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

The Chatters
Seth Godin (blog)
Mark Hurst (blog)
(Moderated by Matt and Jason from 37signals)

Topics
Topics covered include Google, Apple, JetBlue, the common thread of companies that offer top-notch customer experiences, the GEL conference, zoomers and why they’re important, industries that don’t get it, and more.

Sample quotes
Mark: “Go to the top person…and ask him/her when’s the last time they sat, face to face, with a customer, and let the customer talk – no focus group questions, no usability tasks – just talk about their experience. In many orgs that gets a blank stare – as if to say ‘Customers? i don’t have time for them.’ And there’s your answer.”

Seth: “I think the long term benefits are how you rationalize it to the board and to your investors. But I think that’s not sufficient to drive a true service attitude. That comes from your mom or from something in your make up that makes you want to serve people in what you do all day.”

Seth: “TAKE RESPONSIBILITY! If there’s a problem, fix it. If your job can’t be fixed, quit. How dare you waste your life in exchange for a paycheck. You have high speed internet access, bub, you’ve got no excuse. You don’t live in a hovel in Ghana. Go do it!! Pick up the phone and call someone.”

Mark: “Try to become more aware of experience – whether at work, while using technology, while in a store, in a bank, or wherever. i think the more people are aware of good and bad experiences, the better they are at taking responsibility (re seth’s comment) for creating good experiences where they can.”

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

Notes from a talk by Alan Kay

“Turn up your nose at good ideas. You must work on great ideas, not good ones.”...”Better is the enemy of best.”...”Point of view is worth 80 IQ points.”...”People who are really serious about software should make their own hardware.”

In defense of "purposeless acts of design whimsy"

“One of the functions of design is to delight and amuse the audience. There’s something to be gained from indulging ourselves, once in a while, in purposeless acts of design whimsy, even if we spend our days building minutely optimized interfaces that give no quarter to artistic idiosyncrasies.”

Infographic: ‘Hope’ ‘Iraq’ ‘Economy’ ‘Oil’

President Bush’s speeches have included over 34,000 words. This interactive graphic visually displays which ones pop up most frequently and when they appeared.

Curing Blackberry thumbs and tech necks

“Therapies to treat workplace woes such as a sore thumb from tapping on a hand-held computer, the aches of ‘tech neck’ from typing on a laptop or even skin irritation from chatting on a cell phone are the latest rage to hit high-end spas.”

iPhone tester: Keyboard is “a huge improvement” over thumbpads on Treo and other smart phones

“The buttons are significantly larger, you don’t have to hit them dead-center, you lightly tap them instead of punching them down, and the software is smart enough to know that you meant to type ‘Tuesday’ instead of ‘Tudsday.’ After 30 seconds, I was already typing faster with the iPhone than I ever have with any other phone. I suspect that true e-mail demons will need to adapt to the lack of tactile feedback, though.”

low-hanging fruit n. The easiest task or the most readily achievable goal.

“Low hanging fruit” search results from our internal Campfire chat room:

“Empathy suit” simulates the reduced mobility, hearing and sight associated with aging so designers can feel what it’s like

“Goggles reduce vision, and a headset reduces hearing. Heavy gloves simulate the reduced mobility of arthritis. Back, knee and neck braces reduce flexibility, while special shoes make walking painful. Shoulder straps prevent arms from being raised. The result is a full-body prosthetic that ages its wearer 40 years.” [tx JC]

RIcky Gervais explains Spinal Tap's influence on The Office

“The brilliance of the film is that it’s for everyone. It’s universal, it just happens to be guitars. It was the biggest influence on ‘The Office.’ The actual vehicle and the rendering was Spinal Tap all the way…The characters in Spinal Tap and the characters in ‘The Office,’ they have a blind spot. That’s what’s funny about them. You laugh at them because, as a viewer, you see the difference between how they are and how they see themselves. It’s the gap that’s funny.”

Top 100 ad campaigns of the century

Top 5: Volkswagen’s “Think Small”, Coca-Cola’s “The pause that refreshes”, The Marlboro Man, Nike’s “Just do it”, and McDonald’s “You deserve a break today.”

Head of Yahoo Music says subscription models will make DRM irrelevant within 10 years

“Eventually, perhaps in 5 or 10 years, he predicts, all portable players will have wireless broadband capability and will provide direct access, anytime, anywhere, to every song ever released for a low monthly subscription fee. It’s a prediction that has a high probability of realization because such a system is already found in South Korea, where three million subscribers enjoy direct, wireless access to a virtually limitless music catalog for only $5 a month. “

Understanding Comics (Amazon link) is a 215-page comic book about comics that explains the inner workings of the medium. We recently chatted about it and how the concepts relate to online visual communication too (e.g. choosing what to include and what to leave out, guiding the reader’s eye, combining text and images for maximum impact, etc.).

Some excerpts we discussed:

Creating meaningful differences with “sequential art.” McCloud writes, “Taken individually the pictures [above] are merely that—pictures. However when part of a sequence, even a sequence of only two, the art of the images is transformed into something more: the art of comics!”

The first letter in each sentence is bolded to help separate statements.

It’s interesting how the placement of the “True Lighting” headline is unconventional yet works like a charm.

There’s a related thread on cartoons, comics, and information design at Edward Tufte’s site. Some of the interesting links mentioned there:

• A comic book that explains fair use from the Duke Center for the Study of the Public Domain
• The Comic Strip Artist’s Kit helps beginning comic artists deal with perspective problems and other drawing difficulties. Check out this page on how thumbnail sketches help you think out problems.
• Tom Toles Cartoons shows how sketches turn into finished cartoons

Related:
Making Comics (McCloud’s new book)
“Forget the detail” and other animation-inspired lessons [SvN]

Habitable software

“Programmers essentially live in the software they create. Therefore, it is a sensible thing to make sure your software is habitable…This speaks to not only writing software that you are proud of, but also rejecting ideas that will compromise the livability of your software while embracing the practices that enhance the livability.”

5 reasons why enthusiasm is better than confidence

“I think the word ‘confidence’ creates more problems than it solves. I usually advise clients to change the word to ‘enthusiasm’. Here’s why…” [via swissmiss]

Tom Asacker summarizes 2007 trend predictions

One thing to look for: “More ‘Jon Stewartizing’ of marketing and PR: Jon Stewart’s ‘Daily Show’ has changed how people consume TV news, getting more from smart comedians on the Comedy Central than the establishment networks’ news broadcasters. Look for more companies to ‘Jon Stewartize’ their Web content, sales meetings, PR programs, similar to what IBM did when it released its hilarious fake mainframe sales training videos on YouTube.”

Wall Street Journal's managing editor talks about the thinking behind the new redesign

“I think we’re now in the environment of continuous change – that if we see an opportunity to gain from change we’ll go for it. There’s nothing that says I’ve done this big thing, don’t talk to me. Maybe you get one day to enjoy the victory in that game, then it’s time to get ready for the next one. You see this particularly on the web.” See the redesign. [via NewsDesigner]

Maggie’s Big Moo highlights

Name something: “If it has a name, your peers can measure it. If it has a name, they can alter it. If it has a name, they can talk about it. And if it has a name, they can eliminate it.” Finish with something remarkable: “Those last five minutes make it easy for your customers to find the difference between you and everyone else.”

Netflix nails it
“Netflix nails the customer experience. From site design, to emails, to packaging, to coding, the company is a champion at delivering a great experience.”

The casino experience
“From a design/experience perspective, casinos are fascinating places.”

Fear, shark attacks, and “Will it scale?”
“Allocate your fear properly. When it comes to building a web app, some things create more fear than they should.

Fireside Chat: Dan Cederholm, Jason Santa Maria, Ryan Sims, and Greg Storey
“The guests chat about what they’re working on, Korean design, Web 2.0 hype, and whether RSS is killing creativity.

Design Decisions: Backpack page blank slate
“So for the new version of Backpack we’re working on right now we wanted to rethink the blank slate. We wanted to get to the point faster. Make a better connection between what you can do, how you can do it, and where you can do it.

The power of rough edges
“If your goal is to speak with a unique voice (like at a personal blog), be more human (a small company trying to emphasize intimacy), show off a distinct style, or stand out from the crowd? Then some rough edges and discord can work wonders. Consider it a shabby chic approach to web design.

The difference between trying something and using something
“There’s a big difference between trying something and using something. Trying something is more common than using something. That’s why most products are optimized for trying.”

Define your own success
“The best way to be successful is to define your own success. Success can be tiered too. If you want to eventually run a public company you can still be successful on your way there. If you want to stay small you can fight growth and remain successful too. It’s up to you, not up to someone else.”

3 ways to make money with your software
“There are three primary ways to generate revenue from web-based software. Let’s take a look.”

Buzzwords say all the wrong things
“These buzzwords are often a mask. People who use them are covering up their ideas — or the lack thereof. They are overcompensating. They don’t have anything substantial to say so they try to use impressive sounding words instead. But people who abuse buzzwords don’t sound smart. They sound like they are trying to sound smart. Big difference.”

“The man behind Apple’s design magic”
“This push for innovation in manufacturing is a big reason why Apple changes the rules of what’s possible. Most companies buy off the shelf stuff which means things look and feel the same (i.e. usually like crap). Apple’s efforts to discover new materials and production processes enables them to build things no one else can build.”

Confidence in people, process, and purpose
“If you trust the people, the process, and the goal, you don’t need all the bullshit trust-builders like specs, documents, and promises to make you feel secure. You can just make something good.”

The false fight between fun and business
“You don’t have to work hard to work well. You don’t need sinister eyebrows or only 4-hour sleeps or a booked calendar to be serious. But somehow that image sticks so bad that we tend to view fun as the opposite of Serious Business Stuff™.”

In-store good or at-home good?
“Every company/product has to choose priorities: In-store good or at-home good? First-minute good or lifetime good?”

Writing words vs. writing software
“Whether we’re authoring software or prose, rewriting is key. Rewriting is when you turn good into great. It’s true for books, blog posts, marketing copy, interfaces, code, etc. For all of them, we grind it out. We get something down, share it, get feedback, revise, and then do it over again. We get where we’re going via lots of wrong turns.”

Pretty Propaganda: USSR in Construction
“In the 1930’s, the Soviet government wanted the world to believe it was living the dream: rapid modernization, economic miracles, etc. To support this cause, it created the magazine USSR in Construction, home to some of the most innovative graphic design of the past century.”

The dance of people in public spaces
“Architect and set designer David Rockwell was hired to design the ‘interior experience’ (arrival, departure, retail space) of the new JetBlue terminal being built at JFK Airport (Gensler handled most of the architecture). Looking for a new angle on movement vs. environment, Rockwell took a strange turn: He hired choreographer Jerry Mitchell to help him.”

Complicating simplicity
“Gah! Trying to read about the ‘Simplicity: The Art of Complexity’ (er, what?) conference. But the description at the conference site is the exact opposite of simple, clear writing.”

John Sawatsky and the power of simple questions
“According to Sawatsky, smart interviewers don’t try to sound smart. They are transparent. They stay away from leading (yes/no) questions, charged words, and drawn-out statements.”

Picasso, Paula Scher, and the lifetime behind every second
“Charging hourly vs. charging per project is always an interesting dilemma for designers/programmers who do client work. If you charge hourly and you solve problems quickly, you wind up being punished for your efficiency. But if you charge per project, you often face scope issues (i.e. endless revisions or changes in direction seem to become the norm).

The long road to simple: creating, debating, and iterating “Add an event”
“That ‘Add an event’ box at Backpack’s new calendar looks simple enough. But sometimes simple takes a lot of work. How we arrived at this screen is a good look at the process we use to solve design challenges.”