Designers here may agree but programmers, of which I'm sure HN has a majority and like myself, would love to know why exactly this made you stop reading. Currently, "stopped reading there" adds nothing useful to the discussion at all and it even seems pretty rude.
OK, it's rude. But Basecamp makes mistake #2 from the article, which is actually a mistake to call it a mistake.
Really? Testimonials? Out of all of the potential and made-up customer feedback, you've hand-selected a few data points to advertise on your homepage. Even if they were randomly selected (obviously not), reducing the data down to mere anecdotes is... stupid. Insanely stupid. I can't even wrap my head around why people would ever base a decision on that.
And so when it presents the thought bubble of the woman thinking about how she uses Basecamp and the fact that, of the extremely unbiased sample of people who use Basecamp (haha), 97% of them recommend Basecamp, I'm just unimpressed.
Here's my number one beef with homepages: I still don't what your product actually specifically does. I don't want generalizations like "manage your projects" and "keep track of every file, discussion, and event" (what the hell is an event?). I want something concrete like "Basecamp lets you write words, puts checkboxes next to them, then moves them around randomly" (I'm not a fan of the product so my summarization may be biased).
Form follows function. Basecamp may not have the prettiest looking homepage, but at least it works. The copy effectively communicates what Basecamp is, and the website is laid out fairly well.
Was there something specific about the page that you had a critique on?
As I mentioned earlier in this thread, I really think Basecamp's homepage does a very poor job of communicating what it is.
> Last week 6,033 companies signed up for Basecamp to manage their projects. Today it’s your turn.
This is not a description of what Basecamp is.
> For all of my projects, I use Basecamp to keep track of every file, discussion, and event from beginning to end—all in one place.
This pretends to describe Basecamp but I could also use it as a description for Dropbox, MediaWiki, and Eventbrite (seriously, what the hell is an event?).
> 97% of customers recommend Basecamp.
COLOR ME IMPRESSED!
To quote myself: I want something concrete like "Basecamp lets you write words, puts checkboxes next to them, then moves them around randomly" (I'm not a fan of the product so my summarization may be biased).
jwdunne|12 years ago
raylu|12 years ago
Really? Testimonials? Out of all of the potential and made-up customer feedback, you've hand-selected a few data points to advertise on your homepage. Even if they were randomly selected (obviously not), reducing the data down to mere anecdotes is... stupid. Insanely stupid. I can't even wrap my head around why people would ever base a decision on that.
And so when it presents the thought bubble of the woman thinking about how she uses Basecamp and the fact that, of the extremely unbiased sample of people who use Basecamp (haha), 97% of them recommend Basecamp, I'm just unimpressed.
Here's my number one beef with homepages: I still don't what your product actually specifically does. I don't want generalizations like "manage your projects" and "keep track of every file, discussion, and event" (what the hell is an event?). I want something concrete like "Basecamp lets you write words, puts checkboxes next to them, then moves them around randomly" (I'm not a fan of the product so my summarization may be biased).
samweinberg|12 years ago
Was there something specific about the page that you had a critique on?
raylu|12 years ago
> Last week 6,033 companies signed up for Basecamp to manage their projects. Today it’s your turn.
This is not a description of what Basecamp is.
> For all of my projects, I use Basecamp to keep track of every file, discussion, and event from beginning to end—all in one place.
This pretends to describe Basecamp but I could also use it as a description for Dropbox, MediaWiki, and Eventbrite (seriously, what the hell is an event?).
> 97% of customers recommend Basecamp.
COLOR ME IMPRESSED!
To quote myself: I want something concrete like "Basecamp lets you write words, puts checkboxes next to them, then moves them around randomly" (I'm not a fan of the product so my summarization may be biased).