Basecamp Mobile Thought Process.

Two must-read articles from 37signals on designing and developing Basecamp Mobile. Posts like these are the reason people have such tremendous respect for the boys from Chicago.

Design Decisions: Basecamp Mobile UI

One of the first challenges was simply how to take the Basecamp design and make it work on a much smaller screen. It needed to look like Basecamp and be familiar to people who have been using the desktop version for years. We wanted it to perform like a native app but we didn’t want it to look like one, it was far more important that it looked like Basecamp.

Providing Great User Experience with Feedback

Feedback is an essential part of software user interface design. It’s especially true when designing applications for current mobile devices. Tapping a touch screen is less precise than clicking with a mouse. Touch screens also lack the tactile and auditory feedback of a physical key or button. Slow, unreliable cellular data access adds to the confusion. A user might wonder: Is the app broken or do I have a poor connection? Was my tap registered or did my fingers miss that tiny button? Making sure users get clear feedback in response to their actions and to changes in state or conditions is key to a great software experience.