Last summer I was driving back to Chicago from Wisconsin. On the Illinois side there are a couple of rest stops over the tollway. It’s a great place to get some gas, grab some caffeine, and stretch your legs a little before the final 50 miles home.
The rest stop usually has a booth where you can buy a iPass so you don’t need to stop and pay tolls all the time. During the day the booth is manned by someone to help answer any questions you have.
It appears that a lot of the same questions are asked over and over. Enough, in fact, that the dude who answers them is sick of giving the same answer. That answer is “Yes”.
So he jumped on a computer somewhere and put together what I can only describe as one of the smartest formats for an FAQ I’ve ever seen. A single answer on top, and all the questions below. The answer is always YES!! YES, YES. YES!! Then he taped it to the outside of the booth. You can’t miss it.
I thought this was brilliant. I just love it. Yeah, it’s full of passive aggression and spelling errors and formatting problems, but the idea in itself is so refreshing. It’s folk information art.
Inspired by this, we whipped up our own version of a YES! page for Highrise. It was a fun exercise in messaging and design.
Jason Fried wrote this on Mar 03 2011 There are 56 comments.
Mac 03 Mar 11
That’s great, simple and effective. It’s also great that you have a photo of the original.
Dave Rau 03 Mar 11
Very nice concept; good execution except that masking tape file looks borrowed from istock.
Nice eye for inspiration Jason!
Scott 03 Mar 11
Clever clever. Kinda cheesy with the “Will I love Highrise?” at the bottom of the list, but I get it. :)
JF 03 Mar 11
Mac: My first instinct was “I must get a photo of this – it’s so good!”
Nate Berkopec 03 Mar 11
Funny…usually I like 37signals product because the answer is “NO!”
You don’t get simplicity from saying “YES” to everything.
Steve Ottenad 03 Mar 11
Very entertaining concept! However, as anything beyond a funny piece of “Folk Information Art”, it doesn’t have much of a place. I found myself hating the person that wrote it, and it seems to frustrate me more than skimming a normal list of FAQ ’s.
Mel Hogan 03 Mar 11
love it and stealing it.
Jason Klug 03 Mar 11
Not sure if this was intended or just a pleasant side-effect of having this page, but you’ll probably see this page at or near the top of search results for most of the questions.
Raymond T Hightower 03 Mar 11
Very positive, upbeat, and effective. I read somewhere that good artists copy, but great artists steal!
Now, pardon me while I snatch this idea for some of my projects :-)
Scott 03 Mar 11
Very clever concept.
What’s funnier, soon, I am sure I will come across a multitude of Yes! FAQ copycats.
Wait, I have an FAQ page that needs updating. hmm…
Bill Horsman 03 Mar 11
I think it would be a nice gesture to reformat it, correct it, add a nice, red “yes” stamp and mail it off to the iPass booth. I like the idea of the booth dude opening an envelope with a better version of his list inside.
I’m often tempted to redo stuff like that. But never do…
Matthew Sanders 03 Mar 11
Very clever –and yours is complete without the spelling/grammatical errors.
Dave Rau 03 Mar 11
@Bill what a brilliant idea as a hat-tip to the originator! Returning the favor of being inspired by improving the original.
@JF paying it forward and redesigning their original would be an interesting exercise — even just to see the response.
JF 03 Mar 11
Dave: I actually think the original is the best design (save for the spelling and grammatical errors).
Eric Anderson 03 Mar 11
Always nice to take inspiration from unusual sources. That will ensure a fresh design.
Chris 03 Mar 11
Brilliant concept. You should thank the Toll-Booth officer when you see him next time maybe a small award. Another option is use an “Yes” Flashlight Sign when somebody asks the same question again and again.
Joe 03 Mar 11
Now you can make this list into one of those “Single Serving Sites”, where a visitor clicks refresh, or clicks a big button, and they get another question where the answer is “Yes!”.
JG 03 Mar 11
Dave Rau had it right—you guys don’t pay for your stock photos?
JD 03 Mar 11
JG, why do you assume we don’t pay for stock photos? Yes, I paid for them.
Jeff 03 Mar 11
I think they’re making that assumption because the masking tape still has remnants of the iStock watermark on it.
Dan Voell 04 Mar 11
Nice catch Jason, I probably would not have looked past the spelling errors or passive aggressive stance taken by the ipass employee. Also, you should come back to Wisconsin more often.
Jeff Daley 04 Mar 11
The spelling and grammatical errors are the best part. So charming!
Also, I love how you typed I-PASS as iPass. Steve Jobs would be proud!
—
Good catch, JG
Étienne 04 Mar 11
Personally, I would add links to the appropriate help documents, especially since they’re quite complete.
For example, having never used Highrise and while looking for an example for the first item, I just saw how importing was designed (step 2) and it seems rather slick. It might be a small step towards becoming a client of Highrise for me. ;)
Finallystarting 04 Mar 11
It’s amazing how the simplest of ideas are often the most effective. One to steal…
Joran Greef 04 Mar 11
There’s something not right about the “Yes” sloping downwards.
eric 04 Mar 11
Jason, did you A/B test the old & news FAQ page? what’s best in terms of simplicity isn’t always best for the actual user.
Calin 04 Mar 11
The idea is ok and opens up ways to be funny.
Maybe because I am tired or English is not my native language, but I do not see any spelling mistakes, except the I pass thing which could be confusing at the beginning.
Andy Cavallini 04 Mar 11
YES ! Effective ? Annoying ?
Gary Bury 04 Mar 11
I think we’re about to see a whole raft of “YES” pages appearing over the internet in the next few months.
Are you going to link to it from the product pages or is this a stand alone page?
Jack 04 Mar 11
I wonder
- if there’s scope for a partner No list? - if sub-groups would prevent one having to scan all of it, e.g. Email, Contacts? But that might be missing the original point :)
Wilman Arambillete 04 Mar 11
Interesting how ideas are there, everywhere and it is only a matter of looking around and find them.
Nice, simple but useful post.
aribeo 04 Mar 11
I think the action button would work better in the bottom of the page, replacing the last “YES” badge. Its just my opinion, because everyone will scroll down, so there is no purpose for a fixed button that comes from the top and then disappear… its completely distractive.
Loved the idea and the design, i´m not used to see you guys using textures and retro style in your designs but it works great, thanks for sharing!
Beerzie 04 Mar 11
Smart!
ju 04 Mar 11
I do not think it’s so obvious. I “read” the image (before the explanation) and I did not understand directly the “Yes” was referring to the list. Moreover, in the “Highrise Yes” is written: ‘the answer is … yes’ in the introduction to disambiguate.
In context, I think we can simplify. As the fag (in context) is less important than the “yes” we can condense the list in the introduction and finish with a big “yes ”.
Can i FAQ1, FAQ2 , FAQ3, FAQ4 … </ small> Yes ;-)</ big>
Evrything in less than 800 pxH (or one paper page!) The smiley is for a “yes” less aggressive. :-)
GregT 04 Mar 11
The rest stop one reads like a quick way to get a bunch of useful information. The 37S one reads like typical one-sided ‘our product does everything’ marketing bullshit. It’s way too long and includes a lot of duplication.
Matt D 04 Mar 11
I was curious if it was possible to fix the scrolling “invitation_to_signup” link. It seems to have issues when it starts to get close to the bottom of the page. I’m not a super code junkie, but from what I can tell when the image gets close to the bottom of the window it gets switched from fixed to absolute positioning. Would it be possible using something similar to the “distanceFromBottom” that you are currently using to something that states, When close to div.footer switch from absolute to fixed positioning?
I ask because the image tends to disappear behind the black of the footer when the page is scrolled all the way to the bottom and the window isn’t opened all the way or if you scroll just a little before the scroll bar “taps out” at the bottom.
Aaron 04 Mar 11
This is one of the reasons why I love you guys at 37signals event though I don’t even use your tools. Thank you for being a fantastic source of inspiration.
Greetings from Switzerland.
Halloo 04 Mar 11
Jason – BEST FAQ ever! How did you find this??
Thierry 04 Mar 11
Cute: yes; Effective: no…
Do you really think that your customers are going to read such a long page? After reading few lines, it does feel like a long marketing brochure listing all your features. IMHO , this list should be grouped by themes to be useful.
OnLooker 04 Mar 11
I would have to ditto what GregT said above. Items like “Can I use Highrise to remember who I talked to next week?” don’t really work with some of the other more important ones.
I certainly would EXPECT that something that keeps my contacts would help me remember who I talked to. That really cannot be a question you get often, can it?
Jessica 04 Mar 11
Inspiring in so many ways, thanks for sharing!
Neil Nordhaus 04 Mar 11
A site I created in response to a very rude response to a ticket in our issue tracking system in which the coder directed everyone to a site (cant remember the exact URL ) was along the lines of www.doesthesitehavetolookthesameineverybrowser.com which was just a big NO
http://isthecustomeralwaysright.com
which is just a big YES
Brade 04 Mar 11
Do you have the velcro strips?
melvin 04 Mar 11
I like the format but for some reason it bothered me; like it was being somewhat condescending. Then I removed the words “The answer is” and changed the “YES” to lowercase. Now it feels more helpful without having an air of superiority or “Of course the answer is yes you idiot!”
Weird? I think I have self-confidence issues to address – It’s just an FAQ for cyring out loud.
Dmitry Mazin 04 Mar 11
This is irrelevant, but holy shit, that is what rest stops look like in Illinois? Here in California rest stops are about the last places one would go voluntarily.
Scott 04 Mar 11
Your list is way too long. The inspirational list has 18 questions. Yours has 45.
The I Pass list works because addresses the 1% of questions that take up 80% of their day; not a list of every single question they could think someone might ask.
Alex 05 Mar 11
Yes! Am I a moron for actually PAYING for the Police State which will track my every move?
Ilina S 05 Mar 11
I have reservations about this idea. Not sure how you’ll be using this page, but, in my opinion, it has some big drawbacks.
I agree that it’s cute, especially with the last question and the “yes” underneath it. It may seem that it would draw interest because the information is presented in a unique way… Being different is usually good, as in Seth Godin’s purple cow. But when it comes to comprehension, not using some conventions often becomes a bad thing.
Basically, we all know about the attention span of online readers… There is a good reason why most FAQs are grouped by subject. But this is a long and overwhelming page, and the questions seem random. They are not grouped by theme of interest and thus, are not easily digestible. I know they are not FAQs and serve as sales copy, but maybe that’s even worse. Because still, different readers will be drawn to the product for different reasons. Some care about Outlook import, and some don’t. But most of them will probably not be keen on reading a list like this to find out whether Highrise offers the features they’d value. And if the first few questions are not relevant to them, there is a high probability they will abandon the page, and not see the cute ending. Even if they see some things they value and some they don’t, it’s just overwhelming to the brain to be bombarded with so much unrelated info back-to-back. The brain comprehends and remembers better when information is presented in chunks
Another thing is that, if used sparingly, questions can draw attention to a specific statement. But flooding the mind with question-after-question feels unnatural and becomes a bit stressful. Not super stressful, but just adds that nuance. Just try reading this list out loud.
Also, the question sentences have a specific structure (the “can I” and the question mark) that adds fluff, when they are so many back-to-back. This fluff, this repetitive noise, weakens the action words, or the unique message within each sentence. I think each sentence should start with the words that contain the most unique or actionable information. This approach might sound too traditional but it’s traditional because it works…
Just my 2c :-) Otherwise, I always love your insights, and am a big fan of your writings.
rick 05 Mar 11
Doesn’t seem efficient and it’s annoying to read. I’d much rather see FAQ ’s then a long list of features
Ethan 05 Mar 11
My one objection to your design is the repetition of “Can I” at the start of each question. So much noise and very un-37signals-ish, especially given that the point of this design is to reduce repetition.
Couldn’t the questions be reworded easily to avoid this. (Or maybe it’s the answer that should be reworded, e.g. “Yes you can!”)
Jason Klug 06 Mar 11
I think a few of the critiques are missing the fact that this is NOT , in function, a FAQ page.
It’s more akin to a marketing page, intended to convey at a glance that there’s a lot Highrise can do.
Since it’s not a reference page, it’s not important in this instance that the reader be able to easily find any one item in the list, because the items are less important than the mass of the list itself.
Craig Pickering 06 Mar 11
Reminds me of the Princeton University Acceptance Letter:
http://www.edwardtufte.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=00007Q
Tim 07 Mar 11
Awesome post again.
Has given me some great ideas.
Nikkki 07 Mar 11
That is awesome
Jonathan 08 Mar 11
A iPass? An FAQ ? Sorry for being a nitpick.
Great idea though. I wonder how much time this guy has saved himself.
Tim Jahn 09 Mar 11
A great idea. The design/formatting could definitely be improved to convey the information easier/quicker.
Isn’t it amazing how inspiration comes from the most unlikely places?
This discussion is closed.