site’s pages are typically above the fold? Try Google Browser Size. Enter your site’s URL, and this tool displays it with a transparent overlay indicating what percentage of people visiting Google have their browser window open to at least that size or larger.

How about you? How do you make decisions where to place key content? I’d be interested in hearing your strategies!

How did they do it? Smashing Magazine went to the designers and developers at Wieden+Kennedy (W+K) looking for answers. In Behind The Scenes Of Nike Better World, they talk about the goals of the site, the creative process and technical considerations. Then they piece together the techniques used and showcase some other sites using parallax scrolling techniques.

A recommended read for creatives and geeks alike.

Could this payment system have as profound an effect on how people pay for stuff in the real world as the iTunes store has had on the distribution and sale of digital media? FastCompany reports on the design-driven solution:

Jack Dorsey is the brains behind Square and the cofounder and chairman of Twitter. Here’s how Square got started: Jack’s former boss and good friend (and eventual co-founder) Jim McKelvey lost a sale for his hand-blown glass because he had no way of accepting credit cards. The problem was one many people had–the barriers to setting yourself up through conventional processes to accept credit card payments were too high for many people. So Dorsey set about seeing if he could create a better system. The result was the Square reader, which launched a year ago and which allows just about anyone to set themselves up to take credit card payments. Even you. Planning a garage sale and want to enable people to pay for your gerbil cages and Shawn Cassidy LPs by credit card? No problem. Square’s for you.

“”I don’t think a lot of financial institutions have spent a lot of time thinking about design,” Dorsey says. “Design is not visual. It’s about simplifying and getting something down to its essence.”

I like the idea that if I am selling a sofa on Craigslist I can take a credit card without going through a huge merchant qualification process with my bank. But I especially like that now I can let small business clients know this solution is available and likely to change the way customers expect to transact business.

Try it out here, and be sure to share the best ones with the rest of us*.

*Disclaimer: The Madison Ave. Collective has no current plan to change its name.

The Manning for Mayor team approached the MAC this past Spring when they were looking for help developing an identity for the campaign. They needed a logo to represent Julie’s friendly personality and strong leadership abilities. The identity also needed broad public appeal, but had to stand out amongst other local and national political races. The result was a balanced combination of hand-drawn letterforms and all-caps Futura in two shades of blue. The colors go quite nicely with Julie’s eyes, don’t you think?

The campaign liked the logo so much they also asked the MAC to develop a website, a brochure, a series of newspaper ads, and lawn signs to help get out the vote.

Representing the MAC was Rebecca Badger (marketing strategy, project management), Ron Sparks (web development), Danielle Anthony (photography), and yours truly (graphic design).

Big congrats to Mayor-elect Julie and all her supporters. She ran a great campaign and she’ll make a great mayor. We’re honored to have been asked to play a part in her victory.

Layer Tennis is a series of live design events on Friday afternoons presented by Adobe® Creative Suite® 5.

Two competitors swap a file back and forth in real-time, adding to and embellishing the work. Each artist gets fifteen minutes to complete a “volley” and then we post that to the site live.

The players may be designers, animators, illustrators or pretty much anything else, and they can use any tool or application they like. The match progresses volley by volley.

A third participant, a writer, provides play-by-play commentary on the action as it happens.

The match lasts for ten volleys and when it’s complete, opinioned Season Ticket Holders sound off and we declare a winner. Check Tennis HQ and get lost in the archive of past matches.

Season Ticket Holders can vote on match winners, post comments, participate in remix contests and a whole lot more—all free. Get your Season Ticket here.

Don’t miss the 130-second video recapping the high points of Season Three’s Exhibition Matches.

(Sci-five to Mike Burnard for sending me this.)

Many of my favorite TV commercials use the Incongruity technique to create something that not only strikes your funny bone but makes you remember the advertised product/service. (Again, see Old Spice Man: The Man Your Man Could Smell Like.)

Remember “Think outside the box”? Today, you wouldn’t think of using that phrase with your clients, but you could offer to come up with something “crazy fresh.”

The next time you’re thinking up a new ad, design, or pitch, or even a new way of styling a photo shoot, think about how you might use the Incongruity Theory of Humor in your own work to create something memorable—something that “sticks.”

Something viral this way comes? (with apologies to Wm. Shakespeare)

So it seems the iPhone being a whole 4 years sense it showed it’s face first, is now old enough to have a history of the iPhone infographic. I will admit it’s not that great to look at but it is inspiring and mind boggling when you look at how things have progressed.

Infographic Artist Matt Kursmark

In my hunt around the web for something interesting I found an awesome designer. I don’t know this person at all but I thought they had some great work. Well the above infographic is interesting it’s not that easy on the eyes, the below is much more elegant. And if you goes to his website there is a lot that is nice and easy on the eyes.

Transportation via Bicycle

This is an older one but a goodie. This is more of your class infographic, lots of data, good looking and very interesting.