Sounds good.

It's not really dribbble(features or lack of features) or the design community's fault. It's just human psychology. Feedback doesn't work that way in real life or online. If I show a coworker a design they will just say "that looks great." People need to have specific context to give constructive feedback. They need to be given specific guidance. Like asking directly about fonts in a mockup. Any good designer doesn't have the time to give valuable feedback freely on Dribbble, so you have to ask, provide structure and set your expectations. An example would be to create a dribbble post: Explain that you are looking for feedback in this area and topic. Say that you will be revising the design the next day based off said feedback(engage them), then follow up with an iterated design and give credit to the people who's ideas shaped a certain area(they will most likely follow you and give helpful feedback in the future)

I actually like the "Nice work"s on Dribbble, it feels kind of like we're giving each other internet high fives. I see what you mean about it being less constructive than it could be but I like the idea of Dribbble being "Show and Tell". While criticism is welcome it's nice that you can comment and just say "that's cool" and appreciate each other's work.

It is far better than what we usually see on Behance.

Great work.

Please checkout my portfolio too http://behance.net/targetfolio

See this : http://cl.ly/0C1j0z1k0t1H

Lets stop the "lets stop" thing.

I actually find Dribbble pretty useful these days if I'm honest. It's all about context.

It's hard to believe looking at something like the most popular page that half the shots there are even for real projects. I saw a talk a couple of years ago at Hybrid Conf from a guy who is popular on Dribbble and does a lot of solid work but said he basically boosted his folio at the time with fake it til you make it type shots which worked for him and generated leads,.

In those cases, when shots aren't real, don't solve any real problems and don't have a statement saying what problem they do solve there's not much more you can do than say something akin to hitting Like on Facebook.

If you want critique or feedback, you can get it (most of the time) if you post detail, an attachment of a fuller page layout and explain what the problem is you have or what you're trying to achieve.

I've had some really useful help on projects I work on.

A few days ago someone posted a shot of a note taking app from dribbble asking for feedback and I replied that there is too much information at a time, which would make the app (a task manager) look daunting and messy.

It turns out this was actually a requirement of the project.

The point I'm trying to make is that you can't understand the full context of a project, how the designer tackled it and what problems they solved from a 400x300 shot - the best you can do is say 'that looks nice'

--

What I want to ask is this: what if there was a community focused on case studies? Instead of uploading a simple picture in a mockup, there would be fields requiring you to explain who the client was, what the project needed, how you would justify your decisions, what problems your work is solving and so on.

I believe that is the framework for a great design community, where those sharing work can get quality feedback and present their work in proper context to both fellow designers and potential clients, while those browsing can learn a lot from how others are working and what the needs of other clients are, as well as get a chance to speak their mind if they have better ideas.

I totally agree and I'd love to contribute. Anyone want to shoot an invite my way? I'd love to throw out some shots?

https://dribbble.com/bemky

When did Dribbble turn into a feedback platform? Dan simply started it so that you can show off bits of your work in public platform. If you want feedback on your design work go to Design school or seek out a mentor. There is no incentive for other designers to give you feedback on your designs, that's why you see a comment like "Cool!" or "Rad!".

Dribbble can and should be whatever you want it to be in your design work but if you want feedback on your design work on Dribbble than I would get together a group of Dribbblers that will give you what you need. Don't expect any ole person there to give you amazing feedback just because you posted a 400x300 square of your work.

We recently discussed a similar topic about Dribbble, and I think those two are correlated. I think Dribbble is turning into a dump of unrealistic, inapplicable and unusable designs where the only measure of a work is whether it's looking good or bad.

Dribbble is not and will not be a design platform with quality and constructive content. It would be simpler to start a new site.

Gonna start using "looks good, works terrible" instead?

I think if you go back through DN archives over the years there are probably hundreds of these posts.

I have to disagree that you need data to provide ANY critique. There are plenty of elements/principles of design that are universal for aesthetic analysis and usability.

For example, critiquing color palette choices or typographic pairings. You don't need data to know when those things look down right bad.

When it comes to usability, I can think of ideas that are universal principles you can comment on, such are proximity of related objects or even phrasing—which is also part of the UX design job.

Also note that people are smart enough (I hope) to know whether your feedback is good or bad depending on their understanding of the project and its data.

I want more critique on Dribbble. You gain a lot from receiving it AND from giving it.

(Commenting on mobile. Excuse any typos, the mobile commenting is a bit difficult.)

It's just the wrong place to get thoughtful feedback based on the full background of a project, and TBH you should really be getting that kind of feedback elsewhere (internally, testing, etc.). If you're just looking for gut-reactions to a small part of your project, that's what you'll get.

I've found it's a great place to get feedback on simple stuff you're developing. For me, that's illustration. I make a simple illustration, ask pointed questions (What do y'all think of X?), get semi-genuine feedback. I don't expect more or less.

It's also a great way for me to share my side projects with my friends where they can review at their leisure, give feedback if they want to, talk to me offline about it, etc.

Don't forget, you've got to give constructive feedback if you expect to get constructive feedback.

These guys on dribble are not trying to solve a problem for a specific project. They wake up in the morning and say, let's design something cool today. I totally understand that is self promotion and could get them some freelance work here and there. I would have loved for someone to put together a case study. What is the problem we are facing? What is the solution? How did we get here.

Nice work!

Guilty as well. But sometimes beside "Looks good" and "Nice job" you can't say too much because some shots are just not showing all the details so it's hard to be constructive with the feedback. When I see a shot with an attachment that's a different thing, there you can view more details.

Why don't you just start giving more objective and constructive feedback then? The 'looks good' comments don't prevent you from commenting with whatever you think is more valuable.

On another note, not everybody joined to community with the explicit goal of becoming better, sure I guess everybody wants to become better, but for a lot of people dribbble is just a tool for getting more work.

At the end of the day people use dribbble for different things, and in different ways, just use it however you see fit, and let people use it however they like.

EDIT: This is not to be a dick about it, but maybe you should also just look inwards before criticizing how people use dribbble. I took a quick look at your shots and all the descriptions are:

• "Something I'm working on (WIP)"
• "just having fun with layout and typography."
• "As usual see the full-size image in the attached file."

If you can't even be bothered to write a description of your shot or explain the context, how can you expect people to give in-depth and meaningful critique of your post?

I understand what you're saying and I think you're on point,

See the reason that made us say things like "nice" and "awesome" is when people keep posting shots like "#dailyuichallenge" things. Within no context no what so ever! you criticize what? that fancy shadow/glow effect? of course it will look good, but in what context? does it come handy for users? does it meet expectations? or the aesthetic would just distract the user from getting to their goals.

From the way I see, is that people should tell a story behind every pixel they push. So others can put it into perspective and give a constructive feedback.

This is my opinion :) Thanks for the opportunity

Sound good! Hahaha. This is the biggest problem for Dribbble, that started out as a platform to ask others what they think of a design.

On the otherland. The people are the product.Maybe Dribbble nowadays is nothing more that great place to showcase your best work.

A social stream of great stuff, like Instagram, that you have to like when you browse it.

Just use "❤ Like" button, instead of all comments "looks good", "nice work", etc.

I think this could be an easy fix! Only people with permission can comment your posts, that same way only people with Dribbble permission can post. And promote looking for feedback.

Shall we call it Looks-Good-Gate?!!!!! Seriously though, it's not a big deal.

Astonishing work. You get my L!

Luxury..

yawn

looks at post, genuinely enjoys it, doesn't hit the like button or comment

The main problem with design criticism is you cannot offer any value unless you have data than confirms your say. That's why people only give their opinions and opinions are never facts.

It could be that we are more exposed to things that have been highly rated, shared, or are otherwise more popular on Dribbble, so most of the time what we see actually is "nice work" in the eyes of most people.

I found this to be an interesting article: https://medium.com/@0therplanet/feedback-on-dribbble-is-broken-let-s-try-to-fix-it-1ad71173ea21#.9mheq5baj

In some ways I think if there were better utility around how you could give feedback on Dribbble I would be more apt to take the time. I don't mind the highfives and all the design love, but it does make me psychologically less likely to give raw feedback in the middle of a bunch of "Looks awesome brah's"

It would be lovely to have an options to hide such comments. Like css-tricks The blurred thing in the comments section.

Same thing happened on Flickr back in 2008 when I was administrating a couple of the larger groups. Everyone were just commenting to gain more views and favorites on their own stuff and in the end the comment section was just a mess of gifs and "Wow, amazing!" comments. It kind of ruined part of the experience where you used to actually get some constructive feedback, but I don't think it's possible to prevent a community to eventually go in that direction

I don't think the "looks good" or "nice work" prevents anyone from constructive feedback. I personally see them as a 'like' but with a little more effort. If you'd like more constructive feedback I guess you can ask for it in the description

That is the community that Dribbble has built. And to add to it, people are paying a $20 annual subscription and Dribbble invites are valuable so people want to get into the community. I have 3 invites right now, but I'm not giving them out because I don't think it's the most constructive space. Trying to change something that people love, people value, and are also willing to pay for is a tall order; Especially without a proposal on how to address the challenge you've identified. It would probably be more simple to start a new site geared towards critical design feedback, than to change Dribbble.

Nice post...

I'm putting up a blog post later to day talking about this. Essentially saying lets stop expecting Dribbble to be a place for feedback.

Edit: Linky

It's wrong that I never reach to read comments? I mean I spend some time scrolling on dribbble but never felt to comment something even that the actual shot creates problems instead solving them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29M_VElHoFI