Design philospohy

[pete]

This was triggered by one of Thomas' recent posts asking for input.

Since we're all developers now :) I thought you might find the material from 37signals useful

If you've heard of basecamp or some of their other products you'll know 37signals are quite respected developers. Although they are into web apps much of their process is the same for us using Tiger to make apps.

This book of their's is really good: http://gettingreal.37signals.com/ <-- not an affiliate link just a link to their design philosophy. You can get the pdf or read it free online.

Of course since we're dealing with an installed app and not a hosted service, having an easy upgrade process to later versions is necessary.

I'll leave it to Thomas to comment on how upgrades can be handled and if that will be easy enough for us to rollout to customers, so we don't have to do it all in one big release.

Enjoy,
Peter

[jonathon]

Hey Pete, this is a great resource NOT just for Thomas, but for us all. There are some REALLY great tips in there (a few of which, I'm embarrassed to admit, certainly hit home...). Thanks for such a valuable resource. I just purchased a copy of the PDF so I can "take it with me" and reflect on it as needed. Thanks again.

[pete]

Cool - yes I meant it's for ALL of us. Anyone designing stuff or using tools to design stuff. I actually bought the 10-copy license and sent copies to all my clients a couple years ago. You can just take what you like from it.

I figured it was good to point out since many of us are developers, but may not have been exposed to this sort of thinking.

Cheers.

[jonathon]

I actually bought the 10-copy license and sent copies to all my clients a couple years ago. You can just take what you like from it.I was actually thinking about doing that exact thing for the heavy hitters here at the community, but since everyone here is so helpful, it would be difficult to decide who should get a copy and who does not...

[TinkBD]

Pete - Thanks for providing such an amazing resource!

I am looking forward to reading it. ;)

Tink

[fortesque]

Pete::D
Read the book on line. Great piece. Helped me think differently about pricing a software product.
Liked the "do it" mentality.
It raised a question about TSBPro though. Some of the features in TSBPro are pretty complicated. For example, having the user work the grid or creating charts. And the report section has thrown me for a loop. Have had reall problems importing fields into the report page so the totals or choices made show up. I think having to maneuver through some of the options in TSBPro can be overwhelming for most folks and here I'm talking about the end user. Maybe my design is wrong and too complicated.
I'd be interested in hearing from Tiger members how they have kept their designs simple.

Best regards,
John Burns

[Pyce]

Fantastic information Pete!

[ClarityFactor]

Pete,
Thanks for the info.

Looking for to reading it...

Best,
Mario