Just a quick update on our new 37signals Affiliate Program.

We launched it about 90 days ago and so far we’ve seen about 1000 new product signups referred by 37signals Affiliates. Basecamp leads referrals, Backpack is second and Highrise a very close third.

Some people are working harder than others. The top affiliate has potential earnings of over $1300 already!

If you’re an affiliate, thanks for representing our product to your clients, colleagues, friends, and family. If you’re not, please consider becoming a 37signals Affiliate today. It only takes 30 seconds to get started and there’s no cost to you.

Wanna feel ripped off today? Sign up for an online virtual service that charges a one-time activation fee. It’s a special feeling to hand over $35 for nothing.

I’d almost understand if there was actual work involved. Or hardware was manually set up. Or someone had to climb some stairs and walk down a few halls to flip something on.

But to charge me $35 to “activate” my account by adding a few records to a few databases, well, that feels like… You know what that feels like.

I’ve been poking around a lot of architects’ web sites lately and I’m thoroughly surprised at how bad they are. It seems almost without fail that they are either blowing my browser window up full size, asking me to read light grey 9px text, overflowing with obfuscatory flashterbation, teasing me with custom designed scrollbars that don’t behave as you’d expect, or asking me to evaluate their work based on postage stamp sized photographs. It really feels like 1998. I see I’m not alone in this observation.

Architects have so much to gain from the web. Big huge photographs of their work, clear statements of who they are and what they believe in, easily linkable and sharable portfolio pages, daily links of interest.

As it stands today, if you want to show someone an interesting piece of work you usually have to give them a step-by-step guide on how to get there: First go to the home page, wait for the countdown timer to expire, then hover over the logo, then grab a magnifying glass, then squint, then click the 4th tiny icon on the left (I can’t really tell what it is), then use that custom scrollbar that looks like an elevator, then take a screenshot, then pull that screenshot into Photoshop, then zoom in about 8 times so it’s all nice and big on your screen, then take about 10 steps back from your computer, then look.

I’m only half kidding.

Come on, architects, get with it! Anyone got any links to a great architect’s site that bucks this trend?

The next 37signals Live will be tomorrow, August 26th at 11am central time.

The first two Live shows were general Q&As. This time we’re going to narrow down the focus to chapter 13 of Getting Real: Promotion. Generating buzz, getting press, promotion without a budget, launch, etc.

Come armed with questions and we’ll fire back answers. We’ll see you tomorrow at 37signals Live!

I just noticed Apple changed the logout feature in the MobileMe app UI. It used to be a power button icon. Now it just says “logout.” Another triumph of clarity over cleverness.

After wading through over 500 applications, meeting some great people, discovering some serious talent, and evaluating people on a variety of levels, we can finally announce our new designer. He’s Jamie Dihiansan.

Who’s Jamie?

First off, Jamie is a great guy. Kind, generous, curious, honest. We all get along well. He’s a good cultural fit. Without that nothing else matters. He’s also local which will be handy.

I’ve actually tried to hire Jamie a couple times before. Once about nine years ago when we first started 37signals (he didn’t want to leave the cushy confines of Big Agency life at Organic) and once a few years ago (we couldn’t afford him). This time the stars aligned.

For the past 7 years Jamie has been working at Crate & Barrel Online. First as a senior designer, later moving to the Senior Art Director role. He’s well steeped in designs that sell, clear communication, and understanding consumer behavior.

Why did we pick Jamie?

Part of the hiring process involved asking the leading candidates to redesign the Backpack home page in one week with no direction (we paid them for their time). We really liked Jamie’s take on it. It was the biggest departure from how we design our marketing sites today. It introduced some elements that we were hoping to see and surprised us with things we hadn’t thought of before. Down the road we plan on sharing all the designs submitted by the leading candidates.

We also picked Jamie because of his background, his artistic abilities (as much as I don’t like graffiti, I can see the art in Jamie’s work back in the day), and his approach to problem solving through design. He’s a clear thinker and an objective player. Good icon designer too. We liked all of those things.

We’re really excited

Jamie starts in September. We’re really excited to see his influence seep into our marketing sites and product UIs. The first major project will be reviewing our existing marketing/public sites and working on a universal redesign.

So, everyone say hi to Jamie Dihiansan!

There’s a piece in Forbes called Why A Four-Day Work Week Doesn’t Work that suggests:

But there are serious drawbacks. Packing 40 hours into four days isn’t necessarily an efficient way to work. Many people find that eight hours are tough enough; requiring them to stay for an extra two could cause morale and productivity to decrease. As for saving on the cost of commuting, it likely isn’t true.

The article is right: More hours in fewer days is not an efficient way to work. That’s why this article misses the point.

The point of the 4-day work week is about doing less work. It’s not about 4 10-hour days for the magical 40-hour work week. It’s about 4 normalish 8-hour days for the new and improved 32-hour work week. The numbers are just used to illustrate a point. Results, not hours, are what matter, but working longer hours doesn’t translate to better results. The law of diminishing returns kicks in quick when you’re overworked.

Besides, very few people work even 8 hours a day. You’re lucky if you get a few good hours in between all the meetings, interruptions, web surfing, office politics, and personal business that permeates typical work day.

Fewer official working hours help squeeze the fat out of the typical work week. Once everyone has less time to get their stuff done, they respect that time even more. People become stingy with their time and that’s a good thing. They don’t waste it on things that just don’t matter. When you have fewer hours you usually spend them more wisely.

So don’t think 4 days means cramming the same amount of time a shorter week. Longer days isn’t the goal. Think 4 days means a shorter week with less time to get things done. And that’s actually what you want.

Bret asks:

I often see people on forums telling complainers to shut up with the “vote with your wallet” line. How does 37signals feel on the matter? Is it better to have a vocal customer who’s willing to stick with the product despite a perceived shortcoming or would you prefer that such a customer move on?

The first thing I’d say is this: It’s tough to be 100% happy with anything. Sacrifices rule the day — each person needs to figure out where their limits are. So if it’s one thing that’s really bothering someone, maybe they can find a way to adapt (or we can find a way to improve). But if it’s one thing after another, maybe that product just isn’t a good fit for that customer.

The second thing I’d say is this: You can learn a lot from a vocal customer. Even customers who continually bash your company or your product have value. So the goal shouldn’t be silencing them, it should be listening to them. You don’t have to do anything they say, but being aware of what they’re saying can give you insight into a perspective that you may otherwise not have had.

We hope you’re happy here

What’s most important to us is that people who use our products are happy using our products. If someone is unhappy with our products, we’d love to hear why. Maybe we can make them happy. But maybe we can’t — that’s certainly possible too.

So if we don’t think we’ll be able to make them happy, and they’ve found another product that makes them happier, we encourage them to use the other product. Sometimes we’ll even recommend an alternative if we can.

Don’t fight a losing battle

At a certain point there’s no sense in trying to make someone happy who you can’t keep happy, and there’s no sense in someone suffering endlessly when they constantly run into things that don’t work for them. If it doesn’t fit, it doesn’t fit. Luckily there are a lot of choices, different approaches, and alternatives out there. Choice is on the side of the consumer.

Be honest up front

This sometimes comes up in pre-sales emails. People will ask us why our product is better than this or that product. We may riff on the fundamental advantage of simple, focused tools like ours, but then we’ll say something like: “There’s really no way for us to tell you what’s best for you. We encourage you to try all the products you’re considering. That’s the only way you’ll ever know for sure which product feels right. We hope it’s our product, but if it’s not we understand.”

Some salespeople may say that’s a terrible strategy, but we prefer to give the most realistic answer, not the “obviously we’re the best no matter what” answer. Because in the end, what feels right is what works best. Comparing products by comparing features isn’t really an effective way of making a decision. You have to compare the experience and you can only compare the experience by trying the products.

So yes and no

So, yes, I do encourage people to vote with their wallet, but at the same time I don’t encourage companies to chase all wallets either. Every wallet isn’t going to be a good fit in your pocket.

Compass Bank is currently running a special promotion that gives you 3 months free of Backpack Plus (normally $49/month) when you open a new Compass Business checking account.

If you’re interested in offering Backpack (or Basecamp or Highrise) to your customers or members as a value-add, please email me direct at jason@37signals dot com.

Fellow Chicagoan, great programmer/journalist, creator of the Django framework, talented guitarist, and genuinely nice guy Adrian Holovaty and his Everyblock hyperlocal news and information site grace the cover of this Sunday’s Chicago Tribune Magazine. Adrian, his site, and his crew deserve all the ink they can get.