

37signals.com - Evolution of a homepage - wlll
http://37signals.com/svn/posts/3007-37signalscom-homepage-evolution

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DanielStraight
Two things struck me:

1\. Not much overall change.

2\. Negative slogans are quickly phased out in favor of positive ones. "Drop a
bomb on your competitors" and "gain an unfair advantage" quickly give way to
"a better way to work with people."

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primigenus
Not much overall change? Midway through the movie the complete design for the
entire thing changes from a colourful, pastel shaded page to black/white with
large fonts and a focus on copy. That's a pretty huge change and definitely
not inspired by marginal A/B tests. They just changed their minds, tried
something different, and stuck with it.

~~~
wingerlang
Well overall they changed it once. I know a lot of websites that have made
huge changes several times.

I expected more from the video. There were no evolution. Just little
image/text/size-changes. And then they changed it completely, and did the same
as before.

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krobertson
I was expecting more, but instead like the minor evolution. You can see the
text be tweaked bit by bit. Font, sizing, arrangement within sections, word
replacements, etc.

Think it speaks to continually tweaking your site bit by bit. Don't need to
completely redo it or do massive revamps.

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goblgobl
There's a good mix of iterative changes and structural changes. I think the
structural ones (that don't deal with aesthetics) are the most interesting.

One trick I like to do is stand a few feet back from the monitor/LCD, and try
to, in 3-5 seconds, figure out what I'm looking at. I think its a good trick
because you'll realize where your eyes go to first (smaller text/details
usually gets blurry), and the time interval will tell you what you're
communicating clearly.

When you compare the first version in the video with the last using this
trick, there's a huge difference.

The 2009 version has an overwhelming amount of detail, with an ambiguous
"Change your Business"/"Change the way you work" title. A lot of information
is crammed in the first frame (company history, latest news, etc). The 2011
version is remarkably clearer: The two large texts explain the product
offerings and that they are kind of a big deal (social proof) - both keys to
selling. The rest of the information is prioritized descendingly. "Style"
(what people most typical mean when they say design) has been minimized.

Another company's website that is great with this (standing back/first thing
that pops in your head) is, suprise, surpise... apple.com

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wgx
One thing 37S have got (in spades) is _good writers_. That really shows here,
and generally throughout their products.

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grimtrigger
I see a lot of arbitrary changes in this video. I'm not saying all of them
were, but I don't see the point in making your web team add 5 pixels here or
there, or switch out "us" for "it".

I didn't perceive their strategy as "experimental" but as "erratic". Even if
A/B testing showed slight gains or falls, I would prescribe those changes to
random chance over the value added/lost. Unless there's a possibility of
measurable effects, go with your gut.

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imajes
looks like the result of continuous a/b testing results... change one thing,
deploy to some people, capture funnel change, rinse, repeat.

~~~
jasonfried
None of the changes here were due to a/b testing. This is just the initial
design process + internal iteration.

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mattmanser
I loved the little war over whether to use 'us' or 'it' (0:52-0:55) in the
phrase:

 _Millions of people depend on our software. Entrepreneurs, small businesses
and teams inside big organisations rely on it/us daily._

~~~
jasonfried
There were dozens of subtle variations on this statement that were never
committed. I hope to find some time to do a detailed post on that sometime.

~~~
timdorr
I'd love to see a post on the branding lessons learned through variations in
copy. What phrases worked and what ones sucked. The biggest branding mishap I
see on a regular basis is a company that doesn't know how to talk to its
audience.

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armandososa
With that title, I was expecting an evolution from the early days, when the
homepage was just a manifesto. I really wanted to see _that_ video, and this
one left me underwhelmed.

The use of a huapango as the background music made me smile though.

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rglover
I love how subtle the changes in this were. Shows 37signals' great attention
to detail, focus, and restraint. Fun idea for kids: organize the different
screens into a book and make a "what changed in this picture" game.

Sidenote: One of my favorite features of the site is the "Happy Day" in the
upper left hand corner. Best part of the video was seeing it appear out of
thin air.

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andrewjiang
Incredibly interesting to watch, especially notable areas of A/B testing. They
did a lot of testing with exactly how to display their media mentions.

I'd love to see this for sites that went through multiple pages of
transitions.

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duarte
While I was watching, it felt slightly too fast.

I think editing less, leaving it at a steady pace (say 1 second per week,
regardless of the amount of changes) would have given it another dimension. A
data-dense rhythm.

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url2png
<https://gist.github.com/1219927> Here is a quick shellscript for anyone who
wants to do this for themselves using url2png.com

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mmuro
What's interesting here is not just how they play with the copy, but how they
iterate over small details such as margins, padding, and shades of colors
(even on the text and links).

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juliendsv-mbm
Very cool! fun to watch, not a big fan of the music though..

