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I am a UX guy who specializes in community design, and I see some fundamental areas you should work on: 1.) How is this better than Dribbble; a popular, well-r

I am a UX guy who specializes in community design, and I see some fundamental areas you should work on: 1.) How is this better than Dribbble; a popular, well-respected site with precisely the same pitch? That's not a criticism so much as something to think about. 2.) You forgot half of your target audience. Community like this has two user types that support each other: designers and critiquers. Ideally the critiquers are designers too, but these are two separate behaviours, and your site is designed for one of them. You're never going to reach critical mass until you cater more to the majority (non-uploading, non-commenting lurkers). 3.) It's hard to browse. The start page has a few clickable images and once you choose one, you're doomed if it wasn't something you like. I bet the exit rate (Google Analytics) on that second page is through the roof... what should I do next if I didn't like it? Hit the back button? That's a no-no. 4.) The users are too downplayed. In a community like this, people discover the users through their content. Then they want to follow and see more, which motivates registrations. You should make it obvious who has posted each design, with a clear link to see more. 5.) You did a good job of selling the concept on the start page, and the path to registration is obvious and clear, but I don't want to sign up for something as time-consuming as a community without trying it and exploring a bit first. That's the part that isn't so great right now. 6.) I don't get the metaphor. Is it military or something? 7.) On a purely aesthetic level, you might consider simplifying your brand... there are a lot of colors, and mid-tones, and textures, and geometry, and it's forcing you to use lots of boxes and stuff. It's hard on the eyes. Pick a couple colors, a motif/pattern or two, and reduce, re-use, and recycle. ;) Good Luck! Nice effort so far!

mnicole 14y ago
I've seen a lot of back-and-forth about using Dribbble as a critiquing platform. People opposed to receiving such feedback say that they didn't ask for it and that it's rude to assume that uploading something to the site means that they're open to suggestions about it. Personally, my stance is that if you knowingly upload something to a site that has a comment boxes, you're asking for it. That being said, most people use the site as a means of self-promotion, so they use their real names. As such, they aren't comfortable providing the raw feedback a lot of us are looking for. I don't personally have a problem with people being able to anon their comments - obviously someone deemed them worthy enough to be there to begin with - so long as there are ways to mitigate abuse.
- azilnik 14y ago
  We were thinking of directly tying your Swrm profile to something like LinkedIn, and in keeping with our vision of honesty, essentially prevent users from being anonymous. What do you think?
  - mnicole 14y ago
    It's tough; people are always going to want to base your judgment against your own work, but you don't need to be a designer to 'get' design, just as anyone can call themselves a designer to begin with. If I'm an influential designer and my identity is known to the critics, it will have an effect on their responses. Likewise, if someone with a lot of followers critiques me, it will weigh heavier than the rest of the feedback simply because people equate of # followers with quality/experience/etc (even though that isn't always the case). I think for this reason, anonymity is at least important in the early stages so as not to skew results. Maybe give a week or two window to shuffle some people through, or wait until it hits a certain comment threshold, and then let the poster determine if they want the thread to go public or stay private. I'm personally more apt to give better advice if I know my comments aren't going to be ignored right-off-the-bat based on my age, gender or job history, to be honest. As far as incentive to keep coming to the site and giving legitimately good feedback, give them credit that they could display on their site, like a StackOverflow badge, provided that Swrm has a reputation like StackExchange and not one like Klout, where people will actually be proud of it because it means something. What are your perspectives on keeping people from being anon?
    - azilnik 14y ago
      That's a really nice perspective, and probably not one I would come up with intuitively. If I understand you correctly and may paraphrase, keeping it anonymous will prevent skewed perceptions on weight of opinion based on "clout", and rather keep it relatively anonymous and base clout on positive contribution, with the addition of opportunity to show off positive contribution elsewhere?
      - 14y ago
jxg 14y ago
Another member of the Swrm team here. Thank you for your detailed feedback! Re: 1) Although we are aware of dribbble, Swrm addresses a fundamentally different issue: Getting an honest, helpful critique of one's work. While dribbble may be a great platform for showcasing finished design work, it has a natural tendency to promote only works which it considers "best of the best". This is reflected in its feedback system, where comments are most often overly positive. Swrm is built on the realization that good design work is generally the result of a lengthy, iterative process rather than a flash of genius at the hands of an especially "talented" designer. By focusing on the process, we want to enable anyone to continuously improve their work. Re: 2) Making designers and critiquers "come together" is one of the top items we're working on, especially to encourage critiquers to provide constructive feedback. I'm not sure whether you considered "lurking" to be one of the "two separate behaviors", but besides encouraging active participation I think this is just a general property of people on the web. I agree on your remaining points – Thanks again for taking the time.
- JoelMarsh 14y ago
  Fantastic. For #1... maybe the real feedback is that I didn't understand that. But fair enough. I don't disagree with your goal. :) For #2... you're right, and my point was that there is nothing for those lurkers (or "pre-contributors") to do. The community is very singular in its focus, and that focus is on the minority. A "browse" page or a footer full of browsable suggestions would be worth a lot.
  - azilnik 14y ago
    Hi Joel, this is some excellent feedback! Thanks for checking out swrm.io. We hope to take your suggestions everyone elses into account for our future updates. Is there anything else worthwhile exploring, other than your suggestions so far?
    - JoelMarsh 14y ago
      Anything else I noticed seems insignificant compared to those ones. One note though, in response to a comment above... be careful not to "force" people to be honest; they might leave instead. Motivate them to be honest by rewarding honesty and making it clear how they are rewarded. Feedback loops are your friend. ;)
instakill 14y ago
UX guy, I'd consider adding your email address either to your HN bio or somewhere on your site. I can find no way to contact you if I wanted to.
- JoelMarsh 14y ago
  Done. ;)

mnicole 14y ago

I've seen a lot of back-and-forth about using Dribbble as a critiquing platform. People opposed to receiving such feedback say that they didn't ask for it and that it's rude to assume that uploading something to the site means that they're open to suggestions about it. Personally, my stance is that if you knowingly upload something to a site that has a comment boxes, you're asking for it. That being said, most people use the site as a means of self-promotion, so they use their real names. As such, they aren't comfortable providing the raw feedback a lot of us are looking for. I don't personally have a problem with people being able to anon their comments - obviously someone deemed them worthy enough to be there to begin with - so long as there are ways to mitigate abuse.

azilnik 14y ago
We were thinking of directly tying your Swrm profile to something like LinkedIn, and in keeping with our vision of honesty, essentially prevent users from being anonymous. What do you think?
- mnicole 14y ago
  It's tough; people are always going to want to base your judgment against your own work, but you don't need to be a designer to 'get' design, just as anyone can call themselves a designer to begin with. If I'm an influential designer and my identity is known to the critics, it will have an effect on their responses. Likewise, if someone with a lot of followers critiques me, it will weigh heavier than the rest of the feedback simply because people equate of # followers with quality/experience/etc (even though that isn't always the case). I think for this reason, anonymity is at least important in the early stages so as not to skew results. Maybe give a week or two window to shuffle some people through, or wait until it hits a certain comment threshold, and then let the poster determine if they want the thread to go public or stay private. I'm personally more apt to give better advice if I know my comments aren't going to be ignored right-off-the-bat based on my age, gender or job history, to be honest. As far as incentive to keep coming to the site and giving legitimately good feedback, give them credit that they could display on their site, like a StackOverflow badge, provided that Swrm has a reputation like StackExchange and not one like Klout, where people will actually be proud of it because it means something. What are your perspectives on keeping people from being anon?
  - azilnik 14y ago
    That's a really nice perspective, and probably not one I would come up with intuitively. If I understand you correctly and may paraphrase, keeping it anonymous will prevent skewed perceptions on weight of opinion based on "clout", and rather keep it relatively anonymous and base clout on positive contribution, with the addition of opportunity to show off positive contribution elsewhere?
    - 14y ago

jxg 14y ago

Another member of the Swrm team here. Thank you for your detailed feedback! Re: 1) Although we are aware of dribbble, Swrm addresses a fundamentally different issue: Getting an honest, helpful critique of one's work. While dribbble may be a great platform for showcasing finished design work, it has a natural tendency to promote only works which it considers "best of the best". This is reflected in its feedback system, where comments are most often overly positive. Swrm is built on the realization that good design work is generally the result of a lengthy, iterative process rather than a flash of genius at the hands of an especially "talented" designer. By focusing on the process, we want to enable anyone to continuously improve their work. Re: 2) Making designers and critiquers "come together" is one of the top items we're working on, especially to encourage critiquers to provide constructive feedback. I'm not sure whether you considered "lurking" to be one of the "two separate behaviors", but besides encouraging active participation I think this is just a general property of people on the web. I agree on your remaining points – Thanks again for taking the time.

JoelMarsh 14y ago
Fantastic. For #1... maybe the real feedback is that I didn't understand that. But fair enough. I don't disagree with your goal. :) For #2... you're right, and my point was that there is nothing for those lurkers (or "pre-contributors") to do. The community is very singular in its focus, and that focus is on the minority. A "browse" page or a footer full of browsable suggestions would be worth a lot.
- azilnik 14y ago
  Hi Joel, this is some excellent feedback! Thanks for checking out swrm.io. We hope to take your suggestions everyone elses into account for our future updates. Is there anything else worthwhile exploring, other than your suggestions so far?
  - JoelMarsh 14y ago
    Anything else I noticed seems insignificant compared to those ones. One note though, in response to a comment above... be careful not to "force" people to be honest; they might leave instead. Motivate them to be honest by rewarding honesty and making it clear how they are rewarded. Feedback loops are your friend. ;)

instakill 14y ago

UX guy, I'd consider adding your email address either to your HN bio or somewhere on your site. I can find no way to contact you if I wanted to.

JoelMarsh 14y ago
Done. ;)