Get RealER

In the world of web design, especially among those developing community sites or sites for collaboration, 37 Signals’ Get Real philosophy is all the rage, but frankly those guys are too timid. They come close to a breakthrough but then they fall back on safe ideas and the tried and true.

Thus its falls to me to unveil the new new model for social web app design, which I call…

Getting Really Real

The Starting Line:

• Build Nothing
• What Are You Looking At?
• Funding Is For Sissies
• Underpromise and Underdeliver
• Start Flame Wars
• Don’t Make Your Bed or Brush Your Teeth

Stay Lean:

• Lose Weight
• Pool Your Pocket Change
• Three’s a Crowd
• Less Is More
• I’m OK, You Suck

Priorities:

• Big Ideas Are So Yesterday
• Ignore Details Forever
• It’s Never a Problem If You Don’t Notice It
• You Are Your Own Customer
• Scale, Schmale
• Have an Opinionated Blog

Feature Selection

• Half-a-Loaf, Heffalump
• Who Cares?
• No Features, No Maintenance
• Hidden Agenda
• Let the Vandals Take the Handles
• Solutions Are for Suckers
• Forget Features
• The Mayonaise Chapter

Process

• Software Isn’t Real
• Lather and Rinse
• From Idea to Better Idea
• Avoid Computers
• “Done!”
• The Web Isn’t Real
• Shrink Your Rhetoric

The Organization

• An Army of One
• I Don’t Need Friends
• IM Is Toxic
• Seek and Celebrate Small Vacations

Staffing

• Hire Less and Fire More
• Kick ‘Em to the Curb
• Actions, Not Software
• Get Well Fed Individuals
• You Can’t Fake Reality
• Codesmithies

Interface Design

• Interfaces Aren’t Real
• Who Needs Design?
• The One State Solution
• The Blank Stare
• Drive Defensive
• Foolish Consistency is the Hobgoblin of Little Minds
• Breathing is Interface Design
• One Big Union

Code

• Software Is Not Real
• Optimize for Offline
• If Code Speaks, You May Be Dehydrated
• Debt Will Set You Free
• Doors Are Real

Words

• There’s Nothing Functional about Functions
• Don’t Write Code
• Tell Your Story Walking
• Use Words, not Computers
• Personify Yourself

Pricing and Signup

• The First Taste Is Free
• In For a Penny, In For a Pound
• Pink Hearts, Yellow Moons, Orange Stars, Green Download Buttons
• A Softer Body

Promotion

• Out To Launch
• A Powerful Party
• Blogs Aren’t Real
• Time to Call In Favors
• Education Is Overrated
• Food Is Yummy
• Dump Your Logs
• Annoying Upsell
• Naming Calls

Support

• Deal the Pain
• Zero Support
• Answer Brusquely
• Tough Shit
• Bad Pun Using Forum
• Feature Your Screwups

Post-Launch

• New Product Each Month
• Keep the Releases Coming
• Better Get Used To It
• Bugs Are Inevitable
• Dog Without a Bone
• Keep Up with the Coudals
• Beware the Code Monster
• Made In the Shade

Conclusion

• Ready, Steady, Go!
• Have You Tried Our [Next Product Name Here]?