Here’s something you don’t see every day; a film about a font. Helvetica is a feature-length documentary by Gary Hustwit about typography, graphic design and more specifically, the font of the same name.
As odd as it might sound, the film is extremely interesting and designers of all mediums will enjoy it. It charts the history of the font, asking why it’s become so popular. There are arguments for and against its use as the ‘default’ font of choice, from both young and old typographers.
I always knew that it was a popular font, but I never really notice quite how much Helvetica is used. Now I’m going to look for it everywhere I go! What was particularly interesting was that how people are taking the font and using it in new ways. It might be a default, but it’s also incredible flexible and certainly timeless.
So go and take a look; this is one film about design worth watching.
Published in Design, tagged Helvetica, typography on 6th March 2008. No comments.
I discovered online clothing retailer Threadless in late 2006 and since then, it’s the only place that I’ve bought my T-shirts from. Since placing my first order on December 29, 2006, I’ve spent a total of $341.80 there. What can we learn from its success and why do I keep going back there? Here are ten reasons:
Threadless is all about community. Artists submit designs, which are then rated by other site members over a week. The best entries are picked by Threadless staff and are turned into actual clothing. Not only does getting your shirt printed give you money, but kudos in the community. Here’s the key factor though; because customers choose the best shirts before they’re on sale, the designs that get through are almost certain to sell out. It’s a fantastically self-referential concept and one that keeps the quality extremely high. Getting your customers to do your quality assurance for you is pure genius.
High incentives attract talented artists. If your design gets selected for print, you get $2,000 in cash, $500 Threadless Gift Certificate (can be redeemed for $200 cash), $500 in cash each time your design is reprinted, up to $10,000 more if you win a “Bestee” in the Threadless Awards and Alumni Club membership.
RSS feeds are used very effectively to update community members and customers. The weekly feed (right) is kept extremely simple, allowing you to browse through without actually visiting the site.
Easily anticipated updates keep people coming back every week. New designs come out every Monday and because of this strict schedule, Threadless members begin to associate that day with the site. Even if people aren’t on there often they’re probably going to return on a Monday.
Affordability is a huge draw for me. Even though my shirts are flown all the way across the Atlantic, they’re still the same price or cheaper than going into a shop here and buying one. If you wanted to get an equivalent product from a normal shop in the UK, you’d expect to pay at least double what Threadless offer them for.
Designs are of a very high quality and there are plenty of them. If you can’t find something you like on Threadless, then you’re really not trying hard enough. When I wear a Threadless shirt, a lot of the time people will compliment me on it and ask where I got it. ‘High Street’ retailers don’t stock anything nearly as humourous or artistically unique as the Threadless shirts.
Limiting production adds a huge amount of value to shirts. I don’t want to look like everyone else or buy the same clothes that Average Joe has. When you get a Threadless shirt, you know that you’re one of a few thousand owners around the world and that you’re highly unlikely to ever see it on anyone else.
Excellent web design makes Threadless extremely easy to use. Not only does the site look fantastic, but it includes features which make buying shirts a breeze. For instance, you can view the catalogue by size, so you only see items that are available and that will fit you.
Street Team points encourage loyalty and community. If you submit a picture of yourself wearing a shirt, you get $1.50 credit and if you refer a friend who then buys a shirt then you get $3.00. The more shirts you buy, the more points you accumulate. I think I’ve even bought a shirt which only cost me the shipping because I had so many points.
Shipping internationally greatly increases Threadless’ potential customer base. The cost of postage is a little expensive, but I’ve never had a shirt go missing and they’ve always turned up in good condition.
So there you go, Threadless dissected for your pleasure. It’s one of the few retailers I’ve seen take full advantage of the power of community and their success is something we can all learn from.
Published in Websites, tagged Threadless on 3rd March 2008. One comment.
If you’re interested in finding out how many people visit your website, you have an almost daunting array of options. Google Analytics and Mint are some of the best available at the moment, but are very different in their scope and accuracy. I have both tracking Thunderbolt, so I can compare them side by side.
Google Analytics is the behemoth of the site statistics world and best of all, it’s free. Once you register, all you have to do is add a bit of code to each page you wish to track and then wait for the data to pour in. Analytics’ real strength comes from it’s ability to delve into the fine details of who’s visiting your site and what they’re up to. Want to know what browsers Texans are using or how long people using Firefox stay on the site compared to IE? It’s all there, recorded forever. Google Analytics also benefits from superb design, which makes finding and comparing data sets remarkably easy.
Mint is a different kind of statistics package; it sits on your server instead of living somewhere else like Google Analytics. Not only do you have to add code to each page, but you have to install the Mint software on your website too. This is easily done, but it’s an extra hurdle that some less experienced users may find a little daunting. The software also costs $30 per site, doesn’t support multiple users and has much less analytical ability than Google’s equivalent. Despite this though, Mint proves extremely valuable.
The tale of the lost visitors
Because it sits server-side, Mint never misses a thing. I assumed that Google would see every visitor and hit, but it turns out that there’s a huge difference between what Analytics reports and what Mint records. Take a look at the figures for last month:
If we assume that Mint is tracking accurately - and it should because of the way it works - then Google is losing a lot of data!
To conclude
If you’re on a budget, then Google Analytics is a fine application, but be aware that it may not be as accurate as you think. It is superb for analysing trends and identifying demographics, but for sheer accuracy, then Mint is best. Ideally you should employ both, but if you have to pick one, then at least be aware of its pitfalls.
Published in Websites, tagged Google Analytics, Mint on 2nd March 2008. 2 comments.