as reviewed by Average Visitor — A typical American internet user — skims, doubts, moves on fast
The 37signals homepage is a bold, minimalist red wall of numbered manifesto items with no images, no product pitch, and no clear call to action. As an average visitor I land here completely confused — there's a logo and product names in the nav, but the body is just a cryptic list (00. Start here, 01. An obligation to independence...) with no context for what this company actually does or why I should care. The aesthetic is striking and confident, but for a typical first-time visitor it offers no hook, no value proposition, and no reason to click anything specific. The list eventually trails off, leaving me with nothing learned and no reason to dig deeper.
WARN 60/100
A. Accessibility: Does it work for everyone?
I landed here and saw '8/8/8' and 'NOTASAP' — am I supposed to know what that means?
Look, the page is clean and easy on the eyes — black words, white background, no flashing junk, nothing auto-playing. I appreciate that. But for a regular person like me, half the links read like inside jokes — 'JOMO not FOMO', '8/8/8', 'NOTASAP', 'Shape Up every six' — and there's no plain-English sentence anywhere telling me what you actually do. If I can't figure it out, my mom sure can't, and neither can someone using a screen reader who hears 'Basecamp' read out loud with zero context.
Issue 1 of 3
No real headline — the page never says what you sell in plain words
Top of homepage — the only thing acting as a heading is the '37signals' logo
Add a real H1 in plain English that tells a first-time visitor what you make (something like 'We make software for small teams — Basecamp, HEY, and more'). This helps low-literacy readers (54% of US adults read below 6th grade), screen reader users who navigate by headings, and skimmers like me who give you 10 seconds.
Issue 2 of 3
Cryptic insider labels exclude anyone who isn't already a fan
The 37 numbered 'signals' grid — items like '8/8/8', 'NOTASAP', 'JOMO not FOMO', 'Shape Up every six', 'Err on the side of do'
Rewrite each tile so the label by itself tells you what the idea is, in 8th-grade English. Keep the catchy phrase as a subtitle if you must, but lead with meaning. Cognitive accessibility isn't optional — it's the same audience as the ~20% with dyslexia plus the majority of US adults reading below 6th grade.
Issue 3 of 3
Logo images have no alt text and product links have no context
Logo SVGs (logo-black.svg, logo.svg) and product links ('Basecamp', 'HEY', 'Fizzy', 'ONCE')
Give the logo an alt of '37signals' (or mark it decorative if the wordmark is already in text). Give each product link descriptive text like 'Basecamp — project management for small teams' so a screen reader user, or me skimming on my phone, knows what they're clicking before they tap. 26% of US adults have some kind of disability — losing them at the link layer is lost revenue.
FAIL 28/100
B. Clarity: Is your message clear?
I landed here, saw a wall of 37 numbered chapters, and I still have no idea what you sell.
Okay, real talk — I clicked through from a link and the first thing I see is your logo and a list that goes from 00 to 37 with stuff like 'NOTASAP' and 'JOMO not FOMO.' I'm 38, I have two tabs open, and I literally cannot tell you in one sentence what your company does or whether I should care. There's no headline that explains what this is, no 'we help X do Y,' nothing. I see the words Basecamp, HEY, Fizzy, ONCE in a menu but you never tell me those are products, what they do, or why I'd want them — and I'm not going to click 37 numbered essays to figure it out.
Issue 1 of 4
No headline tells me what this company is
Above the fold — hero area. Largest visible element is just the '37signals' logo.
Put a real headline at the top, in plain English: something like 'We make simple software for small businesses — Basecamp, HEY, and more.' One sentence. So a stranger like me knows what I'm looking at in three seconds.
Issue 2 of 4
Products are hidden behind unexplained names
Top navigation — 'Basecamp / HEY / Fizzy / ONCE' with zero context.
Either on the homepage or right under those names, say what each one IS in five words. 'Basecamp — project management for teams.' 'HEY — email that doesn't suck.' I don't know these brands. Don't make me Google you to understand you.
Issue 3 of 4
The 37 numbered sections are insider jargon to anyone who doesn't already know you
The main grid — labels like 'NOTASAP,' 'JOMO not FOMO,' 'Shape Up every six,' '8/8/8,' 'Stayups,' 'Thoughting vs. thinking.'
These read like inside jokes for people who already follow you. For a first-time visitor, lead with a clear value prop and a 'New here? Here's what we do' link. Move the manifesto deeper. Right now you're talking to your fans, not the stranger you just got in the door.
Issue 4 of 4
No call to action — I don't know what you want me to do
Entire above-the-fold area.
Give me one obvious next step. A button that says 'See our products' or 'Try Basecamp free for 30 days.' Right now my only option is to click a numbered essay, and I'm not in the mood for homework.
FAIL 38/100
C. Conversion: Will visitors take action?
I landed here looking for software and got a 37-item philosophy quiz — I bounced.
Okay, let me be honest. I clicked over to 37signals because I'd heard the name — I think they make some project thing? Basecamp? — and what I got was a wall of numbered links like '8/8/8' and 'NOTASAP' and 'JOMO not FOMO.' I have no idea what any of that means and I have two other tabs open. There is nothing to click that says 'Try it free' or 'See pricing' or even just 'What is this.' If I'm here to maybe buy something, this page does not want my money.
Issue 1 of 3
No primary call to action — anywhere
Entire homepage / hero area
Put one clear button above the fold like 'Try Basecamp free for 30 days' or 'See what we make.' Right now the only thing to click is a riddle. Give me one obvious next step.
Issue 2 of 3
I can't tell what you sell or what it costs
Top nav lists 'Basecamp, HEY, Fizzy, ONCE, 1999' with zero explanation
Add a one-line description next to each product name ('Basecamp — project management for small teams, $15/user/mo') so I don't have to click five times to find out if you have something for me. Hiding pricing is a stop sign for me.
Issue 3 of 3
Zero trust signals on the page I land on
Body of the homepage
Show me a number — '75,000 companies use Basecamp,' a real customer quote with a name and company, or a logo strip. The philosophy posts are nice but they don't tell me anyone actually uses your stuff or that you'll be around next year.
WARN 70/100
D. Readability: Is your text easy to read?
The words are easy enough, but half these little phrases left me going 'what does that even mean?'
Look, I'll give you this — there's no big wall of text I have to wade through, and you're not throwing 'synergistic' or 'omnichannel' at me. Most words on this page my 7th-grader could read. But that's not the same as understanding it. A numbered list from 00 to 37 of short, punchy phrases sounds clever in a meeting, but when I'm scrolling on my phone with two other tabs open, 'Bury the hustle' and 'Know no.' don't tell me anything. I get that you're trying to sound confident, but I shouldn't have to click into every line to find out what you actually mean.
Issue 1 of 3
Cryptic phrases dressed up as simple writing
The numbered principles list — items like 'Bury the hustle,' 'Know no.,' 'Work isn't war,' 'An obligation to independence'
Pair each headline phrase with one plain-English sentence underneath so a skimmer like me gets the meaning without clicking. 'Bury the hustle — we don't believe in working nights and weekends.' Now I get it.
Issue 2 of 3
No intro paragraph telling me what I'm looking at
Top of the page, above the numbered list
Add one short line in plain English before the list — 'These are the 37 things we believe about running a software company.' Right now I land here, see a list of riddles, and have to guess what this page is even for.
Issue 3 of 3
Insider jargon hiding in a 'simple' page
Items referencing their own books and methods — 'Shape Up every six,' product names like ONCE and Fizzy with no explanation
If a word is the name of your book, your method, or one of your products, spell out what it is the first time it appears on the page. I shouldn't need to already be a fan to understand the homepage.
FAIL 40/100
E. SEO: Can Google find you?
I have no idea what you sell, and Google won't either — your homepage is a riddle.
I landed on your site and saw a numbered list from 00 to 37 with cryptic titles like 'Fizzy' and 'ONCE.' Nowhere does it say in plain English what you actually do or sell. If I'd typed something like 'project management for small business' into Google, your page wouldn't have come up — and even if it did, I'd have clicked Back in three seconds because nothing tells me you'd help me.
Issue 1 of 3
No plain-language description of what the company does
Homepage — missing H1 / hero copy; only the '37signals' logo and 37 numbered manifesto items appear
Put a real H1 at the top that says, in normal English, what you make and who it's for — something like 'We make project management and email software for small teams.' Search engines and humans both need that sentence.
Issue 2 of 3
Page title and meta description appear missing or generic
Document <head> — no descriptive <title> or meta description detected in the fetch
Write a specific <title> (e.g., '37signals — Makers of Basecamp and HEY') and a meta description that names the products and the audience. Without these, the Google result is a blank-looking link nobody clicks.
Issue 3 of 3
Navigation and section labels are unsearchable jargon
Top nav ('Signals,' 'Fizzy,' 'ONCE') and the 37 numbered links ('00 Start here,' '02 Work isn't war')
Nobody types 'Fizzy' or 'Work isn't war' into Google. Add descriptive labels or subtitles next to each — 'Basecamp (project management),' 'HEY (email)' — so crawlers and people who don't already know you can tell what's behind the link.
PASS 80/100
F. Technical: Does your site work right?
Snapped open on my phone in a blink — and that's the only test I actually care about.
I'm not gonna lie, I don't usually notice when a site is built right — I notice when it's broken. This one isn't broken. It loaded fast on my iPhone, the menu opened when I tapped it, nothing slid off the side of my screen, and the images were crisp instead of pixel-mush. Under the hood there's some stuff a pickier person than me would side-eye — your browser-tab name is literally just '37signals' which tells me nothing, and somebody's loading like twenty-something separate style files which feels like a lot — but as a regular person trying to use your website, it worked. That's rare.
Issue 1 of 3
Browser tab just says '37signals' — useless in my bookmarks
<title> tag in <head>
Make the title actually describe what the page is, like '37signals — A catalog of ideas that drive us.' Right now if I pin this tab next to ten others I can't tell what it is.
Bundle these into one or two CSS files for production. On my phone over LTE that's 22 round-trips before the page paints — HTTP/2 helps but it's still wasted work.
Issue 3 of 3
Article schema on a homepage — wrong type
Third <script type="application/ld+json"> block in <head>, declaring @type: Article
Drop the Article JSON-LD block. The page isn't an article — it's a homepage listing 38 signals. Keeping it can confuse how Google previews this in search results. The Organization + WebSite blocks are enough.
G. Desktop Read-through — 3 screens
Reviewer: Average Visitor — A typical American internet user — skims, doubts, moves on fast · Viewport: 1280px
The 37signals homepage is a bold, minimalist red wall of numbered manifesto items with no images, no product pitch, and no clear call to action. As an average visitor I land here completely confused — there's a logo and product names in the nav, but the body is just a cryptic list (00. Start here, 01. An obligation to independence...) with no context for what this company actually does or why I should care. The aesthetic is striking and confident, but for a typical first-time visitor it offers no hook, no value proposition, and no reason to click anything specific. The list eventually trails off, leaving me with nothing learned and no reason to dig deeper.
Screen 01 of 3
Whoa, that's a lot of red. I see '37signals' in the corner and some product names up top — Basecamp I've heard of, the others I haven't. The body is just a numbered list of cryptic titles like 'Work isn't war' and 'Profit motive' fading out into the distance. I'm intrigued by the boldness but I genuinely don't know what this company does or what they want me to do here.
Interest
Screen 02 of 3
Still scrolling through the same list — 'Bury the hustle', 'JOMO not FOMO', 'Ruby on Rails'. It's basically a table of contents for somebody's manifesto with no descriptions. I don't know if these are blog posts, principles, or what, and nothing here tells me why I should click any one of them over another. My eyes glaze over.
Interest
Screen 03 of 3
And... it just ends. '37. What's in a name?' and then a giant empty red void. No footer, no signup, no 'here's what we sell', no images, no testimonials — nothing. I came here probably looking for project management software and I'm leaving with no idea if I'm in the right place. Bouncing.
Interest
H. Mobile Read-through — 2 screens
Reviewer: Average Visitor — A typical American internet user — skims, doubts, moves on fast · Viewport: 390px (iPhone)
Landing on 37signals.com mobile is jarring for an average visitor — instead of a typical homepage with a clear value proposition, hero copy, or product showcase, you get a stark red wall with a numbered list of 37 cryptic principles. There's no explanation of what 37signals does, no product names visible, no calls to action, just philosophical-sounding bullet points. A curious reader who's heard of Basecamp/Hey might find it intriguing, but an average mobile visitor has no anchor and is likely to bounce before tapping anything.
Screen 01 of 2
Whoa, bold red — and the 37signals logo, okay I'm in the right place. But what is this? It's just a numbered list: 'Start here', 'An obligation to independence', 'Work isn't war'... I came here to figure out what they actually sell. The titles are kind of intriguing in a manifesto-y way, but I'm not seeing Basecamp or Hey or any product anywhere on screen.
Interest
Screen 02 of 2
More list. 'Stayups', 'JOMO not FOMO', 'Ruby on Rails' — okay, some of these are cute but I still don't know what to do here. No buttons, no images, no signup, no pricing. I'm on my phone and I just wanted to see what the company is about; instead I'm staring at homework. I'm out.