(And what you can do about it) — There’s a term we use in software design called the happy path. It describes a best-case scenario, in which customers use a product exactly as intended, without bumping into any edge cases or uncommon problems. …

At Basecamp, we write a lot—from announcements to pitches, and everything in between. Quite often, we’re presenting something that has a Before and After, like a mockup or interface design that’s been revised. Until now, this was always kind of frustrating. …

Why we skipped adding new features for a while, and improved all the old ones instead. — When you’re in charge of a software product, there’s an endless number of things you can do with it. You can add features, make existing things work differently, change how you sell it, tweak little details, whatever. The sky’s the limit. And hoo wee, there’s no shortage of ideas! Every…

We gave up on Likes and invented a totally new form of tiny communication. — If there’s one thing you can’t avoid on the Internet, it’s Likes. They’re in nearly every software platform where people post photos or write text messages. Sometimes Likes are called Faves, Hearts, Reactions, Claps, or something else, but the basic idea is the same: they’re a small, quick way to…

If you search the Internet to learn about A/B testing, you’ll find scads of articles bursting with tips for cranking your business performance into the stratosphere. You’ll get blazing hot secrets like… BOOST YOUR CONVERSION RATE BY 300% WITH THIS TINY TWEAK and… DESTROY YOUR COMPETITION USING A STATISTICALLY SIGNIFICANT SHADE OF BLUE …and it just keeps going like that, into an overenthusiastic pit of armchair psychology and semi-authoritative pseudoscience.

Last month, we shared a sneak peek at some major design improvements we’ve been cooking up for Basecamp 3. Today’s the day — you’ll see those changes in your Basecamp account right now! There are countless little tweaks and improvements throughout the entire app, but here’s quick recap of the…

“How much time left until I’m dead?” I try not to think about that question, but yet, it’s always there, hidden away in my mind’s attic, nestled alongside all the other intentionally suppressed memories, which, despite my best efforts to keep them stowed, tend to stubbornly reappear in my subconscious…

Ruminations on the heavy weight of software design in the 21st century. — Recently I took a monthlong sabbatical from my job as a designer at Basecamp. (Basecamp is an incredible company that gives us a paid month off every 3 years.) When you take 30 days away from work, you have a lot of time and headspace that’s normally used up. …

We made a brand new Hello Weather, for the love and fun of it. Here’s the backstory. — Throughout 2017, our friendly weather app has been totally stable, paying its own bills, and getting great reviews. We launched a steady stream of swell updates—and an Android version—but otherwise kept things on the mellow. Then Apple announced iOS 11 and iPhone X, and some serendipity happened: Apple’s design language…