Guinness

Josh Charles writes:

I visited the Guinness website this morning, and was pleased to see how they are using their country selection box. Some websites usually only move the U.S. or perhaps a few additional ones to the top. I wonder if there was some marketing data that went into this decision?

What the Font?

Mark Ott writes:

When matching fonts for an unknown font, “WhatTheFont?” has a nice liittle feature that makes your image stay put while you scroll so you can compare it easily with the results. Nicely done.

Facebook

Sebastian Hirsch writes:

I like part of the privacy settings on Facebook: Very effective on what it does and doesn’t do. There was bit of a row when the news feed was rolled out, but I think this screen is a great answer to users’ privacy concerns. Too bad that it just came as an afterthought.

True, Facebook had to do something to respond to its pissed off customers. But this kind of preference-mania is overkill. Too many indecipherable icons. Too many options. (From Getting Real: “For customers, preference screens with an endless amount of options are a headache, not a blessing.”) How about just an on/off switch and be done with it?

Got an interesting screenshot for Signal vs. Noise? Send the image and/or URL to svn [at] 37signals [dot] com.

Get-organized-now hysteria

“In the electronic, gadgetized age of e-mail, BlackBerrys and ever-more-sophisticated desktop software—all designed theoretically to manage digital information efficiently—we’ve become overwhelmed. That’s where the productivity industry comes in. The question is, however, whether this newfound emphasis on productivity is helping—or just making us crazier.”

Detect available fonts using JavaScript and CSS

“I wrote a JavaScript code which can be used to guess if a particular font is present in a machine. This may be help of desktop-like web application developers when they want to provide different skins or fonts preferences to their users.”

Tim Cook on Apple, iPhone, Apple TV

“I can’t stress this enough, the thing separates Apple from others is that we have this very simple culture. Our company revolves around product and we focus on making the very best…We believe in giving people great value. Many companies put a computer out and its not what the customer really wants, so they have to add this and that (wireless, video camera). The customer winds up having to jump through many hoops before they finally get something that they think they want and it, unfortunately, doesn’t really work that well, then. We don’t do that.”

The graphic design of Idiocracy

“The movie spares no detail in the satire of branding and graphic design, turning every logo, sign and poster into a dumbed-down, Web 2.0-ish, futuristic-looking style that may come sooner than 500 years from now…Idiocracy displays some of the best graphic humor to appear in a feature film. Here are some of my favorite screen-captured moments.”

A "bedouin" is someone who transforms a laptop, cell phone and coffeehouse into an office

“A new breed of worker, fueled by caffeine and using the tools of modern technology, is flourishing in the coffeehouses of San Francisco. Roaming from cafe to cafe and borrowing a name from the nomadic Arabs who wandered freely in the desert, they’ve come to be known as “bedouins.” San Francisco’s modern-day bedouins are typically armed with laptops and cell phones, paying for their office space and Internet access by buying coffee and muffins.”

This is the final preview before we launch Highrise. In this preview we’ll talk about Cases.

What are cases
Cases help you keep related notes, files, images, and people together on one screen. You can add notes directly on a case or attach a note you’ve entered on a person page to a case.

Attaching a note to a case
When you enter a note on a person page you are given the option to also attach it to a case. The note will then appear on the person’s page and also on the case page.

That note is now added to the case:

The Case
Here’s what a case might look like:

If a note is attached to a person and a case the person is also listed in the sidebar of the case. This allows you to see who’s part of the case.

Auto-pilot often comes at a cost: It puts a layer between you and what you’re building.

In “Creating Short Films for the Web,” Hillman Curtis writes about shooting in manual:

Another goal I set for myself was to become comfortable enough with the camera to shoot in manual. This meant switching everything “auto” on the camera off: auto focus, auto zoom, auto iris and shutter speed, an auto white balance. This can be risky when you are new to using a camera: you might misfocus or forget to check your white balance as the light changes. But with manual you can dial in a much richer shot, and it forces you to stay connected with your camera throughout the shoot.

For similar reasons, we often choose to pull out the machete and chop our own path in software development. Programmers write code in text editors, instead of integrated development environments, so they can better feel the pulse of the code. Designers code HTML/CSS by hand too. Also, we answer every support email ourselves because farming support out would put us that much further away from our customers.

Every time you outsource something, put something on automatic, or get software to do it for you, you put up another layer. After a while, these layers add up. They blur your vision. You lose touch with the core of what you’re doing. Like Hillman says, shooting in manual lets you dial in a much richer shot.

A development pow wow in the conference room. Note how Sam doesn’t need his computer. He programs in his brain.

Headphone time for Jason and Ryan.

The view from outside. (This photo by DjD.)

You can see the entire office in the Coudal film Copy Goes Here.

Some of the recent activity at our internal 37signals Campfire chat room:

Jason F.	goldmine time: http://www.threadlesskids.com/
Ryan S.
Jason F.
Jason F.	How could you not buy that one?
Ryan S.	lol
Jason F.
Matt L.	reminds me of that mitch hedberg joke:
Matt L.	A friend said he wanted to show me a picture of when he was younger. Every picture is of you when you were younger. “Here’s a picture of me when I’m older.” “Son of a bitch. Let me see that camera.”
Jason F.	that was a good one. RIP.
Ryan S.	lol “let me see that camera”
Ryan S.	i wonder if we’re gonna be seeing more and more of this pale blue on the web
Ryan S.	threadless uses it all over. gmail uses it well
Ryan S.	it seems like the new grey of interface chrome

Ryan S.	major hotness:
Ryan S.
Ryan S.
Ryan S.	(http://www.draft.jp/)
Jeremy K.	Love the ‘DRAFT’ font
Ryan S.	totally
Jeremy K.	.jp must be a typographer’s dream
Ryan S.	ha :)

Ok, we’re really close now. Here comes an especially useful Highrise feature: Email-in.

Highrise and email play well together
Highrise isn’t an email program. You don’t compose emails in Highrise. But Highrise likes getting emails. It likes helping you clear your inbox. It likes getting an email from you and doing something useful with it.

Your own dropbox
Every Highrise user get an email dropbox when they create their account. A dropbox takes this form: [email protected]. The “12345678” is a unique PIN. When you send, cc, bcc, or forward emails to that address, Highrise knows they are from you. Then Highrise goes to work.

Email to notes
Notes are an important part of Highrise. Notes from phone calls, meetings, conversations, prospects, etc. When something happens with a person that’s important to your business (or group or organization) you create a note in Highrise on that person’s page so you have a historical record of that conversation or interaction.

Lots of those interactions happen via email. A client sends you an important email or you get a new business lead via email. Maybe your attorney sends you something via email that you want to make sure you keep around.

When you get an important email from someone that you want to log in Highrise, just forward that email to your dropbox address and Highrise will attach it to the right person’s page in your Highrise account. And, if that person doesn’t already exist in your Highrise account Highrise will create that person on the fly for you. Sending email from new people to Highrise is one of the easiest ways to actually create people in Highrise.

Good newspaper design is all about effectively presenting large quantities of text/information in a usable, straightforward way. That’s got a lot more in common with good web design than most of the sexy print pieces you find in design magazines/annuals. Some places to check out winning newspaper design:

Best Front Design picks out a noteworthy newspaper cover each day and analyzes why the design works.

Society for News Design has an annual Best of Newspaper Design Competition (archives).

And NewsDesigner is a smart blog about newspaper design.

Code Igniter

John Muhl writes:

[Re: last line] Code Igniter really, really speeds up your code.

800-Flowers

Bret Walker writes:

While it’s nice that 1800Flowers.com tries to be helpful with the recipient dropdown menu, the “myself” option seems a little out of place when “recipient” changes to “deceased.”

Dreamhost
Nick Grossman writes:

On the Dreamhost support request form, they ask you to categorize your state of mind regarding your support request. I’ve always liked the way they present these options in a very human way, and with a sense of humor.

Got an interesting screenshot for Signal vs. Noise? Send the image and/or URL to svn [at] 37signals [dot] com.

We’re pretty close now so it’s time to reveal the meat and potatoes of Highrise: People and Companies. Highrise is all about people. Who you (or your co-workers) talked to, what was said, and what needs to be done next for/with these people/companies.

People
Every contact in Highrise gets a page. You and your co-workers can add notes from calls, conversations, meetings, or any other historic information about this person to this page. You can also attach files, attach notes to cases (more on cases in another post), and set permissions on specific notes. It’s sort of like a weblog about each person you do business with.

In the sidebar of a contact page you’ll find any tasks related to that contact, the ability to add a new task about that contact, contact info, and an “about” section where you can post their bio, background, or anything else that might be relevant.

To add a new note for a contact just type it in the box at the top of the screen and click the “Add this note” button. Data entry is rocket fast with no barriers.