You’re reading Signal v. Noise, a publication about the web by Basecamp since 1999. Happy !
Now: The creator of Vooza, "the Spinal Tap of startups." Previously: Employee #1 at 37signals and co-author of the books Rework and Getting Real.
Daylife
Daylife’s Highlights: “Interesting stories from around the world, hand-picked by Daylife.”
Happy Cog
Happy Cog redesigns.
Adium
Eric Giovanola writes, “Here’s a screenshot I thought was great. I use Adium as my IM client, and their mascot/dock icon is a duck. This is the crash report screen.”
Got an interesting screenshot for Signal vs. Noise? Send the image and/or URL to svn [at] 37signals [dot] com.
Nivi’s blog has some interesting quote-based posts…
From Mavericks at Work (Part 1):
“Even in the face of massive competition, don’t think about the competition. Literally don’t think about them. Every time you’re in a meeting and you’re tempted to talk about a competitor, replace that thought with one about user feedback or surveys. Just think about the customer.”
–Mike McCue, CEO Tellme Networks, Former VP of Technology Netscape
From The Essential Peter Drucker (Part 1):
“…the aim of marketing is to make selling superfluous. The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well that the product or service fits him and sells itself.”
From Part 2 on Drucker:
“Knowledge work is not defined by quantity. Neither is knowledge work defined by its costs. Knowledge work is defined by its results.”
“Of all the decisions an executive makes, none is as important as the decisions about people because they determine the performance capacity of the organization.”
“[The relationship between knowledge workers and their superiors] is far more like that between the conductor of an orchestra and the instrumentalist than it is like the traditional superior/subordinate relationship. The superior in an organization employing knowledge workers cannot, as a rule, do the work of the supposed subordinate any more than the conductor of an orchestra can play the tuba. In turn, the knowledge work is dependent on the superior to give direction and, above all, to define what the “score” is for the entire organization, that is, what are its standards and values, performance and results. And just as an orchestra can sabotage even the ablest conductor — and certainly even the most autocratic one — a knowledge organization can easily sabotage even the ablest, let alone the most autocratic superior.”
He’s also got a Twitter blog with rapid-fire snippets.
Did Budweiser steal from a NYC sketch group for one of its Super Bowl ads?
The comedy troupe The Whitest Kids U’Know claims that the Bud Light ad in which fist bumping is replaced by face slapping as a new kind of greeting looks more than a little similar to a sketch on the group’s Web site called “The New Thing.” The Whitest Kids are consulting with lawyers. Their rep said, “They are very upset. They are considering their options.”
Decide for yourself by watching both clips. [via The Apiary]
At The Whitest Kids site, one member wrote, “Hey! Budweiser just ran an ad during the SuperBowl that is a rip off of our ‘New Thing’ sketch. This has happened to us a couple times before but this one is pretty blatant. So suck it Budweiser. Drink Coors.” Later on, a member of the group says, “There’s more to the Budweiser story than just random coincidence, which we’ll probably post about in the next day or so.”
Some commenters aren’t buying it though: “Relax! my friends and I have been doing something called ‘slap club’ for years (way before your skit). I’m not saying they didn’t see your skit but seriously though, it’s not that original to begin with. I’m sick of people whining everytime something like this happens. Don’t do the, unfortunately, american thing and waste your time complaining or ‘seeing what kind of legal action to take’ but rather put your energy into the thing you love and think of new material.”
What do you think?
Update: Fwiw, the supposed “smoking gun”: “A while back, like in June or so, Budweiser contacted us through WMA [William Morris, their agent] and asked if we were interested in doing a regular show for them on what is I suppose called BudTV. We didn’t respond because we were already working with FUSE but DVDs were sent out anyways.”
In Oh, Sweet Revenge, an oldish Newsweek article, Dunkin’ Donuts’ chief Jon Luther says his company is helped by its rivalry with Starbucks: “[It’s] created an awareness for the category, and we’re benefiting.”
The chain’s success illustrates a little-advertised truth of business. Too often the financial pages read like the sports section, filled with winners and losers. Reality is more complex. In many markets, business is not a zero-sum game, and competitors create opportunities.
The article includes some lessons on playing “business defense”...
Markets Have More Niches Than You Think: Dunkin’ Donuts, Starbucks and Krispy Kreme all sell pastries and caffeinated beverages, so they’re obvious competitors. But beneath that similarity, they’re serving different markets. Krispy Kreme’s customers visit only occasionally but buy dozens of donuts; that chain is peddling a dietary splurge, not daily sustenance…Starbucks chief Howard Schultz has always seen his stores as neighborhood hangouts, a sort of nonalcoholic “Cheers” setting with comfy chairs, porcelain cups and, increasingly, wireless Internet access. Dunkin’ Donuts, in contrast, is increasingly built on speed. Most of its new stores feature drive-throughs, and the chain bills itself as a pit stop for harried commuters…
Grow at Your Own Speed: If Starbucks seems ubiquitous, that’s because national expansion was part of Schultz’s game plan when he began reinventing the coffeehouse in the mid-1980s. But that fast-growth strategy caused growing pains early on. Dunkin’ Donuts, by contrast, is still concentrated on the East Coast; it has just a few dozen locations west of the Mississippi. Instead of conquering new lands, Dunkin’s managers have spent much of their energy exploring how deeply the brand could penetrate existing markets. The result: in Massachusetts, where the quickest way to get someone lost is to give directions that include the phrase “Turn left at Dunkin’ Donuts,” there’s one store for every 7,389 residents, compared with one Starbucks for every 15,383 in its home state of Washington.
Three sites that restrict text by 1) number of words, 2) number of questions, or 3) amount of space.
Panopticist
Panopticist limits the word count on its sidebar link roll. Check out the haiku-like “five five-word links.”
Tull’s Ian Anderson loves cats!
The horror of overcompressed music.
Bronson Pinchot’s now a freemason.
The aesthetics of wind farms.
Mike Davis on “horrific mega-slums.”
SuprGlu
Instead of offering typical bios, SuprGlu conducts interviews with users customers in a “three questions, three answers” format (example).
3. 3 things you’d bring with you to an island, for a week?
That’s funny, I didn’t even know this Island question was next. For a week, let’s see. I think I’d definitely bring my wife. Now this is always the tricky part. If I bring my laptop or ipod does the battery magically stay charged for the week or am I just out of luck. If it stays charged then I bring my laptop as one item. If no magic batteries exist then I guess I bring my pet unicorn and a sci-fi anthology. The unicorn is cool right?
Similar: Guy Kawasaki’s “Ten Questions With…” interviews, the “5 Questions” bit Craig Kilborn used to do at The Daily Show, and FiveQs (the same five questions are asked to various “inspirational” people).
37signals
Columns present a challenge for online layouts when text runs too long or short. When we recently redesigned our marketing sites, we decided to embrace space restraints and shape our text so it shows up in matched columns which end at the same point (Basecamp shown below, you can also see at Backpack and Campfire sites).
It means shaving a few words here and there but that’s all part of the challenge. You’ve just got to make it work.
Related: Embrace Constraints [Getting Real]
FordDirect.com has some interesting ideas about which features on a car are optional…
Optional brakes? That certainly is a Bold Move.
And if cash is really tight, you can also have ‘em leave off the wheels and pedals…
[tx RA]
Related: ‘06 Ford loss: $12.7 billion
A redesign usually implies a major overhaul. But it’s interesting to watch a site like Amazon keep its overall look and feel constant while continually testing new elements. Below are some examples relating to search, recommendations, shipping, etc.
Getting Real translations are underway. They are linked from the Getting Real Table of Contents page. Here are the languages so far (number of chapters translated in parentheses):
Thanks to all the volunteer translators. Obviously we still have a ways to go so, if you’d like to help, contact us via email.
The archives at the Cathedral Church Of Saint Peter In Exeter have some interesting examples of layouts from centuries ago.
Rosa Medicinae
“A page from John de Gaddesden’s Rosa Medicinae, a 14th century work. The author is mentioned in the Prologue to Chaucer’s ‘Canterbury Tales’. This is almost certainly the earliest medical work surviving in Exeter.”
Pythagoras’ Theorem
“Proof of the Theorem of Pythagoras in Euclid’s De Arte Geometrica – late 13th century.”
In Features sell products (but don't get used), Heidi Adkisson says most people never use the features they pay extra for due to the “paradox of the active user.”
A few years ago I did an extensive in-home study observing use of a particular computer hardware peripheral. Most people had high-end models with many features. But in my observation of use, only one “power user” went beyond using anything but the core, basic features. These people had paid a premimum for features they didn’t use. However, when describing their purchase experience, it was clear they aspired to using these features and sincerely intended to. But, once the product was out of the box, the paradox of the active user took over.
What’s the paradox of the active user? It’s the term for a behavior pattern observed during studies at the IBM User Interface Institute in the 1980s…
Users never read manuals but start using the software immediately. They are motivated to get started and to get their immediate task done: they don’t care about the system as such and don’t want to spend time up front on getting established, set up, or going through learning packages. The “paradox of the active user” is a paradox because users would save time in the long term by taking some initial time to optimize the system and learn more about it. But that’s not how people behave in the real world, so we cannot allow engineers to build products for an idealized rational user when real humans are irrational: we must design for the way users actually behave.
Related: The CEO of Philips asks, “Do people need the gizmos we’re selling?” [via GE] He thinks manufacturers should draw inspiration from the clarity of Google and Craigslist.
Spending hours learning to use a new gadget is the last thing most of us want to do. The ability to take a product out of the box and just have it work, without the need to read a manual for hours, is now high on most consumers’ priority lists when deciding on a purchase.
The attitude behind “RTFM” reveals an interesting bias. It assumes there’s one manual…THE manual. But that’s a company perspective, not a customer perspective. Customers have to use dozens of products each day that come with manuals, not just the one product you make. It’s not that they’re lazy bums who don’t want to read the manual. They just don’t want to read all those manuals.