How to fix a broken online design community
The current state of the design community
The one thing that is wrong with the online design community? We’re not helping each other out by giving each other valuable feedback. We’re all being nice for selfish reasons, so get some likes back.
I had several occasions where I felt people were being too friendly, or holding back from any constructive feedback, when browser the digital design community. Think Behance, Dribbble, Briefbox.me, and so on.
Of course there is nothing wrong with being nice, and the power of a compliment is often undervalued, but wouldn’t it be great to see a lively and active design community where we’re giving each other constructive feedback, as a way of sharing our knowledge with other peers?
Researching the design community
To verify my point I researched 100 random comments from Dribbble. Because perhaps I was wrong. Perhaps there was enough design critique going on. Perhaps there was no broken online design community.
Below the summary document in which I summarized:
- What words are most often used.
- How many words an average comment is.
- How nice or offensive a comment most often is.
- If comments are actually related to the design at hand (e.g. “so awesome” can be commented on every design.)
Afterwards I created a series of posters to raise awareness.
So to answer: ‘how do we fix a broken online design community’. Simple. Just go out there and take a good look at each others work.
Take some time to write valuable feedback, for the work on Dribbble, Behance or whatever, that has been created with care and love by the creator.
If you have some tips for improvement: tell eachother. If you love the work: tell eachother. because let’s face it, all designers are eager to get better, don’t hold back.
Because the current design community has become quite a boring one.
Let’s fix it.
Leave a Reply