This is Signal vs. Noise, a weblog by 37signals about entrepreneurship, design, experience, simplicity, constraints, pop culture, our products, products we like, and more. Established 1999 in Chicago.
German | Spanish | French | Italian | Japanese | Chinese | Korean

How do monarch butterflies know where to fly?

"To test their ability to reorient themselves, Dr. Taylor has moved butterflies from Kansas to Washington, D.C. If he releases them right away, he said, they take off due south, as they would have where they were. But if he keeps them for a few days in mesh cages so they can see the sun rise and set, 'they reset their compass heading,' he said. 'The question is: How?'" Alert: The migration patterns are doomed if illegal logging in Mexico doesn't stop.

CEO of Puma: Research is bad if you want to innovate

"If you want to change the industry and do something completely new and innovate, research is a bad tool because all you will get fed back is perception today and not tomorrow."

Google's biggest risk? The loss of simplicity

"Google's executives said the biggest risk to the company was the loss of the simplicity that was crucial to building the company's brand. 'One of the things that is going to have to happen is simplicity,' Mr. Brin said. 'It's one of the reasons that people gravitated to Google initially.'"

Advertising creatives are culturally impaired when it comes to working online

"For 50 years, creatives went into advertising so they could tell 30-second stories. As far as they were concerned, that was the next best thing to working in Hollywood. As a result, they're culturally impaired when it comes to creating experiences online, because a narrative like that won't work. It might work as a component of a larger whole, but it can't be the whole experience. So they have to adapt from owning the brand voice to being a little slice of it, and that's very difficult for them."

Continued…

Greg Storey writes, “Our content is all starting to look the same because of the tools used to manage it and web-two-point-dough has homogenized the Internet.”

Comments ensue:

Jim Renaud: “This is why I hate RSS. People don’t even go to my actual site anymore. I swear my next site will be PNG posts with flattened text. Suck it!”

Beerzie Grouch: “The web has become the Tower of Babel. A million speaking at once and no one listening.”

Greg: “Craft doesn’t come through filling out forms.”

The arms race between razor companies is reaching a comical level. Check out this Onion-like article on razor features from CNNmoney.com:

Gillette has escalated the razor wars yet again, unveiling a new line of razors on Wednesday with five blades and a lubricating strip on both the front and back…

The move renews an ongoing blade battle with Schick, the shaving unit of Energerizer (Research), which launched a four-blade razor, the Quattro, last year. The move ate into Gillette sales and sparked a legal battle between the two companies…

“The Schick launch has nothing to do with this, it’s like comparing a Ferrari to a Volkswagen as far as we’re concerned,” Chairman, President and Chief Executive James Kilts, told Reuters.

The Fusion will also be available in a power version and features a micro-chip that regulates the voltage and blade action. Other high-tech features include a low battery indicator light and a safety switch that shuts the razor down after eight minutes of continuous operation.

Pfft. I won’t be satisfied until my razor comes with cup holders and plays MP3s!

Actually, we were discussing shaving and blades vs. electric razors the other day (Jason is the sole electric fan, the rest of us are bladers). Some tips from a sensitive bunch:

Jason uses the Braun 8595 Activator Self-Cleaning Shaving System and says the cleaning makes all the difference. It includes an LCD display and “20 different hair-capturing opportunities.”

Ryan hated shaving until he discovered shaving cream from Lush (for sensitive faces). He says, “I used to have problems with cutting or burning and Lush eliminated those.”

I’m a big fan of shaving in the shower using a fog-free mirror. Viva steam.

I’ve got a friend who swears by PFB Bump Fighter razors for his delicate skin. It’s marketed to black guys but works for sensitive types of all shades. (I’ve heard those battery powered razors actually make a difference too, but I remain skeptical.)

I also advocate getting an old-fashioned shave at a barber shop at some point. I got the lather and straight blade treatment once and it was definitely a neat experience. (Straight blade = less razor.)

The headblade razor is supposed to be the way to go if you want the Seth Godin/Michael Jordan look. Plus, it’s pretty neat from a design (and marketing) standpoint too.

Any other shaving advice to share?

Update: There actually is an Onion story called Fuck Everything, We’re Doing Five Blades. [tx Mark]

You know what happened next? Shut up, I’m telling you what happened — the bastards went to four blades. Now we’re standing around with our cocks in our hands, selling three blades and a strip. Moisture or no, suddenly we’re the chumps. Well, fuck it. We’re going to five blades.

Netflix nails the customer experience. From site design, to emails, to packaging, to coding, the company is a champion at delivering a great experience.

Interactive emails
For one thing, Netflix emails are surprisingly effective. They actually get you to interact. Take this “when was it mailed?” email received from the site:

This is the sort of thing I normally wouldn’t respond to. But Netflix makes it so damn easy. One click and that’s it. No need to figure out anything in the browser window. No middle man. It’s just click and be done. Steve Krug would be proud.

Same thing goes for the company’s emails soliciting reviews. I never review things online. Except at Netflix. And that’s because it’s a no-brainer. An email shows up each time I return a movie. Just one click and it’s rated.

These empowered emails may seem like a small thing but it’s a sign of the way Netflix works.

$1 million prize
Recently, Netflix announced a $1 million prize to anyone who can come up with a new movie recommendation system that is at least 10 percent more accurate than its current one.

Netflix execs say the idea of outsourcing to the masses came up because in-house innovation had slowed down. “If we knew how to do it, we’d have already done it,” said CEO Reed Hastings. “And we’re pretty darn good at this now. We’ve been doing it a long time.”

Even if it is just a stunt — 10% would be a huge bump — it’s a smart move. If someone meets the challenge, then Netflix will reap the benefits. And if the prize goes unclaimed, the mountain of press it’s garnered makes it an effective PR move.

Rating movies
Neftlix has a history of trying innovative techniques. The site was a pioneer at bringing Ajax to the masses (via the site’s movie rating system).

In fact, someone mentioned to me the other day that “it’s actually kind of fun” to go through a batch of movies and zap them with ratings. No wonder the company now has over 345 million movie ratings. The site’s recommendation engine is crucial to the company’s successy so that collection of ratings is an extremely valuable resource. Plus, it gives them a nice leg up over competitors.

Add a movie flow
The flow of adding a movie is also well done. It’s one click to add a movie to your queue and that’s it. Then, if you want to move it to the top you can do that easily too. It’s a simple process that’s impossible to mess up.

Too bad the site killed the drag-and-drop mini-queue though. It was an easy way to reorder your top 10. (And from a UI perspective, it had a nice affordance clue that explained how to use it.)

Continued…

Some of the activity this week at our internal 37signals Campfire chat room:

Telecommuting
Mark noted the lack of offsite work possibilities on the job board and commented, “I’m continually surprised that more companies aren’t willing to consider telecommuters, especially on the job board. My feeling is that you can’t trust the person you’re hiring to get the job done without being under your thumb, you’re probably not hiring the right person.”

“The quality of a speaker is inversly proportional to the number of slides they have”
Marcel went to Edward Tufte’s one-day course…

Polaroid
At a recent photoshoot, Jason was impressed with the photographer’s Polaroid 690 which folds up flat. “So damn cool. Has SONAR auto focus. Takes razor sharp shots too. Really impressive. They don’t make them anymore, but you can find them on eBay sometimes for about $400 or so.”

New health care
We’re implementing a new health care program.

Jamis noted some weird terms in the documentation…

And check out this confusing information display used to show pricing:

Er, what?

Continued…

Tony Bennett was on the Tavis Smiley show recently (transcript) and offered this anecdote about how he learned to sing:

Bennett: Mimi Speer on 52nd Street taught me popular music and taught me to imitate musicians rather than other singers so I wouldn’t sound like somebody else and be one of the chorus of some famous star. She said, “You listen to the musicians on 52nd Street and pick [it] out.” I liked Art Tatum on piano and then Stan Getz. He had a beautiful honey sound. And Lester Young. Those three artists really gave me my start.

Tavis: Your teacher taught you to imitate musicians and not artists.

Bennett: Right.

Tavis: What’s the distinction? What’s the difference?

Bennett: Well, the singers — you know, Frank Sinatra was the rage in those days and his big competition was a guy called Dick Haynes and then there was Billy Eckstine. They were so popular that she said, “If you just sing like they do and imitate their voices, you’re going to sound like one of the chorus because everybody’s doing that”. She said, “To be an individual, listen to musicians and listen to what they’re doing and imitate musicians rather than the singers.” It was a very creative teacher that told me what to do about just being myself.

It’s a great story and relevant to anyone who works (or plays) in a creative field. It’s always a challenge to sound like an individual instead of a member of the chorus.

Look at web design these days: Gradients, bursts, big type, rounded corners, pastel colors, and reflections rule the roost. This slavish adherence to Web 2.0 design trends by the “chorus” is resulting in a big snoozefest.

(Note: Web designers aren’t the only guilty ones here either. Print designers leaf through design annuals for ideas, bands copy the hot sound on the radio, writers parrot whatever’s charting on the bestseller list, etc. There are “lookalikes” everywhere.)

Now it’s not like all outside inspiration is evil. Everyone’s influenced. If you believe Oscar Wilde, “Talent borrows, genius steals.” The problem is that when everyone is turning to the same places for influence, things get stale. We wind up drowning in a sea of me-toos.

Here are some ideas for where to find fresh inspiration:

Look to the past
Looking to the past is a great way to get outside the current zeitgeist. Not sure where to start? Trace a path backwards. Find out who influences peers that you admire. If you like Jim Coudal’s designs, then check out Joseph Muller-Brockmann. If you admire Jonathan Ive, then check out Dieter Rams. Or, to give a musical example, if you like the way Jack White plays guitar then check out Jimmy Page. Then once you soak that up, check out Link Wray, a big influence on Page. The more you dig, the more likely you are to find fresh soil.

Continued…

One of the reasons we launched the Job Board was to create an exclusive, high-value place to post and look for design, programming, and related jobs. We believe the 37signals Job Board should list the top jobs in the business for the top job seekers in the business.

We felt about 100 listings at a time would be the sweet spot. Enough to provide choice to those looking for a job. Not too many to dilute the listings like so many huge job boards do. When your post is 1 of 100 you feel pretty good about having it seen by the target. When your post is 1 of 500 or 1 of 1000 you start to feel like you’re wasting your money. We don’t want anyone to feel like that.

Even though there’s more competition in the job board space as of late, traffic and postings to our Job Board have been increasing significantly. As of right now there are 142 jobs listed on our Job Board. We think that’s starting to push the limit of what we’re comfortable with. We want less jobs.

So, it’s time to raise the price and try and bring the number of listings back in line with our sweet spot of “the top 100.” Starting now, Job Board posts will be $300 for 30 days (it used to be $250). If we need to raise or lower the price again in the future we will.

We’d like to leave you with an email we received yesterday from a satisfied Job Board customer:

We advertised our latest job posting far and wide, then bought 4 paid listings; Fog Creek Software, 37signals Job Board, Craigslist and Techcrunch. We received over 120 applications, but in the end 2 out of the 3 finalists (and the person we ultimately hired) found us on the 37signals Job Board. Thanks guys, this thing really works!

That was from Aaron Dragushan of Wondermill Webworks Inc. Thanks Aaron! We wish everyone the same success.

The Morning News

The Morning News redesigns.

Original Signal

“Original Signal aggregates the 15 most popular Web 2.0 sites. The main purpose of the site is to provide a quick glance on what’s happening without using your desktop/web RSS reader.”

Wize

“Wize Rank takes the collective wisdom of more than 750,000 reviews of nearly 20,000 products and distills them into a single, simple number that’s easy to understand.” Nice to see a shopping comparison site with big product shots instead of itty bitty thumbnails.

Got an interesting screenshot for Signal vs. Noise? Send the image and/or URL to svn [at] 37signals [dot] com.

This blog isn’t the only way we stay in touch with our customers, potential customers, lurkers, spectators, lovers, and haters — we also have a mailing list (powered by Campaign Monitor — one of our favorite apps run by some of our favorite people down under).

We use the mailing list to send infrequent emails about what we’ve been up to, what we’ve just launched, and what’s coming up next. We also recap blog posts and share anything else we think is worth sharing. On average we may send just one email a month so you don’t have to worry about us filling up your inbox (or your trash).

Over 12,000 people have signed up so far. If you aren’t signed up you can do so by filling out the form below.

Thanks.

Omakase is the Japanese word meaning “entrust” or “protect,” according to Wikipedia. It is usually used at sushi bars and means the customer gives the chef authority to prepare whatever the chef wants at a price set by the chef.

Ordering omakase can be a gamble, however the customer typically receives the highest quality fish the restaurant currently has in stock at a price cheaper than if it was ordered a la carte.

The customer puts faith in an expert to make the right decision — freedom of choice is traded for optimization. Ties in with our talk of avoiding preferences (see Getting Real). Sometimes by removing choices from customers you’re doing them a favor. You’re declaring yourself an expert who will serve them the right “fish.”

Omakase and simplicity
John Maeda also talks about Omakase in The Laws Of Simplicity:

Perhaps the omakase course is a form of subjection to culinary sadism — a gastronomic deviance that faces extinction in a progressively risk averse world. A sushi Master does not acknowledge risk; he has no fear. He has earned the trust of his customer, or else will fight literally with his bare hand to earn it when given the opportunity. Simplicity is achieved through the heroism of the trusted Master because in his sushi, we trust.

Amazon’s Omakase Links
And Amazon is now offering Omakase Links — Dave Taylor review, FAQ at Amazon (associate login required) — which “automatically display the products and content that visitors to the page are most likely to buy.” Omakase is designed to compete with Google’s AdSense program by using the built-in advantage of Amazon purchasing and browsing history.

After a short learning period, the ads will be optimized based on what the Associate has been successful with in the past; what that user has been interested in; and what the site is about.

The longer the project the greater the chance you’ll look at something great and say “ugh, this sucks… I’m sick of this already.” Been there? We have.

It’s a challenge to remember that what may be old and tired to you will actually be brand new to the outside world when you finally release your product.

One technique we’ve been using is to stay away from screens we’re really happy with. Just put them away. Check ‘em out again just a bit before launch. That way there’s no time to get sick of them. No time to change something that doesn’t need change.

Remember, there’s always time for change later. Premature change can be a problem. Once you’re really happy with something just stay away from it. Shift your focus to other things that need your attention.

From a design/experience perspective, casinos are fascinating places:

1) There are no windows. Gamblers have no idea whether it’s light or dark or sunny or rainy outside.

2) There are no clocks. Dealers are forbidden from wearing watches. Time becomes meaningless.

3) There’s intentionally poor navigation. They are built like mazes meaning it’s usually tough to find a way out.

4) There’s a constant barrage of noises. Slot machines spin, games ding and dong, coins hit metal, there’s the pitter patter of the people running the games, etc. Many of these sounds, like the ringing of the slots, is there to give you a false sense of hope (“If all of those bells are ringing, somebody must be winning!”).

5) Loose slot machines — ones that pay out more often — are placed near highly trafficked areas (e.g. the aisles, change booth, restaurants, etc.) so more people witness winners.

6) There’s constant research on all aspects of the sensory experience: scents, colors, interior design, and the angles of lights (e.g. light that hits people’s foreheads is a no-no because it apparently drains gamblers of energy).

7) The attire (or lack thereof) of everyone who works there contributes to the atmosphere (e.g. dealers in uniforms, pit bosses in suits, servers in skimpy outfits, etc.)

8) Free booze is delivered to gamblers without them having to get up.

9) It’s not a passive experience. Gamblers are made to feel like they influence the process. And when a gambler feels they can affect the outcome — by throwing the die, choosing a roulette number, or deciding when to split at blackjack — a feeling of control develops that keeps them gambling longer.

10) There’s a constant rhythm. Everything happens at regular intervals. Dice are rolled. Cards are dealt. Wheels are spun. Bets are placed. And then it happens again. (Interesting note: Casinos have slowly phased out deck shuffling by installing automatic shufflers. Gamblers used to get a break while dealers reshuffled. Now it’s a constant flow of cards which increases the number of hands per hour — and that means more money for the house.)

11) There are players cards which get frequent gamblers free nights, food, and room upgrades.

12) There’s a palpable energy in the room. Money’s on the line. It’s a big night out. People are paying attention. Everyone’s engaged.

13) Some say casinos are pumped full of oxygen so gamblers feel more awake and energetic. (Others say this is just a myth that, if true, would result in a tremendous fire hazard.)

14) The funnel pours one way. There are thousands of places to hand over money to the casino. Every craps table, blackjack table, roulette wheel, and slot machine will take your cash. Yet there’s only one place to get paid out in bills: the cashier window. And to get there, you’ve got to pass all those other places that want to take your money.

The result: a completely immersive and compelling customer experience. It’s no wonder some people don’t know when to stop.

Linus Torvalds hates committees and meetings:

I don’t think committees ever make any sense at all, and I hate meetings. I have a belief that committees tend to get formed when you want to avoid responsibility, and particularly when you know what you want to get and you want to be able to say it was ‘consensus.’ I work over email, and I do so for a reason.

How Google runs meetings talks about the meeting timer Google uses:

To add a little pressure to keep meetings focused, Google gatherings often feature a giant timer on the wall, counting down the minutes left for a particular meeting or topic.

And Bill Ford tried to cut meetings at Ford before departing:

Ford stressed that meetings weren’t seen-and-be-seen affairs or a continuation of ‘that’s the way we’ve always done it;’ rather, meetings have to have a strong bearing on turning the company around and getting the job done. The goal is to get folks at lower levels within the organization to make decisions on their own.

(tx Nick, Spike, Eddie for pointers)

Related: Meetings are Toxic (PDF) from Getting Real

The Gig Board is live. It joins the Job Board as a great place to find talent.

Use Gigs to find contractors, freelancers, and consultants to help you with your projects. $100 for 3 weeks.

Use Jobs to find the perfect full-time designer, programmer, copywriter, or exec for your company. $250 for 30 days.

(tx Jon)

“Start each day with a stand-up meeting” is one of the rules of Extreme Programming.

Communication among the entire team is the purpose of the stand up meeting. A stand up meeting every morning is used to communicate problems, solutions, and promote team focus. Everyone stands up in a circle to avoid long discussions.

Since we A) avoid meetings and B) don’t work from the same office, we’ve come up with a digital riff on these meetings. In the morning, when we log in to Campfire, we each do an [IN] post that reveals our plan for the day. It’s just a few lines or maybe a paragraph.

(Marcel likes to chime in with occasional fashion advice: “[IN] pinstripes and earth tones.”)

Then, at the end of the day, we write up an [OUT] too.

It’s a lightweight method of making sure we all know what’s going on around the horn. And Campfire’s transcript and search options help make it easy to keep track even if you’ve been away from the room.

Homer Simpson and featuritis

"Homer finds out he has a half-brother, Herb Powell, who owns a car company. His brother asks him to build a car for the average man. Homer orders the design team to include three horns that play 'La Cucaracha', shag carpeting, bubble domes, extremely large cupholders, and a separate compartment with restraints and muzzles for the children. The resulting vehicle, The Homer, is absurd and way too expensive ($82,000) for the average man to afford. The spectacular failure runs Powell into the ground, forcing him to sell his company, declare bankruptcy, and live on the street." [via KR]

Greg Storey: Is crowdsourcing really the best way to pick SXSW panels?

"I'm a tad disappointed that SXSW panel submission process has been left to crowdsourcing (unless I completely missed something). Leaving it up to the masses to choose a recording artist is a brilliant business scheme and a great victory for capitalism. But in the history of human civilization mobthink doesn't have an impressive track record: the masses re-elected Bush to a second term, nailed Jesus to a cross, and wore bell-bottom pants."

Fast Company: 2006 Masters of Design

"Here's our annual roundup of the creative businesspeople dialing in to the power of design...You'll also meet five talents on the fast track to bigger things, hear sage advice on what design can (and can't) do for your bottom line, and get an eyeful of some amazing examples of the craft."

Six Word Stories

"Ernest Hemingway was once prodded to compose a complete story in six words. His answer, personally felt to be his best prose ever, was 'For sale: baby shoes, never used.'"

David Cross is a BIG Jim Belushi fan

"He's one of those guys that any real man can't help but idolize. He's living the life. He does it - he's pure. Whenever you see a guy in a commercial high-fiving with a beer in his hand, watching the sports game - that's like a fake version of Jim Belushi. He's the real deal. He's the shit. That guy is reinventing music; he's reinventing comedy; he's an angel; he's one of the nicest, most magnanimous people you'll ever meet; extremely pleasant to be around; very giving; very warm; intellectually original and creative and inspiring. I just try to give him a shout out whenever I can." Related: A video of Cross dancing on stage with Belushi's band before getting booted off by Belushi.

Continued…

Microsoft Business Solutions CRM

Part of a Microsoft Business Solutions CRM screen (full screen) that uses the word “report” 31 times. (tx Scott)

FontLab

A magic 8-ball error message (experienced by Jordan while importing a font into FontLab).

Jeteye

Jeteye verification screen. Hmmm…if you type it, does that mean you are one?

By very popular demand we introduced two new Basecamp features last week.

FILE VERSIONING If you have a paid Basecamp account you can upload multiple versions of the same file and keep them grouped together on the Files tab. This is how it looks:

To upload a new version of an existing file just click the “Upload a new version” link below the latest version (the one at the top with the big icon). When you upload a new version the newest version will appear at the top with a large icon and the previous versions will be listed below with small icons.

If you upload a new version with the exact same name (as displayed above in the example) we will append the actual file name with an extra character so you don’t overwrite the original file.

Note: This only works on the Files tab. Files attached to messages and comments do not work with the versioning system. We are still working on that and plan to address it in a future release.

LUMP SUM PAYMENTS A lot of people have been asking us to pay in one lump sum instead of every month. They explained lump sum payments would really simplify their billing and allow Basecamp to get buy-in at their company, organization, or institution. Many government agencies and universities have been clamoring for this. We’ve answered the call!

If you have a paid Basecamp account your account owner can log in, click the account tab, scroll down to right under the account chart, and see the “Prefer to pay in one lump sum instead of monthly?” section.

Clicking the link in that section will allow you to make a deposit of $50, $100, $250, $500, $1000, etc. into your account. We’ll then pull from that credit instead of charging your card every month. We’ll email you when your balance runs low.

You’ll receive an email invoice for the lump sum payment. We’ll also send you an email invoice every month showing you that your monthly payment has been debited from your lump sum balance.

Note: Lump sum payments are non-refundable. If you cancel your account before the credit is zero the balance will not be refunded. No exceptions will be made.

Thanks for everyone’s continued support. We have more planned soon.

People like scary movies. And roller coasters. We like to be afraid. We get off on it. It’s one of those primal emotions that titillates us and gets our blood flowing.

Fear clouds our judgement though. Our fear radars tune in to things that have a slim-to-none chance of ever happening. In fact, what we fear is often quite different than what’s actually threatening us.

Terror, disease, and sharks
Look at the widespread fear over terrorism. Politicians and newspapers know fear gets votes and sells papers. But when you read something like “Don’t Be Terrorized,” you realize the level of fear is way out of proportion to the actual danger. Your risk of dying in a plausible terrorist attack is actually much lower than your risk of dying in a car accident, by walking across the street, by drowning, in a fire, by falling, or by being murdered. But CNN and Fox realize viewers want to hear about suitcase bombs, not seat belts, so that’s what we get.

Or look at the anxiety surrounding unusual diseases that come along: bird flu, anthrax, smallpox, West Nile virus, SARS, etc. Scary! But the fear just doesn’t match the risk (see “Alive and well: The fear epidemic”). We would be far better off focusing on greater threats like AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria. But those diseases don’t tweak our fear radars the same way. Been there, done that.

And don’t even get me started on shark attacks.

Scaling and mental stiffies
Fear is part of business and technology too. I was reminded of this when reading Chris Petrilli’s views on scaleability. His argument: You aren't Google so don't worry about fantasy scaling issues.

“You are not going to become that popular, so don’t sweat it. You can sweat it if you get that level of success…You have to be able to move fast enough to get to the position of popularity, unless you truly have a one-of-a-kind idea, for that sort of success. Seriously, this argument is built on the mental masturbation of ‘what if I was Google?’ But you aren’t, so just stop. Quit sweating the problems that give you a mental stiffy, and work on the problems that are truly hard: ease-of-use, process, transparency, discoverability and the whole use experience.”

There are certain problems that give us, as Chris puts it, a mental stiffy. “Will it scale?” is one of those problems. It’s a shark attack fear. “It’s possible my site could be the next MySpace. It could happen, right?!”

Well, yeah, it’s possible. But not likely. Very not likely.

We gave a similar view in “Scale Later” (PDF), an essay in Getting Real:

The truth is the overwhelming majority of web apps are never going to reach that stage. And even if you do start to get overloaded it’s usually not an all-or-nothing issue. You’ll have time to adjust and respond to the problem. Plus, you’ll have more real-world data and benchmarks after you launch which you can use to figure out the areas that need to be addressed.

Allocate your fear properly
When it comes to building a web app, some things create more fear than they should…

Continued…

(from xkcd.com)

Some of the activity this week at our internal 37signals Campfire chat room:

Scannable dates
Socialtext just did a UI overhaul where the dates are listed in this format: 2006-09-19.

Ryan objects because scanning is tough. He argued it ought to be “Sep 19” instead. Jamis countered, “Interesting, I actually find “2006-09-19” more scannable than “Sep 19.” Ryan: “Ah, maybe it’s a programmer mind :)…When i try to read that line as a whole, name and date together, it’s a big jump from reading a name to parsing a bunch of numbers.”

On the other hand, Ryan really digs this image at the ST site:

Boom!
Steve goes, “Boom!”

Mark: “It’s all in the inflection.” Ryan: “Whup!” Matt: “That’d be a great Apple commercial.”

Specific spam
David noted the precise amount of money, down to the cent, he “won” according to an email he received:

Paper vs. Screen
Jason went to Technology Review’s Emerging Technologies Conference at MIT: “I went to this reception at the MIT Museum tonight. Dang, very very cool stuff. Amazing how much important stuff comes/came out of MIT…fascinating…got in a great debate about paper vs. screen and I totally sided with paper…which caused all the techies to freak out.”

Mousepose
Ryan pointed out the new version of Mousepose visualizes your keystrokes.

Jamis: “That’s slick.” David: “Very nice.”

Good vs. bad jargon
Jamis’ response to a draft version of Buzzwords say all the wrong things resulted in some changes. The original version attacked jargon which Jamis defended in some cases: “I do think there are people that try to hide behind jargon, but jargon is also a valuable tool for reducing the bandwidth of communication. When Marcel and I talk about Ruby and programming, for instance, we can use terms that non-programmers wouldn’t necessarily ‘get’, but it allows us to talk about things at a higher level. For example, talking about ‘meta programming’ and ‘accessors’ and stuff. It’s jargon but it lets us share ideas more rapidly. Even Einstein spoke in jargon. He had to, in order to communicate his theories with other scientists. You can’t describe the nuances of relativity in baby talk. The problem is the abuse of jargon, not jargon itself.”

In response, the post specified buzzwords and the bad kind of jargon (in this definition, #5 “language that is characterized by uncommon or pretentious vocabulary and convoluted syntax and is often vague in meaning.”) instead of the good kind (#1 “the language, esp. the vocabulary, peculiar to a particular trade, profession, or group.”).

Continued…

The Backpack calendar is getting an API. There is more to come, but for now we've started with a simple initial release that exposes three bits of functionality. You can now:

• list all calendars for an account
• add events to a calendar
• fetch a specific event

The documentation for the API can be found at http://backpackit.com/api/calendar. You can play around with the API easily from the command line using a tool like curl.

Listing all your calendars, for example, is as easy as:

curl -H 'X-BP-Token: abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789' \ 
http://your-account.backpackit.com/calendars.xml

Adding a new event to a calendar just requires you specify a calendar_id and a title for the event:

curl -H 'X-BP-Token: abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789' \ 
-d '<request><event>
       <calendar_id>5</calendar_id><title>10/31 Eat candy!</title>
     </event></request>' \
http://your-account.backpackit.com/calendar_events.xml

You can check the documentation for more details. It will tell you what HTTP request method you'll need to use, what paths to make the requests to, and what data, if any, is required.

As usual, we've supplied a simple Ruby client library that uses the API to help you get your feet wet.

It's always neat to see what cool things people build with our APIs. We're looking forward to what comes out of the calendar's. Enjoy!

Crazyegg is a neat tool that gives you a clear picture of where visitors are clicking on your site. We’ve been using it to track traffic on our sites and we’ve been really impressed with it. It’s dead simple, beautifully executed, and damn useful (plus it’s built on Rails).

Part of the cool concept here is that you can set up A-B tests. Spec how long, or how many clicks, you want to test one version (e.g. test a home page layout for 5000 clicks or 2 weeks) and then make changes and test the new version to see how the results differ.

Of course this is all info that has always been available in the logs. But the quick, clear UI takes this data out of the shadows and brings it into the light.

Heatmaps
There are a few options for how to look at your data but we’ve been digging the heatmaps. Here’s a look at a heatmap of the Basecamp site…

Click for larger version

…and one for the Backpack site.

Click for larger version

Since the login link at Backpack got so much love we placed a yellow background behind it to call it out more. We also added a log in link to the Basecamp site too:

(There was no login link there before because it’s a trickier issue at Basecamp — customers need to login in at their private Basecamp URL. The link we added actually connects to an FAQ that explains how this works.) We’ll be keeping an eye on the sites using this method as we continue to tweak them.

Blank slate
The crazyegg blank slate that gets you started is quite nice too:

Click for larger version

1-2-3 steps explain how to get started and there are helpful boxes that explain “What should I test for?” and “What do the results tell me?”

Public to private
And yet one more nice touch at crazyegg.com: The public site becomes the private site. If you are logged into your account and you go back to the crazyegg.com site, you are still logged in — and the signup page becomes the upgrade page. Going to the sales site to manage your account is an intuitive path for a lot customers so it’s a slick move.

“The movement for simpler electronics is still alive and well; after all, life is complex enough already,” according to David Pogue’s Simplicity Derby for cellphones.

Software Simplicity Score

To judge each phone’s UI, he created a Software Simplicity Score which counts the number of taps needed to 1) turn off the ringer 2) open the phone book 3) open the recent calls list and 4) see your own phone number.

(Is this is the best way to test a phone’s simplicity and/or usability? As Steve Krug explains, it’s not necessarily the number of clicks that matters, it’s how much thought each click requires that matters. Still, it’s nice to have some metric for comparing relative simplicity.)

The winner of the tap test was the LG Electronics VX3400 (Verizon). Ringer off: 1 step. Phone book: 1. Recent Calls: 1. See your own number: 4. Speakerphone: 1. The Motorola C139 (Cingular), on the other hand, requires 7 (!) steps to turn off the ringer.

Interesting phone features

Other noteworthy items: The Motorola V195 (T-Mobile, pictured at right) has a neat button layout…if you only dial numbers with 2s, 5s, and 8s — those keys are almost twice as big as the other keys. Wtf? On the bright side for T-Mobilers, Pogue points out the coverage maps at the company’s site shows the reception at individual street addresses, not just vague blobs of the country like you get at competitor sites.

The Samsung A420 (Sprint) turns on with a quick tap, instead of a long press, of the Power button. (Pogue asks: “What’s the point of the press-and-hold requirement on a flip phone, anyway? It can’t get turned on accidentally in your pocket.”)

The Jitterbug

Most interesting though is the Jitterbug phone (pictured below), available from greatcall.com. It’s billed as “a totally new cellphone experience.” (I refuse to include the exclamation point. I’m opposed to exclamation point inflation.) “Jitterbug is designed to be the best telephone a cell phone can be. Nothing more. Nothing less.”

Interesting backstory at the company too: Its first product was an SOS phone for seniors. It was an oversized, three-button phone powered by a AAA battery that could connect a customer with 911, a towing service, or an SOS operator who would place calls for customers. “We gained 25,000 wonderful and loyal customers and we learned a lot about what they liked and didn’t like about wireless service,” says Arlene Harris, now CEO of GreatCall. (Btw, don’t miss this adorable photo of the company founders. Wilford Brimley has gotta be just off camera cooking up some soup.)

The Jitterbug is also made for an older crowd. Or, as they put it, “the ever-growing baby boomer/mature market, those who want a simplified cellphone experience.” Old people aren’t the only ones who want a simple phone but, hey, gotta start somewhere.

What’s different about it? It’s big — “so big that when you’re on a call, the earpiece and mouthpiece are right next to the proper orifices of your head.”

The phone also has huge illuminated buttons, gigantic type on the screen, a dedicated on/off key, Yes/No buttons, the number printed on a sticker underneath the screen, and, when you open it, you hear — get this — a dial tone. Remember those?

As for the UI, there’s no branching menu system. When you open the phone, the screen says: “Voice Dial?” If you press the Yes key, you can say “Call Jeff” to place the call. If you press No, you can scroll through the phone book and hit Yes to dial.

The phone does not have a calculator, games, text messaging, Internet, headset jack, speakerphone, on-screen status icons, or a carrier logo.

Obviously this phone is not for everyone (no text messaging ain’t gonna fly for most people I know and a headset jack is something I could never live without). But kudos to Jitterbug for going in a different, less direction. I’m sure there is a huge market of people who are dying — er, maybe that’s not the best way to put it — people who are excited for a phone that lets them make calls easily and then gets out of the way.