How to Make Good Things Great
An audio book, eBook, and interview series for people who make things.
You can't afford not to sweat the details
Average, “good enough” work is no longer good enough. Our success, our products, and our reputations all rest on the details, the delight, the intention, and the vision we bring to our work.
Delight is in the Details is packed with practical advice, tips, encouragement, inspiration, and insight. Resist the prevailing tide of “good enough” work that leads to forgettable products and a dissatisfaction in your work life. This book and interview series will teach you how to reach for excellence and find joy and delight in the journey.
More than 2,000 people have purchased Delight is in the Details and used it as a tool for crafting better design and making better products. And now I've just released a significant update that includes two new chapters, more interviews, re-mastered audio, three original videos, and more.
Shawn has a unique appreciation of great design and a firm understanding of why the details matter. This book helps you sweat them both and break past the creative ceilings you might meet along the way. If you are anyone who makes anything that you care about at all, you need this. It delivers practical and actionable advice on how to not just ship but deliver. The value of this book is worth way more than the cost on the cover.
— Patrick Rhone | writer, technology consultant | Minimal Mac
Shawn Blanc proves his point of view immediately by creating a delightful user experience for the reader in Delight is in the Details. The book is aesthetically pleasing and incredibly inspiring. I highly recommend it to any creative professional.
— Jane Portman | freelance designer and consultant | UI Breakfast
Recently one of our iOS apps, Screeny, was copied by multiple people — several new apps showed up in the app store using our name, design and even the description. The only thing that kept our app standing out amongst the imitators was that we took the time to sweat the details. Though our app may seem easy to copy because it is so simple, it’s clear that our focus on the details paid off.
Thank-you, Shawn, for putting out such helpful and inspirational work. Delight is in the Details, distills why making a great user experience will alway work in your favor. Users may come to your app just for the design (initially) but they will stay (over time) for the overall experience.
— Sonaal Bangera | App and Web designer, entrepreneur
Practical advice for ambiguous goals and moving targets
Bridging the gap between good work and great work is easier said than done. Sweating the details, infusing delight into our products, building something truly great — these are ambitious goals. There is no checklist that includes all the details which need sweating over — we figure it out as we go and it's on a project-by-project basis.
- What are those often intangible elements — the little things — that seem to propel a product or design from being good to being remarkable? How can we place them into our own products?
- What can we do when we find ourselves working with clients or bosses who would prefer to squeeze additional features into a product rather than taking the time to polish and refine what has already been done?
- Many of us would agree that, yes, delightful design is good. But can we articulate why it is important and why it is worth investing our resources into?
- Why is it worth the extra time and energy to sweat the small stuff?
- What can we do when we have the desire and willpower to make a great product but we lack the talent?
- Did you know one of the keys to building your audience, growing your customer base, and increasing word-of-mouth referrals is by sweating the details and injecting delight into your work?
Delight is in the Details addresses these challenges and more. As an audio book, an ebook, and an interview series for people who make things, its focus is on the finest goal a person in our industry can have: to create substantive work that delights and excites our audience.
This book and interview series is all about: (a) making a case for sweating the details; (b) giving you an understanding of what that actually looks like when done well; and (c) laying before you a roadmap for how you can change the mindset and habits of your own personal work life and even your company’s culture.
The details are not the details.
They make the design.
Charles Eames
Learn from the best
As part of The Complete Kit, there are 10 interviews with designers, developers, writers, entrepreneurs, and makers — all of whom have an astounding ability to sweat the details. And they have used that ability to make amazing things. During our candid and friendly conversations, we discuss topics and examples related to doing our best creative work, gleaning much from their experience, mistakes, and successes. Each guest's background and experiences gives a unique context to the many topics covered in the book.
The interviews total more than 5 hours worth of audio. It's like a 10-part, ad-free, limited-edition podcast where the focus is on doing your best creative work, building an audience, and growing your skills. Sounds awesome!
Moreover, all the audio interviews have been professionally transcribed and expertly laid out in PDF format along with show notes, bios, and links from the conversations — perfect for those who prefer to read the conversations. Also the transcriptions make for a searchable archive if you ever want (or need) to reference them.
Marco Arment is the founder of Instapaper, The Magazine, Overcast, and the co-founder of Tumblr. In their interview, Marco and Shawn discuss personal time management and priorities, trusting your gut, the pros and cons of being a solo developer, and more.
Cameron Moll is the founder of Authentic Jobs and designer behind the famous letterpress type posters. In his interview with Shawn, he shares about gaining momentum from one creative project to the next, advice on how to break in to the creative professional community, and more.
Michael Simmons is the co-founder and creative director of Flexibits, the makers of the award-winning Fantastical apps. He and Shawn talk about building a team that values the details as much as you do, the importance of a great user experience that’s coupled with a good-looking design, and more.
Paul Mayne is the founder and designer behind the popular journaling app, Day One, which recently won an Apple Design Award. In his conversation with Shawn they talk about the balance between custom versus native design elements when making iOS and Mac apps, knowing when to ship a product update and when to wait, and more.
Jory Raphael is a graphic and icon designer who has done work for 5by5, Apple, and more. He and Shawn chat about staying motivated during personal side projects, how constraints can lead to better design, and more.
Federico Viticci is the founder and editor-in-chief of MacStories, an Apple-centric website. He and Shawn talk about what makes a great first impression, the value of function over form, and more.
Dan Provost is one-half of the company, Studio Neat, makers of the iPhone tripod mount, the Glif, an iPad stylus, the Cosmonaut, and the Neat Ice Kit. He and Shawn talk about hardware design, how a high-quality product is vital to long-term success, and more.
Chase Reeves is the designer and co-founder of Fizzle and Think Traffic, where he helps entrepreneurs and creative professionals avoid burnout and do awesome work. In his conversation with Shawn they discuss designing for your heroes, overcoming the talent ceiling, the importance of community for creative folks, and more. This one was a fun one.
Matt Alexander is the founder of Need, a curated shopping website for men. During their interview, Shawn and Matt discuss the how to build a strong and loyal audience, how to build the best possible product while working under constraints, customer delight compared to customer satisfaction, and how they are different.
Jared Sinclair is the designer and developer behind some truly stellar iOS apps: Riposte, Whisper, and Unread. In his interview, Jared shares about taking the time to do things right, working with self-assigned creative constraints, building an app where user comfort is more important than efficiency, and more.
Makers Q&A
Additionally, there are 8 Makers Q&A sessions featuring Tim Van Damme, interface designer at Dropbox; Jeff Sheldon, founder and designer of Ugmonk; Jane Portman, independent UI/UX consultant; Sean McCabe, hand lettering illustrator; Josh Brewer, former design-lead for Twitter; Josh Motlong, marketer, designer, and wannabe barber; Kai Brach, editor, designer, and publisher of Offscreen Magazine; and Kyle Steed, illustrator and designer.
Because great products are forged in the details, I reached out to a handful of my personal design heroes to ask them what it means to sweat the details, what delight in design looks like for their work, and how they spend their day to do their best creative work.
This video, plus two others, are included in The Complete Kit.
Videos
I worked with a friend and local videographer, Joel Sorge, to create some awesome, visually-interesting videos. The topics of which are some personal lessons I've learned from a decades-long creative career: (1) how to stay creative; (2) time management and focus; and (3) working for and/or leading an in-house design team. The above is video number 1, which is also based on an excerpt from chapter 14 in the book.
All three videos are included as part of The Complete Kit, and available to download in HD.
Delight should be on your mind from the very minute you start a new project.
Tim Van Damme
The Complete Kit
Designed from the beginning to be a complementary package, the Complete Kit for Delight is in the Details offers practical advice, tips, insight, and inspiration to help you reach for excellence and refuse to settle on “good enough” work.
eBook
88-page PDF, ePub, and Mobi versions for reading on your iPad, Kindle, computer, etc.
Audio Book
1 hour and 40 minutes long; a single M4P audiobook file and as 15 individual MP3 files.
Ten Audio Interviews
10 interviews; 5+ hours of conversations; topics range from doing our best creative work, building a successful business, when to ship, and more.
Makers Q&A
Eight question-and-answer sessions about sweating the details, daily routines, and more.
Resource Index
A list of resources that can help you do better work.
Interview Transcripts
All the audio interviews were professionally transcribed and expertly laid out into a 157-page PDF that includes show notes, bios, and links from the conversations.
Video 1
The Creative Life
Video 2
The Power of a Focused Life
Video 3
The In-House Design Team
The eBook only
The eBook serves as the foundational content upon which all the other resources are built. I've also included two Makers Q&A interviews as part of the eBook-only option.
eBook
88-page PDF, ePub, and Mobi versions for reading on your iPad, Kindle, computer, etc.
Two Makers Q&A
Two question-and-answer sessions about sweating the details, daily routines, and more.
The keys to success are patience, persistence, and obsessive attention to detail.
Jeff Bezos
A great source of advice and inspiration for anyone who creates products.
— Josh Centers | writer and editor | TidBITS
If you work in the creative field as a designer, editor or even manager, this is an investment you need to make.
— Stephen Hackett | writer, podcaster, project manager | 512 Pixels, Relay.fm
In my history working in desktop publishing (specifically for newspapers), I was notorious for sweating the details — down to the very pixel — and the habit has followed to web design — again, down to the very pixel — so this book speaks to me, and is a must-buy for anyone interested in design, art, or the creative process.
— Conor McClure | web designer
I just purchased and read Delight is in the Details. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and I'm looking forward to going through the accompanying audio and video. The book just kept getting better as I read through the second section to the end of the book. I found it a nice mix of encouragement and useful guidance towards accomplishing better creative work. It's the type of writing that I will read over again when looking for additional encouragement.
— Ben Plantinga
The Complete Kit
* The 88-page eBook
* The Audio book
* 10 audio interviews (with transcripts)
* 8 Makers Q&A interviews
* 3 Videos
* The Resource Index
* Money-back guarantee
Get it for $45
FAQ
Q: Money-Back Guarantee?
A: You bet! I've spent hundreds of hours putting together the content of this book and interview series, and it's all based on my decades-long career as a creative professional. I'm confident that the contents of the book and the interview series are well worth $45.
If, however, you're not delighted with your purchase, just email me within 30 days of your purchase and I'll be happy to give you a full refund. No questions asked (though hopefully you'll be willing to share with me what you didn't like about it so I can make improvements).
Q: What all is new in version 2?
A: Quite a bit.
- The audio tracks have all been re-mastered (this includes audio book and the audio interviews).
- There are two new audio interviews: one with Matt Alexander and one with Jared Sinclair.
- There are now transcripts of all the audio interviews. Carefully laid out in a 157-page PDF, the transcripts are perfect for those who prefer to read not listen. It also creates a searchable archive of the conversations for those want or search or reference the conversations.
- A new section: The Makers Q&A interviews. These are answers from some of my design heroes regarding what it means to them to sweat the details, what delight in design looks like for their work, and how they spend their day to do their best creative work.
- And the Resource Index: a list of recommended websites, books, forums, and other resources that will help you find fresh inspiration, advance your current skill set, and/or get plugged into a community of peers.
- Three videos: These are short videos I made for this project. They are cover (a) How To Stay Creative, (b) The Power of a Focused Life, and (c) In-House Designers. I'm not sure exactly how to describe them — they are not just videos of me talking into the camera. They are produced, with strong and clever visuals and high-quality audio.
- Updated book content with examples from the latest versions of iOS and OS X
- New chapter: "Finding Your Fanatics" — this chapter discusses why sweating the details and adding delight to your product is key to growing your audience, your customer base, and increasing word-of-mouth referrals.
- New Chapter: "The Foundation of Creativity and the Lifeblood of Delightful Design" — this is the core chapter of the entire book. It's the chapter that should have been in there when I first wrote the book, but I guess I needed a year to muse on this topic in order to discover the contents of this chapter. This chapter is the answer to the questions of how you do your best creative work every day and how you make delightful products.
Q: I already bought version 1, do I get a free update?
A: Yes! Yes, you do. Anyone who bought the previous version gets the updated content for free (check your Gumroad email for a download link). And anyone who buys this version will get future updates for free as well.
Q: I'm part of a creative team, photography studio, software development shop, etc. Do you offer team licenses?
A: Yes. A team license is available for crews up to 10 and costs $149. It includes all the files in DRM-free format and the 1080p HD versions of the videos. If you have a team larger than 10, please email me.
Q: I'm not sure if this is for me.
A: Fair concern. Delight is in the Details is for you if:
- you think great design is worth the extra time and energy to build
- you find yourself struggling to communicate with your clients, managers, and or co-workers about the importance of great design
- you think word-of-mouth marketing is the best kind and that viral marketing happens best when we wow people
- you prefer apps and services that do one thing well rather than many things poorly
- you think constraint helps breed creativity
- it's better to ship something later and do it with excellence than to ship something now but do it poorly
- you want to grow in your craft
- you always feel pinched for time and resources
- you need a shot of motivation
- you want to make great work but feel stuck at your current skill level
- you think a product should be easy to understand and enjoyable to use
- you think print's not dead
- you're personally committed to doing your best creative work day in and day out
And if that's not enough, the book has a 30-day money back guarantee.
The Complete Kit
* The 88-page eBook
* The Audio book
* 10 audio interviews (with transcripts)
* 8 Makers Q&A interviews
* 3 Videos
* The Resource Index
* Money-back guarantee
Get it for $45
About the Author
Shawn Blanc is a husband, dad, writer, small-business owner, and creative entrepreneur. For more than a decade he has been teaching and learning about creativity, diligence, and focus.