Skype birthday notice
I always found the Skype birthday notifications great because they reminded me about my friends birthdays, but on the other hand also a bit confusing.
1. You receive a notification in sidebar next to username, just like a regular Skype conversation (1), which made me think that the person actually sent me a message. This may be good if you want to force user to check the message, get disappointed that it is actually a birthday notice, then find it actually helpful because you can send him best wishes and then never really buy your friend a Skype gift card. Besides the fact that I'm always against intentionally forced mind games with users I find this confusing.
2. First word I always read when I open the conversation screen is "Forgot ..." which makes me anxious. This may be good to trigger user emotional responses and decision making but I doubt the decision made here would be towards buying your friend a Skype gift card.
This is why I slightly redesigned this notice to be straightforward and engaging at the same time.
Oh and yes, I had some spare time to do this, not that I'm totally addicted to redesigning other peoples software :)
Cheers and I hope you like it!