Screens Around Town: Moo.com Flickr MiniCards - Signal vs. Noise (by 37signals)

Screens Around Town: Moo.com Flickr MiniCards Matt 20 Sep 2006

37 comments Latest by Ross Hill

Moo.com’s goal is to create products “made up from stuff on the web, that help folks take their virtual lives offline.” First up: Flickr MiniCards.

These cards let you choose your favourite Flickr pics and turn them into business cards with personal details on the back. Flickr Pro users can get a pack of ten for free (the free offer doesn’t let you remove the Flickr logo on the back though).

The process to create a card is impressively simple. The overview page sets expectations for how the process works nicely. And then the screens to make it happen are real no brainers (click images for larger versions):

For the Pro pack of ten, you can drag anywhere from 1-10 pics from Flickr and Moo automatically updates how many cards you’ll get of each pic (e.g. drag 5 pics over and the site will tell you “2 of each.”)

Cropping is a piece of cake.

Less options: Pick one of three fonts. Pick one of three colors. Max of six lines, each one bold or not bold. No way to adjust font size. All that means people are in/out quickly and on their way to done.

37 comments so far (Jump to latest)

Jina Bolton 20 Sep 06

Yeah, these look like they will be fun to pass around.

.sara 20 Sep 06

That create and checkout process @ Moo.com is one of the best I’ve ever gone through. Ordered the 10-pack for the Flickr pro users, but I want to order the 100-pack… just to do it again. heh.

Dan Boland 20 Sep 06

Love the site design.

Eloy Anzola 20 Sep 06

I got my 10 free cards yesterday… and I agree, the experience simply rocked!

Justin Perkins 20 Sep 06

Looking forward to me cards, seems like a great idea.

The only thing that confused me was why I couldn’t edit the quantity field for my pack of 10 cards (it was readonly), I would have gladly paid for more packs.

J Phill 20 Sep 06

I just ordered my 10 free today. Look forward to seeing how these turn out.

Darrel 20 Sep 06

Nice.

Alas, I’m still waiting for that one killer Flickr app: a web site where I can order prints.

The process of ordering prints via Target is confusing. It works, but takes a while to figure out and you really don’t have many options (I think you can choose doubles or not and that’s about it…)

I’m still searching for a site that integrates with flickr that allows:

- matte vs. glossy
- standard print sizes vs. ‘digital’ print sizes
- borders vs. no borders

Moo.com looks fun, but I’m not sure how often I’d need pre-designed business cards with a photo on the back.

Spamvertising 20 Sep 06

If someone hands me one of these and doesn’t work for Yahoo/fllickr, I’ll think they’re a loser for advertising someone else’s product for free. Where’s the checkbox to delete the flickr logo from the bottom right?

Dan 20 Sep 06

Spamvertising, the Flickr logo is only mandatory on the free 10 pack for Flickr Pro users as that’s a promotion between Moo and Flickr. On the for pay 100 pack you can turn it off.

I can’t wait to get my 100 pack.

scola 20 Sep 06

I get the whole “less, less, less” thing but I really worry about what you’re teaching the children. First “nite” and “lite” and “thru” and now they’ll go around talking about how there was less people eating less hotdogs or some such thing.

Dustin 20 Sep 06

I think the free 10 pack for flickr pro users is genius. I ordered mine, and if they’re as cool as people are saying then I’ll surely be buying more.

Stu 20 Sep 06

“in/out quickly and on their way to done” and dissatisfied with the results because they wanted the font bigger.

tony 20 Sep 06

Stu - they’re free, quit whining!

Kevo 20 Sep 06

I just ordered a 100-pack after ordering the 10-pack promo.

Was disappointed they ask for a password, but don’t provide a way to ‘log in’ and retrieve your details (or if it is there, it isn’t easy to find?)

Labrat 20 Sep 06

I went ahead and ordered a set of 100 to pass out at parties for a social group of mine.

It was one of the most refreshing and simple online purchasing experiences I’ve ever had.

I had a pool of several thousand photos to choose from so I just filled it with “random” weeded out the ones I didn’t need, rinse and repeat.

Of course, in order for it to be compatible with business use I’d need a lot more flexibility than the skimpy options and number of lines on the back but I’m sure there is a way to get it without additional clutter.

ssp 20 Sep 06

How comes everybody is excited by yet another e-commerce site that doesn’t clearly advertise its shipping costs?

Nathan Ridley 20 Sep 06

Only three colours? I don’t think five would have been a stretch or have made it too “complex”. Oh my god! Five colours! This is all too hard! The whole less-is-more concept is great, but I think there’s also a line. *Too* much simplicity in a product like this can really detract from its greater appeal.

Anonymous Coward 20 Sep 06

Nathan, 3 colors do not detract from it’s greater appeal. The product is about *your* photos. That’s where the color comes in. The 3 colors are more of a convenience than 1 color. That’s what the 3 is about.

schlarb 20 Sep 06

hey ssp: I placed an order too and there was no shipping cost. therefore, I suppose, nothing to advertise.

from the receipt:

Order Content Flickr
Order Quantity 1 x 100 card packs

Basket Total $19.99
Postage $0.00
Grand Total $19.99

matt Carey 21 Sep 06

SSP: on the home page is states ‘free global shipping’

Stu 21 Sep 06

too bad I’m not in the US neither a flickr pro

too bad I’m not in the US nor a flickr pro

Ross Hill 21 Sep 06

You don’t need to be in the US (I’m from Australia) since it is free international shipping, and you should be a Flickr Pro user anyway because its cool :)

George 21 Sep 06

Add my name to the list of people who wince every time you use the word “less” with a plural noun. Ouch!

August 21 Sep 06

They only let you use your own photos, right? My first thought was that if it were favourite photos (ie. the ones on the site you liked best), then there could be some serious copyright issues coming into play.

Joanna 22 Sep 06

As a photographer and a social butterfly, I love this. I love the odd size; I found cropping a learning experience in artistic perspective. I got my free 10, and ordered 100 using my favorites from my own photos.

Will Cowan 22 Sep 06

I agree with Joanna,
I’m always dancing around at festivals taking photos, these will be a wicked little business cards to give to people to share some photo lovin,

I’ve no issue at all with thr Flickr logo, no doubt I’ll keep in on for my first propper print run ( 100 cards )

St�phanie 23 Sep 06

I just discovered Moo and I like the mini cards, the format is original. They should be fun to pass around. I ordered the free 10 pack. Never went through an easiest creation process before but then, there wasn’t much to do and everything is straightforward.

Of course the options to personalize the back of the cards are limited but I suppose it doesn’t really matter, it’s the photo on the front that does.

The website doesn’t give much information about future shipping costs, I mean once the promotions period is over. So we’ll just have to check it out in a few weeks to get more details about their services and see if new formats and products are added to what is offered now.

Moo was a smooth and fun experience, at least for this first free order. It’s worth giving it a try.

Erika 28 Sep 06

Cool idea! Looking forward to receiving mine! ;-)

Adam Kemeny 02 Oct 06

Curses, I missed the free trial. I’m very curious to see where things go from here with Moo as I’m fairly certain that there must be more to the company than undersized business cards…

Ross Hill 03 Oct 06

I got mine today, the printing is a little dark but apart from that they are fantastic. I think I might order the 100 pack just so I can go through the ordering process again - beautiful system.