Not as big of fan of this site. I get a little bored looking at it, and by a little I mean a lot. I will say that it’s pretty functional and informational. What more can you ask for, I guess…
I’m referring mainly to the homepage – yesterday the microsites for their products hadn’t been updated with the new look. (I see http://basecamphq.com now has an update) Still, I think the homepage needs more visuals.
Also, once on the product sites, it’s not obvious how to get back to the homepage in the top nav (many user’s still don’t know about clicking on the logo).
@Foobar, I read the entire thing and I loathe reading. The goal of it is pretty obvious, they are not trying to sell their products, they are showing potential customers and existing users that they can trust the products because it is proven to be successful and in some cases essential.
People need to understand that every website is not going to be the same. They all have different communication goals.
If your a web professional I imagine you’ll have heard of 37 Signals. I am aware of their success and know the products they offer but not enough to explore. This doesn’t fill the gap and make me want to explore further.
Not saying it’s bad, I just don’t quite get what their aiming for with this.
Agree with Foobar. Visually it isn’t doing it for me. It isn’t a wall of text but my eye do glaze over a little bit, maybe I spend to much time online. And the hover state for each product is a little abrupt and jarring, something smoother with a nice visual would have been better.
Obviously I was exaggerating with the 95% figure. It’s long been proven that users on the web don’t read words – they skim. Any web copy writer/UX will tell you the same.
I did some research for find solid figures for you Rich, turns out I was pretty close.
Personally, I didn’t read a word on the 37signals homepage. And the hover buttons are a little annoying – I think the experience would be better if they were all expanded so the user didn’t have to work to find the info on the products they are selling.
“they are not trying to sell their products, they are showing potential customers and existing users that they can trust the products because it is proven to be successful and in some cases essential.” – Rich, that is called “selling”.
15 Comments
Hi there,
I thought I’ve seen the logo before…
http://www.spielemagazin.de/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/gameforge.jpg
Pretty sure gameforge had this logo at least for 4 years, though they changed it now…
Im going to go out on a limb here and say that I really doubt 37 signals stole their logo.
Being that the company was founded in 1999 (11 years ago), I will have to agree with Curt (lol)
Apparently it’s registered, so there must have been no conflicts.
Yup, seems like Gameforge “borrowed” it…
Maybe that’s why they changed theirs.
Reminds me of the old TechTV logo.
Not as big of fan of this site. I get a little bored looking at it, and by a little I mean a lot. I will say that it’s pretty functional and informational. What more can you ask for, I guess…
It’s fine if you like reading. Like 95% of people on the net, I don’t. Some screenshots of their products, videos, something visual is sorely needed.
I’m referring mainly to the homepage – yesterday the microsites for their products hadn’t been updated with the new look. (I see http://basecamphq.com now has an update) Still, I think the homepage needs more visuals.
Also, once on the product sites, it’s not obvious how to get back to the homepage in the top nav (many user’s still don’t know about clicking on the logo).
WEB pirates? )))
foobar, where’d you get that 95% statistic from? I’d love to see that data.
@Foobar, I read the entire thing and I loathe reading. The goal of it is pretty obvious, they are not trying to sell their products, they are showing potential customers and existing users that they can trust the products because it is proven to be successful and in some cases essential.
People need to understand that every website is not going to be the same. They all have different communication goals.
Not sold on this. I’m in Foobar’s camp.
If your a web professional I imagine you’ll have heard of 37 Signals. I am aware of their success and know the products they offer but not enough to explore. This doesn’t fill the gap and make me want to explore further.
Not saying it’s bad, I just don’t quite get what their aiming for with this.
Agree with Foobar. Visually it isn’t doing it for me. It isn’t a wall of text but my eye do glaze over a little bit, maybe I spend to much time online. And the hover state for each product is a little abrupt and jarring, something smoother with a nice visual would have been better.
Obviously I was exaggerating with the 95% figure. It’s long been proven that users on the web don’t read words – they skim. Any web copy writer/UX will tell you the same.
I did some research for find solid figures for you Rich, turns out I was pretty close.
Only 16% read word for word. http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9710a.html
And in this study, users only read approx 20% of the content http://www.useit.com/alertbox/percent-text-read.html
Personally, I didn’t read a word on the 37signals homepage. And the hover buttons are a little annoying – I think the experience would be better if they were all expanded so the user didn’t have to work to find the info on the products they are selling.
“they are not trying to sell their products, they are showing potential customers and existing users that they can trust the products because it is proven to be successful and in some cases essential.” – Rich, that is called “selling”.
37 Signals – Best Web Gallery – significant