Dribbble is one of those popular design sites where you seem to be on one of two sides:
I used to fall under the second category. I have the greatest respect for Dan Cederholm and crew. The amount of great value he has provided the design community over the past two decades is unreal. I hated the site because so many people held it up as a beacon of great design examples.
"Check out this sweet design on Dribbble."
"I redesigned a weather app."
A lot of what you see on Dribbble isn't redesigns or have anything to do with design. Most of what you see are paintings hanging up in a gallery.
And that's not a bad thing.
There are definitely some designers on Dribbble that think a redesign means making something look more fresh, but then there are others who are just experimenting to see how far they can push their own design boundaries.
I used to think that every designer should strive for feedback on their designs so that they can improve, but that is kind of silly. When I played soccer I valued any feedback coaches could provide me when I was playing, but when I was in my backyard working on some tricks, I didn't want to hear any critiques. I was just seeing what was possible.
While I do think Dribbble was originally meant to be a place you could tease new pieces of work and possibly receive feedback on, I think now it is best served as a place to push your design muscles.
It's still hard to judge if that fancy new website design really is awesome because nobody actually gets to use it and see if it converts, so in that case it probably isn't the best place for feedback, but we've known that for years. However, this also means that when you present your work it probably shouldn't be presented as a "better X" when nobody can really tell just by looking at a picture.
Instead when I visit Dribbble I see it as many of you have already viewed it: a designer's playground. Maybe really showcasing and explaining our work should happen on our portfolios and blogs. Dribbble can be the place where we not only show off our new work, but more importantly show off the stuff that isn't meant for any real world use. Just something to push the boundaries of what we've done before.
The other day someone asked me how they can improve their design skills. The obvious answer is by continuing to practice design and looking for feedback. The not so obvious answer is that you should should spend time duplicating other designs.
Wait what?
Yes, if you see a design you like see if you can replicate it in the browser or Sketch. Doing this will allow you to get a feel for the spacing and other decisions the designer made. You'll begin to understand how you think about design and start to think of how you would change things.
I bring this up because I can't stop thinking about weather apps. I know they aren't a thing on Dribbble anymore, but there was a time where it seemed like every popular shot was a weather app. All we wanted to see were different designs. Stop with the freaking weather apps!
But a designer taking a crack at a weather app gives them the chance to practice their skills on a new subject. Simply designing that weather app explains so much of how the designer's thought process plays out. Just because a hundred other designers have already done a design doesn't mean that one more isn't going to help that designer. Sure, we might be sick of it, but here's the thing...and this is key...Dribbble's main goal isn't our enjoyment. It's for the designer, not the audience.
I know that might seem weird considering people go there to look at cool designs, but for a designer posting on Dribbble I hope it is a bit more than that. I hope it is a chance to show the community how their design mind works. As for the audience, it helps us bring in new design thoughts into our own process. Sometimes these new ideas get a bit out of hand (long shadows), but slowly and surely really good ideas crop up and become part of our toolkit.
Would it be awesome if every image on Dribbble was original and stunning? It sure would be, but it would also be awesome if every design YOU did was original and stunning as well and we know that just isn't how things work.
In Master Web App Design I try my best not to say this is how you need to design something. When I go over my own designs in the workshops, I do so to explain my reasoning behind the choices that I made. I want others to understand how my design mind works and it is up to them to take the pieces they want and throw the rest away.
So now when I go to Dribbble I go there with two mindsets:
With these mindsets Dribbble is now the perfect site for me. It was the perfect site all along, but it just took me a while to come around to it.