Design Decisions: The new Highrise signup chart - (37signals)
http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/1496-design-decisions-the-new-highrise-signup-chart

A couple weeks ago we launched the new Highrise marketing site. We’re still iterating that design post-launch, and we have a big post brewing about that design process, but today I wanted to share some of the iterations we explored for the new signup chart.

A couple weeks ago we launched the new Highrise marketing site. We’re still iterating that design post-launch, and we have a big post brewing about that design process, but today I wanted to share some of the iterations we explored for the new signup chart.

Walks through a few iterations of the Highrise conversion page, with interesting discussion illustrating some of the design decisions made.

Как и почему сделали новую версию.

なるほど便利そうだ

Sprockets is a Ruby library that preprocesses and concatenates JavaScript source files.

"Serve lots of little JavaScripts as a single file."

A pro-caching technique for presenting cachable relative times (e.g., "15 minutes ago")

I put together a new mini app for our new status site yesterday that needed exactly this technique. I wanted the content of the application to be entirely page cached, so it would withstand the onslaught if the terrible should happen and we need to redirect all trafic to the status site.

If you want it bad enough you'll make the time, regardless of your other obligations. Don't let yourself off the hook with excuses. It's entirely your responsibility to make your dreams come through.

“I’d love to start a company / become a great programmer / write an awesome blog, but there’s just not enough time in the day!” Bullshit. There’s always enough time, you’re just not spending it right.

hand drawing a UI

Simple concise flexible approach to drafting UI with pen and paper.

Kickass example of a coverletter / portfolio website. this is how these things should be done. personalized. you put your heart into it and hope you don't fail.

esse barra servirá para salvamos sites de nosso interrese. está lá em cima

be good!

He believes it’s because people are afraid if they click a link that says “Free Trial” then they’ll somehow automatically signup for something and be trapped. However, “See Plans and Pricing” encouraged them to explore, without the fear of commitment.

See Plans and Pricing

ThinkVitamin - Carsonified's blog about the web

“We don’t have 200k RSS subscribers because of my deliciously swirly hair” - a central question (asked also during the Q/A session): how on the earth did Basecamp and other 37signals products become so popular? All of a sudden, they emerged from nowhere! As David points out, it was not that ‘out of the blue’ as it looks like. When they started with Basecamp, they already had 2000 subscribers on their blog, Signal vs Noise, so they built a channel which through they could advertise themselves. This advice meshes with one of my favorite points from Getting Real which goes something like “Just start doing something”. Really. Start blogging. Creating/contributing to open source software. Get on twitter. Let your voice be heard! You probably won’t have thousands of listeners right away, that’s OK - it takes time. But you can start today!

More open source icons

Presentations, Keynotes, and Interviews with 37signals

"This pattern — “success” based on forecasted future success instead of current success — shows up all over the tech-business press. Instead of metrics like “they make more money than they spend” we see stuff like “user count growth” and “followers” and “impressions” and “friends” and “visits” qualify success. Whenever you see someone piling big numbers into made up metrics, it’s a diversion."

This pattern — “success” based on forecasted future success instead of current success — shows up all over the tech-business press. Instead of metrics like “they make more money than they spend” we see stuff like “user count growth” and “followers” and “impressions” and “friends” and “visits” qualify success. Whenever you see someone piling big numbers into made up metrics, it’s a diversion.

This pattern — “success” based on forecasted future success instead of current success — shows up all over the tech-business press. Instead of metrics like “they make more money than they spend” we see stuff like “user count growth” and “followers” and “impressions” and “friends” and “visits” qualify success.

You’ll also notice there are two arrows pointing out from “Submit email matching a user account” under the “Forgot password screen.” That’s because two different screens result from that action! Yo

save

Hilarious!

37 signals smartly mocks the new Twitter valuation and the hoopla surrounding it by valuing itself at $100 billion: http://j.mp/2yfvs [from http://twitter.com/JMaultasch/statuses/4367035641]

"you should see the spreadsheet models we’re making up. Really breakthrough stuff"

In order to increase the value of the company, 37signals has decided to stop generating revenues. “When it comes to valuation, making money is a real obstacle. Our profitability has been a real drag on our valuation,” said Mr. Fried. “Once you have profits, it’s impossible to just make stuff up. That’s why we’re switching to a ‘freeconomics’ model. We’ll give away everything for free and let the market speculate about how much money we could make if we wanted to make money. That way, the sky’s the limit!”

nice one

CHICAGO—September 24, 2009—37signals is now a $100 billion dollar company, according to a group of investors who have agreed to purchase 0.000000001% of the company in exchange for $1.

Leaders retire with $, but then get bored, then have to do something else. Should have stuck with it

As a MINT user, the only real question I had was whether I trust my data in the hands of Intuit. I have decided to take that chance until I learn something differently.

"As more great new companies are absorbed into big old companies, a whole new generation of change is lost. They can issue press releases saying how excited they are to be able to bring their product to a whole new world of customers, and how their new suitor will bring enormous resources to bear, but we know that’s usually not really what happens. Development slows, products stall, the staff that built the great stuff leaves, and mediocrity creeps in. Not always, but usually."

Discover the right Web Designer for your next project.

Find a web designer for your next project.

Sprockets is a Ruby library that preprocesses and concatenates JavaScript source files. It takes any number of source files and preprocesses them line-by-line in order to build a single concatenation. Specially formatted lines act as directives to the Sprockets preprocessor, telling it to require the contents of another file or library first or to provide a set of asset files (such as images or stylesheets) to the document root. Sprockets attempts to fulfill required dependencies by searching a set of directories called the load path.

Reading about Sprockets: http://tinyurl.com/ajv466 Looks useful. [from http://twitter.com/blueroot/statuses/1227709183]

"Sprockets is a Ruby library that preprocesses and concatenates JavaScript source files. It takes any number of source files and preprocesses them line-by-line in order to build a single concatenation."

Jason Fried hates lame meetings, tech companies that don't generate revenue, and companies that treat their employees like children. A peek inside his typical workday

37 Signals CEO/President writes about how he works

you end up dying with your customer base, because the software is too complicated for a newcomer. We keep our products simple. I'd rather have people grow out of our products, as long as more people are growing into them. We also get thousands of suggestions. The default answer is always no. We rarely have meetings. I hate them. They're a huge waste of time, and they're costly. Creative people need unstructured time to get in the zone. You can't do that in 20 minutes. Very rarely is a question important enough to stop people from doing what they're doing. Everything can wait a couple of hours, unless it is a true emergency. We want to get rid of interruption as much as we possibly can, because that's the real enemy of productivity. Everyone should read stuff on the Web that's goofy or discover something new. I

How Twitter was hacked.

Whenever we have to put in or feel that we have to put in a preference in our software, we pretty much consider that a defeat. We were not good enough. We were not good enough at coming up with a reasonable choice that most people would like most of the time.

For me a good user interface is a simple user interface. It's a user interface that doesn't try to expose or reveal too many features or preferences.

Some great quotes here.

that works is

Why break them because you want momentum – it is the fuel. In order to not let it down chunk the project into smaller and smaller bits.(less roadmap and spec) optimize for now.

how 37signals runs

Now that the dust has settled a bit, it seems that this convo at @37signals actually benefitted @getsatisfaction - http://tinyurl.com/dc6bh3 [from http://twitter.com/blueroot/statuses/1433278924]

note critiche sul get satisfaction

Improving a sign up form; case study with 'before' and 'after' designs by 37signals

Review of the new 37signals signup pages.

Shorter, friendlier, "more" secure, clearer

We’ve never had a lot of chargebacks (a chargeback is when a customer calls their credit card company to dispute a charge they don’t recognize), but last year we made a simple change that reduced our chargebacks by 30% as a percentage of sales. I can’t be certain the reduction is entirely due to this technique, but we didn’t change anything else related to how we deal with chargebacks.

008 I was thinking about how we could do a better job explaining a charge, but we were only allowed a limited number of characters on the customer’s billing statement. According to the merchant/card rules: Your company name/DBA section must be either 3, 7 or 12 characters and the product descriptor 4, 8 or 13 characters. That means we could do something like: 37signa*Basecamp 800.xxx.xxxx IL or even…

If you don’t use a product descriptor (“Basecamp” or “Backpack”), you get 22 characters. So I decided to register 37signals-charge.com, redirect it to 37signals.com/charge, write up a page explaining why there’s a charge on your card, and put that URL on people’s charge slips instead of “37signals, LLC” or “Basecamp” or “Highrise” etc.

This is an interesting one for all of those who are accepting credit card payments online via their website. Chargebacks are the worst and EAT UP your profit. They came up with an interesting way to prevent 'em.

A great little bit of online business advice - having your line item charge on customers' credit card statements read as a URL they can use to identify what they're being charged for.

David Heineimeier Hansson, the creator of Ruby on Rails and partner at 37signals in Chicago, says that planning is guessing, and for a start-up, the focus must be on today and not on tomorrow. He argues that constraints--fiscal, temporal, or otherwise--drive innovation and effective problem-solving. The most important thing, Hansson believes, is to make a dent in the universe with your company.

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1091094

a hilarious collection of attention-grabbing essay titles

I guess the conclusion is that there’s no use in preempting the technological progress of tomorrow. Machines will get faster and cheaper all the time, but you’ll still only have the same limited programming resources that you had yesterday. If you can spend them on adding stuff that users care about instead of prematurely optimizing for the future, you stand a better chance of being in business when that tomorrow finally rolls around.

From 37signals

VerkkoStadi Technologies is looking for a Hardcore PHP Developer. See more on the Job Board.

Excellent demonstration of the creative process while keeping in mind user-interaction/understanding and company branding/personality.

How stuff gets designed at Basecamp. I love the thought proces design the design: http://bit.ly/jcOUj [from http://twitter.com/charanjit/statuses/2794360472]

With its constant commotion, unnecessary meetings, and infuriating wastes of time, the modern workplace optimizes interruptions and makes us all work longer, less focused hours. Jason Fried explains how we can change all of this.

Jason Fried of 37signals sums up the problems of workplace interruptions.

Teaching as a marketing strategy

Interesting talk on some of the lessons that 37signals have learned from chefs. Specifically, how to market through teaching. I thought it was funny that I ended up watching this while making a balsamic reduction.

An aha moment for higher ed marketing professionals.

Jason Fried Founder and CEO, 37signals Fried is the founder and CEO of 37signals. Fried is a passionate leader in the field of simple, clear, and elegant web-based user interface design. He spearheaded the concept, design, and development of Basecamp, 37signal's web-based project management tool for designers, freelancers, and creative services firms. Fried is also the co-author of Defensive Design for the Web.

Guter Bericht über das Vorgehen von 37signals beim Filmen ihrer Customer-Storys. In den Comments sind ein paar der Fragen gepostet + Info über die Technik

Matt Linderman of 37Signals, 20090204.

case studies

It’s true that building a business requires plenty of time and effort. But the idea that you need to quit your job to do it right is misguided.

I don't believe in evolution.

Hanging on to your day job gives you a longer period of time to build your idea. It lets you give a sustained effort over time. There’s no get rich quick option. You build it slowly, one day at a time.

"Some have doubted our advice that you should hold on to your day job and start something on the side. They argue building a business requires such persistent effort that you need to devote all your time to it to do it right. And it’s true that building a business requires plenty of time and effort. But the idea that you need to quit your job to do it right is misguided. If you quit your job, you shift everything. You don’t gain time, you lose it. You put a shot clock on your business. You box yourself into a position where you have to profit immediately or the whole thing goes under. You’ve got to make it work now or give up forever."

Some have doubted our advice that you should hold on to your day job and start something on the side. They argue building a business requires such persistent effort that you need to devote all your time to it to do it right.

Analisi del design delle HOME PAGE si Apple, Microsoft e 37 Signals

アップルとマイクロソフトとかのサイトデザイン分析

Apple, MSのサイトデザインを分析比較

expanding your biz model --- vertical & horizontal integration

"Think hard about what you do. Look closely at everything you do. There are probably by-product opportunities everywhere. Hell, even your office space could be a by-product. You rent it to work, but what about after hours? Could you rent it out for events? Maybe you could hold stand-up comedy shows like Maryʼs Futons in San Rafael, California does. Sometimes customers return to buy the futon they were sitting on during the show. That’s extra sweet."

Very nice

Upside of software as service

The first thing I do when I want to cut out some words is not read the original version. I just write a new one.

DETTE er copywriting av høg klasse og teksttrimming med riktig fokus: Kort og handlingsorientert, dvs selgande.

“I didn't have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.” - Mark Twain An example of rewriting text to be shorter and more focused.

fun stuff

In this new landscape, people who would never think to call themselves “entrepreneurs” are out there starting businesses, selling products, and turning profits.

It’s time to get over the idea that risk and reward are so intertwined in business. And maybe we need to come up with a better term than entrepreneur to describe this new group of people out there building businesses. Any suggestions?

Couldn't Agree More!

Nearly every company relies on the written word to woo customers. So why is most business writing so numbingly banal?

One of my favorite phrases in the business world is full-service solutions provider. A quick search on Google finds at least 47,000 companies using that one. That's full-service generic. There's more. Cost effective end-to-end solutions brings you about 95,000 results. Provider of value-added services nets you more than 600,000 matches. Exactly which services are sold as not adding value? Who writes this stuff? Worse, who reads it and approves it? What does it say when tens of thousands of companies are saying the same things about themselves?

Advice on why you should launch softly.

Too bad. You don’t need a big bang – slow evolution is what you want. Unless you absolutely must “open wide,” abandon the mass introduction strategy. Instead, launch softly.

2) Writing a plan makes you feel in control of things you don’t actually control.

product

Earlier this year, I had a chance to attend SxSW. One of the highlights of my trip was a startup dinner which included Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson, the founders of 37signals. At the time, they had just come out with their new book "Rework". I had downloaded a copy to my Kindle, but hadn't had a chance to read it yet. Now I have. Twice. It's a great book. Lots of practical advice for entrepreneurs. I highly recommend it. My second time through, I decided to pull out some of my favorite parts. onstartups rework You're encouraged to share your favorite insight by using the convenient "tweet" links next to each one. 37 "Signals" From 37 Signals

Very, very smart way to get retweets back to a particular page. He excerpted chunks from "Rework" and added pre-made "Tweet" links next to it. Need to add some CTA on the page and you have a winner

hiring people

BEFORE HIRING: 1. Hire late -- alleviate pain 2. Skip over the perfect catch if we don't have any open positions 3. Operate at the limits of your organization -- get more done with fewer resources 4. Smaller team keeps you focused -- focus on things you have to do 5. Need someone? Have you already tried to do the job yourself? HIRING: 1. Ignore resumes 2. Cover letters say it all (this job or any job? who can write?) 3. Always hire the better writer 4. We look for effort (custom website) 5. Ask questions. Ask why questions. Avoid How questions. 6. Test-drive people for a week, $1,500. 7. Never let geography get in the way.

I'd like to share a bit about how we go about hiring at 37signals. Hiring is something we rarely do -- we're intentionally small at 20 people -- but we've developed a method that has worked very well for us. It allows us to find the right people and keep them happy. In 11 years, only two people have left the company -- and one recently returned after working elsewhere for seven years. (Welcome back, Scott!)

"First, we hire late. We hire after it hurts. We hire to alleviate pain, not for pleasure. Who hires for pleasure? Any company that hires people before it needs them is hiring for pleasure. I've run into a lot of companies that invent positions for great people just so they don't get away. But hiring people when you don't have real work for them is insulting to them and hurtful to you. Great people want to work on things that matter. How do you know if you really need someone? A good rule of thumb is this: Have you already tried to do the job yourself? If you haven't done the job, you don't really understand the job. Without that fundamental understanding, it's hard to judge what constitutes a job well done. What we do look at are cover letters. Cover letters say it all. They immediately tell you if someone wants this job or just any job. And cover letters make something else very clear: They tell you who can and who can't write."