My name is Jeremy Olson. I’m a senior in college, living in Charlotte, North Carolina, and this is the story of how my little app beat Angry Birds.

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I’m writing this because I believe we learn much more from success than from failure. It took Edison thousands of failed attempts to invent the electric light bulb, and it would be foolish for us to reinvent it based on trial and error, now that we have a working model.

We have many shining lights in the app industry. While I would love to claim that my success stems from my own genius, nothing could be further from the truth. By studying independent developers who have succeeded in the App Store again and again, I was able to learn the basic principles that I needed to succeed, and I hope this story will help others do the same.

A Big Idea

My first app, Grades, had everything going for it. The press loved it, users loved it, and Apple loved it. There was only one problem: It didn’t make any money. Sure, it generated a little cash, but despite all of the buzz, Grades was always limited by the tiny niche it served: college students who cared enough about their grades to faithfully track them throughout the semester.

Our first app, Grades, was a success for our reputation, not for our bank account. Large view.

If we were to continue making cheap apps, our next one had to be big. It had to appeal to almost anyone.

The solution came when Alex Marktl, founder of Sonico Mobile, approached us about partnering on an offline translation app. It was a proven market. Sonico’s app iTranslate had over 30 million users, and the market had an immense gap for an affordable translation app that worked without an Internet connection.

After seeing some user feedback for Sonico’s popular iTranslate app and researching the competition, we were pretty sure the market opportunity was huge. In addition, my four-person team is really passionate about education and language. The market was there, the opportunity was there, and the passion was there — a perfect fit.

A few Skype calls later, we had hashed out agreements and were ready to roll.

(Spoiler: It turns out that ideas matter a lot. Languages attracted a similar amount of press and buzz as Grades, but it made more money in one day than Grades made in two years!)

Defining The Dictionary

Although I was tempted to jump right into wireframing, we did some research up front to help us define the problems we were trying to solve.

Competitive Landscape

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The App Store is great because it is one of the few markets in the world where you can so easily find valuable information about your potential competitors. They are just a search away. Looking at reviews, sales rankings and marketing materials of competing apps can give you great insight into the market. It is a great way to see the market for your app, how much people are willing to pay for it, what features to include, and a slew of other insights. Websites such as App Annie even enable you to analyze your competitors’ rankings over time.

We took about a dozen of the best competing apps and analyzed their strengths and weaknesses and how we could beat them. We found that, while a number of offline translation apps existed, they were poorly designed and cost a fortune. We knew we could do better.

User Experience Mapping

In defining the app, we focused on solving a few problems that people actually experience in their daily life, rather than just coming up with a list of cool features. To this end, we went through a little exercise that we call user experience mapping. This exercise generally takes a day or three. In it, we did the following:

• Analyze users’ daily experience without the app — i.e. identify the problems they currently face.
• Brainstorm ways that an ideal app could solve those problems.
• Choose which problems to focus on, and decide which features were feasible for the first release.

Step 1: Define Personas

As designers, we need to thoroughly empathize with our users and understand their current experiences and thought processes as much as possible. Going out and talking to people can yield a lot of great insight, but in this case we were were pretty familiar with the translation experience, so we didn’t feel the need to talk to potential users at this stage.

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Instead, we went ahead and started brainstorming potential characteristics of our users.

We then chose characteristics of users who we really wanted to focus on, and turned them into personas.

A persona is a fictitious person who embodies the characteristics of the target demographic. While personas aren’t real, they should be based on reality and should make the abstract idea of a “user” much more concrete. Without a human face, mapping out the user’s experience is hard.

So, Emily is a 21-year-old college student studying French at Emory University. She is not naturally gifted in language, but really likes French and tries to read French literature. She is looking forward to doing a study-abroad program in France.

We created three personas that encapsulate most of the key characteristics of our target market: Emily, the student; Johann, the European business traveler (it turns out that we nailed this: 70% of our sales ended up being from outside the US); and Paul, the IT guy who learns new languages as a hobby.

Step 2: Map the Personas’ Experience Without the App

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To map out users’ current predicament, we started by picking three key experiences related to translation — in this case, solo translation, social translation, and translation during travel.

We then brainstormed the activities and issues involved in these experiences that each persona might face. For example, in the solo category, Johann writes emails to clients in various languages and looks up the words he is not sure of.

Perform this exercise with people in the room who are similar to your personas. They will validate your insights and add to the brainstorming. If you don’t have that luxury, simply brainstorming and thinking through their possible experience is still a helpful exercise.

Step 3: Brainstorm the Ideal Assistance

After picturing our users’ lives, we brainstormed how the ideal app could solve their problems. We didn’t worry about viability, budget or timeline here; it’s all about coming up with really creative ideas to solve our users’ problems.

Step 4: Kill the Baby

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This part is brutal. Having come up with a ton of cool ideas for features, we had to obliterate most of them. Good design is more about subtraction than addition. It’s all about finding the essential problems you want to solve and removing the features that are unrelated, inessential or unrealistic for the first version.

Polishing an app takes a ridiculous amount of time. So, if you start out with too broad a feature set, your app will lack focus and you will have no way to polish those features adequately.

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Mission accomplished. Now we had a tentative 1.0 definition. Now we knew what this app would be about. You can read more about our user experience mapping exercise on our blog.

The Definition

Based on the last exercise, we crafted a statement that defines the essence of the app:

“An offline translation dictionary that gives instant access to words and definitions at 99¢ for multiple language pairs.”

This statement helped to focus our development process. It became a litmus test for any cool feature idea we came up with during development. If the feature didn’t support this statement, it didn’t belong in 1.0.

Sketching The Interactions

It was time to get down and dirty and start to shape our abstract ideas into a blueprint.

We started by sketching general ideas on how the various screens could flow together. These days, I mostly stick to sketches, and I use tools such as POP to share ideas with remote team members and clients. At the time, however, we were using OmniGraffle to create a rough prototype of the interactions.

Don’t Make Me Think

Our goal at this stage was to solve our users’ problems with an intuitive and easy to use interface. In essence, our job was to free users from having to think about the interface and instead to focus on the content.

This is a huge topic and Steve Krug literally wrote the book on it, so if you haven’t read Don’t Make Me Think, do so now. Seriously, it’s a great book.

Don’t Make Me Work

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People don’t like to work, so I am always looking for ways to save them from unnecessary keystrokes, taps and irrelevant information. The OmniGraffle wireframe above illustrates how we tried to serve that goal. We wanted our word lookup to be the fastest available; so, instead of providing on-the-fly search suggestions like most apps, we provide on-the-fly translations to those suggestions. We also found a way to solve the language-switching problem of most apps by enabling users to type in either language and displaying the results for one language on the left and the other language on the right.

Think Like a Human

We wanted our dictionaries to feel physical. Large view.

Because this is an offline translation app, we wanted to give users the strong impression that the dictionaries are on their phones. We wanted the dictionaries to feel not like some abstract database in the cloud, but rather like physical dictionaries that they can access anytime, anywhere. We used the metaphor of a shelf with books to quickly communicate this to users.

While touch interfaces have matured, and users no longer need interfaces to look like physical objects in order to relate to them, sometimes physical metaphors can set expectations and convey feelings that purely digital interfaces cannot.

Relentless Exploration

Note that these wireframes are ugly on purpose. This stage has nothing to do with visual design. We don’t jump right into Photoshop, because the ugly sketches help us to focus on the interaction problems and enable us to quickly explore hundreds of ideas.

Because sketching a rough idea takes only a few seconds, we go really crazy at this stage. The more ideas, the better. Leave no stone unturned to find the ideas worth pursuing.

Sometimes your first idea turns out to be the best, but the only way to prove that is to test all of the other ways of looking at the problem. I’ve gotten to meet the designers of some of my favorite apps, and one of the main commonalities among them is this: The secret to their amazing designs is a lot less about genius than about relentless exploration. They don’t stop once they’ve found a good solution. They keep going until they’ve exhausted the possibilities.

Of Photoshop And Xcode

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This is when things get really exciting. It’s when ideas start to become reality. This is the point when we design and code the actual elements that our users will touch.

Some people think this stage is just about making pretty graphics, but that mindset leads to mediocrity. This stage is all about polish on all levels: interaction, usability and visual. This is when a good app becomes great.

While we hoped that our sketches and wireframes would provide a good outline, upon seeing things visually and playing with an actual coded prototype, we realized that we sometimes got it all wrong. Also, when we are merely sketching, it is difficult to imagine the creative details that will take our app beyond being usable and into the realm of fun. Once we start working with visual metaphors, colors and textures, dreaming up fun details becomes much easier.

So, this is all about polish, polish, polish, and it is by far the most rewarding and time-consuming stage of app development.

Establishing the Theme

Some people hate skeuomorphism, probably because mimicking elements from the real world in our digital interfaces can easily lead to overdesigned visuals and inconsistent interactions. However, skeuomorphism can be useful, fun and powerful if wielded carefully and deliberately. In fact, every app that contains buttons has skeuomorphism because buttons are borrowed straight from the real world. When used correctly, skeuomorphism provides much needed affordances that help users instantly understand how an app works.

With that in mind, we knew from the outset that we wanted to use the metaphor of physical books to reinforce the concept that these dictionaries are stored on the phone itself.

When working on the theme for the app, we generally iterated like crazy on two or three of the main screens until we were convinced that a certain look would work really well for the whole app.

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Given that we were working towards a book-like theme, we explored an elegant earth-toned theme that let the content and typography shine. We continued to refine the theme along the way.

Side note: While the next version of iOS — iOS 7 — will rid itself of Corinthian leather and other such ornamental UI, and the industry is certainly shifting away from realistic interfaces at the moment, the best designers don’t just follow trends. Trends are important, but we should consider all styles and techniques as tools in our toolbox and use them where they make sense. Granted, realistic UIs will probably look quite dated by the time iOS 7 arrives, but within a year or so, diversity in design styles will intensify as the novelty of iOS 7’s minimal aesthetic begins to wear off.

Delight Is in the Details

As we continued to flesh out all of the different screens, we looked for opportunities to delight our users with details that would make the app enjoyable to use. Part of this is just about making the app look nice, but you can also delight users by adding a fun transition, or make them laugh with some quirky copy, or save them work in surprising ways.

Take search:

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The user can start searching by tapping the search bar. But reaching for that bar with a thumb can be a hassle, so we added the ability to swipe anywhere on the screen to unfold the search interface.

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As the user types, the interface populates with suggested results and translations, highlighting the matching letters like a spotlight.

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Folks who translate speech or passages of literature will look up a lot of words in rapid succession. We found that having to clear a search term by tapping the tiny “x” in the search field broke the flow and was physically strenuous, especially on the iPhone 5’s taller screen. So, we decided to let users swipe right to quickly clear a term — thus, allowing them to type a few letters, get the translation, and then swipe to begin typing another word all in a matter of seconds.

These kinds of details made all the difference when we were testing the app in the wild.

Designer and Programmer: Constant Collaboration

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Please, please, do not hand a programmer your design assets and expect a job well done. Not only do designers need to continually stay involved to ensure that their designs are implemented well, but using coded prototypes and testing them on users will inform the design in ways you can’t imagine. I don’t care what kind of genius designer you are: There is no substitute for testing a design and iterating on it.

Testing coded software exposes blatant weaknesses in the design that you may have never considered and shines light on areas where details could be added to make the experience more enjoyable. Because of this, I ended up doing even more design iterations after we had a coded prototype than I did before.

Changes at this stage are costly but extremely necessary.

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Programmers with a good design sense can also have great ideas. We wanted to make a better index. My mental model was some kind of magnifying glass. But Richard, Sonico’s programmer, had a better idea: Magnify the letters themselves around your finger as you move your finger.

Gesture Experiments

As we started to code our first prototype, Impending and Realmac Software launched an app named Clear. No buttons, just gestures. Love it or hate it, it made a statement. I had never seen such an exercise in minimalism in my life.

It was a beautiful thing, and it inspired me to find ways to use gestures to improve Languages.

My first experiment was extreme: to create a fully gesture-based interface.

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We replaced buttons with gestures. Swipe one way to search, and the other way to view the index.

As much as we loved the minimalism, we realized that we needed to teach our users about the gestures.

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We tried a number of approaches. But after doing a lot of usability testing, we realized that all of them had one major problem: Search, our most important feature, just wasn’t blatantly obvious.

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So, we bit the bullet and used buttons and affordances where they make sense, but we retained a lot of the gestures and minimalism that we had gained through the experiments. The result was an app that is super-intuitive and simple for beginners, but full of gestures that make life easier for power users.

Testing

We made sure to get input on all aspects: usability, beauty, robustness. This included carrying out the following tasks:

• We observed friends, family and various strangers use the app. The key thing here is to propose tasks and ask questions about what they are thinking, but never to answer their questions. Probe into why they are confused about something, and let them figure it out for themselves. Watch for body language that indicates confusion or frustration, and note not only whether they were able to accomplish a task, but how effortless and enjoyable their experience was.
• We sought expert design reviews from top Apple designers, leading usability experts and fellow developers at conferences such as SxSW and WWDC.
• We posted screenshots to Dribbble to get feedback on visuals from leading designers around the world.
• We tested the app ourselves in real-world contexts using TestFlight.
• Finally, we thoroughly tested functionality and searched hundreds of words to catch bugs and ensure robustness and accuracy.

Icon

We tried a lot of ideas before settling on the icon on the far right. Large view.

An app’s icon means a lot. It is the first impression most users will get of an app, and we hope users will want to have it on their precious home screen.

The first iteration of the Languages icon (the royal “L”) was simple but didn’t communicate much.

After a lot of brainstorming, we incorporated the idea of physical dictionaries on a shelf, since that was a major theme of the app. The icon was beautiful, but we couldn’t make it work well enough at small sizes. Additionally, a top designer at Apple recommended that we not use books because the app isn’t about reading.

Nuts. We really liked that icon, but we had to go back to the drawing board to find an instantly recognizable symbol that communicated the idea of translation and that wasn’t overused. A globe works pretty well, but we ultimately chose the “a” with an accent mark because it is unique and definitely communicates the idea of a foreign language. We lived with it on our home screens for a while, and it grew on us. Having aced the test of time, the icon proved to be the winner.

Next Step: Launch

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We’ve come along way and learned a few things.

After a year of blood, sweat and tears, the product was finally where we wanted it to be. It didn’t have every feature that we intended to put in 1.0, but the features it did have were super-polished and ready for primetime. It was time to launch. I’ll cover our marketing and launch in my next post, so stay tuned.

(al)

© Jeremy Olson for Smashing Magazine, 2013.

It's a tradition around here to do a State of the Union post on the Fourth of July. This is the sixth one! (1) (2) (3) (4) (5).

Obligatory fireworks stock art:

I type this from Milwaukee, Wisconsin - where I now live. I'm back in my home state and I really like it. It's the best neighborhood I've lived in for quite a while. Thirties friendly, I've been saying. Great coffee shops, great little grocers, great bars and music clubs like the Cactus Club. Young and fun but not college-y. There is just a nice park between the house I'm renting and Lake Michigan. I literally watched fireworks right from the park a few days ago for the opening of Summerfest.

In the last year I've started doing Chronicle posts, and writing this feels like that a bit. A way for me to post what's going on with me, the site, and other projects I work on. I'll probably continue doing those, as it's a great outlet for things that I think are important but don't warrant entire posts to themselves.

Last year I wrote that I finally get to focus on "The Big Three" - for me being CSS-Tricks, ShopTalk, and CodePen. That's exactly what happened and that's exactly what's going to keep happening. It felt like the right thing to do and it still does. I've come to realize perhaps my biggest strength is dedication and persistance in working on the projects I choose. ShopTalk is a good example of that. We've recorded about 80 shows so far and we've only ever missed a week or two in the entire time.

If anything has changed, it is shifting even more time and attention to CodePen. We're a team of three full-timers now and we have so many ideas we'll be busy building for years.

Another reason I feel better this year is that I've learned a lot about what introversion means. It's not like I've had a hard time in life because of it (probably the opposite), but it certainly caused some discomfort that I didn't understand. But now I do. Understanding yourself better is quite a good feeling.

Around here on CSS-Tricks, there will be some work being done soon. Perhaps even this long weekend. I may or may not be calling it "v11" but there will be somewhat major changes. Not so much with the design. I plan to tweak things and streamline things, but the look will probably largely be very similar. "v11" will be all about functionality. I want to bring the forums together with the rest of the site with a single login. I'd like to have comment editing. I'd like to expand The Lodge by adding additional videos/resources to some existing content. I'd like to try some responsive images stuff. And there is a ton more on my list. No specific timeframe for all of it, but I hope to do it all in a few big chunks.

This Summer I have some fun things planned. I'm headed to UX Mad next weekend. I'm headed to Scotland with some friends for a pure-fun trip later in July. I'm headed to a "camp" for adults to jump start weight loss and excercise a ton and learn more about being healthy later in August. I'm headed to Bend, OR for another CodePen all-team Jam in September. And I have various friends visiting from all over all Summer. Yay!

Last year I wrote my sister was getting married, and this year she's pregnant! So I'll be a real uncle. That's pretty sweet.

It sounds like a lot when I write it all out, but all-in-all, I've cut back on the amount of big events and travel I'm doing. I'm going to keep that as light as I can for the next year at least. I want more time to actually build and work on my projects, while having a bit of a life here in Milwaukee.

Here's to another year!

The Sixth Fourth is a post from CSS-Tricks

The Web Applications Working Group invites implementation of the Candidate Recommendation of Indexed Database API. This document defines APIs for a database of records holding simple values and hierarchical objects. Each record consists of a key and some value. Moreover, the database maintains indexes over records it stores. An application developer directly uses an API to locate records either by their key or by using an index. A query language can be layered on this API. An indexed database can be implemented using a persistent B-tree data structure. Learn more about the Rich Web Client Activity.

In 2011, the movie industry made a whopping $87 billion worldwide. With that much cash up for grabs, film studios and corner-office execs are all clamoring for their piece of the pie; and that means branding and marketing a given release is anything but child’s play. It’s interesting, then, that one approach to attracting film-goers has stood the test of time: the typographic movie poster.

Artwork with typographic elements combines the best of both worlds — namely, eye-catching imagery and ultimate readability. There’s a certain strength in well-done lettering on a poster that attracts and keeps an audience’s attention, potentially setting a mood or tone for a lasting impression. After all, a picture may paint a thousand words, but a picture made of well-placed words? That picture speaks volumes.

Dating back to as early as the 1960s and 70s — with films such as West Side Story and Taxi Driver — all the way to present day with the Oscar-nominated Zero Dark Thirty, typographic movie posters are clearly deemed effective by movie marketing masterminds. The following compilation represents 30 posters that are both impressive and inspiring; most were created by the film houses themselves, but a few are from creative minds that envisioned what could have been if typography had been used as the vehicle of choice. Enjoy!

And if you’re in the United States, happy 4th of July!

Taxi Driver

Burn After Reading

The Godfather

Zero Dark Thirty

I’m Still Here

West Side Story

The Words

Bully

Big Fish

The Departed

All That Jazz

Skyfall

Invasion

42

Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead

Blindness

Detour

Beautiful Losers

Salt

Gangs of New York

Beastly

The Social Network

Dancer in the Dark

Terms and Conditions May Apply

Sex and the City

Which poster is your favorite? Do you know of others that could have made the list? Let us know in the comments.

Top-Selling Vintage Veneer Font Family – only $9!

In 2011, the movie industry made a whopping $87 billion worldwide. With that much cash up for grabs, film studios and corner-office execs are all clamoring for their piece of the pie; and that means branding and marketing a given release is anything but child’s play. It’s interesting, then, that one approach to attracting film-goers has stood the test of time: the typographic movie poster.

Artwork with typographic elements combines the best of both worlds — namely, eye-catching imagery and ultimate readability. There’s a certain strength in well-done lettering on a poster that attracts and keeps an audience’s attention, potentially setting a mood or tone for a lasting impression. After all, a picture may paint a thousand words, but a picture made of well-placed words? That picture speaks volumes.

Dating back to as early as the 1960s and 70s — with films such as West Side Story and Taxi Driver — all the way to present day with the Oscar-nominated Zero Dark Thirty, typographic movie posters are clearly deemed effective by movie marketing masterminds. The following compilation represents 30 posters that are both impressive and inspiring; most were created by the film houses themselves, but a few are from creative minds that envisioned what could have been if typography had been used as the vehicle of choice. Enjoy!

And if you’re in the United States, happy 4th of July!

Taxi Driver

Burn After Reading

The Godfather

Zero Dark Thirty

I’m Still Here

West Side Story

The Words

Bully

Big Fish

The Departed

All That Jazz

Skyfall

Invasion

42

Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead

Blindness

Detour

Beautiful Losers

Salt

Gangs of New York

Beastly

The Social Network

Dancer in the Dark

Terms and Conditions May Apply

Sex and the City

Which poster is your favorite? Do you know of others that could have made the list? Let us know in the comments.

Top-Selling Vintage Veneer Font Family – only $9!

The following is an excerpt from an article entitled The Americans Who Risked Everything, detailing some of the hardships suffered by the Americans who signed the Declaration of Independence.  Let us honor their sacrifice and remember for what they gave so much:  Liberty.  

________________________________________

Richard Henry Lee, a delegate from Virginia, had introduced the resolution to adopt the Declaration of Independence in June of 1776. He was prophetic in his concluding remarks: "Why then sir, why do we longer delay? Why still deliberate? Let this happy day give birth to an American Republic. Let her arise not to devastate and to conquer but to reestablish the reign of peace and law.

"The eyes of Europe are fixed upon us. She demands of us a living example of freedom that may exhibit a contrast in the felicity of the citizen to the ever-increasing tyranny which desolates her polluted shores. She invites us to prepare an asylum where the unhappy may find solace, and the persecuted repost.

"If we are not this day wanting in our duty, the names of the American Legislatures of 1776 will be placed by posterity at the side of all of those whose memory has been and ever will be dear to virtuous men and good citizens."

Though the resolution was formally adopted July 4, it was not until July 8 that two of the states authorized their delegates to sign, and it was not until August 2 that the signers met at Philadelphia to actually put their names to the Declaration.

William Ellery, delegate from Rhode Island, was curious to see the signers' faces as they committed this supreme act of personal courage. He saw some men sign quickly, "but in no face was he able to discern real fear." Stephan Hopkins, Ellery's colleague from Rhode Island, was a man past 60. As he signed with a shaking pen, he declared: "My hand trembles, but my heart does not."

"Most Glorious Service"

Even before the list was published, the British marked down every member of Congress suspected of having put his name to treason. All of them became the objects of vicious manhunts. Some were taken. Some, like Jefferson, had narrow escapes. All who had property or families near British strongholds suffered.

· Francis Lewis, New York delegate saw his home plundered -- and his estates in what is now Harlem -- completely destroyed by British Soldiers. Mrs. Lewis was captured and treated with great brutality. Though she was later exchanged for two British prisoners through the efforts of Congress, she died from the effects of her abuse.

· William Floyd, another New York delegate, was able to escape with his wife and children across Long Island Sound to Connecticut, where they lived as refugees without income for seven years. When they came home they found a devastated ruin.

· Philips Livingstone had all his great holdings in New York confiscated and his family driven out of their home. Livingstone died in 1778 still working in Congress for the cause.

· Louis Morris, the fourth New York delegate, saw all his timber, crops, and livestock taken. For seven years he was barred from his home and family.

· John Hart of Trenton, New Jersey, risked his life to return home to see his dying wife. Hessian soldiers rode after him, and he escaped in the woods. While his wife lay on her deathbed, the soldiers ruined his farm and wrecked his homestead. Hart, 65, slept in caves and woods as he was hunted across the countryside. When at long last, emaciated by hardship, he was able to sneak home, he found his wife had already been buried, and his 13 children taken away. He never saw them again. He died a broken man in 1779, without ever finding his family.

· Dr. John Witherspoon, signer, was president of the College of New Jersey, later called Princeton. The British occupied the town of Princeton, and billeted troops in the college. They trampled and burned the finest college library in the country.

· Judge Richard Stockton, another New Jersey delegate signer, had rushed back to his estate in an effort to evacuate his wife and children. The family found refuge with friends, but a Tory sympathizer betrayed them. Judge Stockton was pulled from bed in the night and brutally beaten by the arresting soldiers. Thrown into a common jail, he was deliberately starved. Congress finally  arranged for Stockton's parole, but his health was ruined. The judge was released as an invalid, when he could no longer harm the British cause. He returned home to find his estate looted and did not live to see the triumph of the Revolution. His family was forced to live off charity.

· Robert Morris, merchant prince of Philadelphia, delegate and signer, met Washington's appeals and pleas for money year after year. He made and raised arms and provisions which made it possible for Washington to cross the Delaware at Trenton. In the process he lost 150 ships at sea, bleeding his own fortune and credit almost dry.

· George Clymer, Pennsylvania signer, escaped with his family from their home, but their property was completely destroyed by the British in the Germantown and Brandywine campaigns.

· Dr. Benjamin Rush, also from Pennsylvania, was forced to flee to Maryland. As a heroic surgeon with the army, Rush had several narrow escapes.

· John Martin, a Tory in his views previous to the debate, lived in a strongly loyalist area of Pennsylvania. When he came out for independence, most of his neighbors and even some of his relatives ostracized him. He was a sensitive and troubled man, and many believed this action killed him. When he died in 1777, his last words to his tormentors were: "Tell them that they will live to see the hour when they shall acknowledge it [the signing] to have been the most glorious service that I have ever rendered to my country."

· William Ellery, Rhode Island delegate, saw his property and home burned to the ground.

· Thomas Lynch, Jr., South Carolina delegate, had his health broken from privation and exposures while serving as a company commander in the military. His doctors ordered him to seek a cure in the West Indies and on the voyage, he and his young bride were drowned at sea.

· Edward Rutledge, Arthur Middleton, and Thomas Heyward, Jr., the other three South Carolina signers, were taken by the British in the siege of Charleston. They were carried as prisoners of war to St. Augustine, Florida, where they were singled out for indignities. They were exchanged at the end of the war, the British in the meantime having completely devastated their large landholdings and estates.

· Thomas Nelson, signer of Virginia, was at the front in command of the Virginia military forces. With British General Charles Cornwallis in Yorktown, fire from 70 heavy American guns began to destroy Yorktown piece by piece. Lord Cornwallis and his staff moved their headquarters into Nelson's palatial home. While American cannonballs were making a shambles of the town, the house of Governor Nelson remained untouched. Nelson turned in rage to the American gunners and asked, "Why do you spare my home?" They replied, "Sir, out of respect to you." Nelson cried, "Give me the cannon!" and fired on his magnificent home himself, smashing it to bits. But Nelson's sacrifice was not quite over. He had raised $2 million for the Revolutionary cause by pledging his own estates. When the loans came due, a newer peacetime Congress refused to honor them, and Nelson's property was forfeited. He was never reimbursed. He died, impoverished, a few years later at the age of 50.

Lives, Fortunes, Honor

Of those 56 who signed the Declaration of Independence, nine died of wounds or hardships during the war. Five were captured and imprisoned, in each case with brutal treatment. Several lost wives, sons or entire families. One lost his 13 children. Two wives were brutally treated. All were at one time or another the victims of manhunts and driven from their homes. Twelve signers had their homes completely burned. Seventeen lost everything they owned. Yet not one defected or went back on his pledged word. Their honor, and the nation they sacrificed so much to create is still intact.

And, finally, there is the New Jersey signer, Abraham Clark.

He gave two sons to the officer corps in the Revolutionary Army. They were captured and sent to that infamous British prison hulk afloat in New York Harbor known as the hell ship Jersey, where 11,000 American captives were to die. The younger Clarks were treated with a special brutality because of their father. One was put in solitary and given no food. With the end almost in sight, with the war almost won, no one could have blamed Abraham Clark for acceding to the British request when they offered him his sons' lives if he would recant and come out for the King and Parliament. The utter despair in this man's heart, the anguish in his very soul, must reach out to each one of us down through 200 years with his answer: "No."

The 56 signers of the Declaration Of Independence proved by their every deed that they made no idle boast when they composed the most magnificent curtain line in history. "And for the support of this Declaration with a firm reliance on the protection of divine providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor."

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