6 ms·

Show HN: On-demand feedback from curated designers

randomdrake 12y ago
As someone who has been looking for exactly this, I'm super disappointed. 1) There is very, very little explanation as to what's actually going on here. I don't know what the point of me signing up is. What do I get access to when I sign up? What sort of process am I going to have to go through? Are there marketers on the other end of this? What's the catch? 2) Animations, animations, animations. a) Your splash video is super distracting. Way too much movement and flash. b) Your fade-ins on your scrolling animations on your homepage are so slow, I scroll right by them or have to stop and wait. c) Your front-end framework is, unfortunately, painfully obvious. Seeing gears for a few seconds on every... single... page... load... d) Trying to load your designers portfolio pages was no fun. 105 requests for 19.2MB of content. This site doesn't give me tremendous hope for the designers you acquire, or hope for your service, at the moment. Sorry. The idea sounds great. But, for me, you need more info and a way better website regarding design if you're going to tout that you've curated the designers.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
  - true_religion 12y ago
    His complaints are at least extremely specific. That's valuable regardless of the tone. So many people will say 'this just sucks' without ever being able to articulate why they dislike it even when put on the spot.
    - dkrich 12y ago
      I deleted my comment because the OP updated his to be less inflammatory, which I appreciate. I have no problem with criticism, it's a very important part of product development. I just don't really like when people shit on other people's work the second they see it.
- charles_dickens 12y ago
  randomdrake thanks for your feedback! There are definitely some performance/design issues that we need to fix. Regarding the sign up process: If you sign up as a designer, your application is going to be reviewed by the community and if you are accepted you'll be able to get feedback requests, job offers or contract works on pixelfold. If you sign up as a person that hires designers you'll be able to request those jobs from the designers in the community.
- RickS 12y ago
  This is what happens when communities fail to make a distinction between visual design and interaction design. There's relatively strong visual design here, but as you've discovered, that's not worth much in the absence of actual communication.
drcode 12y ago
If this is something where I pay $50 for a quality designer to spend 20 minutes writing a couple of paragraphs of feedback on a design, it would be interesting to me. However, from the landing page I have no idea if this is the sort of thing you're offering.
- pseudometa 12y ago
  I am doing this. With 10 years of UX design experience, I'll mark up your screenshots for $50 each and provide actionable feedback on ways to improve the aesthetics and usability of your website or app. Contact me at dustin dot kirk (at) gmail dot com
- Throwaway0812 12y ago
  Same here, I was excited for about 30 seconds. I'm a designer and developer myself, and I'm 95% finished a new project, but I'm stumped with a few design aspects. I've been working on them on and off for months, and these few parts of the design don't measure up to my standards. I feel like I need a fresh set of eyes to review things, and I can't ask my users because they're not designers. I thought I could select a few designers on this site, submit screenshots of my WIP with notes about the areas I'm questioning, spend $50 or $100, and get feedback. When I say feedback, just some brief suggestions, some photoshop scribbles over my work, and links to other work that might offer some inspiration for what I'm trying to achieve. Most importantly, quality designers helping to point me in the right direction. How this would ideally work in my mind... I create a request for feedback, and select the designers I'd like to invite (perhaps 10). I choose the amount to invest, say $100. It basically starts a discussion, and any of these 10 designers can jump in, write feedback, post images, talk back and forth, etc. This lasts maybe a couple of days, some designers participate, some don't bother, and in the end, I choose how to split the money between them. So, maybe I give one person $40, and three people $20. Now, that doesn't sound like much, but they could easily give feedback on a dozen requests a day and make a few hundred. Seems like a win/win situation. It's great for designers because it gives them a break from their typical work, and it's social, giving them a chance to network and chat with other designers in these feedback discussions. Only problem, you'll likely have 1,000 designers trying to signup to provide feedback, and only a few dozen people posting requests.
minimaxir 12y ago
Previous discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7505054 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7505054
- eps 12y ago
  And the top comment is still valid - PixelFold appears to be a selection of designers from the Dribbble's front page and/or with large Dribbble follower count. If you have ever spent any time of D, you know that stuff that floats to the top is not exactly a real-life material, but shots specifically crafted to gather the likes. For example, Oykun guy is good, but half of his shots absolutely and utterly glance past UX in favor of the visuals. As such, his feedback is not something that I'd be interested in, leave alone paying for. tl;dr - PixelFold's problem is not with the idea, it's with establishing credibility of those providing the feedback.
makmanalp 12y ago
So, do I pay for this? Is it free? Is the idea that I could possibly hire the designer eventually, and therefore it's worth it for them?
- charles_dickens 12y ago
  The premise is that you might not have money to hire a top designer, but you have enough to ask him for feedback. If you liked the designer's work/feedback you can always make him a job offer through Pixelfold (although that's not mandatory)
  - jonahx 12y ago
    how much does the feedback cost? i can't find any prices, or even ballbark figures, anywhere on the site.
    - charles_dickens 12y ago
      It's usually the designer that sets up the prices for feedback. To see it you must click the "Get Feedback" button on the designer's profile page.
austenallred 12y ago
It would be really helpful to see some examples of feedback. Are they going to pull stuff into photoshop and say "actually do this?" or "Tweak this CSS to say this" Or am I going to get back "This page is too busy. I don't understand what's happening." The first is highly valuable to me, maybe (but probably not) worth how much you charge. The second isn't worth much at all.
- charles_dickens 12y ago
  That really depends on the designer that is giving feedback. Some people might edit some things on Photoshop, others might send you some hand drawn mockups or just write you some notes on your designs. You can always set the conditions upfront with the designer before paying him for feedback.
Aldo_MX 12y ago
http://imgur.com/ZqFRysC http://imgur.com/ZqFRysC This is how I see the site in a 1024x1080 window without scrolling a bit. TBH, this trend of animating content from a non-visible state needs to end, it's a serious UX disease that is replicating day by day in different sites, especially landing pages.
evertonfuller 12y ago
Strange that there are no examples at all, or any mention of the type of feedback one would get it. Is it standardised or can each designer just spew 1 line generic statements if they want? And another give you an essay. Just gave it a shot anyway. Will see what happens.
- charles_dickens 12y ago
  As I mentioned in the comment above it really depends on the designer, but you should expect some constructive and thorough feedback :)
dshap 12y ago
Somewhat related: If you're looking for feedback from great designers in the context of improving your own design skills, head over to http://trydesignlab.com http://trydesignlab.com to check out our online design course that includes one-on-one mentorship.
robertlf 12y ago
You need to check your copy. It's "i" after "e" except after "c".
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]

As someone who has been looking for exactly this, I'm super disappointed. 1) There is very, very little explanation as to what's actually going on here. I don't know what the point of me signing up is. What do I get access to when I sign up? What sort of process am I going to have to go through? Are there marketers on the other end of this? What's the catch? 2) Animations, animations, animations. a) Your splash video is super distracting. Way too much movement and flash. b) Your fade-ins on your scrolling animations on your homepage are so slow, I scroll right by them or have to stop and wait. c) Your front-end framework is, unfortunately, painfully obvious. Seeing gears for a few seconds on every... single... page... load... d) Trying to load your designers portfolio pages was no fun. 105 requests for 19.2MB of content. This site doesn't give me tremendous hope for the designers you acquire, or hope for your service, at the moment. Sorry. The idea sounds great. But, for me, you need more info and a way better website regarding design if you're going to tout that you've curated the designers.

deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
- true_religion 12y ago
  His complaints are at least extremely specific. That's valuable regardless of the tone. So many people will say 'this just sucks' without ever being able to articulate why they dislike it even when put on the spot.
  - dkrich 12y ago
    I deleted my comment because the OP updated his to be less inflammatory, which I appreciate. I have no problem with criticism, it's a very important part of product development. I just don't really like when people shit on other people's work the second they see it.
charles_dickens 12y ago
randomdrake thanks for your feedback! There are definitely some performance/design issues that we need to fix. Regarding the sign up process: If you sign up as a designer, your application is going to be reviewed by the community and if you are accepted you'll be able to get feedback requests, job offers or contract works on pixelfold. If you sign up as a person that hires designers you'll be able to request those jobs from the designers in the community.
RickS 12y ago
This is what happens when communities fail to make a distinction between visual design and interaction design. There's relatively strong visual design here, but as you've discovered, that's not worth much in the absence of actual communication.

drcode 12y ago

If this is something where I pay $50 for a quality designer to spend 20 minutes writing a couple of paragraphs of feedback on a design, it would be interesting to me. However, from the landing page I have no idea if this is the sort of thing you're offering.

pseudometa 12y ago
I am doing this. With 10 years of UX design experience, I'll mark up your screenshots for $50 each and provide actionable feedback on ways to improve the aesthetics and usability of your website or app. Contact me at dustin dot kirk (at) gmail dot com
Throwaway0812 12y ago
Same here, I was excited for about 30 seconds. I'm a designer and developer myself, and I'm 95% finished a new project, but I'm stumped with a few design aspects. I've been working on them on and off for months, and these few parts of the design don't measure up to my standards. I feel like I need a fresh set of eyes to review things, and I can't ask my users because they're not designers. I thought I could select a few designers on this site, submit screenshots of my WIP with notes about the areas I'm questioning, spend $50 or $100, and get feedback. When I say feedback, just some brief suggestions, some photoshop scribbles over my work, and links to other work that might offer some inspiration for what I'm trying to achieve. Most importantly, quality designers helping to point me in the right direction. How this would ideally work in my mind... I create a request for feedback, and select the designers I'd like to invite (perhaps 10). I choose the amount to invest, say $100. It basically starts a discussion, and any of these 10 designers can jump in, write feedback, post images, talk back and forth, etc. This lasts maybe a couple of days, some designers participate, some don't bother, and in the end, I choose how to split the money between them. So, maybe I give one person $40, and three people $20. Now, that doesn't sound like much, but they could easily give feedback on a dozen requests a day and make a few hundred. Seems like a win/win situation. It's great for designers because it gives them a break from their typical work, and it's social, giving them a chance to network and chat with other designers in these feedback discussions. Only problem, you'll likely have 1,000 designers trying to signup to provide feedback, and only a few dozen people posting requests.

minimaxir 12y ago

Previous discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7505054 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7505054

eps 12y ago
And the top comment is still valid - PixelFold appears to be a selection of designers from the Dribbble's front page and/or with large Dribbble follower count. If you have ever spent any time of D, you know that stuff that floats to the top is not exactly a real-life material, but shots specifically crafted to gather the likes. For example, Oykun guy is good, but half of his shots absolutely and utterly glance past UX in favor of the visuals. As such, his feedback is not something that I'd be interested in, leave alone paying for. tl;dr - PixelFold's problem is not with the idea, it's with establishing credibility of those providing the feedback.

makmanalp 12y ago

So, do I pay for this? Is it free? Is the idea that I could possibly hire the designer eventually, and therefore it's worth it for them?

charles_dickens 12y ago
The premise is that you might not have money to hire a top designer, but you have enough to ask him for feedback. If you liked the designer's work/feedback you can always make him a job offer through Pixelfold (although that's not mandatory)
- jonahx 12y ago
  how much does the feedback cost? i can't find any prices, or even ballbark figures, anywhere on the site.
  - charles_dickens 12y ago
    It's usually the designer that sets up the prices for feedback. To see it you must click the "Get Feedback" button on the designer's profile page.

austenallred 12y ago

It would be really helpful to see some examples of feedback. Are they going to pull stuff into photoshop and say "actually do this?" or "Tweak this CSS to say this" Or am I going to get back "This page is too busy. I don't understand what's happening." The first is highly valuable to me, maybe (but probably not) worth how much you charge. The second isn't worth much at all.

charles_dickens 12y ago
That really depends on the designer that is giving feedback. Some people might edit some things on Photoshop, others might send you some hand drawn mockups or just write you some notes on your designs. You can always set the conditions upfront with the designer before paying him for feedback.

Aldo_MX 12y ago

http://imgur.com/ZqFRysC http://imgur.com/ZqFRysC This is how I see the site in a 1024x1080 window without scrolling a bit. TBH, this trend of animating content from a non-visible state needs to end, it's a serious UX disease that is replicating day by day in different sites, especially landing pages.

evertonfuller 12y ago

Strange that there are no examples at all, or any mention of the type of feedback one would get it. Is it standardised or can each designer just spew 1 line generic statements if they want? And another give you an essay. Just gave it a shot anyway. Will see what happens.

charles_dickens 12y ago
As I mentioned in the comment above it really depends on the designer, but you should expect some constructive and thorough feedback :)

dshap 12y ago

Somewhat related: If you're looking for feedback from great designers in the context of improving your own design skills, head over to http://trydesignlab.com http://trydesignlab.com to check out our online design course that includes one-on-one mentorship.

robertlf 12y ago

You need to check your copy. It's "i" after "e" except after "c".

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]