No joke, I would pay ten bucks an episode for more stuff like this. Alex Bogusky talks with his Dad about design.

I bought a Christmas gift for someone in my family from http://llbean.com last year, and I’ve been on their mailing list since. I’m continually impressed at how smart and well-crafted their advertising is. There is a reason they’ve been able to stay relevant for 95 years. They know how to treat customers.

Here’s an example from today’s emailer:

While every other company is trying to spam me, sell my email address, and cross-sell the hell out of me, they politely ask if I even want to keep receiving their emails. While everyone else buries an “unsubscribe” link in 6pt type in the footer, they flat-out ask me. Remember this isn’t a catalog that costs $2.50 to print and mail- it’s an email that is essentially free to send. It’s not about benefitting them. They’re asking because they would like to be asked if our roles were switched. Brand equity attained.

“When an AT&T representative suggested to one of Jobs’ deputies that the Apple CEO wear a suit to meet with AT&T’s board of directors, he was told, “We’re Apple. We don’t wear suits. We don’t even own suits.”

I don’t really believe that happened, -but I would love to think it did. via df

What it’s like to work for Steve Jobs:

“We had about three weeks to prepare,” Evangelist says. He and another employee went to work creating beautiful mock-ups depicting the perfect interface for the new program. On the appointed day, Evangelist and the rest of the team gathered in the boardroom. They’d brought page after page of prototype screen shots showing the new program’s various windows and menu options, along with paragraphs of documentation describing how the app would work.

“Then Steve comes in,” Evangelist recalls. “He doesn’t look at any of our work. He picks up a marker and goes over to the whiteboard. He draws a rectangle. ‘Here’s the new application,’ he says. ‘It’s got one window. You drag your video into the window. Then you click the button that says burn. That’s it. That’s what we’re going to make.’ “

The whole article is worth a read http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/147/apple-nation.html

“And that, for me, is the key. Anyone can make something. But to make something great, you have to find the courage to ditch the things dribbling along at half-past average. I’ve spent the last few years juggling projects and hobbies, abandoning a few to let others shine. It hurts to give up, but I know that my small successes wouldn’t have happened otherwise. Sometimes, the right thing to do is to move on and not hang on.
Abandon your crap. You’ll be amazed at what thrives in its place.”

- http://modernerd.com/post/328572255/the-importance-of-abandoning-crap

I wrote a bit about the same thing here a while back.

“Your customer doesn’t care about any of the other crap that you want to throw onto the product page. Get rid of it; put it elsewhere. “

http://mattgemmell.com/2010/06/20/your-apps-website-sucks

Great article. And a really nice addition to the Fusion Network where we advertise often.

“Steve Jobs: You know… (long pause). I’m trying to think of a good analogy. When we were an agrarian nation, all cars were trucks. But as people moved more towards urban centers, people started to get into cars. I think PCs are going to be like trucks. Less people will need them. And this is going to make some people uneasy.”

This dialog is about the iPad vs. the PC. But this conversation could not be relevant without the internet connected application.

Marco Arment on a competitor:

“I was asked for a comparison via email, and rather than pretend like a competitor doesn’t exist and keep silent about it on my blog, I’m comfortable addressing it (oh no! giving traffic and attention to a competitor!) and clarifying the differences.”

Bravery like this combined with clear-headedness is tough to come by. Read more