

Put the logo below the fold: Breaking design rules for profit - hbien
http://blog.studiofellow.com/2013/03/21/put-the-logo-below-the-fold-breaking-design-rules-for-profit/

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jrochkind1
Hmm, at the moment on <http://cascade.io/>, their company logo IS at the top
(as well as bigger below the fold), it's just on the right instead of left,
and not linked.

Which seems perfectly reasonable.... but it contradicts with the OP says, it's
not actually only below the fold.

What am I missing?

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studiofellow
Thanks for bringing this up. I'm the OP. Please note my response to a similar
comment below: <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5416724>

You're right that the logo is not _only_ below the fold. There is a dimmed
version in the top right corner, but the point where I really introduce the
app is below the fold. I admit that the title is slightly inaccurate because
of that. It just made for a snappier headline.

The main point is to place the logo low on the visual hierarchy. The dimmed
logo you are referring to is not very obvious. Visitors will read the headline
before they see it.

Also note, everyone is noticing that occurrence of the logo right away because
I explicitly point out the prominence/location of the logo in the post. If you
were visiting the site without that context, you wouldn't notice the dimmed
logo.

~~~
burnblue
Then why is it there at all if you don't expect your users to notice it?

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cabinguy
We pay no attention to "rules." Our logo has been in the footer for 4 years.
Traffic is up and revenue has doubled every year to 7 figures. We don't A/B
test, so I can't attribute our growth to this, but it is a nice little
anecdote.

Edit: We have an old fashioned "Home" link at the top of the site.

~~~
dangrossman
You have your logo above the fold twice; it's at the top right of your navbar
on every page, and again just below the navbar on the homepage. You're not
really breaking any conventions aside from not including the site name in the
top logo.

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nemesis1637
The logo (of the Cascade site) is clearly above the fold in the upper right
corner.

~~~
studiofellow
(I'm the author.) You're right that a dimmed logo shows there, but it's low on
the visual hierarchy. So this still fits the goal I explain in the post: put
what customers want to know first.

~~~
gav
It's also a landing page vs. a website. I can see why it would make a
difference in this case, but it's not really general purpose advice.

Having a logo in the top left that links to the homepage is common enough that
people expect it. A good example of something that's counterintuitive is the
blog post itself; it's really not obvious without hunting for it that the text
"fellow." on the top right goes home.

~~~
studiofellow
I tried to indicate your first point in the post:

> _But for small startups like mine, ..._

> _Brand awareness doesn’t exist if your customers number in the hundreds._

I think it's clear that I'm talking about landing pages for a certain type and
size of business, and not all websites in general.

Also, thanks for the suggestion about the blog theme. I hacked that together
really quickly, and it could use some improvements.

Edit: formatting.

~~~
gav
I don't think it really matters how many customers you have. Your goal isn't
to build brand awareness at this point, it's to get the visitor to provide
their email.

It's a great example of a landing page that clearly lays out the problem and
solution. I especially like the dark on light/light on dark transitions.

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sunnybunny
This feels like an overly strong assertion based on one piece of anecdotal
data. Saying that you played with this and got good results in one case is
different than saying you've done experiments for multiple different startup
marketing pages and consistently those pages without a logo at the top perform
better.

Google is one of the most intensive A/B testers in the technology space, and
on every logged out page of Gmail and Google Drive and Google Calendar, guess
where the logo is?

Edit: I would add though that the argument around communicating the "Why" is
more important off the bat than the "who". That said, having a minimalistic
logo in the top right or left won't likely distract them for very long -
unless there's evidence of that?

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orangethirty
Re: Logo Positioning.

Depends on the product. If your logo is a trusted brand, then displaying it
front and center drives up sales. If it is unknown, then display it under the
fold.

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dncrane
_> Furthermore, rather than merely assuming I met my goals, I used analytics.
Every metric shows that my design is successful._

Does this mean that, for example, the green button was A/B tested against the
blue?

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stralep
About design: why is not your main text width limited to 50-80em?

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danso
Newspapers have played around with this on their (paper) front pages:

[http://www.newseum.org/todaysfrontpages/hr.asp?fpVname=CA_AD...](http://www.newseum.org/todaysfrontpages/hr.asp?fpVname=CA_AD&ref_pge=gal&b_pge=1)

Putting "refers"/"hot boxes" above the logo to indicate some of the more
interesting content inside.

~~~
studiofellow
That's a great example. Although unfortunately many newspaper websites are
placing ads in that location.

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coolsunglasses
Not to break up the design rebellion but the green button signup button
gradient could've been done in a more appealing manner that would've retained
the implied business goals.

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gojomo
A top-left logo, linked back to the root page, is part of the design language
of the web.

I suspect a proper A/B test, of users attempting to complete common tasks (as
per Jakob Nielsen's usability tests), would find customers slowed by the
logo's absence.

But by all means, collect the data. (I don't see data here except for an
assertion that the overall page design works. Well, maybe, but test the
specific suggestion.)

