The Rocket Science Group, LLC

The GAP Website - Model videos

2007-05-08T08:25:00.000-04:00

I'm too lazy to drive to the mall and buy blue jeans and shorts. So I hop on The Gap website, and notice they've got videos now (see top of screenshot below). Pretty neat. You pick a style and a guy walks across the screen and shows you what the jeans look like in action. I like the way each style of jean comes with a different style of walking and posing. This is the best thing YouTube has done for the "Internets." Everyone has Flash now, and everyone has high bandwidth, so stuff like this is easy for all of us to implement.

Busted for Plagiarism (sorta)

2007-05-04T13:53:00.000-04:00

We just launched a banner ad campaign for MailChimp on The Deck (an ad network that basically targets web developers and designers). So far so good.

But just the other day, a designer (with a very good eye) sent in a concerned email to The Deck that perhaps the MailChimp logo was a ripoff of a monkey illustration seen over at Lollipopcards.com.

Actually, it's the other way around. The Lollipopcards design is a ripoff of the MailChimp logo. I know that for a fact, because I designed both of 'em. Hey, I needed a monkey, and I needed it yesterday!

It was actually kind of funny that anyone even knew about lollipopcards.com. I built that site with Mark (who later partnered with me to start The Rocket Science Group), back in 1999. We did it in our spare time. We mainly wanted to see if we could ever build enough traffic to make some side money off of it. Maybe we could sell advertisements targeted at fathers inside our Father's Day cards. Brilliant! Let's do it! IPO!

Took Mark about a week to figure out the whole multipart-alternative MIME encapsulation thing (basically, how to get HTML email to work). He programmed, and I designed little cutesy cards. When we finally launched, we sent our St.Patrick's day card out to 7 friends. They sent cards to their friends. And on and on. In about a year, with virtually no marketing whatsoever, we had 30,000 uniques visiting the site every month. Meh. By then, we lost interest. We had day jobs.

We never made any money off of that site. It turned out to be just a hobby.

Just before we considered it a complete and utter failure, and just before we turned the switch off to save some hosting money, we got the idea to build MailChimp (an email newsletter delivery tool).

We took a bunch of the code we developed for lollipopcards, tweaked it, and it became the foundation for MailChimp. We had the delivery part down easy. It was the "tracking and sorting bounces" that took us so much time. I still remember those late nights helping Mark search the Internet for "how to handle bouncebacks." I finally hit on the word "VERPS" (thank you almighty Google) and the rest is history.

Now MailChimp has thousands of customers from all over the world, and makes us enough pennies that we don't really have to worry about much anymore.

So if you have some cool web technology you developed, don't throw it away. You'll think of some weird way to re-use it later. Same goes for monkey drawings.

Hypermilers (tricks for getting 59 MPG in an Accord)

2007-03-15T15:10:00.000-04:00

Here's a crazy story about Wayne Gerdes, a "hypermiler" obsessed with squeezing every last drop of gasoline out of his driving. He can get 59 MPG in his regular Honda Accord, and got 180 MPG from a Honda Insight at "Hybridfest." Funny thing is, the Insight tops out at 99MPG on its digital readout, so they had to switch to kilometers per gallon in order to measure his results. Love the part about the "death turn" and his ice vest...

http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2007/01/king_of_the_hypermilers.html

Your Name On A Honda F1 Car

2007-02-27T08:25:00.000-05:00

This is nice. Instead of covering their car with countless sponsor logos (which you can never see anyways) Honda's looking to promote environmental responsibility by just covering their entire car with an image of the earth. You can make a pledge to help save the earth (and sponsor the car) and they'll put your name on it. It'll make up a tiny pixel on the car, which you can only see with a microscope, but still:

More info at AutoBlog Green

Mobile Phone for Old People

2007-02-23T07:08:00.000-05:00

For old people? Heck, I'd want one myself. Just give me a simple phone with no frills.

http://adverlab.blogspot.com/2007/02/mobile-phone-for-old-people.html

I just bought a cellphone for my 50+ year old mother in law, and watched her try to use it.

Tip for phone designers: make that LCD a touchscreen. If I had a nickel every time she scrolled to a name in her address book, then pressed down (really, really hard on the delicate screen), I'd be a dollar-menu-naire. It sure made pretty colors when she jammed down on the screen, though.

Phone for really, really, really old people: Ditch the address book, and just make the inside of that flip-down piece hold a piece of paper.

Michelin Man Loses Spare Tire

2007-02-23T06:42:00.000-05:00

Check out new Michelin Man vs. Old Michelin Man:

New Michelin man is healthier, stronger, he's quit smoking, he cares about the environment, and he "lasts 25% longer." Congrats!

Navy may deploy anti-terrorism dolphins and sea lions

2007-02-14T09:13:00.000-05:00

Yahoo has an article about how the Navy uses dolphins and sea lions to detect underwater terrorists. I'd heard of that before, but not this:

"Sea lions can carry in their mouths special cuffs attached to long ropes. If the animal finds a rogue swimmer, it can clamp the cuff around the person's leg. The individual can then be reeled in for questioning."

Crazy stuff. Reminds me of this Onion article:

Dolphins Evolve Opposable Thumbs

I'm Linux

2007-02-10T10:04:00.000-05:00

I just can't stop laughing at this "I'm a Mac" parody:

http://techdigest.tv/2007/02/im_a_pc_im_a_ma.html

Advice From GoDaddy Founder

2007-02-02T09:37:00.000-05:00

Practical Commerce has an interesting interview with GoDaddy founder Bob Parsons. Some interesting thoughts about the future of ecommerce.

Here's a snippet I liked:

If you had one single piece of advice for startup ecommerce people what would it be?
They have to be relentless, they have to be willing to change and adapt and they have to do it often. That would be it. They will not get it right the first time, I assure them.

Mr. Roboto

2007-01-29T22:23:00.000-05:00

Pretty cool handmade robots from found parts: Lockwasher Design.
Tip o' the hat to 1508 for posting the link:

Explaining breakthrough technology, like the Polaroid instant camera

2006-09-11T18:30:00.000-04:00

So I was clicking around the Internet, and came across this video created in 1972 by Charles and Ray Eames, explaining how the Polaroid Instant Camera works.

I'm always trying to find ways to explain new technology to people, so it got me thinking.

Nowadays, the average Joe might just call it "an instant camera." When explaining what it does, he'd say, "You point the camera, push a button, and a picture comes out. It's pretty cool."

But I guess back then, this stuff was so amazing and new that they were super-duper excited about the technology. So this is how the voice in the video explained it:

"A compact, folding, electronically controlled, motor-driven, single lens reflex camera, capable of focusing from infinity down to 10 inches has been developed to exploit integral, self-processing film units which, when exposed, are automatically ejected from the camera, with no parts to peel or discard and whose final images emerge without timing, in daylight, where the viewer can see them materialize within the same transparent, protective plastic cover, through which the film was originally exposed."

Now, I know that when you market new, breakthrough technology, things are different, and you're probably talking to all those "early adopters" and stuff.

Still though, I wonder how many of us in the business over-complexificate things, because we're salivating over our own technology.

Note: I found the link to this video over at Chris Lake's photography blog. I wholeheartedly agree when he says, "It may seem dated or hokey to some, but I found it to be rather elegant and even poetic (especially toward the end)." It's a great movie.

V8 Engine Table

2007-01-26T07:15:00.000-05:00

Have you got a lot of enigne parts lying around? Here's an idea for what to do with them. I bet you wouldn't even need an entire engine. Hmm, how about a chair with suspension parts for legs, and a gear shifter for the recline lever? Wishing I had some welding equipment right about now.

Exploded-View Diagrams

2007-01-23T12:39:00.000-05:00

Nerd that I am, I'm a sucker for technical exploded-view diagrams. And helicopters. And engines. So this interactive flash thingy from United Technologies caught my eye, especially because of its "colored-pencil" style. Neat-o.

Sneaky Usability Testing Trick

2006-12-23T10:07:00.000-05:00

Earthlink is evidently building a new "My Earthlink Start Page" kinda thing.

They've been blogging about some of their usability testing for it.

It's the usual kinda stuff (secret mirrors, recording devices, etc), until the very last paragraph.

http://blogs.earthlink.net/2006/12/new_myearthlink_part_3_three_l.php

At RSG, some of our biggest "eureka!" usability dicoveries have occured by simply peering over someone's shoulder while they worked. No fancy cameras, tin-foil hats, lab coats, or nipple-electrodes required (but you can still do all that for the dramatic effect, of course).

You can lead a horse to water...

2006-12-23T09:55:00.000-05:00

You can launch a new upgrade, but you can't make customers actually use it. You can send emails, post announcements, build tutorials, and blog about it all you want.

Fact is, people don't have time to read about your cool new accomplishment.

Here's a sneaky little "non-marketing" way that Google's using to tell me about their new version of Blogger. Hmm, I might actually convert one day.

Dos and Don'ts for Entrepreneurs

2006-12-19T07:23:00.000-05:00

The Knowledge@Wharton site has a do's and don'ts article from entrepreneurs who've made it.

I'll paraphrase it for you:

Be a weirdo
Bootstrap it
Solve a problem
Keep it simple

Beer-in-hand Usability Testing

2006-11-29T09:00:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, Dan and I were reviewing some interface design tweaks we're planning for MailChimp, and he made the comment, "We should really do our usability testing with a beer in one hand." The idea here is that a user should be able to walk through our interface and not have to focus too hard or read too many instructions to get stuff done (reminds me of: Don't Make Me Think!). In my experience watching people interact with websites, that's pretty much the state of mind they're in.

Web designers (like us) sometimes fall into the habit of assuming our users are super-focused, and determined to accomplish some specific goal with our websites. As if the typical user is sitting down in his Aeron chair, cracking his knuckles, and saying, "Ok, now I really want to learn this CMS interface! Oh cool! Bread-crumb navigation! I'm really going to navigate the hell outta this site!"

Truth is, they probably got to the website by accident. Maybe they clicked on some pretty picture on some web page, or their friend sent a link to them in an email. They're probably going to give you one minute of their time to click around, then go back to buying stuff on eBay or checking email.

So the "beer in one hand" technique is a darn good idea for usability testing. Actually, if you really want to simulate real life conditions, go ahead and drink a couple before sitting down at the computer. When the screen starts to get blurry, that's when you start clicking.

Cisco Systems Re-branding

2006-11-05T08:40:00.000-05:00

I've always found logo design fascinating. Here's the inside scoop on the new Cisco re-branding (you've probably seen all the new "Welcome to the Human Network" commercials).

Includes an interview with the designer, project criteria, thought process, and other "behind the scenes" stuff. Can't believe they did this project totally online.

Online Business Experts: What Not To Do

2006-09-07T08:43:00.000-04:00

Tips and tidbits from Internet pioneers on what not to do when starting an online business. The advice from Netflix reflects what we've seen with our more successful clients: Keep it quick and dirty in the beginning, then refine later.

Yahoo's Sign-in Seal Prevents Phishing

2006-08-20T16:30:00.000-04:00

When you check your email in Yahoo!Mail, you sometimes get "phishing" scams, where people try to trick you into clicking on a link, then they take you to a fake Yahoo sign-in page. Sometimes, they do a really good job of imitating Yahoo. The idea is to dupe you into submitting your username and password, so they can go and do some evil with your account.

So Yahoo's just launched a new security measure that's pretty creative. It lets you upload a picture (whatever you want) as a "Sign-in Seal" for your login page. If you don't see your unique sign-in seal, you'll know it's a fake. Here are some details.

Pretty neat idea. Wonder if financial institutions will start using this tactic too. Has anyone clicked on any links from any emails from any bank lately? Do they even bother sending emails anymore?

DEATH TO CAPS LOCK!

2006-08-20T16:09:00.000-04:00

Come to think of it, I guess the CAPS LOCK button really is kinda useless now. Wired writes about one man's efforts to have the key completely eradicated.

It's PunchyTime

2006-08-17T08:22:00.000-04:00

It's been a busy few weeks here at the lab. Dan's finally married (woo-hoo) and things are back in full swing. We're only days away from launching our PunchyTime product. All the credit card processing stuff is in place, crons are running, and we're in final QA.

For our clients who don't know, PunchyTime is how we've always tracked our time on your projects (since around 2002 or so). All those time sheets we've sent you were from PunchyTime. It was just an internal tool, but some friends saw it and liked it, and suggested we open it up to the public. The idea behind PunchyTime is that it's built to make time tracking quick and easy. Instead of waiting till the end of the month to enter all your time into a huge spreadsheet (urge to kill...rising) PunchyTime lets you plug time in as you work. That way, we don't lose any billable hours, and we can see in real time if projects are on track or not.

If you'd like more information when we launch, sign up for the PunchyTime newsletter here.

Is Your Site IE7 Compatible?

2006-07-27T08:43:00.000-04:00

Microsoft's going to be making IE7 an automatic update sometime in the 4th quarter. If you haven't checked your website in IE7 yet, now's the time to start prepping. I've tried it a while back. It was a nice improvement, but I sure hope they worked the kinks out.

Presentations Are A Waste of Time

2006-06-14T15:02:00.000-04:00

Almost every time I've done a "presentation" for a potential client, I never got the project. Almost every time I just walked in and asked good questions and answered their questions, I got the project.

What's that mean?

Clients don't want to be presented to. Or, I'm really, really bad at presentations.

;-)

Nice article on this subject from RainToday

Nerd Quote of the Day from iWoz

2006-06-08T09:16:00.000-04:00

Found this quote at Guy Kawasaki's blog:

The statement that convinced Woz to leave HP to start Apple (uttered by Allen Baum) was, “You can be an engineer and become a manager and get rich, or you can be an engineer and stay an engineer and get rich."