(Continued from Part 1.)

Matt	How do you approach client work differently than your personal projects?
Jonathan	I’ve been fortunate to have had some really amazing clients—Yahoo! (for the time capsule), Seed Magazine (for Phylotaxis), and Daylife. The nature of those projects matches very closely the type of work I would be making anyway, so it has been a very natural process.
Aaron	I’ve been extremely lucky recently and have been able to work on a number of projects guided very much by my own interests. Coincedentally, I also have been working with Yahoo! ... in a totally different group as a resident designer, as well as working with Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and MIT’s One Laptop Per Child project
Marcos	I had been playing around with the idea of doing something with google news and then I came through Ben Shneidermann’s research paper on treemaps and then I think it was very clear what I needed to do.
Aaron	At Yahoo! I’ve been working in a new team called "Design Innovation" focused on prototypes and ideation internally. It’s been great. Most of what we’re doing here is internal investigation, but I can show a few examples that we’ve been playing with.
Aaron
Aaron	This screenshot is from an animatied visualization system for looking at traffic accidents in urban areas
Matt	neat
Jonathan
Jonathan	Mine is Phylotaxis, an ever-changing zeitgeist of science news images. The identity of Seed Magazine actually changes every few hours, as the world of science news changes.

Tiny code is always best

“The fundamental nature of coding is that our task, as programmers, is to recognize that every decision we make is a trade-off. To be a master programmer is to understand the nature of these trade-offs, and be conscious of them in everything we write…START WITH BREVITY. Increase the other dimensions AS REQUIRED BY TESTING.”

Top ten reasons why web 2.0 sucks

“M&A Wack-a-mole stopping innovation in its tracks…Most of Web 2.0 is going to wind up becoming the corporate walking dead of long forgotten or poorly understood acquisitions. Consumers suffer when entrepreneurs won’t make a go of it on their own and make a bigger impact on their online experience.”

Flickr fails “The Mom Test”

“I told Mom to peruse the pictures and click Order Prints for each one she wanted on paper. Unfortunately, Flickr was the wrong tool for that job. The terminology is confusing — quick, what’s the difference between a Photo Group, a Photo Set and a Photo Stream? Worse, it takes seven mouse clicks, two pop-up menus and two dialog boxes to order one print of one photo. My mom wound up spending hours on what should have been a 10-minute job.”

Fellini on freedom

“I don’t believe in total freedom for the artist. Left on his own, free to do anything he likes, the artist ends up doing nothing at all. If there’s one thing that’s dangerous for an artist, it’s precisely this question of total freedom, waiting for inspiration and all the rest of it.” -Federico Fellini

Turn off ads for repeat visitors?

“It didn’t matter how big or small the site was, how narrow focused or completely open-ended the content was. The biggest single group of visitors to these sites were people who had never seen them before and would never return again. Among my informal polling of friends and my own sites, the lowest percentage of one-time visitors was 53%. Some sites had as much as 75% of their traffic come from people that had only visited once.”

Some recent posts at the 37signals Product Blog:

New Basecamp Customer Video: NYSE TransactTools
TransactTools is the commercial technology arm of the New York Stock Exchange.

NYSE TransactTools video.

Previewing the revised Basecamp Dashboard
We’re always looking for ways to improve the organization of the information presented on this information-heavy screen.

Store your account/login info at Highrise
“Highrise is great for aggregating information about all the accounts I have for various web applications.”

[Fireside Chats are round table discussions conducted using Campfire.]

The latest chat is with three people who visualize data in fascinating ways…

Jonathan Harris (Daylife, We Feel Fine, etc.)
“My work uses the Internet as a means of studying the human world. It’s one part anthropology, one part computer science, and one part visual art.”

Aaron Koblin (The Sheep Market, Flight Patterns, etc.)
“I’m not a scientist, not a statistician, not a graphic designer…I suppose that makes me an Artist.”

Marcos Weskamp (Flickrgraph, Newsmap, etc.)
“I think the reason why infoviz is so interesting for me is because it gives me a little bit of every world…art, visual problem solving and engineering.”

Moderated by Matt from 37signals.

Matt	to get started, why don’t you guys each describe for our readers what you do.
Jonathan	My work uses the Internet as a means of studying the human world. It’s one part anthropology, one part computer science, and one part visual art.
Jonathan	A good example of these ideas is We Feel Fine
Jonathan
Jonathan	It’s a study of human emotion, using large scale blog analysis
Jonathan	It scans blogs to try to understand how different populations of people around the world are feeling
Aaron	Sometimes it’s tricky to describe what I do concisely. Last year I received an award from the National Science Foundation titled first place in “non-interactive media” It surprised me that the category was more well-defined by what it wasn’t than what it was. Sometimes it seems like that method of describing my work is more appropriate. I’m not a scientist, not a statistician, not a graphic designer, ... I suppose that makes me an Artist.
Marcos	well, I’m an Interaction Designer with a really strong interest in information visualization. My background is basically in Graphic Design and Architecture. I think the reason why infoviz is so interesting for me is because it gives me a little bit of every world, art, visual problem solving and engineering.
Jonathan	Yes, I think the nature of this space is that it’s difficult to describe to people, as it blends many disciplines.
Matt	If someone asks what you do, what do you show them?
Marcos	Though a little bit old and rusty, I think Newsmap would be the first thing I’ll throw out.
Marcos
Aaron	I would show my Flight Pattern visualizations
Aaron
Jonathan	Newsmap is a classic. I still hear people reference it all the time.

XM Packaging process
From: Ed Illig

Over time I’ve noted you guys enjoy works that incorporate handcraft, process and technology. With that in mind I kept thinking this post may interest you for Signal vs. Noise — from our .think blog on an XM package development process:

XM Satellite Radio: A Packaging Process Overview

This article, an insight into the design of a consumer package for satellite radio provider XM, includes many aspects of a typical package development process. In the interest of time, we’ll skip research, diagnostic and technical methodology phases and concentrate on the basic iterative process steps in this article.

Husbandry vs. parenting
From: Mark Barry

Thought this blog post about using lessons from animal husbandry in everyday parenting can in a lot of ways also be applied to software design. Check it.

What I knew about animals was actually quite applicable, and so I began to rethink the adventure as not so much “mentorship of a child” as “husbandry of an animal.” Here’s what I gleaned from my years at the animal hospital that was really useful.

“SANS Top Three Programming Errors”
From: Joseph Mako III

SANS.org, the people who maintain isc.sans.org, the Internet Storm Center, have started an institute for secure code. The .pdf provided at www.sans-ssi.org titled “SANS Top Three Programming Errors” (PDF) is a great read.

Recent posts at the newly launched 37signals Product Blog:

Instrument and Wieden+Kennedy use Basecamp to launch new WK site

Instrument and global ad agency Wieden+Kennedy recently used Basecamp to collaborate on W+K’s new site.

10‭ ‬Ways to Be Productive with Backpack

Web Worker Daily just published 10 ways to be productive with Backpack.

Twitter, Campfire, and the power of persistent real-time chat amoung groups

The reason Twitter works is very similar to the reason Campfire works: Power is unleashed when you bring a simple UI to persistent real-time chat among groups.

Using Highrise to maintain meaningful relationships

Youth worker Josh Cook has a bunch of tips that are good idea starters for anyone who uses Highrise.

Add tasks quickly to Highrise via Quicksilver

Fitzage.com offers Quicksilver addicts two scripts that integrate with Highrise.

Backpack one of PC World’s 100 Best Products of 2007

PC World lists the 100 Best Products of 2007 and Backpack comes in at #66. We’re thrilled to be included.

bcToolkit generates time and project reports for Basecamp

KMP Interactive Marketing & Technology built bcToolkit, a tool to generate reports using the Basecamp API.

James Surowiecki on why feature creep is so hard to stop

“Although consumers find overloaded gadgets unmanageable, they also find them attractive. It turns out that when we look at a new product in a store we tend to think that the more features there are, the better. It’s only once we get the product home and try to use it that we realize the virtues of simplicity.”

Panel of CEOs and experts pick the best business books of all time

“The responses ranged far and wide: Military metaphors popped up occasionally, with Sun Tzu’s The Art of War rearing its age-old head. But books about biology were also surprisingly prevalent, not only for their insight into how business environments imitate the natural world but also, several executives said, because understanding biology helped them appreciate the concept of randomness.”

How does Bill Gates feel about about the John Hodgman character in those Mac ads?

Gates: “Yeah, I’m not gonna comment on someone else’s ad.” Garfield: “OK, well, Bill Gates, thank you so much for joining us.” Gates: (Silence)

The value of sketching

“Sketches, he argues, are quick, inexpensive, disposable, plentiful, offer minimal detail, and suggest and explore rather than confirm. (It should be noted that he doesn’t limit “sketches” to pen on paper—a sketch might be digital or three-dimensional.) The value of sketching is less in the artifacts themselves than in the cognitive process of working through dozens of ideas, of considering as many options as possible, and allowing each option to raise new questions…Sketching is less expensive than prototyping, and far less expensive than trying to fix problems late in the development cycle.”

Ajax violating expectations?

“The availability of Ajax technology is causing some developers to diverge from the native look and feel of the web in favor of a user interface style I call ‘desktop app in a web browser’...When you build a ‘desktop in the web browser’-style application, you’re violating users’ unwritten expectations of how a web application should look and behave. This choice may have significant negative impact on learnability, pleasantness of use, and adoption. The fact that you can create web applications that resemble desktop applications does not imply that you should; it only means that you have one more option and subsequent set of trade-offs to consider when making design decisions.” [via OR]

Ask the Wizard

Great blog by FeedBurner founder Dick Costolo. Includes very detailed posts about running a biz, funding, etc.

What the Agile Manifesto left out

“If you snoop around my house, you’ll notice that there’s a silverware drawer that’s rather tidy and a junk drawer that’s not. It’s much easier to find a spoon than a battery. There’s a reason for that: my family and I look for spoons several times a day, but for batteries much less often. Things you use often should be easy to find. Things you do often should be easy to do. Properties like this, which Gabriel collectively calls “habitability,” can go against software principles.”

Listing problems instead of solutions

“Between the time I write a particular to-do item and the time I finally get around to executing it, I may significantly change the code in that area. Or I may learn something about the code and where it wants to go next. Or the problem may disappear, as a side-effect of some other change. Either way, the solution I might have on my to-do list has a chance of being inappropriate now that the code and I have moved on. So by listing the problem as I originally saw it, I’m giving myself a much better chance of creating the right solution for it – because I’m deciding on that solution in the presence of the full facts.”

Chessboxing

“The basic idea in chessboxing is to combine the #1 thinking sport and the #1 fighting sport into a hybrid that demands the most of its competitors – both mentally and physically. In a chessboxing fight two opponents play alternating rounds of chess and boxing. The contest starts with a round of chess, followed by a boxing round, followed by another round of chess and so on.”

See what your site looks like to people who are color blind

“Color Oracle takes the guesswork out of designing for color blindness by showing you in real time what people with common color vision impairments will see…Eight percent of all males are affected by color vision impairement.”

Internet radio in danger

“The future of Internet radio is in immediate danger. Royalty rates for webcasters have been drastically increased by a recent ruling and are due to go into effect on July 15 (retroactive to Jan 1, 2006!). If the increased rates remain unchanged, the majority of webcasters will go bankrupt and silent on this date. Internet radio needs your help!”

Keys to Lean Development

“1. eliminate waste – do only what adds value to the end product 2. amplify learning – when in trouble, increase feedback 3. decide as late as possible – by keeping your options open, you are free to change 4. deliver as fast as possible – because you want feedback as soon as possible 5. empower the team – enable the team members to make the decisions themselves, locally 6. build integrity in – integrity must be cared for from the start 7. avoid sub-optimization – overall success is what’s important – not success or failure of individual tasks.”

Do nothing fast
From: Des Traynor

Thought you might like this quote from one of Microsofts very talented programmers, Raymond Chen...Speaking during Q & A at the PDC developers conference recently…

One of the questions I always get asked is, “My app is soo slow to startup! What are the super secret evil tricks you guys at Microsoft are using to get your apps to startup faster?” And the answer is … the super evil trick … is to do less stuff. Because the stuff you don’t do doesn’t slow anything down…It turns out I can do nothing really really fast!

Pinkberry yogurt = “frozen heroin juice”
From: Scott Heiferman

The taste that launched 1,000 parking tickets [“This is a story about yogurt, but it is also about entrepreneurship, financial and cultural expectations, beating the heat, beating the caloric system and parking.”]

Hwang and Lee agreed that the store should be streamlined, so there are only two flavors of yogurt—plain and green tea. You cannot buy anything else. Not even water. There is little waste and the staff can be trained in a few hours (it’s not hard to yank down on the handle of a soft-serve yogurt machine).

Vignelli explains his 1972 NYC Subway Map
From: Tyler Rooney

Massimo Vignelli explains his 1972 NYC Subway Map (Quicktime, 4 minutes).

I thought you guys might appreciate this. It’s outtake footage from the documentary ‘Helvetica’. Vignelli even mentions what he did wrong with his iconic subway map.

Ira Glass on Storytelling

This American Life host explains how to weave a good yarn.

Twittered director’s commentary

“Drive” director Greg Yaitanes twitters live director’s commentary during show. Sample entry: “bad directing moment: shuttle is taking off and no one is watching it as alex runs away.”

The small-is-beautiful movement

“Our society’s been based on excess for so long, it’s still a somewhat novel idea to live simply…I can’t say what the definition of a small house is. Maybe it’s 4,000 square feet, if that’s what it takes to suit their needs. The idea is that the house is being well-used. Some people need more space than others.”

Work-for-hire model broken?

Jim Coudal: “We don’t think that is a particularly equitable way to do our business. The whole work-for-hire thing in design and advertising, where the client owns everything outright, is a broken model.”

Wikipedia popularity soaring

“Eight percent of American Web users visited Wikipedia during a typical day this winter—a higher proportion than those who made an online purchase, visited a dating site or chat room during a typical day…Wikipedia isn’t replacing the professionals; it’s just quickly and efficiently harnessing their work.”

Tips on raising money for a startup

“The business of getting funded is only about the business you’re trying to build and nothing more…Don’t confuse perseverance and a poor plan…Go as far as you can as fast as you can before you raise your first dollar…Raising money is about people not money.”