Since the day The Starter League opened their doors, people from all over the world have traveled to Chicago to learn how to program web apps.
It didn’t take long before design-focused classes made their way into the curriculum. In Carolyn’s class, people learn how to research and shape great user experiences. Shay’s class takes those experiences and turns them into something tangible for the web. Now we’re thinking there’s room for even more. Today, we’re excited to announce the next addition to the growing list of design offerings at The Starter League.
Introducing the Visual Design course at Starter League
In ten intensive weeks, we’re looking to turn students from design enthusiasts into design practitioners. You’ll get your hands dirty finessing the look and feel of web apps, while working your salesmanship skills to put together helpful, clear, and beautiful marketing sites. You’ll study taste rather than trends. You’ll become immersed in the foundations of classic typography and apply them to the web. You’ll learn to balance aesthetics with usefulness. You’ll draw from your own opinions and point of views to let your designs evoke emotion and meaning.
And, you’ll have me as your instructor through every step of the way. I’m happy to join the already-fantastic Starter League teaching crew in offering this class.
If you think you belong in this class, you should apply today.
ploogman
on 30 Oct 12sounds like a great class, and still hoping you will modify the SVN blog design, still finding it very aggravating to use on my desktop Mac and on my iPhone
Jamie
on 30 Oct 12@ploogman you should sign up for the class. Less talk more rock.
Tom Ordonez
on 30 Oct 12The SL should try to import more hispanic people. You only see 2 or 3 each term. Hispanics bring the creativity from living in a 3rd world country.
Jamie G
on 30 Oct 12@37signals
Hopefully someone in The Starter League will explain to you why this new blog design is horrible.
machbio
on 30 Oct 12i know that its pretty hard to do online course.. but could you guys just air it on the website with free entry.. it would be nice to just see the class, as some of us in the developing nations cant afford to make it their for the class..
and please turn off the comment formatting, some people just want to use comic sans.. it irritates most of us to read it in such a beautifully designed website..
ploogman
on 30 Oct 12@Jamie very funny, does sound like a good class but would be a refresher for me and would still be refreshing if you would consider modifying this blog design
moogman
on 30 Oct 12@ploogman,
“He who tries to please everybody pleases nobody.”
• Google Reader
• Instapaper
• Readability
• Safari’s Reader button
• Change your browser’s font size
Happy reading.
Andrew Richardson
on 31 Oct 12@ploogman
For someone that hates this blog design so much you certainly spend a lot of time coming back to it and scrolling ALL THE WAY TO THE BOTTOM (Oh god the horror…) to comment multiple times…
Obviously it’s not a deal breaker for you…
Ben Ruetgers
on 31 Oct 12@Andrew Richardson
ploogman is not alone.
I too find the new blog design so hideous, for some many reasons – it’s too many to count.
ploogman
on 31 Oct 12@ moogman – Make fun of my name? Very funny. Sorry if I ruffled your feathers. @ Andrew Richardson – Wow, sorry for having an opinion. Yes, I love the content of SVN, just not the new graphic design and layout of SVN. Sorry if I ruffled your feathers. A thousand apologies to anyone’s feelings I hurt.
Andrew Richardson
on 31 Oct 12@Ben
Users tend to be highly reactive to new design, especially when the design has remained unchanged for so long. I think you’ll probably get used to it after a while. Luckily I know 37signals knows this and hopefully will let the design stew for a while, it’s obviously not keeping people from absorbing the content…
@ploogman
My feathers aren’t ruffled I just find it ironic that you are very vocally opposed to the design but have no trouble coming back to the website over and over again and absorbing the content. Just making an observation, in a very pointed way :).
Anonymous Coward
on 31 Oct 12@ Andrew Richardson I am a designer, have been for a good while, and I am not overly reactive to new design. I welcome it. I had thought SVN was due for a makeover for a long time. At the same time, I felt it was zippy and easy to consume. The new design, for all its strong points, is not easy to consume on my desktop or mobile devices, not as zippy as it has some built in “soft” transitions which is something that Apple has been over-doing lately with its UI and UX work, and in general feels very derivative and almost like a sarcastic interpretation of web design minimalism. I think the design would work better if it was not a dense blog but rather sparse data with minimal text. I would describe this design to be good for a site with minimal text consumption. It reads “display” to me and not deep content consumption. In terms of you finding it “ironic” about me, in “a very pointed way”, I prefer an open dialog instead of blindly kissing a** which is what your comments remind me of. I am not “dissing” Mig or 37. I am a huge fan, going back a number of years now, of 37 and Jason and DHH in particular. I have been inspired by SVN posts for a long, long time and I don’t want to stop reading what all the 37ers have to say. However, the new design is problematic for me and detracts from the great content. Mig is no doubt a world class designer but that does not mean that every design that even he makes is going to be solid gold. I feel like I have given this new design some time to sink in and it is just not an improvement for me in terms of usability, though the old design was long overdue for an update.
ploogman
on 31 Oct 12that last comment was from me – I neglected to include my name – by accident – which is another issue I have with the boxless comment form – it is difficult for even me to catch a glaring error like leaving my name out
Scott
on 31 Oct 12Wonder why the student from near Fiji went all the way across Australia, Africa, and the Atlanta Ocean to get to Chicago instead just scootin’ across the Pacific?
JB
on 31 Oct 12Love you guys and so I feel compelled to share my feelings and let you know I COMPLETELY agree with @ploogman. It’s clean, but it hurts my eyes. Also, why do I have to click comments to see the comments, they should should by default. Finally, what happened to the URL. Many of us have blogs or twitter accounts that are just as much of our identities as names and callsigns (maybe even more so). Removing the URL option feels like your saying that part of our contribution has less value and I believe that line of thinking couldn’t be farther from the truth.
Michael
on 06 Nov 12JB, blog commenters are unpopular right now. They don’t convert well, they complain, they self-promote and they can self-organize. E-mail lists are vastly preferable since with the right calls to action they self-identify as having interest and a budget, they unsubscribe rather than complain, and they’re siloed off from other users.
The community aspect of the blog comments is then sold as a “masterclass” to the e-mail list. We live in irritating times.
This discussion is closed.