Is Don Norman right about Google?
“I’m guessing that Google’s playfulness and relatively sloppy integration go hand in hand. When you’re constantly playing, innovating, and launching, you don’t always have time to unify things perfectly.”

Push optional data entry as far back as you can
“That signup process solidified my long held belief: don’t ask for it if you really don’t need it. And I mean if you really don’t need it. There’s a world of difference between ‘nice to know now’ and ‘need to know now.’”

Olivo Barbieri’s aerial photographs
“In Olivo Barbieri’s aerial photographs, people look like ants and cities like toy models. He shoots from a helicopter using a tilt-shift lens.”

Getting in too-much touch (interruption is not collaboration)
“Interruption is being mistaken for collaboration. The are drastically different things. Interruption is productivity’s biggest enemy. It sounds counterintuitive to many, but we should be working harder on staying apart and less on getting in touch too much. A healthy dose of physical and virtual distance is a good thing. If we want to be highly productive we need more alone time.”

How to Choose a Designer
“When building web apps, one of the most important decisions you’ll make is who will do the design work. Your app is likely to fail if the design and usability are poor.”

Design Decisions: Sharing in Backpack
“The last thing is a better icon. That tiny text has got to go. And sharing isn’t really about broadcasting, it’s more about agreement right? Every screen and block takes an interesting path from concept to fruition.”

Fireside Chat: Richard Bird, Jim Coudal, and Carlos Segura
“We gathered three design veterans (and old friends of 37signals), Richard Bird, Jim Coudal, and Carlos Segura…Topics included their roots/influences, what it’s like to sell your own products, dream projects, control freaks, the loss of craft in design, and how they used to walk five miles to school every day, in the snow, uphill, both ways.”

Another look back at some selected 2006 SvN posts…

Embrace Obscurity
“It’s hard to point to a business that launched huge and has been successful. Most of the big winners in our industry started really small and grew big over time.”

Functional specs subvert the hierarchy of nature
“What may seem like the safe choice strips away the possibilities you get from allowing and encouraging evolution — and that’s actually pretty dangerous.”

Every time you add something you take something away
“What’s the most ignored paradox in software development? Every time you add something you take something away. Screen real estate. Interface clarity. Simplified testing. Shorter development time. Certainty. Agility. Managability. Familiarity. Adding anything dilutes everything else. That’s not always a bad thing, just be aware of it. Be aware of the trade-offs.”

It’s all the same
“People will often ask us ‘how do you find time to do PR or marketing when you are building your products?’ Or ‘When do you find time to do customer support?’ Or ‘How does such a small team accomplish so much? What is your time management secret?’ Here’s the secret: it’s all the same thing.”

Rubber ball lessons
”#1: Put your name on it. #2: Write a story, not copy. #3: Start with an evocative hook. #4: Overcome writer’s block by starting with small bits. #5: PR starts with you. #6: Sticky points are sometimes tiny/hidden.”

How to shoot a bullet through your startup
“People often ask us ‘what should I do to build a company like 37signals?’. I think we finally have a succinct answer now: Do exactly the opposite of what Business 2.0 tells you to.”

Bloat is a function of time, people, and money
“Be smart with your time, people, and money. The combination of these things don’t need to lead to bloat. They can actually lead to wonderful products. But the odds are against you.”

A look back at some selected 2006 SvN posts…

Building to flip is building to flop
“If you’re about to build anything, don’t build it to flip or you’re almost guaranteed to flop. Sure, you could win the Yahoo lottery, but the odds aren’t in your favor.”

Small Biz 101: Tips for Increasing Sales
“I’ve had the privilege of being in both the service industry (working as a web developer) and the product industry (selling web applications), so here are some tips and tricks I’ve picked up along the way.” (More Small Biz 101 lessons)

You still want meetings. Here’s how to make them useful.
“Though meetings are harmful, you sometimes need to get together and work a problem out. Here are some tips to make sure nobody wastes their time.”

Is Getting Real dangerous?
“This idea that it’s ‘dangerous’ to Get Real is silly because Getting Real has a built-in safety net: iterations. It’s unrealistic to expect perfection out of the gate. You can and will get it wrong. The great thing with web-based apps is that you have a built-in mulligan. Everyday you can revise and get it a little bit less wrong.”

A sketch to screen case study
“We’re giving Basecamp some love these days and I’m working on the Files section. The current Files tab has a long, full-page ‘Upload a file’ screen, and it’s just overkill. I thought I’d share the process of redesigning the ‘Upload a file’ screen as a small dialog.”

Essential vs. Non-Essential
“One of the toughest things to figure out when trying to launch a simple product is what to add in and what to leave out. The way we do it is to figure out what’s essential and non-essential. Non-essential stuff stays out of 1.0.”

It’s a great time to start a business
“I say it’s never been a better time to start a business. You know, the kind that develops a product or service and asks money for it.”

Pablo Picasso quotes

“[Work] below your means. If you can handle three elements, handle only two. If you can handle ten, then handle only five. In that way the ones you do handle, you handle with more ease, more mastery, and you create a feeling of strength in reserve.” [tx Elia]

Hippie capitalism

“Entrepreneurs using capitalism to do good and help others. Here are some cases where capitalism isn’t totally evil and destroying innocent lives while creating vast wealth discrepancies.”

“Church of the Customer” authors on the importance of democratized data

On why YouTube beat Google: “YouTube won because of a vitally important theme: It democratized data. YouTube made user data transparent while Google Video did not. YouTube exposed data like numbers of views, comments, referrers, as well as most popular referrers, most popular videos, most popular channels, etc. That data helps YouTubers gauge their own popularity and allows the larger community to measure relative popularity, too. Google did none of that out the gate. It democratized data using a piecemeal approach, and it didn’t set any standards along the way. YouTube set all of the standards.”

Pinsetter from Coudal

“Spell with buttons. There’s not a whole lot more to explain after that…The 1-inch letter buttons are jet black and every order includes a red heart button too, so you can write I HEART YODA or something.”

Look for more profit sharing deals at sites with user generated content in 2007

“If consumers produce the content, if they are the content, and that content brings in money for aggregating brands, then revenue and profit-sharing is going to be one of 2007’s main themes in the online space. It’s not like brands will have a choice: talented consumers are going to be too sought after to remain satisfied with thank you notes. Get ready for an avalanche of revenue sharing deals, reward schemes and sumptuous gifts aimed at luring creative consumers.”

Every feature is an opportunity to do something wrong

“Apple likely does not pursue minimalist designs for their own sake. Every time a company adds a feature to a product, it adds the opportunity to do it wrong. Zune was an opportunity for Microsoft to look at the subscription model that has bedeviled its PlaysForSure partners and exercise restraint. Instead, it must now deal with the complexity of accounts that it has further complicated with an abstract points system.” [tx DD]

A while back, we posted the tools we use to run and build 37signals. What tools/software do you use? Link it up.

The value of shutting off the analytical part of your brain

“The parts of our brain that learn from experience are far more capable than the parts that learn from talking through it. We think we need to tell ourselves things like, ‘keep your weight over your front don’t press so hard on the violin bow…’ when we’re trying to learn something new or improve our performance, when that’s exactly the thing that inhibits learning and improvement.”

Elegant solutions combine simplicity and power

“The most challenging games have the fewest rules, as do the most dynamic organizations. The most memorable films have a simple message with complex meaning, touching a universal chord while allowing multiple interpretations. An elegant solution is quite often a single tiny aha! idea that changes everything. Finally, elegant solutions aren’t obvious, except, of course, in retrospect.” [tx SU]

Best Buy moves to "results-only work environment"

“The nation’s leading electronics retailer has embarked on a radical — if risky — experiment to transform a culture once known for killer hours and herd-riding bosses. The endeavor, called ROWE, for “results-only work environment,” seeks to demolish decades-old business dogma that equates physical presence with productivity. The goal at Best Buy is to judge performance on output instead of hours.” [tx Jake]

Letterpress making a comeback

“Art experts say this new interest in the specialized craft is a reaction to the slick design and flat graphics common in computer publishing…’It looks different. It feels old. It’s tactile. People love that. It is the romance of the impression of the letter pressed into paper that people feel good about.’”

Neat fonts inspired by 1940s movies include context-sensitive characters (i.e. letters at the ends of words appear differently)

“Kinescope will include context-sensitive characters. For example, when a letter falls at the end of a word, the connecting stroke is clipped off. This gives settings a more natural hand-lettered look.” [via DC]

Shopping guru Paco Underhill: “The perception of ease is as important as the reality of ease”

“It is very important to be cognizant that while the connection between our eyes and our brains has never been better, our eyes themselves are tired. One of the challenges that the design profession has is that the overwhelming majority of people constructing designs in 2006 are generally under the age of 30. And one of the persistent problems that they have is that they are designing for themselves and not for the larger audience…We live in a world in which time is in a state of acceleration. And therefore the perception of ease is as important as the reality of ease.”

The formula for “a truly great life”

“[The] author of the book ‘On Death and Dying’ asked people on their deathbeds what they regret the most about their lives…The number one response was: I wish I would have taken more chances. I feel like I lived my life playing it too safe. The number two response was: I wish I would have taken more time to reflect. I never stopped and smelled the roses in life.”

Caterina Fake on getting high performance out of high potential people

“Figure out what work activities turn them on and off. Then for their job, downplay the stuff they hate, or that are their weaknesses, and figure out what they love doing. Make their job mostly about the things they love doing. And figure out what they are solving for not only in their jobs but in their personal lives as well.” John Gruber recently said, “My pick for Yahoo CEO would be Caterina Fake…Almost everything Yahoo does ought to be more like Flickr in some ways.”

Self-parking Lexus befuddles Automobile editors

“Shows three men first parking the Lexus LS460 on their own in the magazine’s parking lot, and then again with the Advanced Parking Guidance System. We’ll let you watch the video to see how the Three Stooges fair against the computer power of a Lexus, but one of the two almost manages to take out a minivan and a Ford Five-Hundred.” [tx MG]

Japanese Get A Mac ads

PC and Mac, Japanese style.

Jeff Nolan’s Digg buzz wears off

“Digg really is an innovative site but I’m finished with it…Digg just isn’t doing anything for me to make my day easier. I’m finding this with a number of ‘Web 2.0’ sites, after the initial enthusiasm wears dull I’m left with a big ‘so what’ feeling that I can’t escape.”

Interesting facts about the Blue Angels

“The Blue Angels don’t wear G-suits, because the air bladders inside them would repeatedly deflate and inflate. That would interfere with the control stick between a pilot’s legs. Instead, Blue Angel pilots tense their stomach muscles and legs to prevent blood from rushing from their heads and rendering them unconscious…The Blue Angels try to be in position exactly, every time, by ‘flying paint’ — looking over at the next jet and aligning to a position based on some letter or spot on that plane.”

We’re looking for video clips of Basecamp customers telling us why they love Basecamp. If we use your clip to promote the product, you’ll get a $250 voucher for Basecamp.

What should I say?
Tell us why you love Basecamp, how you use it, how it’s helped you, what you would say to recommend it to a friend, and/or anything else you’d like to share. No fancy production skills required — what you have to say is what matters here. Also, screenshots aren’t necessary. We want your story, not a tour of the product. A simple shot of your head while you talk is fine.

How long should it be?
Clips need to be under three minutes.

How do I submit a video?
Option 1: Use a file uploading service like MediaFire, DropSend, YouSendIt, or BoxCloud. Send it to svn [at] 37signals [dot] com.

Option 2: Upload the clips to your own server and send the link to svn [at] 37signals [dot] com.

Also, make sure to include your Basecamp URL.

Important: Please do not email the video clip directly to us. Also, do not use a video-sharing site like YouTube.

Is there a deadline?
No, but videos that get here sooner rather than later may have an advantage.

We have one slot open in The Deck for December. Give us a shout if you have a product or service that could benefit from being in front of a huge audience of creative, web and design professionals. We’ll make a special deal for a first-time advertiser.