“Block off the first hour of every Monday to organize your todo list. Turn off instant messenger, close e-mail and silence your phone. You need absolute silence so you can focus.” – Ryan Carson, Think Vitamin.

A lot of conversation about modal editing recently brought our studio to a very simple conclusion- one that seemed undeniable the second we arrived at it.

For example, when I’m in “Preview”, and I want to make a simple edit to an image, I click “Annotate”, but I don’t immediately see the result. That’s because it happened away from where I clicked, which is not what I expected. I have to search for it, which is frustrating.

Instead of popping up somewhere near the annotate button, a tool bar drops down from the bottom of the preview screen, which depending on how big your Preview window is, isn’t always readily visible.

This threw me off just enough to make me realize that other people probably have the same frustration/hesitation. It’s something many people take for granted and expect out of the apps they use- usability based on expectations.

It seems too simple to have to put into words, but I’m going to do it anyway. For every action, there should be a nearby reaction.

Don’t be a quitter is ingrained in us from very early on in our lives. Quitters are lazy. Quitters are something to be pitied or even despised.

I quit lots of stuff. There. I said it here in public, and not because I need pity. I’m proud of quitting- and I think more people need to give themselves the permission to guiltlessly quit things.

It used to be that every time I quit something, I felt like I failed a little. Like I left some incomplete portion of my brain behind. I became reluctant to start new things because I worried I wouldn’t finish them. Keep Reading

There are lots of ways to go about pricing your web application, and there may not be a single right answer for any single app. When considering pricing, it’s important to evaluate all the options. Here are a few less traditional methods we’ve been discussing.

Charge once.
Great for building momentum. Great for quick revenue. Maybe not so great for long term earnings.

Advertise within your app.
We’ll see more and more advertising fueled apps. It can work if done well.

More customers = higher pricing.
The more customers you get, the more you charge. Have to start really low… Pinboard does it. Keep Reading

As an exercise in creativity, I usually imagine all sorts of scenarios when we’re working on a new web app. Things like:

• What would happen if we solved the opposite problem we’re trying to solve?

• What would Apple do?

• What would it look like if it was made in the 80’s? 90’s? 00’s? Ten years from now?

• If this app could only have one button, what would it be?

Recently I hit on another thought provoking question to ask myself: Keep Reading

“Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that’s creativity.” – Charles Mingus.

You’ve probably heard, but the people at TechCrunch had a dream squandered. Their project, the CrunchPad was ripped apart and used as confetti two days before it was supposed to launch. Can you imagine? They spent almost a year and a half on this, and had it swept from under their feet.

Hearing this made me stop and think about the emotional process of building a brand new app. Your heart and soul goes into it; you put your time, talent and brainpower into making this thing work. Endless conversations about how to keep it simple, efficient, powerful, and extremely useful get you more excited by the day. Even though you may have developed an app before, you still find yourself learning something new with every turn of the project. Keep Reading

Of all the things to worry about, the name of an app is probably most agonized over. And rightly so. It’s the first, and last impression. The reason the app sticks, or doesn’t. A great app with an awful name has two strikes against it before it even approaches the plate.

A really great name is essential to a great app- but you don’t need to wait on development to find the perfect name. When we begin a new app, we pick a code name. Something we can call it. Something friendly, and neat. 

We try not to burden the codename too much with being perfect, we just pick one of the best of our first ideas that seems acceptable. Keep Reading

When we launched Jumpchart, it wasn’t to resounding applause. We didn’t max out a server 25 minutes after throwing the switch. We didn’t watch gleefully as money gushed into our bank accounts. When we turned on the homepage very little happened.

When we sent out the launch email we got a little traffic. When we sent out notifications to the few bloggers we had made contact with during dev, we got a little traffic. When we sent out our quasi-press release to a few websites, the ones that covered the launch sent us a bit of traffic. When the slight arch created in Analytics was over, we were back down to nearly zero. Keep Reading

We’ve entered the planning phases of a brand new app. It’s something we, of course, can’t tell you the specifics of for several reasons:

...We don’t know them ourselves.
...They’ll probably change a lot before we’re done.
...After exploring, we might decide not to finish the project due to several reasons.
...It’s a competitive advantage to be somewhat secretive when building niche apps.
...Keeping things a secret builds interest, and makes the whole thing more fun.

Still, keeping everything secretive goes against our nature. We love to share, and we love to help the community. As an experiment, we’re going to share some of the growing pains we’re experiencing as we plan, sweat and think about this new app. Keep Reading