SIGNAL VS. NOISE

Warm idea

Gizmodo reports on a fridge that keeps food warm. Here's more from a story at Yahoo News. Sharp thinking.

Morgan Freeman on hard work

Morgan Freeman after being asked if he was surprised that he'd won:

"I started out at the age of about 15 to be a movie actor . . . I was always trying to be a movie actor . . . this isn't serendipity in terms of me being here. This is the fight I've been fighting all my life."

I love it when people stand up for their hard work. It seems the popular thing to do these days is to let luck take credit for one's success. Sure, luck plays a part, but I think Thomas Jefferson nails it:

"I'm a great believer in luck and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it."

Some more quotes on luck.

Four Days on Rails

Four Days on Rails is a 40 page introduction to useful Rails techniques and where to go on the web for more information.

Rails is well documented on-line; in fact, possibly too well documented for beginners, with over 30,000 words of on-line documentation in the format of a reference manual. What's missing is a roadmap (railmap?) pointing to the key pages that you need to know to get up and running in Rails development...Four Days on Rails is designed to fill that gap.

The Daily Show on Bloggers

Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart discuss bloggers on The Daily Show (WMV 19.5 MB). [via The Big Ticket]

An exercise in clarity: Podcasting

Explain Podcasting in 10 words or less.

An ODEo to Podcasting

Well, the news is out [NY Times], Evan Williams is on his next journey: Odeo aims to make it easy for you to discover, create, and subscribe to fresh, independent audio content for your iPod. Basically Ev and Noah are trying to do with Podcasting what Ev (and the rest of the Pyra crew) managed to do with Blogging, except this time the self publishing is audio, not text. We wish them well and can't wait to see how it all shakes out!

BTW: What is the deal with the New York Times? They write an article about Odeo and they don't link them up? They link up Audible, Google, Apple, eBay, Yahoo, and TiVo, but they don't link up Odeo.com? WHAT??

Side note for the marketing inclined: Isn't Apple the big winner with all this Podcasting stuff? It's not called iRivercasting, or DellDJcasting, or Zencasting. It's Podcasting. Not a bad position to be in.

Side note for the technically inclined: Odeo is built on Ruby on Rails -- the web application framework that we developed (and open sourced) when we built Basecamp. Ruby on Rails also powers 43 Things, Ta-da List, S5, Instiki and many more to come.

Culinary Voodoo

[via George at Tilted, our web hosts of record]

Ruby on Rails 0.10.0 is out

For those who get this stuff, Ruby on Rails v0.10.0 is now available. This release includes support for Routing, Web Services, Components, and Oracle. Well done, team.

XMLHttpRequest, Ajax, and the customer experience

The XMLHttpRequest buzz for the past few months has just been amplified by JJG's latest essay on "Ajax".

Jesse clearly explains how the bundle of Asynchronous JavaScript + XML (coined "Ajax") can reduce reloads and improve the user experience. I'm not here to disagree (in fact, we use a heavy dose of this today in Ta-da List and will be introducing a lot more into Basecamp, Writeboard, and the other product we're currently developing). I'm also excited that there's finally a name ("Ajax") for all this tech -- trying to pronounce XMLHttpRequest around the office has been a challenge. We've gone from XMLhr to XRH to That XML Stuff, to No Reload, etc. Ajax is easy and that's good for everyone.

However, let's proceed with caution. What we're talking about is technology, not the user experience. Ajax-based apps certainly have the potential to produce a better user experience, but good experiences never come by default. Good experiences aren't plugged in. Good experiences are crafted by thinking about people, not technology. We all know this, but it's good to remind ourselves constantly. It's easy to overlook the obvious.

One advantage of Ajax-based apps is that things can happen quickly without a reload. On the surface this is fantastic -- and deep down it usually is. But it can also be confusing and introduce brand new experience problems. Things that happen too quickly can leave people wondering "What just happened?" And, since the web doesn't have a standard "Undo," the typical before-and-after undo/redo technique to spot changes won't work.

One solution is to consider using techniques like our Yellow Fade Technique (which has found its way into 43things and the lovely Campaign Monitor). You can see the combination of Ajax and the Yellow Fade Technique in this Ta-da List video. I look forward to seeing other solutions bubble up.

As with anything, it's not the technology that matters, it's the proper application and the execution of that technology that counts. And most of all it's how well we hide the technology. I'm very excited to see what comes out of this new movement. I'm looking forward to some stellar new web apps using Ajax and derivative tech combos.

But this new tech bundle is no different than any new technology -- there's going to be a lot to learn before everyone's (developer and customer) comfortable with it. So, use wisely, not widely. At least not yet. There are a lot of issues that still need to be ironed out.

Here's to learning something new! Here we all go!

An unfortunate typo

From MSNBC:

AGILECOpy: The ultimate home page rip-off

Two customers of ours just asked us if we're affliated with a company called "Agileco." Why I said? Look they said... Check out the Basecamp home page. Then check out this screenshot of Agileco's home page.

I contacted a fellow at Agile named Tony. Tony assured me that he would investigate. Then he came back with these changes which he felt were sufficient to make his site "original." Look closely... The "Customer quotes" are now blue instead of green and are now below the headline instead of below the subhead. And the bullets in the right column aren't our checkmarks anymore. And their "Try Free!" box is now below the first set of bulletpoints instead of above it. And they're renamed the headings on those bulletpoints because the originals were the same as ours.

And now they think it's clearly different, clearly theirs. That is clearly ridiculous. There's a difference between influence and theft, and to me it's clear which side they come down on. We've all learned from one another. We've all borrowed a thing or two. We've all been influenced, and actively influence. But there's no excuse for a commercial enterprise copying another commercial enterprise's home page concept/style/spirit like this. What do you think?

UPDATE: The folks at Agileco quickly modified their home page after this post went up. We appreciate their attention to this matter.

Upcoming speaking engagements

I'll be speaking at the following events over the next few months. If you're attending please come up and say hi. I only bite when backed into a corner (or when I'm hungry).

AIGA Origination Design Competition, Feb 26, Indianopolis, IN. I'll be judging the design competition and making a brief presentation.

SxSW Interactive, Mar 11-15, Austin, TX. I'll be speaking on how to make big things happen with small teams and How to build your brand with blogs with DL Byron, Molly Holzschlag, Jim Coudal, and Robert Scoble. I'll also be doing two book signings if you want my crappy handwriting on your book.

O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference, Mar 21-23, San Diego, CA. I'll be presenting a rapid-fire 45 minute Lessons Learned While Building Basecamp session (picked by Marc Hedlund as a favorite pick of this year's eTech. Thanks Marc!)

Web Design World San Francisco, Mar 21-23, San Francisco, CA. I'll be presenting two sessions: The controversial "Interface Design Insights: The Building of Basecamp" and "Defensive Design for the Web."

FlashForward 2005 (tentative), Apr 6-8, San Francisco, CA. I'll be presenting a 60-minute technology showcase session on the features/benefits of Basecamp for designers and their clients.

We're still working on a Building of Basecamp workshop for the east coast and either London or Copenhagen this summer. Stay tuned.

Kottkeco: Jason Kottke begins "blogging for business"

Jason Kottke asks you to pay his salary so he can blog for a year full time. Way to make no little plans, J! If you'd like to support him, here's how you can contribute and win some really excellent and generous prizes. We donated three Basic-level Basecamp web-based project management subscriptions to the cause. Good luck Jason, we're pulling (and paying) for ya.

3M Security Glass Ad

3M puts its money where its mouth is.

That's great advertising (yes, that's real money in there).

Why the preference for preferences?

When you get some new software where do you go first? I see a lot of people going to the preferences or settings screen right off the bat. They go there even before they use the product. Isn't that the worst time to change things? Isn't that the point when you have the least information about how the software works? Why would you want to change things before you even know how something works? Why this compulsion to make "personalization" decisions before you really know why?

Sunday at The Gates

Slideshow of The Gates (at flickr)

"Is this it?" That's the question that pops into your head as you approach Central Park. All this fuss for these orange flags draped all over the place?

Wander in further though and it starts to make sense. The landscape opens up and you start to see the pattern and repetition of The Gates and how they play off the environment. The Gates are there to echo and compliment, not dominate, the park and the skyline that surrounds it. The Gates rise and fall with the land, just like the trees and the skyline. The Gates curve and bend along the walkways. The Gates reflect off the water.

This is not a main course, it's a sublime wine pairing. This is not a lead melody, it's a tasteful harmony.

After a while, The Gates actually recede into the background. And then you're left with the people soaking it in and trying to figure it out. And that may be the best part: the crowd, the faces, the kids. The thousands of people throbbing through the park make it feel as if you're at Disneyland. But this crowd is not here to see an amusement park or a sporting event or a special effects-filled movie. This crowd is here to take a walk in the park. In the middle of February. To see art!? Crazy.

Hats off to Christo & Jeanne-Claude for getting it done. How many people have the chutzpah and knowledge to pull something like this off? How many people would hammer away at the city bureaucracy for 20+ years to try and make it happen? And after all that time and effort, how many artists would realize the value of making the installation so brief and fleeting? Impressive.

And as for that orange, is it possible that the idea for the color came to Christo while he was chowing on a hot dog? A little ketchup + a little mustard = saffron.

"I just think things should work properly"

I'm a sucker for a good inventor story. A story about someone seeing a problem, coming up with a killer solution, trying to convince others of its killerness, being rejected time after time and then saying fuck it I'll build it myself. And then kicking ass. That's just what James Dyson did with the world's first cyclonic bagless vacuum cleaner. His cyclonic bagless vacuum cleaner. The story is fantastic (as are his other inventions).

I recently heard a radio spot for the Dyson vacuum — voice over by Dyson himself — and he ended it by saying "I just think things should work properly." That's just beautiful, I just think things should work properly. Sums it up for me.

Human solutions, not software solutions

Before I dive into the post, here's a quick numbers update on Ta-da: So far over 10,000 people have signed up and added over 128,000 items to their lists. Not bad for a few weeks! We certainly hope you enjoy using Ta-da as much as we do. If you don't have an account, sign up today -- it's free.

Now to the post at hand...

I think it's interesting to see how people take advantage of flexibility. When we built Ta-da List we left a lot of stuff out on purpose. There's no way to assign a to-do to someone, there's no way to mark a date due, there's no way to categorize items, etc. There are certainly software solutions for these needs, but we prefer human solutions. Let people satisfy their needs their own way.

Here's how some real people have dealt with our Less Software approach. Here are some conventions they've put in place for themselves. Note: all the lists below have been marked Public by the list owner:

Assigning due dates by just adding a relative date to the end of a list item. This example also shows someone using "-------------------" to create their own same-list separators. Here's another due date example (this time with fixed dates at the beginning of the item).

Time estimates encased in brackets at the end of the item.

Categorizing items by adding a qualifier (fix, entry idea) to the beginning of the item.

Assigning responsibilities at the end of an item.

Keeping track of release dates for albums someone wants to buy.

Internal labels at the beginning of an item.

This list has a multi-tiered convention defined in the list description at the top.

So, yeah, sure, we could build software to handle all these condititions, but we prefer leaving the solutions up to the people who have the need. They're the ones that have the best solutions for their own specific problems. And we've seen that most people prefer this approach as well. This keeps the software flexible, clean, and useful for everyone.

Big Apple

How did NYC get nicknamed the Big Apple? Cecil delivers the straight dope.

Chicago, New York, Copenhagen... and Provo!

Today we'd like to announce the newest addition to the 37signals team: Jamis Buck. Jamis lives in Provo, UT with his wife and two kids. He's been doing some contract work for us, but it was finally time to make him part of the family. Besides being a rock star programmer, and a skilled communicator, he's an incredibly nice and decent guy (we met him out in Seattle at the Building of Basecamp workshop).

Jamis has been programming heavy-use applications in C and Java for years, but his real passion is writing in Ruby. And seeing that Basecamp, Ta-da, and our other products in development are Ruby-based, it's a perfect fit for everyone. We get to work with an extraordinary programmer, Jamis gets to work with a language and framework he's passionate about, and his kids get to have daddy around during the day. All of the above makes us happy.

So, welcome aboard Jamis. Everyone say hi!

Update: Jamis blogged it as well. Well that was quick... Jamis, you're fired!

Orange You Glad?

Whoever's in charge of PR for the color orange is doing a bangup job. When you consider Ukraine's recent Orange Revolution, "The Gates" saffron hubbub, and Jeanne-Claude's hair, it's a pretty impressive run. Soon March Madness brackets will make the rounds; Don't underestimate the Orange of Syracuse.

Financing Both Sides

Thomas Friedman argues the Bush team is financing both sides of the war on terrorism. Forget social security, forcing Americans to use less gas is the real third rail of American politics.

By adamantly refusing to do anything to improve energy conservation in America, or to phase in a $1-a-gallon gasoline tax on American drivers, or to demand increased mileage from Detroit's automakers, or to develop a crash program for renewable sources of energy, the Bush team is - as others have noted - financing both sides of the war on terrorism. We are financing the U.S. armed forces with our tax dollars, and, through our profligate use of energy, we are generating huge windfall profits for Saudi Arabia, Iran and Sudan, where the cash is used to insulate the regimes from any pressure to open up their economies, liberate their women or modernize their schools, and where it ends up instead financing madrassas, mosques and militants fundamentally opposed to the progressive, pluralistic agenda America is trying to promote. Now how smart is that?

Message Overload

The people who visit your site don't care about it nearly as much as you do. I'm thinking specifically of message areas. Every site these days seems to be offering a site-specific inbox for sending/receiving messages. My Flickr inbox floods with messages that read, "____ has just added you as a contact..." My eBay inbox contains letters from the CEO. Audioscrobbler, which tracks my playlists, even provides me with an inbox/outbox. Friendster, Orkut, MySpace, and others do the same.

As a site developer, messaging capability may seem like a neat add-on (and a good way to lure people back to your site). But who really wants to constantly login and check messages at dozens of different sites around the web? Do me a favor and just integrate these notes with my normal email flow (or eliminate them entirely).

"Hire" the right clients

When I speak at design conferences I'm almost always asked this question: "How do you deal with bad clients? How do you make them get it?" My answer is always "We don't work with bad clients."

And I don't use that to squirm out of an answer. I mean it. Who you work with is your choice and has a huge impact on your happiness, productivity, quality, and the future of your business.

Working with the right clients is absolutely critical. The trick is knowing when to say no. The wrong client can kill morale, force good employees out, and cost you big opportunities. Working with the right client isn't work at all -- it's a pleasure.

Saying Yes or No to a client is a business decision just like any other business decision you have to make. Should we rent this space or that space? Should we buy this computer or that computer? Should we host on a virtual server or a dedicated server? Should I hire this person or not?

And that last point is critical: Should I hire this person or not? Just replace person with client and you'll start to see the connection. Even though a client is really hiring you, in many ways you're hiring them right back. You have to work with them. In many ways your future is tied to their performance. The relationship is tighter than you may think.

Would you just hire anyone because you needed help? Even someone that you can't stand being around? Even someone that doesn't have the skills to get the job done? If no, then why would you just take any job? Even a job you can't stand doing. Even a job that won't let you flex your skills. Even a job that will embarass you when it's all over. What's the point? To stay in business just so you can take on another job that you don't want to take on?

So, give as much thought to the clients you work with as the people you hire and the spending decisions you make. You'll be better off in the long run because of it. Don't sell yourself short -- you can find the clients you want and the clients that want you.

Google Maps proves "It's the experience, stupid"

Google proves it again with Google Maps -- it's the experience, stupid. There's no new data here, just a better experience. There's so much more to Google Maps than just the BIG maps, but even if we just focus on that for a second it becomes clear who "gets" what people want from a map.

Here's the default map I get when I search for our office on Yahoo Maps, MSN Maps, Mapquest and Google Maps. Is there any question about the value of design and the customer experience after seeing this comparison? Google slaps them down again.

So, where are you going for your maps next time?

Getting Real, Step 1: No Functional Spec

We talk a lot about our "Getting Real" process at the Building of Basecamp workshops (next one to be announced shortly — sign up for the mailing list at the bottom of the sidebar to be notified).

Getting Real is all about starting from the user interface and customer experience and then building out. Visual design first, programming second. The more traditional process is starting from the abstract (documentation, diagrams, charts, etc.), coding a skeleton app, and then homing in on the real by finishing it up with an interface. We think that's backwards.

Over the next few weeks I'll be writing more about our Getting Real process, but I wanted to jump in by first talking about step 1...

Step 1: Don't write a functional specifications document
Don't write a functional specifications document. Why? Well, there's nothing functional about a functional specifications document.

Functional specifications documents lead to an illusion of agreement. A bunch of people agreeing on paragraphs of text is not real agreement. Everyone is reading the same thing, but they're often thinking something different. This inevitably comes out in the future when it's too late. "Wait, that's not what I had in mind..." "Huh? That's not how we described it." "Yes it was and we all agreed on it -- you even signed off on it." You know the drill.

Functional specifications document are "yes documents." They're political. They're all about getting to "yes" and we think the goal up front should be getting to "no." Functional specs lead to scope creep from the very start. There's very little cost in saying "yeah, ok, let's add that" to a Word document.

Functional specs are often appeasement documents. They're about making people feel involved. But, there's very little reality attached to anything you do when the builders aren't building, the designers aren't designing, and the people aren't using. We think reality builds better products than appeasement.

Functional specs are about making decisions before you have enough information to decide. They are about predicting the future and we all know how accurate that is.

So what do we do in place of a functional spec? We write a one page story about what the app should do. If it takes more than a page to explain it, then it's too complex. If it's simple and it takes more than a page to write it then we're not writing clearly enough. This process should take no longer than a few days.

Then we begin building the interface -- the interface is the functional spec. First with some quick and simple paper sketches, then directly into HTML. Unlike paragraphs of text that are open to alternate interpretations, interface designs are common ground.

Bottom line: We want to build something we can all start looking at, using, clicking through, and "feeling" before a line of back-end code is written. We want to be in front of the customer experience for as close to 100% of the time as possible.

To be continued...

Home page

My browser home/start page setting is blank. What about yours? Do you go to a certain page each time you open a new browser window? If you do, what page is it and why do you find it handy to have it load every time you open a new browser window?

Icon Madness

When you're trying to squeeze a lot of information in a tight space, icons become a very tempting solution. The problem is they sure can be confusing to outsiders. Look at this example at eBay.

Is it realistic to expect people to decipher the lengthy legend that explains the icons? And what exactly does it mean when my shaded box is levitating on an arrow above my unshaded box? Sure, eBay saved some space but there's little point to it if people don't understand what they're seeing or the action to take next.

You get what you give

A lesson on generating new business can be had by visiting R.Bird's Patterns. The Patterns series is "a series of professional observations about package design practices within specific product categories." And they give them away free. For example, here's a report on energy drinks in which they analyze color, shape (including an interesting resemblance to batteries), environment, and point of sale displays. Pretty cool stuff. More businesses would be wise to do this.

Condi on Football

Condi Rice, football prognosticator:

Ms. Rice said in Israel that she might try to stay up and watch some of the Super Bowl, which begins at 1:30 a.m. Monday local time, but aides said it was more likely that she would watch the very end of it while exercising in the early morning and later look at the whole game on tape. Meanwhile, she has told aides that the New England Patriots will win by 3 points.

The actual final score? New England holds off Philadelphia 24-21.

Less is... More satisfying

We're working on our next product right now and I think we just cut down the feature list by about 2/3. Wow does that feel good. Faster to market, easier to design, more attention to detail on the 1/3 that remains, and lower cost of change. Less is also surprisingly more flexible.

Open and honest communication

One of the things that has surprised me most when talking with customers who use Basecamp is how many people work in a culture of fear, deception, and distrust. It's often not their own fault, but more the result of the culture they are forced to operate in. It seeps in. It puzzles me.

There are a lot of people who ask if they can hide this or hide that or only let certain people see certain people's names inside a project or hide the last time someone logged in, etc. There's a lot of hiding going on. A lot of obscuring the truth going on. It puzzles me.

One of the top requests as of late is for a company to be able to hide contractors from their clients. They don't want their clients to know that third party contractors are working on their projects. Anyway you look at that, someone isn't getting the whole truth. It puzzles me.

And then there are the cases when people want software to step in with a solution instead of just politely explaining the situation to their clients. They want new features, modified features, obscure feature exceptions when all that is required is a simple conversation with their client to explain the way something works. It puzzles me.

Of course people are free to use Basecamp however they want (and Basecamp does provide the option to make certain messages or to-do lists "private"), but Basecamp is not now nor will it ever be a tool for concealment. Or control. Or to keep the project opaque. Basecamp believes that project management is communication, which is of course all about transparency and sharing. Projects end up better when the communication channels are open and honest.

At least that's our point of view. What's your take?

Sweet Home Alabama

Why are we losing critical manufacturing jobs to China and southeast Asia when we have young, bright, enterprising talent here at home? [hat tip: CSC]

Keep 'Em Moving

It's nice to see more sites keeping the flow going instead of just leaving people at dead ends (or requiring an extra step to keep moving).

Example 1: Email Messages

What's the most common action taken after receiving an email? A reply. Yet email pages at Earthlink's webmail site, and most other email services, usually require you to click through to another page to send a reply.

Gmail, on the other hand, wisely offers a reply box right at the bottom of each received email:

Example 2: Send This Article

After you "email this article" at a site, you usually wind up with a lonely confirmation message like this one from the Chicago Tribune:

Why not offer some more guidance? In addition to a confirmation message, the NY Times now offers links to the top 5 most emailed articles. This nice bit of relevant, contextual information helps keep people moving forward:

It's the simple things

From Karen's beautiful blog:

Wonderfully simple. Great solution.

Help wanted: Looking for a Javascript guru

We're looking for a Javascript guru for a few possible projects. This wouldn't be a full time gig, but we might be able to keep you busy on a contract/project basis for a good while. It all depends on what you can bring to the table and if you really know your shit.

If you think you're the guy/gal/both (we're equal opportunity and all), drop me an email at jason at 37signals dot com. Thanks.

Best designed weblog

The 2005 Bloggies nominees for best designed weblog: Karen Cheng, Jason Santa Maria, Loobylu, Brookelyn.org, and ShaunInman.com.

BIG is in

Is there any doubt that BIG is in? The signup button for Amazon Prime puts that question to rest.

When will the iPod jump the shark?

Everyone loves the iPod (including some folks in Redmond), but I'm wondering when the iPod will tip from cool to uncool. When everyone has something it begins to lose its luster. What can Apple do to ride the wave of coolness for as long as possible? Or is this product somehow immune because of its unique combination of coolness, usefulness, and stylishness? I wonder if the wave Apple is riding isn't the "cool" wave afterall, but the "useful" wave masquerading as cool? Does anyone ever get tired of useful?

Holy Skype or Believe the Skype

I've just seen the future. Using Skype I just IMed with David, then used my Powerbook in Chicago to call him on his cellphone in Copenhagen for a couple cents a minute. We've used iChat A/V before to talk computer to computer, but this computer to real phone thing opens up a whole new world.

This is the beginning of something and the beginning of the end of something else. I'm not sure what yet, but I just had a "now I get it" moment.

Vodka David Slays Goliaths

A tasting coordinator adds a bottle of lowly Smirnoff to a blind taste test of 20 high-end vodkas and, wouldn't ya know it, Smirnoff winds up the hands-down favorite (the experts described it as "pure, clean and ultrasmooth").

Its success illustrates a vital truth about vodka. Unlike most other spirits and certainly unlike beer and wine, vodka does not necessarily benefit from artisanal manufacturing.

I wonder how Vladimir through a Brita filter would have fared?

Speaking of vodka, Frank Gehry designed the bottle and case for a new brand of Polish vodka called Wyborowa. Gehry explains the appeal for an architect in designing consumer products:

I am always attracted to things that are a challenge. Its a quick fix. Architecture takes so long. Thats why you do the small stuff instant gratification.

For sale: 15" Aluminum Powerbook (loaded)

I'm selling my 15" 1.25 GHz Aluminum Powerbook with Superdrive (burns CDs and DVDs), 768 megs of RAM, 80 gig HD, built in Airport Extreme and Bluetooth, backlit keyboard, Firewire 800, USB 2. Includes a brand new screen -- the original screen was replaced due to white spots. Excellent condition (there's a small squeak if you press down hard right above the DVD player slot). The latest version of Mac OS X is installed. Asking $1650. If interested, email jason at 37signals dot com.