He had the reputation for judging a photographer by looking at their contact sheets upside down. He would always say you should look at a picture upside down because you can see the construction. You can see the way the photograph is being composed much better than the right way up.
[Podcast] Episode #13: Addressing criticism of 37signals (Part 1 of 2)
Time: 25:30 | 04/27/2010 | Download MP3
Responding to negative feedback
Jason and David respond to online criticism of 37signals. Topics covered include picking a firm from Sortfolio to redesign Signal vs. Noise and whether or not VCs are evil.
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Spread the word
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If there’s an ecosystem where things are free (such as, say, the internet) your currency becomes enthusiasm. Quality is important because it gives people a legitimate reason to become excited. Sincerity is what creates the line between real enthusiasm and empty hype.
This sounds like a lame-brain observation, but things are better if creative people produce work that incites excitement in both the creative and the audience. Don’t be shocked if something fails because it lacks fervor and passion. Build those in, if you can. If you can’t, consider starting over.
Speed is the most important feature. If your application is slow, people won’t use it. I see this more with mainstream users than I do with power users. I think that power users sometimes have a bit of sympathetic eye to the challenges of building really fast web apps, and maybe they’re willing to live with it, but when I look at my wife and kids, they’re my mainstream view of the world. If something is slow, they’re just gone.
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Fred Wilson offers “10 Golden Principles of Successful Web Apps”
Fred Wilson offers “10 Golden Principles of Successful Web Apps”
The unimportance of product names
Don’t waste too much time on picking a perfect name for your product. It doesn’t matter very much.
One thing we learned early on talking to Basecamp customers: Many of them didn’t even know that the app was called Basecamp. They called it “GroupHub” or “ProjectPath” because that was their project URL. Didn’t stop them from using it (or paying for it) though.
And what about picking a name that’s available as a domain? HighriseHQ.com and Backpackit.com have worked fine for us. Search is the way most people wind up finding us anyhow.
Obsessing over a name is an easy time trap to fall into when you should be focused on more important obstacles (i.e. building something that people truly want to use).
Another great example of selling your byproduct: Danny Meyer has grown Union Square Hospitality Group from a neighborhood bistro into 11 successful New York restaurants and a catering company. For years, the restaurants educated visiting chefs and managers. Then Meyer wrote his memoir and began speaking to employees at airlines, insurance companies, and hedge funds. Now, those lessons are formalized in an education program called Hospitality Quotient, which charges $425 for a four-hour session and $1,500 for a two-day immersion.
This week in Twitter
Highlights from this week’s 37signals staff posts at Twitter.
If someone doesn’t understand something maybe you aren’t explaining it well enough.
Cool is a detail, useful is a quality.
CPU usage and load is not a good gauge of your infrastructure. Users just don’t care. What matters is the user experience.
My son came in 5th (out of 11) at his first pinewood derby. Good fun! Makes me want to build a track :)
I wish the iPad passcode could be immediate for intentional locking (pressing the button) and timed or disabled for auto-locking (sleep).
Brevity respects the reader.
Some letters from people who’ve read REWORK. Thanks everyone! http://37signals.com/rework/letters
Another musical gem: Turkish Taksim Trio’s heartfelt simplicity through absolute mastery http://bit.ly/nIFS6
It’s highly annoying when people use terms like “For me, personally”. I know it’s for you, personally because you keep saying “I”.
Clever iPad split keyboard concept from @srobbin: http://srobbin.com/blog/concept-ipad-split-keyboard/
interesting how the roman numerals for 1-8 sort numerically, as well as alphabetically.
Oyster Hotel Reviews: A wonderfully executed site
I’ve been waiting for a site like Oyster for a long time. I’ve seen a few attempts at the concept, but Oyster really nails it.
Oyster gives you a real look at a hotel. The more hotels you stay at the more you realize that the photography presented on the hotel’s site rarely matches up with the reality available at the hotel location.
For example, here’s what The Superior Room at the Lucerene in NYC really looks like. Everything from the what’s on the dresser to the type of phone to the bedside clock to the plastic cups in the bathroom. There are 96 photos in total of a single hotel room. All the details are there.
If you’re still not sold, check out Oyster’s Photo Fakeouts section. This is where they compare marketing shots with actual shots. No models, no perfect lighting, no crops, no just-right angles — this is what it really looks like when you’re standing there.
Here’s what the pool at this hotel in Jamaica really looks like. Here’s a more realistic shot of another pool at a hotel in Hawaii. While we’re on the topic of pools, check out this crop at the Sofitel hotel in LA.
This fakeout at the Hyatt Regency in DC is criminal. Color me sad shows what this room in Vegas really looks like. Details like this matter when you are paying big bucks for a room.
There’s a ton more to explore on Oyster. The site is really well done — one of the best executed sites I’ve seen in a long time. They get all the little things right. It’s fast, clear, and easy to get around. The photos are big and easy to browse, the copywriting is generally excellent too. It’s a model.
I asked him if he would come up with a few options. And he said, “No. I will solve your problem for you. And you will pay me. And you don’t have to use the solution. If you want options, go talk to other people. But I’ll solve your problem for you the best way I know how. And you use it or not. That’s up to you. You’re the client. But you pay me.” And there was a clarity about the relationship that was refreshing.
I love Wordnik’s stylized description of themselves on their home page. Each reload changes the word sandwich. While we’re at it, I also find their Word of the Day selections to be the most interesting ones on the web.