How Usability Affects Products - Part 2: Basecamp
Written September 19th, 2007 by Aaron HolbrookLast time I looked at one aspect of what Google did right with their very intuitive and fun to use Reader.
This time, I’d like to focus on the group management and collaboration software: Basecamp.
Designed and built by 37signals. They really hit the nail on the head with a easy to use and intuitive product. Today I’ll be looking at a specific aspect that really made me go ‘wow, that’s so simple - why doesn’t everyone do that?’
First off - if you’ve never used Basecamp, you should really take some time to check it out. It’s great for collaborating with your team on projects. There’s cool features like writeboards, to-do lists, calendars, and a simple forum for easy communication. You can try it out free (the free version limits you to only one project at a time) and their price points are fairly reasonable. (Believe it or not they didn’t pay me to write this article… although I’m thinking maybe they should 
)
Anyways, moving on - taking a look at their to-do list, I was impressed by the simple yellow box:
‘Wow,’ you must be thinking, ‘it sure doesn’t take much to get Aaron excited.’ I’ll have you know that I’m not easily distra… Oooh! Shiny object!
Seriously though, this isn’t any normal yellow box. (Ok, yes it is - but it’s so much cooler) Ready for the fun part?
It fades in after you’ve added a new item, and fades back to nothing fairly quickly.
Tada! That’s it! Easy huh? Then why don’t we see it more often?
This might appear to be blindingly stupid or insignificant, but I beg to differ. That little bit of color and motion lets the user know that their item was added, and that all their information is ready to go. No reloading of the page, no wondering if their information was lost in the transfer. Nope, no worries. Immediate relief. A little bit of DHTML and we’ve just made this page fun to use and a ton more usable in one fell swoop.
Ok, now apply this simple idea site-wide. Anytime a user sends information, wouldn’t it be great to let them know immediately that we got it? I would love to see the day when all sites use this sort of confirmation.
And if that doesn’t do it for you, how about that its a little flashy and shows off you’re not building your pages in FrontPage?
It’s the attention to detail and doing the little bit of work and planning in making a page not only accessible and usable, but enjoyable to do so.
Thanks for tuning in, I’m considering making this a weekly column. Suggestions? Comments? Let me know what you think.
Are there things about web apps you love? Hate? Want to share? Leave it in the comments!
September 19th, 2007 at 8:09 am
At first I too was wondering if you were just easily amused, but then you hit the nail on the head with these statements: “That little bit of color and motion lets the user know that their item was added, and that all their information is ready to go. No reloading of the page, no wondering if their information was lost in the transfer.” Exactly right.
About eight months ago our CMS vendor made an “upgrade.” Yes, quotes. With these base program upgrades there are always things you love and hate. And one thing I hated was that whenever I wanted to resort the news items on our front page, I would have to wait for the CMS page to reload to show the new listing and the option for time on and off. How annoying! So with the next “upgrade” I demanded something better. It was a simple change, but effective: the page darkened, a box popped up with a status bar, and it went away when the sorting reloaded. I know perfectly well that it’s just a mask for the page to reload, but it made me feel better that it was completed.
Sometimes — and I’m hesitant to say this — appearance is everything. Page reloads are horribly archaic, and the darkening with a new window gives the user some confirmation that their submission is being acted upon.
Quite simply, this minute act of automation can go a long ways in promoting reliability and communication with your organization.
September 19th, 2007 at 1:45 pm
Agreed. It’s good not to force the user to rely on error messages to know if a task was or was not completed.
Basecamp is a winner in my book too. I first began using it because it was served up by a vendor as their extranet. Later, I set up a site for an internal group on it and I had the pleasure of doing the exact same exercise using Sharepointe. I like Basecamp and its offerings better, no matter how subtle some of them (like the color changes) may be. Oftentimes it’s the little things that count.