Every year on March 9th, as SXSW is getting started, I like to mark the anniversary of this blog. This time it’s the 10th year.
My second post back in 2002 was about a panel run by 37signals. I wrote:
Ernest and Jason really get it – I hope they inspire some designers to think about web sites in a new way, and finally start focusing on usability and page load time and cut the fancy graphics, roll-overs, and animations.
This was a couple years before they reinvented themselves as a software company with Basecamp. As the new Basecamp launches this week, it’s fascinating to think back on how far 37signals has come. The web is bigger now and more complex. Subscription web apps are everywhere. But I think the focus on performance that drove Jason Fried and his original co-founders to promote simple design in that SXSW panel a decade ago is still very much at the heart of what 37signals does.
