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!

TimThumb is a is a popular script that is used by many WordPress themes and plug-ins to manipulate image files. Unfortunately the TimThumb developers left open a doorway through which hackers can insert code into WordPress template files. This code adds links to Russian sites and inserts malware to try to infect the computers of anyone who visits the infected site. Google has begun listing infected sites as malware and blocking them.

If you have a WordPress site, how do you know if it has been infected or is  vulnerable to attack?

1. First use Sucuri to scan your website for malware. Sucuri checks 10-12 links on each site. This is sufficient if all your site pages and posts use the same template files, but if your site uses multiple templates (e.g., blog, page, home page, single-column, multi-column), make sure you scan at least one example of each template. If the scanner finds problems, follow the suggestions there.
2. Site clean? Great — no malware has been installed. But your site may still be vulnerable to attack. The good news is that many theme and plugin developers have already updated their code. Update your theme and plugins to the latest version.
3. Some plugins, such as the popular Verve Meta Boxes, are no longer actively supported and have not been updated. To be sure you get all copies of TimThumb updated, search the files in your plugins and themes directories for “timthumb.php.” If you find a copy that has not been updated as part of a plugin or theme update, you can replace it with a new version. Download the latest TimThumb file from http://code.google.com/p/timthumb/.
4. Some developers have changed the name of the TimThumb file from “timthumb.php” to “thumb.php.” We recommend searching for both names, and updating all the files.

For more information on TimThumb and how to protect your site:

• Zero Day Vulnerability in many WordPress Themes by Mark Maunder – details about how the vulnerability works and what can be done about it.
• Breaking: Google starts to block hacked WordPress blogs as attack widens also by Mark Maunder – details about how and why Google is blocking infected sites.
• WordPress Codex: Hardening WordPress – good practices for protecting your WordPress site from hackers.

Note that this vulnerability is not unique to WordPress. Some Joomla and Drupal themes and plugins also use TimThumb, and all the warnings apply to them as well.

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.

In case you do not know what CSS is here is quick review. CSS is a coding that web designers use to visually style websites. Adding styles like font color, size and font, width and widths of items on the page.

To show the import role that css plays in the current world of web design here is a screen of this page with and with out CSS.

Now something new has emerge, CSS3

CSS3 is the latest version of css and it allows for some very cool styling features. Now I could list off 10 ten new features or do a step by step how-to with CSS. Instead i’ll just show you something that is amazing.

The CSS Monster!

It’s pure css, no graphics at all. Click on the photo below to link to code version.

If you like this, you can see how it was done at Un blob CSS.
And if you would like a how-to CSS3 or CSS tutorial just ask.

Now maybe no one would notice, but all those small details mean the difference between a “B grade” website and an “A grade website”. The thing I am finding tho is the closer you get to being  100% done with a website the long and hard things seem to be. I would go so far as to say that the first 89% of a project is about equal to the last 11% of project in terms of effort or time.

This kind of art takes time, organization and dedication.

Kevin Cornell one of my new favorite illustrators has a website that is great example of what that extra 11% looks like. THE WEBSITE (you will also find Kevin’s work all over AlistApart.com)

This is the screen I landed on after making a PayPal purchase from Kevin’s store.

This type of customer care and detail in web design is inspiring to me. The thank you screen has a custom illustration and humor, even tho I have already bought a product. This kind of foresight and effort is noticed.

What makes Kevin’s  site is it’s attention to detail, which is something that take a lot of time, and to me means that someone cared a lot about there work, and about there customers. So kudos to that extra 11%.

**Look for Kevin’s art on the walls of the MAC soon.

Sites Sighted :
Kevin Cornells the Illustrator »
A list Apart.com »

Welcome aboard, Kevin! We’re happy to have you part of the crew.

“I found my perfect match on Matchbook. Johnathan Curry was willing to work with our non-profit budget (small!) on a database rebuild project. He understood my needs for keeping things simple, making it functional and still managed to add flair/creativity to a project as boring as a database. Best yet, he was very nice to work with and stayed within our budget.”

Awe… that just makes us feel special. Thanks, Cynthia.

Have you had a good experience with Matchbook? We’d love to hear about it.

As a designer, I find myself frequently needing to generate tints and shades from a color scheme.  I didn't see an online tool for this and I wanted to get better at JavaScript/JQuery, so I wrote my own. I'd be delighted if you had five minutes to look at it and tell me:

1) is it useful, 2) does it work well for you, 3) any suggestions.

The tool is at http://www.highintegritydesign.com/tools/tinter-shader.

Enjoy!

Thanks —North