Although it’s not common knowledge, there is a list of Laws to Interface Design (which is credited to Jef Raskin, the author of The Human Interface).  Most of us designers and developers “play it by ear” but end up forgetting a lot of these things (or just downright taking them for granted).Interface Design is more practically used when developing any type of application since that is the time when users will spend most of their interaction.  Websites can take on most of these laws, although I w ...view entire post

The year is 1957. James Vicary has the entire advertising world convinced that he has successfully demonstrated a technique that would enable advertisers to allow them to control anything consumers do. He claims that he has broken the code of subliminal messages by placing them in motion pictures, bringing in audiences, and recording the results. His claims showed that the embedded messages of "Eat Popcorn" and "Drink Coca-Cola" increased the sales of popcorn by 57.5% and Coca-Cola by 18.1%. He  ...view entire post

Some people say you should build a product that you would use yourself, making you the target market.  I’ve also heard the flip side that you shouldn’t build products for yourself because you’re probably smarter than, or different from most people outside of either Silicon Valley, or wherever you’re at.  In either case, knowing who your audience is should be on your list of top priorities.  If you know who your customer is, it tends to be easier to build your product for them.  It’s also one of  ...view entire post

Entrepreneurs are probably the most motivated people on earth.  I don’t know if there is any other job description that requires more passion, energy, and commitment than an entrepreneur’s.  Do entrepreneurs even come with job descriptions anymore?Part of the weight we carry is that we are at risk to losing some of the steam that initially got our engines going.  Motivation is important because without it, your productivity is going to plunge.  If things aren’t getting done, your chances for st ...view entire post

There’s a lot of advice out there that goes against the grain when it comes to what you’re good at.  Most people will tell you the only way to get something done right is to do it yourself, but I think there’s some serious potential to waste time if you’re not hiring the best people for a job.  If you’re the founder of your startup, chances are you’ll probably have to do a little bit of everything, especially in the beginning, but you shouldn’t be wasting time with stuff that you’re not brillia ...view entire post

Back in my high school days, I did a lot of sales work at Verizon, Sprint, Sears, Radioshack, Target, and my own service-driven startups. I’ve held the top sales positions at every job since I was 16.As a sophomore in college, I started an entrepreneur group and recruited 15 students and a co-chair (chosen from over 100 applications) and established 2 partnerships with prominent groups on campus in under 2 months, all while freelancing, being a full-time student, and staying involved in student  ...view entire post

A lot of entrepreneurs wonder why MySpace does so well considering the poor design.  MySpace does, after all, get more traffic according to Compete.com (although not according to Alexa) and apparently has twice as many users as Facebook.I’ve never been one to admire the design of MySpace, and I think it causes a lot of confusion for entrepreneurs who are forming their companies in the early stages because that’s when a lot of design decisions are made.  I see this question come up a lot from my ...view entire post

There’s one universal rule that every startup and every entrepreneur should live by.  About a month ago, I asked, “are unoriginal ideas bad?”  And two people answered my question: the guy who started 37 Signals, and the guy who started YouTube.And now I’m trying to convince the community of entrepreneurs that Keep It Simple should be in your list of “things we will gouge our eyes out for not doing.”  It’s not just something you do every once in a while and scratch off your to-do list.  Keep It  ...view entire post

How many of you talk to your close friends and family about your startup ideas?  And how many times have you gotten solid, honest, and constructive feedback from those people?There are a lot of different ways to get feedback, validation, or approval on your ideas.  These types of things can seem important to you because you’ll eventually want other people to join you, and you’ll want to raise funding.  After all, why spend time on an idea that doesn’t seem exciting?  You want to get validation, ...view entire post

I asked a successful entrepreneur I spoke with recently, “why did you decide to sell everything you had, buy a one way ticket to the United States, and startup a company?”  The answer was pretty simple: “I knew it was something I wanted to do, and I had no reason to put it off until later.  There’s never a perfect time to do a startup, you just have to sort of dive in and do it.”For most of the important things in life, timing can always be better.  Thinking about doing a startup?  Thinking abo ...view entire post

As a fairly entrepreneurial 20something, I take part in some of the business plan competitions in my area.  I proceeded to the final round of the 06-07 Cozad BPC and walked away with some tips for students who plan on pitching to VCs.  Keep in mind that this is stuff that applies to me, and while it may not work for everyone, you can probably test it out and see what works best in your situation:1. VCs are pessimistic. Just understanding this before you go in and pitch is going to help you reali ...view entire post

I’ve been pondering the pros and cons of starting up based on an unoriginal idea. It sounds bad when you hear it, as I think the startup culture has wrapped entrepreneurship in this bubble that expects new and entirely innovative solutions. But I can’t help but wonder if an unoriginal idea is underrated. Let me give you a literal example: 37 Signals is asked what their 5, 10, 20 year plan is. Basically, where they see themselves in the near and distant future. I can think of a lot of companies w ...view entire post

Have you ever wondered what makes some startups successful and leaves others selling off their furniture?  As an entrepreneur, I’ve always wondered how it happens.I attended a lecture given by Glenn Winokur on marketing advice for high-tech startups.  Winokur is the former CEO of Scalix (2004-2007) and COO of NetIQ, where he played an instrumental role in leading the company from initial product launch in 1996 to $300 million in annual revenues in 2003.I felt like the lecture was written specif ...view entire post