Some Friday fun. If you want to get a peek in to what I find inspiring here you go.
Hotel Shower Design
Since a lot of my readers are frequent travelers I think venting here a bit on some of the frustrations of traveling will be well received. I want to focus on a pet peeve of mine, hotel personal hygiene gels. I’m talking about Shampoo, Conditioner, and Body Wash.
For about the last 10 years I’ve been afflicted with the ICSS disease. Meaning, “I Can’t See Shit”. I’m able to see far away but I need readers to read anything with small text. Which is fine most of the time, I have my progressive lenses on my glasses so I’m able to adapt. But one place I don’t wear my glasses is the shower. And in the shower I’m confronted with this.
Can you guess which one is Shampoo and which is Body Wash? It’s bad enough the text is too small for me to read, but the contrast and color choice between the bottle and text is so bad it makes it even more unreadable. See below of a closer look.
Someone should be fired. And don’t get me started with those teeny tiny bottles, the text is too small on those too! So what is a frequent traveler to do? Enter my trusty Sharpie.
To the ownership of the Courtyard by Marriott and their next hotel guest in room number 211, you’re welcome.
Doing the right thing
FTC Sues Adobe, The Legal Question, The Value of Doing Right
“More generally, what bothers me about this case is the moral component; I assume this entire purchase flow has been A/B tested to death, and that the current configuration makes the most money, at least across whatever timeline is being considered. However, did anyone at Adobe stop and consider why that might be? Is there any answer other than, some number of users won’t be careful enough and will buy the wrong plan, and then get hit with a large fee, which will either drive revenue on its own or convince the user to begrudgingly not cancel, driving more revenue going forward? Even leaving aside the long-term hit to the brand’s reputation, what about doing the right thing?”
Ben Thompson, Stratechery
Stratechery is probably my favorite newsletter/podcast. And I love the Dithering podcast he does with Apple nerd John Gruber. Worth the money. Ben Thompson is a business strategist and his “aggregation theory” has multiple ramifications in real estate. John Gruber’s blog Daring Fireball was a big inspiration when I started Vendor Alley.
This article struck me in a couple ways. You should go read it. I think one of the main things that made Cloud CMA so successful was the ability for customers to “self-serve”, meaning they didn’t have to book a demo with a sales person to see pricing and order the product directly. Basically, customers could just go to the website, put a credit card in and boom start using Cloud CMA right away. Cheers to Dan Woolley for making this complicated process seem so easy. So I can say that I have been a part of the design process of close of 100 different landing pages in regard to pricing. So I know all the ways and the “dark patterns” that some companies used to trick their customers in to signing up without really knowing what they are signing up for. This also Includes hiding/burying the cancel button. In fact when Dan and I started W+R Studios one of our main tenets was we were going to make it easy for agents to cancel their subscription. We needed that trust so if we came up with a new product they would be willing to try us again.
We weren’t always perfect, it can be a tough balance, but I can say that it is something we were very conscious of, doing the right thing.
So that got me thinking. We have all been struggling with #NARsettlement. Transparency, commissions, concessions, buyers agreements, touring agreements, etc. I think largely centered around how close to the status quo can we keep things?
So if you are a real estate broker/agent and you are entering in to a business relationship with a homebuyer, what would be the right thing to do in regard to disclosure? Can we all work backwards from that?
Addresses in Japan
Japanese addresses: No street names. Block numbers.
“Mailing addresses in Japan, after naming the province and city, are a series of three numbers: district number, block number, building number. That’s how the building is found. No street names.”
Derek Sivers
I thought the nerdy readers of Vendor Alley would love this.
Stuart White, CEO of Realtracs, on why the MLS will continue
A couple of things from Stuart’s opinion post on Inman News I thought were interesting.
“The network effect has provided a dependable listing and buying network — creating a singular destination where an area’s buyers and listings are in the same place. The network effect has always been more important to consumers (and professionals) than publishing compensation and will continue to benefit consumers (and professionals) after the settlement. “
Stuart White
We don’t really think about how much the network effect matters in our business. We are just so used to it.
“MLSs must continue to make platforms easier to use. Designing an accessible and intuitive interface with user-friendly features allows seamless navigation, as both real estate professionals and consumers will be seeking enhanced productivity and efficiency. By making their products more accessible, MLSs reinforce their role as indispensable tools and empower users to achieve their goals with ease.”
Stuart White
Making MLS system easier to use has been a thing since I started in the business in 1992. I believe the industry has done a good job with point solutions based on features of MLS systems, but coming up with a new take on a MLS system itself is something I think about a lot.
Trackxi adds integration with Earnnest
Trackxi partners with Earnnest
“This partnership underscores our commitment to innovation and excellence in simplifying earnest money deposits for real estate professionals and buyers. We’re crafting a new benchmark for simple, efficient transactions, with an unwavering focus on convenience.”
– Russell Smith, President & COO, Earnnest
Great to see. Two of my favorite apps! Congrats Vijay and Russell!
Delight
This is an example of what it means when your product “delights” your customers. h/t: Pomp
This is a teenager
You gotta check this site out. Just start scrolling when you get to the site. Love this blending of storytelling, data analysis. I would love to see this type of data visualization be used when we talk about housing.
The Art of the CMA
So I wrote a book. I’m self-publishing it. I’m getting some final feedback on the copy/content and finishing up the images, but in the next few weeks, we will be sending it to the printer. So, I’m looking for some feedback.
But first, let me tell you a story. I began writing the book almost two years ago. One of my favorite artists is John Coltrane. My son’s name is Cole, which was a compromise I made with my wife. Which should give you an idea of how much of a geek I am.
John Coltrane used to live in Long Island, NY. MLS of Long Island (MLSLI) holds a tech fair every year in October and his house isn’t far from the hotel I stay in. So each year I’ve driven by it. There’s a plaque outside the house that memorializes it. It’s not Graceland or Paisley Park. It’s was just the humble home of a great artist.
For inspiration, I wrote the first words of my book outside that house. Since then I’ve struggled, started, and stopped multiple times. Then, last year I was attending a trade show on content marketing in Cleveland and ran into an old colleague/friend of mine, Charles Warnock. I hired Charles years ago to run marketing at eNeighborhoods and now had a consulting business called Content Marketing Factory. We have been keeping in touch but had a chance to catch up with a couple of drinks at the conference. Charles mentioned he was co-authoring a book on enterprise innovation and digital transformation. Immediately I told him I was working on a book too, and was having trouble completing it and staying focused. He was excited by the idea of the book. So I struck a deal with Charles and he has been invaluable in helping me get the book completed.
So I’ve been working with the graphic designers on my team to create the cover of the book. I’ve decided on a layout and now I’ve narrowed it down to 3 different versions of that layout. So I’m looking for feedback on these three final designs. That’s where you come in.
The name of my book is “The Art of the CMA”. I’ll write more about the concept and content of the book in a later blog post.
Design #1
This the basic layout. I’m using Neutra (pronounced noy-tra) as the main font. It’s named for a famous Architect, Richard Neutra. Neutra is used in a lot of signage. It’s the same font I used for our building signage at W+R Studios building and the original W&R Studios buttery soft t-shirts. I like the fact that the font is tied to dwellings. The public library in Huntington Beach was designed by him, right before he died and his son took over the project.
The green I use is the same green as Cloud CMA. But I only mention Cloud CMA once in the book.
The sub-headline “Winning Listings by Mastering Real Estate’s Best Marketing Tool” isn’t final, but I haven’t come up with anything better.
And of course, the illustration is of a house, with a dollar sign symbolizing the value.
Design #2
In this version, we have added multiple colors to the line color of the illustration. Like an artist’s palette. The feedback I’ve heard so far is that it looks too close to a company logo during “Pride” month. Not that there’s anything wrong with that…
Design #3
Here the artist’s palette vibe and color are more prominent and we changed the color of some of the copy.
So there you have it. I’ve created a quick poll that you can fill out below. Or write something in the comments or just send me an email. I’m beyond excited about this project and happy to have all of you share in its creation.
In case anybody asks…
Get it? ????
