Time: 19:14 | 07/15/2010 | Download MP3

Summary
In the final part of our design roundtable discussion, Jamie Dihiansan, Jason Fried, and Ryan Singer answer questions from readers at Signal vs. Noise.

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Comment from John on the “Office: Details” post:

I wonder how many design sessions were spent on the wording of the “IN USE” sign.

“At first, we had ‘BUSY’. It was ok but it didn’t feel quite right. What if David is in there slacking off, for example? It’s no ‘busy’. So, I went to use Draft [link] and posted the following on Campfire [link]: ‘OCCUPIED’ It was the right meaning this time, but it sounded shitty, like it was an airport bathroom. In the end, Ryan suggested ‘IN USE ’. It just clicked: simple, the right meaning, short and to the point. Perfect.”

Haha. Well played.

Here’s how it would have gone…

Below: Q&A with Dan Clifford, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of AnswerLab. This is part of our “Bootstrapped, Profitable, & Proud” series which profiles companies that have $1MM+ in revenues, didn’t take VC, and are profitable.

What does AnswerLab do?
We provide user experience research and consulting for web, mobile and software applications. Our research helps clients improve areas that are confusing or frustrating, so that they can deliver compelling products that are easy to use.

The market research industry exists because of basic human nature – it’s really challenging for people to truly put themselves in other people’s shoes.

We help clients understand how their products are perceived by their target customers. For example we recently conducted a study for a company that was producing games for the iPhone. The development team learned that users had trouble understanding the game rules, however once they understood the rules they loved the game. Without user experience research the team would not have known about this critical roadblock to game adoption.

This San Francisco Business Times story on AnswerLab shows Founders Dan Clifford and Amy Buckner.

How successful is the business?
We’ve been very happy with the success of the business. AnswerLab is approaching its 6th anniversary. Each year, we’ve been profitable and have grown our year-over-year revenues. Our top-line revenues have already been made public since we were on the most recent Inc. 500 list of fastest-growing privately held companies. In 2009, our revenues were $2.7 million. Our run-rate so far this year exceeds that so we expect another year of record revenues. We often compete and win against $1 billion+ research firms. Clients that choose us are industry-leaders such as eBay, Yahoo, FedEx, Electronic Arts, ESPN, and more.

How did you fund yourself at first?
My co-founder Amy Buckner and I funded the company ourselves. The nice thing about a professional services firm is it doesn’t take much capital to get started. All you need is a couple of phones and laptops. Add a website and you’re in business.

Amy and I continue to own the business and we haven’t taken on investors. We’ve both worked at multiple companies before starting AnswerLab and saw that the demands of outside investors to hit quarterly numbers can really impact the relationship companies have with their clients. Pressuring a customer to ensure that they sure they sign your agreement before the end of the quarter does not create a trusted advisor relationship.

Card sorting studies help clients develop a site navigation structure that makes the most sense to their users.

Reader Joe Bezdek writes:

Hi Matt.

I recently listened to the podcast episode about REWORK (I’m a bit behind) and I noted that you were the person who initially reviewed all the previously published 37signals material and wrangled it all into an initial outline/draft of the book. I was particularly struck by your comment about how intimidating it was to sit down in front of a blank screen knowing the process that lay before you.

I was hoping you might share what tools (applications, web services, etc.) you used along the way to assist you in editing down such a large volume of material into the initial draft. I’m wondering if tools like DEVONthink, OmniOutliner, Writeboard, or something else entirely helped you get it done.

Answer: It was pretty simple. Basically I started throwing any relevant content into a Pages document. Any blog post that had good potential content for REWORK. Any essay from Getting Real that could relate to a non-software business. I transcribed conference keynotes and interviews with JF and DHH and picked out key bits.

Then I started organizing it. I tried to sort content into relevant categories and began shaping it into a recognizable format. Then JF, DHH, and I started teleconferencing and meeting in person in order to edit text. We’d throw out things that didn’t fit. Edited other things so they matched up in tone & voice. Honed it all and kept getting it better, tighter, and more cohesive.

For this, we used Writeboards sometime. We also used iChat and SubEthaEdit to collaborate.

All along we had a master Pages doc that was the book continually iterating into its final shape.

One other note of interest: Our publisher, Crown, would just send a printout of the entire book with notes handwritten in the margins. Old school.

Iterating over time

Joe responded:

Basically I started throwing any relevant content into a Pages document….Then I started organizing it. I tried to sort content into relevant categories and began shaping it into a recognizable format. That was the part I was particularly curious about. It’s one thing to copy blog posts and transcriptions into a Pages document, the challenge is seeing the common themes and organizing that into some kind of narrative that makes sense. Were there any other tools that helped you do that? (Mind maps?) Or did you just become so familiar with the master Pages document that you were able to connect those dots in your head?

My response to that: No other tools. I think it was just time and iterations. Things were a mess at first but we kept refining the doc over and over until it started to become more cohesive. It was just a pruning process. Not sure any tool would’ve made it easier.

Also, I don’t even know how you use a mind map to help you write something. I just start writing. Usually my process is this: Write too much. Edit it down. Repeat if necessary.

Mark Pilrigm on tools and writing

Coincidentally, within a day or two of responding to Joe, I came across this interview with Mark Pilgrim, Developer advocate at Google [via MM]. In it, he discusses the importance, or lack thereof, of tools on the writing process.

I’m a three-time (soon to be four-time) published author. When aspiring authors learn this, they invariably ask what word processor I use. It doesn’t fucking matter! I happen to write in Emacs. I also code in Emacs, which is a nice bonus. Other people write and code in vi. Other people write in Microsoft Word and code in TextMate+ or TextEdit or some fancy web-based collaborative editor like EtherPad or Google Wave. Whatever. Picking the right text editor will not make you a better writer. Writing will make you a better writer. Writing, and editing, and publishing, and listening – really listening – to what people say about your writing. This is the golden age for aspiring writers. We have a worldwide communications and distribution network where you can publish anything you want and – if you can manage to get anybody’s attention – get near-instant feedback. Writers just 20 years ago would have killed for that kind of feedback loop. Killed! And you’re asking me what word processor I use? Just fucking write, then publish, then write some more.

Good point. Don’t let the “Which tools should I use?” question distract you too much. In the end, the strength of your ideas matter way more than the gear you use.

Note: This post contains screenshots of Safari alerts. So please don’t get alarmed unnecessarily.

The problem: In Highrise, explaining “uncategorization” (what happens when you delete a task category) is difficult…

“Uncategorized” feels unintuitive and sounds ominous. Let’s try this: “There are 2 tasks in this category. Their categories will be changed to ‘None’ if you delete this category.”

Now we’re saying “category” 4 times though. Let’s kill “if you delete this category.”

That’s nice and tight.

Here’s the Campfire discussion where it was all hashed out:

Related:
Design Decisions: Calling out to existing customers on signup
More “Design Decisions” posts

Below: Q&A with Vishal Kapur of iTeleport. This is part of our “Bootstrapped, Profitable, & Proud” series which profiles companies that have $1MM+ in revenues, didn’t take VC, and are profitable.

What does your business do?
iTeleport is an iPhone/iPad app for controlling your computer remotely from anywhere in the world. Our focus is performance, usability, ease of setup and unique UI innovations (our touchpad-like mouse interface is patent-pending). The vision of the company is to develop products that get users access to their stuff from any device, anywhere in the world. This might mean an app that streams your music from your desktop, or lets you watch your videos, or gives you full screen control of any application on your desktop.

How successful is your business?
The app has been out in the store from July 2008 (a couple of weeks after the App Store opened), and it’s been priced at $25 since day one. Since then, the app has been in the Top 100 Grossing apps for both iPhone and iPad (it’s currently #33 in the Top Grossing iPad apps).

With the success of our iPad/iPhone offerings, our revenues for the past 12 months have crossed the $1M mark. We’re very proud of what we’ve built, and while we don’t believe revenues alone are a mark of success, we feel that they are a testament to the fact that our customers appreciate the work we’ve done, and believe that we do provide a unique solution that is built with quality.

Vishal Kapur (left) and Jahanzeb Sherwani.