Gorgeous replacement for the GranSport.

Impressive. [via Sam via tumble]

So far we’ve talked about the big picture and permissions and groups. Next we’re going to talk about the welcome screen and workspace tabs.

The Blank Slate
Back on September 19, 2003 I posted a message about the “Blank Slate.” The blank slate is the first screen someone sees when they log into a web-app for the first time. It’s what they see when there isn’t any data. It’s the critical first impression.

We pay a lot of attention to the blank slate states. I think Highrise has at least 8 of them. One for almost ever major feature and some special “almost-blank slates” for screen with just a little bit of data. Some blank slates go away instantly while others go away after you’ve done something three times.

The Welcome Tab
One blank slate I wanted to focus on for this Highrise preview is the Welcome State. This is the first screen you see after you’ve created your Highrise account. It gives a quick link to get started with the primary feature (adding people), a summary of the key benefits of Highrise, and some other things you can do too.

This is valuable information. It’s a great “home base.” However, most blank slates go away after you’ve seen them once. They go away once data has been entered into the system. That’s usually the right thing to do, but blank slates can also be comforting places to return to if you ever get lost or confused or just want to go back somewhere that’s “safe.”

So we decided in Highrise we’d make the initial blank slate its own tab called “Welcome.” You can keep the welcome tab around for 1 minute or for 3 months or forever. When you feel comfortable enough with Highrise you can choose to hide the welcome tab forever.

The Workspace Tabs
The other thing we wanted to present in this third Highrise preview are the workspace tabs.

Like most web apps, Highrise has a set of permanent tabs. In Highrise they are Dashboard, Contacts, Tasks, and Cases.

Next to those tabs are the workspace tabs.

The workspace tabs are built dynamically based on the last 5 people, companies, or cases you’ve viewed. They keep the recently or frequently accessed subjects near by. It’s especially handy when you’re working with or jumping between a small set of people. Instead of having to browse or search for these people each time, the workspace tabs keep them close at hand.

Sign up to have a chance at a Golden Ticket
As we get closer to launch we’ll begin issuing “golden tickets.” Golden ticket holders will have access to sign-up for Highrise prior to the public launch. To sign up for a chance at a golden ticket, be sure to sign up for the Highrise announcement list

Posterwire.com’s movie poster of the year
The 2nd Annual Posterwire.com Movie Poster of the Year Award

Bill Sullivan photographs
Elevator photos from Bill Sullivan. [via DP]

Ridgid drill

“It lights up when it’s plugged in! And it has a picture of a drill on it so you know which cord to unplug!”

New $1 coins
The Presidential $1 Coin Program: “The United States is honoring our Nation’s presidents by issuing $1 circulating coins featuring their images in the order that they served, beginning with Presidents Washington, Adams, Jefferson and Madison in 2007.” The new coin features edge-incused inscriptions.

Brother, Would You Take a Dollar Coin…Please? talks about previous dollar coins that never quite took off.

Despite the fact that the Susan B. Anthony was minted for three consecutive years (and again in 1999), the coin was, for the most part, regarded as a sad aberration among consumers…

Just a month after the coin’s introduction, the magazine Forbes was already hinting at trouble. From the Aug. 6, 1979, issue:

The public’s vote won’t be in for a while but banks and retailers are showing reservations, presumably because the coin’s size — slightly larger than a quarter — could lead to expensive confusion in handling. One department store cashier in Washington, D.C., where the Susan B. was first circulated, says flatly: “I reject it on the grounds that it is not paper and it’s got an old woman on it.”

Plum TV is looking for a Ruby on Rails Web Developer in New York, East Village.

Bandzoogle.com is looking for a Lead Designer in Montreal (or telecommute).

Federated Media is looking for an Experienced Web Developer in Sausalito, CA.

DePauw University is looking for a Web Specialist in Greencastle, IN.

Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia is looking for a PHP Web Developer in Atlanta, GA.

Stamen Design is looking for an Interactive Designer; Online Maps & Live Data Visualization in San Francisco, CA.

Acme Auto Leasing, LLC is looking for a Ruby Programmer or Flex/Flash Expert (Apollo) in New Haven, CT.

CityMind Group is looking for a User Interface Designer to telecommute.

ActiveState is looking for a Web Developer (contract) in Vancouver, B.C. Canada.

Geonetric is looking for a Production Designer to Cedar Rapids, IA.

BustedTees.com + CollegeHumor.com is looking for a PHP/MYSQL Developer in NYC.

XFI is looking for a Requirements Designer / Information Architect to Bathesda, MD.

Atlantic Media Company is looking for a Web Developer in Washington, DC.

Atlantic Media Company is looking for a Ruby on Rails Developer in San Francisco CA.

Find a job or put your design or programming in job in front of the best on the Job Board.

Think Small looks at the trend of tiny second homes (500 square feet and under). Less house means less upkeep, energy, and waiting are required.

Minimal square footage means reduced maintenance costs, less upkeep and reduced energy consumption. Prefabricated and pre-built models can require little or no site preparation, which means no anxious weekend drives to the country to make sure construction is moving along. Add to this an element of instant gratification (once the planning stage is over, most houses go up in days, even hours, and many are delivered, turn-key, to the site).

There’s an audio slide show of a some different tiny homes too.

Reminds me of that Geico “Tiny House” commercial.

Vu Magazine: Photos, Robots and Cutting-Edge Design

“The Maison Européenne de Photographie here in Paris is just wrapping up an exhibition about Vu, the French photo magazine of the 1920s and ‘30s. I expected a nostalgic survey of period feature photography, but instead got a ton of insight into something more contemporary: how technology works to spark design inspiration…the thing that really struck me was the layout of the pages. The design is full of sharp angles and wild proportions—vigorous, effusive, dizzying, almost violent. It commands attention.”

Joel Spolsky's steps to remarkable customer service

“I was sputtering, trying to figure out how best to express my rage at being forced to spend the morning going back and forth. ‘Ah. It’s my fault,’ he said. And suddenly, I wasn’t mad at all. Mysteriously, the words ‘it’s my fault’ completely defused me. That was all it took.”

Entrepreneurs reveal best decisions and worst mistakes at Startupping

“I asked many successful Internet entrepreneurs about lessons they learned starting and running Internet companies. I asked for their best decision and their worst mistake, and I received many insightful replies. Here is the first set of responses.”

The slow mojo-death of Microsoft over the last five years

“Mojo isn’t about what’s right or wrong inside an organization — it has much more to do with what’s going on externally — and how your actions and behaviors make people feel. A wise woman once said that it’s not what you say, but how you make your audience feel that matters.”

The Onion: "Apple Hard At Work Making iPhone Obsolete"

“When the second-generation iPhone comes out this fall, we want iPhone users to feel not just jealous, but downright foolish for owning such laughably primitive technology.”

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

Jason F.	Firefox3: Web Apps Game changer
Sam S.	JF: that basically amounts to cookies that can store more data
Sam S.	I really don’t think it’ll be a “game changer”
Sam S.	but we’ll see ;)
Ryan S.	BUT THE WEB IS THE NEW PLATFORM
Ryan S.
Mark I.	If you want to give up Rails and write all your apps in Javascript maybe.
Mark I.	I don’t like Javascript that much. :)
Jamis B.	just need a new framework
Jamis B.	“Javascript on Jails” :)
Sam S.	jails is right
Sam S.	that’s what writing a web app in js would feel like
Ryan S.	aren’t google apps written in JS?
Ryan S.	do they generate the JS with magic or something?
Sam S.	from what I understand, the client-side stuff is written in a Java framework that generates JS code
Jamis B.	guh, that’s even worse
Sam S.	at least for gmail

Mark I.
Mark I.	I was flipping through the February 2007 Popular Science when I saw the Backpack Calendar in the corner of the page.
Ryan S.	oh how cool
Jason F.	Woah on the BP Cal!
Ryan S.
Mark I.	I enjoy Popular Science and Popular Mechanics.
Jason F.	MI agree—great pubs

Ryan S.	wow really bizarre marketing from microsoft in asia
Ryan S.	http://whatswrongwithu.com/
Ryan S.	also gates is looking more and more like a squid monster
Ryan S.
Jason F.	LOLOL

From the bathroom chalkboard wall at the 37signals/Coudal Partners office (click image for larger view).

Last week we posted the first preview of Highrise. In that preview we introduced the product in broad strokes. With each additional preview we’ll be covering one facet of Highrise in detail.

With preview 2 we’ll be focusing on permissions and groups.

The “keepshare” scenario
Highrise is a shared contact manager. That means that everyone in your organization can use it to keep their contacts and contact history together online. While that’s convenient, it does bring up some visibility questions. There are things you may want to keep to yourself and other things you may want to share with others. We call this scenario “keepshare.”

What if you have someone in your contacts list that other people in your company shouldn’t know about? An investor or a sensitive contact that hasn’t been made public yet. Or what if only some people should be able to see the person? There’s also the case where someone should be visible to everyone, but certain notes about that person should only be visible to some people. Now what?

The solution
We spent a lot of time on permissions in Highrise. The bulk of the code in Highrise is permissions code. We tried a lot of different systems and a lot of different concepts. We finally went with the clearest solution from a customer experience standpoint. There were technically superior solutions, but they required too much mental overhead to understand. Clarity is key so we aimed for that.

In the spirit of open collaboration we wanted everything to default to “Everyone.” If something is in the system, everyone in the system can see it by default. However, you can also make something visible so “Only I can” see it. Or you can “Select a group” of people to see it. Or you can “Select people” to see it. “Groups” are predefined, “people” are are selected on the fly.

Groups
One of the things we realized early on is that it would be useful to be able to predefine groups of people to use with the permission system. For example, there may be situations where “Partners” should be able to see one thing, “Investors” another thing, the “Sales” department something else, and the “Board of Directors” some other things. Highrise Groups lets you add people to groups so you can quickly set permissions on people, notes, companies, and cases (more on cases in another post).

Stay tuned for the next Highrise preview.

Sign up to have a chance at a Golden Ticket
As we get closer to launch we’ll begin issuing “golden tickets.” Golden ticket holders will have access to sign-up for Highrise prior to the public launch. To sign up for a chance at a golden ticket, be sure to sign up for the Highrise announcement list.