A few months ago we redesigned 37signals.com — our main site. I want to share with you a few iterations and permutations I created along the way. I’ll also give a little insight into the discussions we had about each design: what we saved for the next version and what we axed because it wasn’t working.

First, a frame of reference
This was what the 37signals site looked like when I started this project. Each time Jason Fried and I talk about changing ANYTHING on this site he always says something like this:

Jamie, 37signals.com is VERY IMPORTANT. A ton of traffic to our app sites comes from here. We need to make sure that we aren’t abandoning clarity for cleverness. CLARITY is of utmost importance on this page.

Actually, now that I think about it he says that about everything I touch. Kidding aside, 37signals.com is a very important site. Careful consideration should be taken when undertaking a redesign.

The never-launched enhancement
A year ago I worked on a short project to enhance parts of 37signals.com. Out of this exercise came the design below.

I liked how this design made our products look like, well, products. Basecamp, Highrise, Backpack, and Campfire are presented like shrink-wrapped packaged software. I also liked how easy it was to understand what 37signals does. We make incredibly useful software for your business. Here are our offerings.

I can’t remember why this design never launched. It could be that at the time we had bigger fish to fry. The forms that came out of it, though, would play a part in the bigger redesign project in later months.

We take great care in pairing the right words with the right images here at 37signals. Jason Fried writes and rewrites headlines and body copy over and over again to ensure that we’re communicating the right message.

I have a theory about online advertising. I’m not sure if I’m on to something, but I wanted to share it with you to hear what you think. Here goes:

The Subliminal Negativity Theory

News is depressing. There are crises, wars, bailouts, failures. These news sources need advertising to keep reporting the news. It has been that way for ages. The revolution of advertising online (as demonstrated by Google) has been to serve relevant and contextual ads. These ads are related to the content we’re interested in.

However, many of the ads on news sites are displayed inline with negative and scary headlines. Do people viewing these ads pick-up on the negative mojo? Do the advertisers get some negativity rubbed off on them? Like I said, at 37signals we take great care in pairing words and images on the screen. We would never want to associate our products with negative words.

My theory is that the advertisers on these news sites do pick up on some of the negativity in the headlines. There’s got to be some subliminal association at work. Here are some screens from various news sites around the web.

The New York Times

The Wall Street Journal

CNN

BBC

Fox News

So what do you think? I’d love to hear thoughts or contrary theories in the comments.