

Our take on 37Signals Draft product page [Taskforce] - maccman
http://taskforceapp.com/pages/draft

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samdk
I don't think this works nearly as well as the 37s version for a couple of
reasons. The biggest one is that Taskforce isn't as inherently visual as Draft
is, so you're going to have to work harder to make it visually interesting.
There are a bunch of others, though: the Draft page shows Draft in context:
pictured on an iPad rendering. That helps to explain what it is. The Draft
images are scaled down and at a more normal aspect ratio. Yours are full size
and cut off at an awkward aspect ratio to save space. They look really really
wide. The Draft page includes a line at the top that says what it is and where
to get it in two lines. You don't have either of those.

I think the idea has promise (and I _really_ like the Draft page), but there
are things that need to be changed for this to work. Add a tagline at the top
that says what Taskforce is, what platforms it runs on, and where to get it.
People should know there's a beta _before_ they get all the way down the page.
Scale the screenshots down, and move them to a more normal 16:10 or 4:3 aspect
ratio. Also consider focusing in for some of the screenshots rather than
putting the whole thing there: the 'drag and drop to share' screenshot, for
example, doesn't focus nearly enough on the dragging and dropping and that
gets lost. 37s had an easy time in this respect because their app is very very
simple visually, and is a fundamentally visual application. You're going to
have to do a bit more work to make your screenshots as interesting. Make sure
you have an obvious link back to your site. The 'Taskforce' header at the top
isn't very obviously clickable. (And there should be a link back from the
bottom of the page, too.)

Also, personalize it a bit. There are two lines that really make the Draft
page work, in my opinion:

    
    
        "See, there it is in Campfire. That took 3 seconds."
    
        "We use it every day. We hope you will too."
    

The Taskforce page is a lot more formal and a lot more boring. And that makes
it a lot less memorable in comparison.

~~~
norswap
Away with the "personalized" filler lines. I don't think people were ever
affected by those.

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aaronbrethorst
To the folks asking if it's a Mac app or a web app, it looks like the answer
is "both." From the controls, it looks like it's built on top of Cappuccino
from 280North, and being deployed on the Mac using Cappuccino's Native Host
feature ([http://cappuccino.org/discuss/2010/05/13/nativehost-run-
your...](http://cappuccino.org/discuss/2010/05/13/nativehost-run-your-
cappuccino-applications-on-the-desktop/)).

~~~
maccman
You're right, the answer is both, but we're not using Cappuccino.

We're using Cappuccino's theme Aristo, which I ported to CSS3:
<http://github.com/maccman/aristo>

For the desktop implementation, we're using Bowline - a framework I developed
for producing cross platform desktop apps in Ruby/HTML.
<http://bowlineapp.com>

~~~
aaronbrethorst
Thanks for the correction. Bowline looks super cool. I'm going to have to
spend some time digging into it.

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adityakothadiya
37Signals are trend setters when it comes to UI design. Pretty much every
iteration of their Design/UI is followed by many web-apps. Remember the very
first version of Ta-da list home page, then the old Basecamp homepage, and now
the new Basecamp homepage. Also the layout of all their web apps is followed
by many SaaS apps now. Now this - simple landing page, will be followed by
many people now. It's good stuff!

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klaut
I did not get it - is this a desktop or webapp?

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n8agrin
37signals provides an explanation at the top of the page and a call to action
(link to the app store) at the top and bottom of the page. You should consider
doing the same with your signup form. This pattern is also noted on Google's
results pages where they have a search box at the top and bottom.

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ihodes
Though it may not have been as clear as intended, I "get it". And it's pretty
cool—I've signed up for the beta.

Cultured Code (Things) has a competitor… good work!

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maccman
The idea is that by the time you scroll to the bottom of the page, you should
have a pretty clear idea about the product and how it's useful to you.

~~~
sjs382
Is it a mac application? Or cross platform? Web? Mobile?

Email replies? Email replies to what?

How does it integrate with Gmail?

It's probably better to present this as a story.

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maccman
I guess it's not as explanatory as I intended.

It's three things: * A cross platform desktop app * Gmail plugin * iPhone app

If you create a task for someone not using the system, it'll send them an
email instead. Any replies to that email will get turned into comments in
Taskforce.

I think you're right about representing it as a story, perhaps a life cycle of
a particular task.

~~~
jlsnyder
In that case it looks very very cool and I signed up for the beta. Great work.

But when I first read through I too was confused about the comparison to
37signals and their new draft app.

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ErrantX
One reason the 37s page works _really_ well is that it is bold, stark and
clear. For example; they have a white background - which really emphasises the
black images & text.

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dot
Looks like an awesome app. When are you shipping the beta?

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cangrande
Thank you! You should see something in the next few months.

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subbu
Isn't draft a bare-bones sketching/wireframing tool? This seems to be a task
manager.

~~~
shawndumas
that's what's got me confused...

