Fellow Ottawa firm, Select Start Studios have just had their iPhone application approved—if you use Basecamp, and an iPhone (or an iPod Touch), I suggest stopping what you are currently doing (because it’s most likely illegal, at least in some countries) and buying it.
This entry was written by , posted on 03/03/2010 at 7:16 AM, filed under Apple, Business, Design, Mobile and tagged Basecamp, Headquarters, iPhone, Mobile, Ottawa. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.
I read this brief entry on the 37signals blog “Signal vs. Noise”, and felt it was worth sharing, in it’s entirety. I admire almost everything 37signals does—’specially the blunt (but almost always bang-on) opinions of founder, Jason Fried. Once again, I couldn’t agree more. I’ll rip the entire article and post below…
There’s more to building a great product than just studying the market or the technology or competitors. You need to have taste too. You need to understand what “great” means in a big picture sense, not just in your chosen field. At least that’s what Steve Jobs thinks:
Great products, according to Mr. Jobs, are triumphs of “taste.” And taste, he explains, is a byproduct of study, observation and being steeped in the culture of the past and present, of “trying to expose yourself to the best things humans have done and then bring those things into what you are doing”.
Want to build a great iPhone app? Go listen to Billie Holliday. Trying to design a piece of hardware? Visit a Frank Lloyd Wright house. Aiming to write great marketing copy? Read Aldous Huxley. Need a color scheme? Go to the museum and check out some Mark Rothko paintings.
Studying masters in a wide range of fields is how you learn greatness. Their creations may not have a direct, instant benefit on whatever you’re making, but soaking them in will change the way you think and the decisions you make. Side benefit: you’ll be a lot more interesting person too.
This entry was written by , posted on 02/02/2010 at 9:33 AM, filed under Business, Design, Life, Technology and tagged 37signals, Inspiration, Taste. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.
Firstborn rocking it once again with a site for Sobe, one of Pepsi-Cola’s brands.
This entry was written by , posted on 01/14/2010 at 9:00 AM, filed under Business, Design, Flash and tagged Design, Firstborn, Flash. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.
Aflac takes the crown for one of the most annoying ad campaigns of the modern age—but this microsite does it’s job quite well. It immediately grabs your attention, and it does so in a stylish and captivating way. Credit where credit is due—this works.
This entry was written by , posted on 01/12/2010 at 10:27 AM, filed under Business, Design, Flash and tagged Flash, Microsite. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.
Bugtrapp: a bug-tracking web application. Sign-up on the website to beta test.
This entry was written by , posted on 12/12/2009 at 12:19 PM, filed under Business, Design, Technology and tagged Application, Bugs, Software. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.
Corporate headshots. Brilliant.
This entry was written by , posted on 12/08/2009 at 8:27 AM, filed under Business, Life and tagged Flickr. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.
Now, let me begin my tale of purchasing a new Mac Mini from Amazon.ca (the Canadian wing of Amazon.com). Last Friday, my business partner called me after I had left the studio to inform me that Amazon.ca was getting rid of it’s stock of 2006, Intel Core Duo, Mac Mini units, for $66. $66, you might ask?? Well, let’s get a few things out of the way first: they are 3-year old machines, they had measly 80GB HD’s and only 512MB of memory. Too be honest, I wouldn’t have paid much more than $150-$200 for one of these—it simply would not have been worth it in my eyes. Let’s be honest, they are not the workhorse machine I would need.
So, I ordered one, and paid an extra $40 for the fastest express next-day shipping. My partner bought 4 units, thinking they would make excellent Xmas presents for his still-PC-using family. So, orders placed, confirmation emails received from Amazon—nothing left to do but wait.
Until this morning—I get an email from a much respected design colleague (who also purchased several units) informing me that Amazon.ca has cancelled all Mac Mini orders, and he only found out by logging-in to his account to check on the order status and estimated delivery date. I did the same. Order cancelled. No explanation. Nothing. Bullshit.
Do you think Amazon.ca prominently displays the support phone # anywhere the human eye could find? Yah, exactly. So, after sifting through page-after-page of bullshit FAQ’s and “help” sections, I found it—the call-back function. The support representative was pleasant enough—but just as I though, she had no real answers, other than it was a mistake. A mistake? Your goddamn right it was a mistake, and you should honour it—if I walk into Chapters, see a book priced at $12.99, bring a book to the cash, and when it gets rung-in, the cash register reads $29.99—Chapters will honour the mistake, and you get the book at the sticker price. That is my experience, at least, and it’s happened more than once to me.
Amazon—you failed us. You listed product at a price (some believe a price “to-good-to-be-true”, but for a 3-year old low-end Mac Mini, I view more as a “good deal”), we made our purchases, and you pulled the plug—and sent ZERO notification. The support rep claimed that notification emails were going to be sent, but she had no idea when—awesome. Top-notch.
Here’s where we are going to get even, and then some. I feel that Analogue has a great network of influential bloggers, social media professionals, and writers—all with significant reach and influence. We are sending this story to as many of these internet professionals as we can—and believe me, Amazon.ca, there are plenty.
Amazon.ca, I just want you to be very, very, very clear on something here: these words will be read by many, many, many people—at a time of year that can make-or-break a company: the holiday sales period.
My business partner has just informed me that he has read a forum post, where Amazon.ca is apologizing for the Mac Mini error, and offering a $10 coupon to affected customers. $10 coupon? Take it deep, Amazon. You are nothing more than a swarthy rogue trying to cover your ass in any way you can—and then you have the balls to offer a measly $10 credit.
Let’s recap: order was placed at 6PM, Friday November 27th, 2009. Today is Wednesday December 2nd, 2009, and NONE of us have received any official communication from Amazon.ca on the matter—nothing.
In this day-and-age, brands live and die in the public realm, and Amazon.ca—I hope you die a slow, public death as a company. I will never purchase anything from any Amazon-related entity, ever. Nor will my family, my wife’s family, work colleagues, and hopefully… hopefully—several thousand others that read these words, and heed my warning about your complete lack of ethics.
Wake-up, Amazon.ca, we have the power now—and yer’ gonna’ feel it. Deep.
PS: I had an experience with Griffin Technology recently. I purchased a pair of TuneBuds Mobile iPod headphones. They sucked, hard. I sent them back, thinking they were defective. Griffin sent a new pair, same poor-quality sound. What did Griffin Technology do? They offered me ANYTHING on the Griffin website, of equal or lesser value. Amazon: wake-up, and learn…
Amazon might very well blow us off, but that would be a big mistake…
This entry was written by , posted on 12/02/2009 at 9:29 AM, filed under Business and tagged Amazon, Business, Ethics. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.
It saddens me that we are often thought of as the most “expensive” studio when local clients send out an RFQ or an RFP. The funny thing is, it couldn’t be farther from the truth. That’s the thing with the typical “Ottawa” client —and yes, there is such a thing. I’m sure they exist in any city—but they seem to litter our local landscape, like discarded rubbish on the sidewalks.
Charlatans and rogues have hijacked our industry—those masquerading as qualified designers—nothing more than a recent college grad armed with a cracked Windows copy of Flash and Dreamweaver—that they lifted from a torrent.
These rogues will build your latest web venture, fully-integrated into Wordpress, for the bargain-basement price of $900. What a fucking deal—how could you pass that up? I’m done with even caring about these vultures and clowns—this will be my final rant about them. We end-up working with clients that have vision, understanding, and a respect for our craft (as we do with theirs). I’m sorry, but I don’t want to code your interior design business site for $500 (I’ve got 2 cats I’d rather pet instead, or sleep to catch-up on).
I’ll leave it at this: to those seeking the services of a design professional, go ahead, choose that lowest price.
Have a great time building your web presence twice.
This entry was written by , posted on 11/12/2009 at 11:03 AM, filed under Business, Design and tagged Charlatans, Designers, Rogues. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.
Less Everything. A simple mission: to make web applications that help you spend less time, doing less, and getting more done.
This entry was written by , posted on 10/18/2009 at 9:28 AM, filed under Business, Design, Technology and tagged Less. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.
Realmac Software make OS X applications that are elegant, intelligent, and beautiful to look at. The app that I am most excited about, is a soon-to-be-released app titled “Socialite“. From what I gather, and from the screenshots they have provided, it looks like an all-in-one desktop-based social media hub: Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, and multiple Google features.
As I said this morning on Twitter—desktop social media apps are where it’s at.
This entry was written by , posted on 10/08/2009 at 11:43 AM, filed under Business, Design, Social Media, Technology and tagged Facebook, Real Mac Software, Socialite, Twitter. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.