15

Fellow designers, would you find this tool useful or utterly pointless?

5 years ago from , Co-founder of https://getacquainted.co/

I've had this idea for a side project that's been gnawing at me all weekend and would like a sense check to see if any of you would find it useful.

Problem: I seem to spend a fair amount of my day copying screen grabs into slack and asking team mates which design they prefer.

Solution: What I'd find really useful would be a process to upload to designs quickly in a format that's easy to share and compare, where designers / team members can vote on which they prefer and give feedback. A sketch plugin to upload quickly would be amazing as would slack integration.

I think this would work well for freelancers looking for feedback on design variations from other designers and teams seeking feedback from colleagues.

I mocked up a quick (very very very rough) concept to https://app.atomic.io/d/i24MxQNku4y1

So, I'd quite like to build this with the view of charging a small monthly fee (maybe $3) to keep a tight community. I'd love to build a space to throw WIP and get actual, real feedback from decent designers.

Would anyone be up for this?

37 comments

  • vadim mikhnovvadim mikhnov, 5 years ago

    https://redpen.io

    https://wake.com

    https://www.designdrop.io

    https://www.invisionapp.com/tour/design-feedback-collaboration-tool

    https://visualtip.com

    https://proofme.com

    https://droplr.com

    8 points
    • Stevie EStevie E, 5 years ago

      Thanks for posting these - I was aware of a few of these but not all. They all go far beyond my need and offer way more functionality then I'm after.

      I'm interested solely in having a preference test, so comparing a few designs against each other and allowing the user to pick their choice. Having a nice format to present this (see the prototype) and sketch/slack integration would be key.

      Someone posted designbetter.io which is pretty much it, lol, feels a bit clunky tho

      1 point
    • Mike RundleMike Rundle, 5 years ago

      Haha, sort of brutal how you dumped all those links

      11 points
    • Pablo StanleyPablo Stanley, 5 years ago

      Damn, I didn't know all of these existed! Lol. Do you have a preference? :)

      2 points
      • vadim mikhnovvadim mikhnov, 5 years ago

        Not really, no. In general I prefer to avoid this kind of approach (asking team what they prefer) at all. I'd rather collect feedback in-person (either really in-person or via DM) early on when it's still sketches, and look for what would work (and why), what would not, what limitations that I'm not aware of may exist etc.

        Then by the time it really is a finished mockup everyone in the team knows why everything is the way it is. Style choices may still arise, but they should be limited to design team.

        3 points
        • Pablo StanleyPablo Stanley, 5 years ago

          Yeah, makes sense! It's much better to get a grasp of what people think in person, talking, like human beings, lol. Thanks for sharing, Ichik!

          0 points
        • Stevie EStevie E, 5 years ago

          interesting take, I really relate to this as well!. In person, where possible, is far more efficient.

          0 points
      • Nate vNate v, 5 years ago

        I've only used Wake, and it was alright. We didn't continue to use it, as our team is really small so we just ended up having a weekly meeting for it. I would prefer it to be more engrained, but whatevs.

        1 point
  • Ezekiel BinionEzekiel Binion, 5 years ago

    Not utterly useless but I generally don't ask for preferences in feedback. I'm typically looking to understand the "why" behind feedback, e.g. what is the problem this piece of feedback is trying to solve.

    I wouldn't use it for design feedback but I could see it being used for more simple design questions, e.g. for a UI selector pattern "which of these UI patterns is the selection clearer?"

    3 points
  • Richard SisonRichard Sison, 5 years ago

    Like Ezekiel, I don't find it completely useless because often you have options that achieve the result equally and you're reaching out for critique.

    It's been mentioned earlier but Wake seems like it'd be the most popular solution (or competitor) for what you need.

    Personally, I wouldn't find it very valuable. It'd add "one more app" to the stack and although I do see and appreciate the problem, using Slack (as you mentioned) or Invision prototypes representing mini flows (which is what I more often do) isn't inconvenient enough for me to sign up, incorporate into my workflow and get my team on board…

    That said, don't let me (or anyone else) stop you if it's clawing at you! There's a lot to gain from building a side project (even if it does fail). It's good for experience and fantastic for job prospects — it shows you're passionate, capable and independent.

    But if what you're after is less about the experience of building something and more about validation, like Paul mentioned earlier, build a landing page which concisely communicates what your app does, the problem it solves and why teams should care. Get their email addresses and reach out to them for concept validation, ideas and testing.

    Whatever you choose, good luck!

    1 point
    • Stevie EStevie E, 5 years ago

      Thanks for taking the time to feedback, really appreciate it. Some good advice throughout this thread - I'm not going to dismiss the idea entirely but I think for it to useful it needs to be as lightweight and stripped back as possible.

      Someone nailed it further down, if you could make a plugin that quickly:

      exports artboards from sketch Generate a link Integrate into slack

      That would be great - no need to sign up /register or deal with any further additional functionality, far more disposable then a full app.

      Maybe make it free or charge a small one off cost...some good food for thought!

      0 points
  • Chris CChris C, 5 years ago

    I'm sure you could do something very lightweight. I would find (or build) a sketch plugin that uploads selected artboards to whichever channel you specify on slack and then set up a slackbot to post a poll every time an image is uploaded with a simple prompt of 'A or B" where people can vote.

    1 point
    • Stevie EStevie E, 5 years ago

      This is a great shout - may go this route instead. Thanks for the feedback!

      0 points
  • Paul JacksonPaul Jackson, 5 years ago

    There are many ways to establish desirability for a product, but asking potential users is not the best approach. What people say and what people do (whether they actually do use it/pay for it) are very different things.

    One idea: setup a landing page for the product and gather emails from those that are interested in finding out more. You'll get a sense of the number of people interested and a mailing list for marketing / research purposes.

    If nobody bites then it wasn't such a great idea and you haven't wasted the time building a product nobody wants.

    This is just one simple idea straight from the lean methodology. There are plenty more ways to establish desirability.

    1 point
  • Berend Holtland, 5 years ago

    Though i don't think i would be using it much, just because my workflow doesn't demand it, it sounds like a great idea. In short you're making a poll for designs. I think Sketch and Slack integration are crucial to make it really beneficial though. Also, if i may say, i'd show the poll results after the user made his/her choice to make it as neutral as possible.

    1 point
  • Account deleted 5 years ago

    aayybee? idk why but I really liked the name. Beside's ichik's links abstract also does side by side a comparison of versions too.

    0 points
  • Thomas Michael SemmlerThomas Michael Semmler, 5 years ago

    I think this is an already solved problem, but that doesn't mean that your personal take on it won't be valuable. If you have a need for this tool, make it. Don't make your decision to create something depending on weather it will be wanted or not. If you want to see it existing, make it.

    0 points
    • Stevie EStevie E, 5 years ago

      Thanks for the encouragement, appreciate it. There's been some really interesting feedback in this post, I think I'll pivot the idea based on this.

      1 point
  • Prajwal Rao, 5 years ago

    CageApp

    Another one to add to the list. Thought it might be a bit overkill for just doing A/B testing on visual/UI components.

    0 points
    • Sandip Patel, 5 years ago

      Thanks for mentioning Cage. The new version of Cage is one part media collaboration (so not just static files, but video, audio, etc) and one part project management for teams. Lots of new things coming soon too!

      0 points
  • john Cooper, 5 years ago

    TBH I'd be more interested in what the end user preferred than the internal team. Internal teams become something of an echo chamber. Also I wouldn't pay $3monthly for the service. Cloud App has free options.

    0 points
  • Ben GiffordBen Gifford, 5 years ago

    This isn't a problem I have, simply because the scope is so narrow and I'm outside of it. BUT mechanisms for presenting, iterating and giving feedback, and arriving at consensus are timeless problems that designers have, and I have yet to find a perfect workflow for. (would love to hear how others do it)

    Look upstream of your problem statement … there may be an even more valuable problem to solve there, and there may be other designers struggling with that, too, who you could build something for.

    0 points
  • Max HenningssonMax Henningsson, 5 years ago

    Sounds similar to a kickstarter that popped up here on DN a while ago: http://befrank.io/

    0 points
  • Jan ZhengJan Zheng, 5 years ago

    sure I'd use it but wouldn't pay for it. You could build this over a weekend for sure. If it was a larger voting tool then maybe some orgs would pay for it

    0 points
  • Emanuel S.Emanuel S., 5 years ago

    Usabilityhub has an A/B kind of test that you can do for free. It's simple and to the point.

    0 points
    • Stevie EStevie E, 5 years ago

      I've used this before but looking for something a bit more instantaneous/less formal for earlier on in the design process when the visuals may be less baked.

      I like the idea of asking designers for feedback rather then the public at this stage.

      0 points
  • Perttu Talasniemi, 5 years ago

    As others have also mentioned, seems like you're reinventing the wheel. You can do it for fun and to gain experience but prepare for the fact that it might very well fail.

    0 points
  • Tomek TuzTomek Tuz, 5 years ago

    I like the idea however such tool already exists: https://betterdesign.io/

    0 points
    • Stevie EStevie E, 5 years ago

      This is pretty much what I had in mind, ha. UX/UI feels a bit clunky though. Be nice to upload straight from sketch too.

      0 points
    • Pablo StanleyPablo Stanley, 5 years ago

      Damn, this is dope! Thanks for sharing.

      0 points
  • Nelson TarucNelson Taruc, 5 years ago

    It sounds like a relevant use case but I wouldn't buy the service. Our designers already have similar avenues for getting feedback (including screen shots in Slack), so it's not a pain point big enough for us to pay for a solution.

    Kudos to you for getting feedback from your target audience before building. More importantly, if the solution improves your workflow, build it for yourself. Good luck!

    0 points
    • Stevie EStevie E, 5 years ago

      It's hard to know if it would simplify the workflow enough to be worth building, it would have to be incredibly frictionless to be useful. I like the idea of posting to a wider community as well, for those not in teams.

      Thanks for the feedback!

      0 points