37Signals Sign Up Page
Leave a CommentI was not really a big fan of 37signals before. I felt they’re such a hype. But just recently, I revisited them to check if we can use basecamp as our collaboration for our ideatoki projects. And, because my teammate Honee is a 37signals fan, so it just makes sense to go use 37signals. When I get to their main sign up page, I cannot help but get delighted.
It’s so plain and simple, nothing fancy. I love it.
With all the different web apps popping up with too eye-candy designs, and fancy aesthetics, 37signals design looks pale in comparison which gives a feeling that it’s not for non-sense. And, yes, I love straight-to-the-point, nothing fancy UI designs. I guess back in the early days of Web 2.0, 37signals looks fancy if you compare it to the corporate websites.
But one thing I realized just now is that 37signals has a very delightful content design. Their brief instructions, blurbs neatly place around their app is the strength of their design. Just enough, witty thoughts around their app makes you feel the people behind it really cares for their product.
How to learn to become a User Experience Designer?
Or, maybe how to learn just one factor of being a UX designer — interface designer, interaction designer, or content designer? Here in Philippines, schools or classes for designing for web or mobile or any software application for that matter is very unheard of (well for me). So it will be mostly self-learning:
- You can start with usability books by Steve Krug – but the thing with Krug’s books is that they are mostly about websites (note that websites are different from web apps). If you are into creating software applications, I guess it’s best you start with Alan Cooper’s book.
- If you think books are too expensive, and you do not have much patience of reading them. Try following designers’ blogs or even just their tweets. Creating Passionate Users blog by Kathy Sierra is a nice fun read — it’s such a waste that she stopped blogging. If you’re into eye-candy designs, you can check Smashing Magazine – from there you will find a good list of different designers who you can follow.
- Use as many software applications you can — from desktop to web to mobile and all sorts of applications. Then, observe how these applications are put up. You would notice that one application may be good at their interface design, another may be good at their workflow design, another maybe good at their content design. Just now, I notice that one thing that makes 37signals (note: I’m not a big fan of 37signals) is their content design. Their copywrite , their short instruction, their eeny weeny warning texts are simply delightful. So be mindful and observant in using applications – from their landing page, to sign up, to their settings page.
Rockmelt’s ‘Thank you’ Page
This morning I downloaded Rockmelt browser - they no longer have the beta invites, we can freely download it now. Since I need to live how the ‘social media’ experience for our ideatoki social media outfit (we’re based in Cebu, Philippines), I decided to download it for my social media needs.
After I click their Download button on their landing page, their ‘thank you’ page kind of delights me. It gives me a feeling that rockmelt team is genuine with their gratitude.
Welcome Back Myself
Exactly 1 year and 1 day from my last post, I’m back. I’d been meaning to just shut this blog down, and just transfer all the posts here to my personal-musings blog but I just did not have time to do it. One reason why I like to remove this blog because I came to accept that I’m just not fit for user experience (UX) designing. Add to that I’m from a place, Cebu, Philippines, where UX is %^$#%^#$%^$#% to everyone.
So what happen to me in a year:
* 2 web application products that were shelved off. I never see it as failure but as a very good learning experience. I guess I learned a lot of great deal about user experience design and such. In a way, I could say I have now more mature view about UX.
* 2 tech blogs focusing on Philippine scene which I’ll also be resurrecting soon from being shelved off. I really really love those 2 blogs. So help me, God.
My plan for this blog is, as usual, I’ll talk about my own view of user experience. I’ll try to write stuff that will make more sense for a 3rd-world country setting. Then, I’ll be posting here user interfaces and designs I find delightful. I guess I will be doing most of the latter since that’s easier to do.
