Madison Ave. Collective

Lainie Turner — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 22:34:31 +0000

The web design blog at 1st Web Designer has a cool page: From Concept to Completion: 50 Examples of the Logo Design Process. Many styles, many stories. A great time-waster, oops, I mean go-to page.

Where’s the Fold?

Donna McMaster — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 23:03:28 +0000

Web designers are urged to place key actionable content “above the fold” to ensure that it is seen by visitors to the site who might not stick around long enough to scroll down. But with mobile devices, iPads and various monitor sizes, where is the fold these days? And how much should we care?

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!

Be strong, TimThumb!

Donna McMaster — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 21:58:56 +0000

There’s been lots of press about WordPress sites being compromised because of the “TimThumb vulnerability.” What’s this about and what do you need to do?

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?

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.
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.
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/.
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.

Love is in the air

Jeff Jimerson — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 20:09:25 +0000

MAC member Ali Smith has snapped some fab photos of our local love birds Ron Sparks (engaged to be married to Julia Patton) and Amy Dasso (aka Amy Williams, recently hitched to Austin).

See wedding photos of Amy and Austin.

See engagement photos of Ron and Julia.

Nice job, Ali!

7 Ways I Use My iPad for Business

Bill Zipp — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 07:00:59 +0000

Okay, I’ll admit it. I bought it on a whim. Being a bit of a gadget guy, I had to get the iPad 2. There it was in the store, and it looked so cool and slim and professional (In a word, so Apple). It spoke to me, and I ponied up the bucks and bought it. What began as a whim, however, has quickly become an indispensable business tool. Here are seven ways I use my iPad for business:

1. Meeting Notes

Being an executive coach and business consultant, my week is full of meetings. I prepare for meetings, conduct meetings, and record my thoughts during and after meetings. Apart from the cool factor of opening up an iPad instead of a manilla folder in a meeting, I’ve found my iPad unbelievably easy to use to quickly jot notes and capture random thoughts. The pre-installed iPad Notes app is okay, but not robust enough for what I needed. For awhile I used an app called Notability, but (inexplicably) it didn’t have spell-check, so emailing meeting notes to clients was unwise. What I now use for all my meetings is an app called Notably. It’s incredibly elegant, well-designed, and automatically synchs with Dropbox.

By the way, with your iPad video camera you can easily conduct virtual business meetings anywhere using WebEx, GoToMeeting, or Skype. My favorite, however, is the multi-user, multi-screen app from video upstart ooVoo.

2. Tasks and Projects

I’m a raving fan of a software called Things by Cultured Code and have it on both my laptop and my iPad. From the first day I bought a MacBook Pro, I’ve used Things because iCal task management is just deplorable (Let me tell you how I really feel). The iPad app is even better than its software cousin. At $20 it’s a bit on the expensive side for an app, but, in my opinion, Things is worth every penny.

Things allows me to closely manage the dates and deadlines for both my tasks and projects, set reoccurrences, assign tasks to areas of responsibility, and tag them for quick reference–all quickly and easily. The underlying architecture of Things is based on David Allen’s immensely popular book, Getting Things Done, but it’s not overly dependent on it. The iPad app automatically synch’s with my laptop via the wireless network in my office and allows me to stay on top of everything I need to do everyday. Cultured Code’s online support and resources are second to none.

3. Appointments

Speaking of synching, you can’t beat iCal and Mobile Me for keeping track of appointments and meetings. I put an appointment in my iPad and it’s automatically posted online, on my laptop, and on my iPhone. From all reports, Apple’s IOS 5 and improved cloud service will only make this better. For me the best part of this iPad functionality is that my wife can check my calendar at any time and know exactly what I’m doing. She can also schedule appointments for me, which is how I ended having a colonoscopy recently (but that’s another story).

4. Document Management

The big concern, of course, with using an iPad is reading and managing documents and fulfilling the quest for a paperless workplace. Enter GoodReader, the best five dollars you’ll ever spend in your life. It reads every conceivable document, from Word files to TXT files, iWork files to PDF’s, allowing you to mark them up as well. It also views pictures, plays audio and video, and reads maps. I haven’t even scratched the surface of what it can do on my iPad, but it’s amazing. In addition to all this stuff, GoodReader synchs with a half a dozen different remote servers to keep everything up to date. Technology expert, Mashable, calls it, “the Swiss Army knife of awesome.”

5. Travel

When you travel, you have your airplane ticket, your hotel, your car rental, and God knows what else to keep track of. My iPad helps me keep all that stuff in one place through an amazing app called Tripit. Download the app and forward your travel info to Tripit, and, voila, it’s all there for you to see along with other great things to do in the region you’re traveling to. If anything changes in your itinerary, Tripit will send you an email alert and text alert to your phone. Almost makes those body scans worth it. Tripit is provided free from a company called Concur, who also has an excellent app for business expense tracking that fully synchs with your credit card. Check them both out.

6. Books and Magazines

My Kindle was cool when I first got it, but there’s nothing like reading a book in vivid color like you can on an iPad. In fact, Amazon’s Kindle app for iPad is simply amazing and their book selection way beyond what’s available for iBooks. The coolest of the cool, however, is an app called Zite. Zite is an online magazine that crawls the internet for articles that match your personally customized categories. Read an article and rate it, and you’ll get more of what you like. In other words, the more you use Zite, the smarter it becomes, all for free. Who needs magazines?

7. Background Music

No, I don’t want music gobbling up the memory of my business devices. But there are times when I want to listen to music as I read, write, and reflect at work. If you’ve ever listened to Pandora, you already know how online music streaming works. But Pandora’s become a commercial wasteland, so I listen to the app IHeartRadio. There’s tons of commercial-free music of any genre, as well as live streaming of radio stations across the country. All for free. A nice set of Bose headphones almost makes the workday seem like a vacation (Not really, but Bose headphones are pretty great).

I’m sure I’m just getting started using this post-PC tool for business. I love the exceedingly responsive touch screen and find the keyboard easier to use than the mechanical ones we’ve all become used to. With cloud computing advancing at an amazing rate and ubiquitous wireless networks, look for your iPad to become even more useful in the future. BTW I tried out about three or four different iPad covers to protect my investment, and landed on this slick leather one from Snugg. It’s perfect!

How do they do that?

Donna McMaster — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 22:07:30 +0000

The Nike Better World website is 13,968 pixels and eleven visual blocks tall, glued together with parallax scrolling, HTML5 and code that can blow a jQuery developer’s mind.

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.

Make and host tutorials for free

Lainie Turner — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 18:52:22 +0000

Tildee.com is a nifty little site that gives you simple steps for creating “how-to”s and hosts them for you, all for free. Check it out here.

“Square” payments: game changer through great design

Lainie Turner — Tue, 24 May 2011 16:40:08 +0000

Square launched a new “credit card case” app earlier this month, generating serious buzz. With Square, anyone with a bank account can accept credit or debit card payments by downloading the app and plugging a little plastic cube into the headphone jack of an iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, or Android phone. After a quick swipe of the card through the reader, the merchant turns the device over to the customer to sign his or her name on the touchscreen using a finger instead of a pen. The customer can add a tip, either by percentage or a particular amount, and then enter their phone number or email address. In the best case, the receipt message will buzz in the customer’s pocket as an email or SMS text message while walking away with their purchase. Customers are charged as usual by their banks or credit card companies, and Square settles up the net funds with merchants each night instead of at the end of the month. The swiper and application are both free and include access to an online dashboard with analytics that help merchants track exactly what they’ve been selling.

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.

Rename Your Agency in One Easy Click

Lainie Turner — Tue, 10 May 2011 22:10:55 +0000

The online Advertising Age magazine has a new, fun time-waster: Agency Name Generator. With each click, a random selection and arrangement of words is presented for your delight or disbelief. You can keep trying, and there’s an option for Tweeting the names you’d like to share.

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.

Got Grit? True Grit?

Bill Zipp — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 02:59:22 +0000

True grit, as it turns out, has an official definition. Not the one given by the 1969 movie where John Wayne won his only Academy Award, or by the recent Coen brothers’ re-make. The grit young Mattie Ross found in the aging “Rooster” Cogburn was an ability to stand up to bad guys and shoot a gun. Important, maybe, in the wild, wild west, but not helpful for today’s business marketplace.

So Dr. Angela Duckworth and her research team at the University of Pennsylvania have performed an incredible service by giving us this succinct–and profoundly useful–definition. True grit is “perseverance and passion for long-term goals.” Grit is courage, not just in the moment but sustained over time, in the ongoing pursuit of challenging objectives. And, according to research, it outperforms both talent and intelligence in activities as diverse and graduating from military school and competing in the National Spelling Bee.

The team identified 17 distinct elements to the perseverance and passion for long-term goals. Some of these are predictable, like not being discouraged by roadblocks or setbacks, having a strong inner drive, and working hard. Others I found surprising, like enjoying the latest and greatest innovations and having an array of outside interests. Turns out, while these things may make you a better cocktail party guest, they distract you from achieving long-term success. How true is your grit? Go to the web site and see: Grit Survey.

The Window or the Mirror?

With due respect, however, to the researchers at the University of Pennsylvania, I would like to add one more item to the list. I’ll pose it as a question, “Where do you look when things go wrong?” I’ve found when things go wrong that people look one of two places: out the window or in the mirror.

When people look out the window, they blame external forces for things that have gone wrong. It’s the economy, the competition, your stupid boss, or your lame web site. The list is endless, but the outcome’s the same. When results don’t meet expectations, looking outside the window seeks a solution external to one’s self, yielding your power to forces you cannot control. Long-term goals languish because victims don’t climb mountains, finish marathons, or bring revolutionary products to market.

When people look in the mirror, just the opposite occurs. They discover solutions to problems that lie within their power to control. Instead of being overwhelmed with guilt, they are empowered by the steps of action they can take to change the status quo. They reach their long-term goals in spite of the roadblocks in their way because they refuse to allow external factors to become an excuse for inaction.

And here’s a very, very important final point. Looking in the mirror doesn’t mean committing intellectual suicide. Yes, the economy has been challenging and your competition may be cutthroat. You may have a stupid boss and a lame web site. So what? Stop letting external forces dictate your success and stop being a victim. Perfection never exists, so get over it. And get on with it. Grit, true grit, find the guts within oneself to get things done, in spite of any obstacle or excuse.