Pablo Fernandez asks 37signals:

Do you really think is the lack of features what makes a software better, or is it the “illusion” of simplicity (hiding the less used features, and emphasizing the common ones).

I don’t think the number of features is what makes software better or worse. One more or one less isn’t really the issue.

What matters is the editing. Software needs an editor like a writer needs an editor or a museum needs a curator. Someone with a critical eye and the ability to say “No, that doesn’t belong” or “There’s a better way to say this.” Physical constraints create natural limits for books and museums. Books have pages and museums have wall space. Software, on the other hand, is virtual, boundless. Anything is possible. When anything is possible someone inevitably tries to make something do everything. And the more something does the harder it becomes to understand, grasp, and use. So the key is deciding what makes it and what doesn’t. This applies both globally (the entire inventory of features) and locally (what someone can do on the current screen they’re looking at).

It’s not about ten features versus seven, it’s about the right four versus the wrong eight (or the right eight versus the wrong four). It’s also about the right place and the right time to reveal the right features. Every feature, widget, or interface control competes. Loading up the screen with stuff that is used 10% of the time means the stuff that’s used 90% of the time has to fight for attention. That’s not a good experience. The experience should be light, flowing, and comfortable, not heavy, clunky, and frustrating.

Software is a recipe: Too much of any ingredient can throw off the balance. The wrong ingredients can spoil a dish. Great software is perfectly seasoned—just enough salt, just enough pepper. Too much of any one thing, or not enough of another, and you’ll send it back.

When we talk about Less Software we’re really talking about balance. We’re talking about finding that sweet spot that solves most of the problem with the simplest solution. Simple for you to develop, maintain, and support, and simple for your customers to derive maximum value with minimal effort, learning, and hassle. From Getting Real, the book:

The key is to restate any hard problem that requires a lot of software into a simple problem that requires much less. You may not be solving exactly the same problem but that’s alright. Solving 80% of the original problem for 20% of the effort is a major win. The original problem is almost never so bad that it’s worth five times the effort to solve it.

It’s not so much about consciously saying “we have three too many features here” it’s about saying “let’s solve most of this problem with less code and simpler design.” If we need to solve more of the problem later we can, but let’s solve most of it now—and quickly. And most of the time the partial solution is the plenty solution.

So remember: Good software is about balancing value and screen real estate and understanding and outcome. If it takes 20 good features to get there, then great. If it only takes eight, even better. It’s not the number that counts, it’s the balance.

Got a question for us?

We’re looking for interesting questions to answer here at Signal vs. Noise. Got one? Then send it to us at svn@37signals.com (make sure the subject line reads “Ask 37signals”). We’ll cherry pick the most interesting ones and answer them here. Fire away!

One great way to use Highrise: Track all those little customer service interactions you have with different companies.

For example, Ryan’s been dealing with a broken camera case and is keeping track of the problem as a case in Highrise…

Click for full-size version.

Here’s another example, this time using Highrise to keep track of the convoluted process of obtaining a refund from an airline…

Click for full-size version.

Instead of a bunch of post-it notes and scattered emails, Highrise gives you a paper trail you can come back to whenever you need it. And tasks help you keep track of dates that might otherwise be forgotten (e.g. “Was I supposed to receive that rebate within 4 weeks or 4 months?”).

Whether it’s a business or personal affair, Highrise makes it easy to keep track of whom you’ve talked to, what you talked about, and what you need to do next.

Related:
Why Highrise? [HighriseHQ.com]
Highrise has your back in customer service interactions [Product Blog]

Edwin writes:

One thing that bothers me often, is the design of the user interface. I’m a web developer, using Rails and capable of producing valid HTML, CSS and JavaScript. So, I should be able to build a simple interface. But, if you want a more “stylish” interface, you probably also want to play with graphic programs and create neat icons and logos. Hiring a designer is often expensive and can cause the developer to loose sight of the epicentric design decisions.

How does 37signals solve this problem? Do you have a full-time designer working on a website or do the CSS-freakz create the website interface?

Thinking of designers as someone who paints the application pretty in Photoshop is a common but unfortunate misconception. We certainly don’t have any designers like that. Instead, our designers apply their talents to the native materials of the web by working directly with HTML, CSS, and occasionally Ruby code or JavaScript.

That’s a slightly odd notion to a lot of web programmers. They consider HTML, CSS, and especially JavaScript and Ruby code to be their domain. If designers work with exactly the same materials, how are they different?

Think of it like paper and pencil. A programmer can use those tools to create a technical diagram of databases and objects. A designer can use those same tools to create a compelling layout with a flow that’s just right.

When designers and programmers work with the same materials, they speak the same language. That’s an incredibly helpful way to work together (contrast with artists speaking in Photoshop and “HTML cutters” trying to adapt that to the web).

Designers decide and design the flow, the copy, the structure of the page, the programmers make all of it come to life by plugging it into the backend. All along both parties trade concessions on how to get the feature done as fast possible by grabbing the easiest value.

So stop thinking about designers as artists who work in a different universe of neat graphics and start thinking of them as someone who decides what goes where, which form elements to use, how to split features between screens, what words to use, and how everything fits together in a coherent experience.

Brandon Kelly writes in:

Saw this ad in the latest issue of Information Week. Only Microsoft could possibly see a big panel of buttons and think “this must be what our customers want”. I just had to send it in to you guys.

In his book “Creativity,” Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi advises readers who want to find flow to take charge of their own schedules.

It is also possible the schedule you are following is not the best for your purposes. The best time for using your creative energies could be early in the morning or late at night. Can you carve out some time for yourself when your energy is most efficient? Can you fit sleep to your purpose, instead of the other way around?

The times when most people eat may not be the best for you. You might get hungry earlier than lunchtime and lose concentration because you feel jittery; or to perform at the top of your potential it may be best to skip lunch and have a midafternoon snack instead. There are probably best times to shop, to visit, to work, to relax for each one of us; the more we do things at the most suitable times, the more creative energy we can free up.

Most of us have never had the chance to discover which parts of the day or night are most suited to our rhythms. To regain this knowledge we have to pay attention to how well the schedule we follow fits our inner states—when we feel best eating, sleeping, working, and so forth. Once we have identified the ideal patterns, we can begin the task of changing things around so that we can do things when it is most suitable…Time is more flexible than most of us think.

Another advantage to flex scheduling: It lets you get away from the nonstop communication flow that occurs during “mainstream” hours. It’s a lot easier to get things done when you’re not constantly being pinged by others.

The first rule of career planning: Do not plan your career

“The world is an incredibly complex place and everything is changing all the time. You can’t plan your career because you have no idea what’s going to happen in the future. You have no idea what industries you’ll enter, what companies you’ll work for, what roles you’ll have, where you’ll live, or what you will ultimately contribute to the world. You’ll change, industries will change, the world will change, and you can’t possibly predict any of it. Trying to plan your career is an exercise in futility that will only serve to frustrate you, and to blind you to the really significant opportunities that life will throw your way. Career planning = career limiting. The sooner you come to grips with that, the better.”

“Four Principles of Interpersonal Communication”

“We don’t actually swap ideas, we swap symbols that stand for ideas. This also complicates communication. Words (symbols) do not have inherent meaning; we simply use them in certain ways, and no two people use the same word exactly alike.”

Yahoo revival meeting features Steve Jobs

“Among the key focuses of this ecosystem mentioned Friday was: the building out of Yahoo’s ad network, taking advantage of its ‘consumer insights’; the creation of a healthier corporate culture where fresh ideas could bubble up more effectively and be launched with less agony; and a new move to create a more open network a la Facebook on Yahoo for third-party developers to publish on and create more robust offerings.”

NASA on using color in info display graphics

“The process sketched below is intended for design of color usage in complicated graphics that support high-information-load, high-threat decisions, as in aerospace applications. Design of the color scheme must take into account the overall design of the application’s functionality—what the user is trying to do and how.”

Life as a barnacle on Facebook’s hull

“Last month, there were reports that Microsoft was considering a $500 million investment that would value the three-year-old company at up to $15 billion. Now it appears that such exuberance has infused the expanding Facebook universe, even though no one has yet proved it is possible to build a profitable business with sustainable revenues on the site. Some developers report earning tens of thousands of dollars in advertising with the applications they have created. Yet their applications are mostly running ads promoting other Facebook applications — a situation that recalls the earliest Gold Rush miners, who earned a living selling shovels to other miners. And developers must cover the cost of hosting the applications on their own Web servers.”

Zappos
Alex Labbett writes: “I just placed my 5th order over 4 months at Zappos.com and decided to read through their ‘Shipping Notification’ email. Attached you will find what they had to say, and I believe it follows some of the principles shown on SvN.

I placed my order close to 2:30PM and it has already shipped (the day I ordered it) for me to receive by tomorrow. Also, the overnight shipping is free.

Specifically, this paraphraph is what sets them apart:

While most companies spend a lot of money on marketing in order to grow their business, our philosophy at Zappos.com is a little different. Instead of spending a lot of money on marketing, we would rather work on improving the customer experience (running our warehouse around the clock, super-fast free shipping, free return shipping, 24/7 customer support, etc.), and rely on repeat customers and word of mouth to grow our business instead.

I’ve recommended Zappos to all my friends before, but this follow-up email just further solidifies my opinion that they’re the best online shoe store. Period.”

Chocolove
Kathy Sierra used to rave about Chocolove for their smart packaging (which includes poetry inside the wrapper). History of Chocolove is from the company’s site and tells a story that sets the company apart from the Snickers of the world.

Chocolove started as the classic entrepreneur story – a dream, a garage, extended credit card debt and loans from friends and family. With its visionary chocolatier, and a solid concept, Chocolove became, and continues to be, a pioneer in the chocolate industry.

Timothy Moley is the founder, owner and chocolatier at Chocolove. A tall and slightly eccentric man, he reminds you a little of Willy Wonka. His laid-back attitude, wry grin, and lanky physique would never lead you to believe he is a man who lives and breathes chocolate, and has been consuming two chocolate bars, every day, for the past ten years. Seriously.

It all began in a cocoa field in Indonesia… Timothy was chewing on some cocoa beans doing volunteer work for USAID, a government program that promotes agricultural and technical education in developing countries. He had been living abroad on and off for two years, visiting over 28 countries, developing his palate with spices, teas and wines. And, like most of us, he had always dreamed of being his own boss, dedicated to something he loved. The idea of a career in chocolate inspired him and an idea began to form -  to create a premium chocolate bar, paired with the romance of love.

Click for larger version.

Richard Kostelanetz calls the image above, from László Moholy-Nagy’s “Vision in Motion,” “a masterpiece of graphic literary criticism.”

Not only did he understand Joyce’s extraordinary work better than anyone else writing at that time, but Moholy also provided a chart that, as it uses his favorite visual forms of the rectangular grid and circles, remains to this day the most succinct (and inspired) presentation of the Joycean technique of multiple references.

More on Moholy-Nagy: A few photos of his “Vision in Motion” book at Flickr. “The fiery stimulator” is a Guardian profile of Moholy-Nagy which calls him “the most inventive and engaging of all the Bauhaus artists.”

Some recent posts at the 37signals Product Blog:

Liven up your pages with embedded Google maps
Embedded Google maps are a great way to add info to Backpack pages (or Basecamp posts, etc.)...You can also embed a set of driving directions, a local search, or maps created by other Google users.

Backpack is PC Magazine’s Site of the Week
“Backpack is an incredibly easy-to-use Web-based organizational service. This deceptively bare-bones-looking app provides straightforward functionality you can use to organize a wildly varying array of projects. The genius of Backpack is that it’s so basic. It’s like having an online loose-leaf notebook to use as you please.”

Intro message best practices for getting people started in Basecamp
A thoughtful intro message can help Basecamp users hit the ground running. This post contains several examples of successful, personalized messages Basecamp customers use to get others up and running with Basecamp.

Another thoughtful Basecamp welcome message
“Together we’ll use it to keep all our notes, files and drafts in one place. And whenever you have something you’d like us to take a look at, just upload it here and we’ll comment right back.”

A new Campfire notifier plugin from Bruce Williams
“I’m aware there are a couple campfire_notifier plugins floating out there, and all certainly have their merits. I wrote mine specifically to address the need for custom messages and to support the full range of CruiseControl.rb events—which I didn’t find elsewhere.”

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A quick last minute upcoming speaking engagement: I’ll be on the Business Model Refinement panel this Friday from 4-5pm.

This panel is part of the TiECON Midwest conference at the Hyatt Regency in Chicago on October 5th. Tickets are $50 for TiE Midwest members and $75 for non-members.