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Quick Survey: The Future of Designer News

over 4 years ago from , Publisher of Designer News

Hey everyone,

We've got a ton of ideas on how to improve Designer News, but we wanted to get a better sense of what the community thinks the site needs most. We've created a super quick survey to help us decide which features, fixes, and improvements we should to focus on in the coming months. Would love to hear everyone's thoughts :-)

Click here to complete the survey: https://andrewwilkinson.typeform.com/to/YYclUm

56 comments

  • Nice ShoesNice Shoes, over 4 years ago

    Save favourite posts

    Ability to edit titles of post

    Ability to delete own posts

    31 points
  • Danny KingDanny King, over 4 years ago

    Only feedback that comes to mind: I really enjoy the way DN works at the moment. Some minor things could be improved, but as a regular user, I think I would rather changes happen slowly well after reigns have been passed. Just my gut reaction to the news.

    P.S. Congrats Andrew :)

    28 points
  • Bilal MohammedBilal Mohammed, over 4 years ago (edited over 4 years ago )

    Search. Please fix the Search. Like.. please.

    22 points
  • Catalin CimpanuCatalin Cimpanu, over 4 years ago (edited over 4 years ago )

    My thoughts on DN are very well known if you read my comments.

    Please sink non-design related news or give moderators this power.

    I want news about Photoshop, Sketch, or CSS. Not about phone updates or desktop apps that have nothing to do with "design&dev" in general.

    Sorry for posting this in the thread and not in the survey, but it's very important that everyone gets this through their skull. There are hundreds of lame HN clones out there. I liked this site because it focused on design alone.

    14 points
    • Drew BeckDrew Beck, over 4 years ago

      but it's very important that everyone gets this through their skull

      "Very important that everyone believe what I do"

      43 points
    • Drew BeckDrew Beck, over 4 years ago (edited over 4 years ago )

      Sorry for snarking. I value the breadth of things that show up here and don't think the balance is off. I appreciate the variety.

      I'm sorry your opinion didn't make it through my skull.

      26 points
    • Cristian MoiseiCristian Moisei, over 4 years ago

      That's quite a unilateral view of design - there's more to it than the technical side.

      16 points
    • Jacky S, over 4 years ago

      I want LESS news about Photoshop, Sketch or CSS. To me, they are just tools. It would be like an architecture forum focusing on drafting tools, or a painting forum focusing on paintbrushes. Design theory like case studies are way more interesting in my opinion.

      33 points
      • Ronan Flynn-CurranRonan Flynn-Curran, over 4 years ago

        This.

        I want to chat with and read about other designers' and their experiences. Perspectives and debates are a lot more important than the tools.

        15 points
    • Ian GoodeIan Goode, over 4 years ago

      I want news about Photoshop, Sketch, or CSS.

      That's like an architect just wanting news about drawing boards.

      7 points
      • Catalin CimpanuCatalin Cimpanu, over 4 years ago

        I just mentioned a few... I would actually not like news about Sketch and Photoshop, but out of all the tools promoted here, those are actually design-related. Case studies, portfolio reviews and design experiments are my favorites as well.

        0 points
    • Duke CavinskiDuke Cavinski, over 4 years ago

      I kinda get what you're saying, but that's still kind of a draconian view of what design is. I think the community does a pretty good job of discussing what's important, peripherally or otherwise.

      Maybe some kind of algorithm that considered discussion frequency with upvoting would help weed out things no one actually cares about.

      2 points
    • Louis-André LabadieLouis-André Labadie, over 4 years ago (edited over 4 years ago )

      I'm kind of sad that you give tool-specific examples.

      I love seeing things about someone's odd design process, studies on psychology and human-machine interactions, design theory applied to everyday experiences, product release post-mortems (that aren't weird "we be dead" self-promotion). The design of objects – or services – can be a source of great nonstandard insight, which carries over to interface design.

      Basically, design as "going from an idea to a concrete concept" is what keeps me coming back. This and great discussions.

      I couldn't care less about:

      • What UX actually means (this week)
      • Vacuous explanations on the latest visual trends
      • Completely technical posts (they're useful, but not news for people who design)
      • Product announcements that are just tease-pages asking for your email
      • Clickbait links
      • ^ So, most of FastCo at this point
      6 points
    • Joel CalifaJoel Califa, over 4 years ago

      As a mod, I've had the ability to sink any post I see fit for a long time now, and I've yet to use it on a single thing. I think the content here is great and don't see the need to be dogmatic about the kind of content that's interesting to designers. In fact, I'd just like to scale the community in a way that keeps the content quality the way it is now.

      Also more AMAs is always nice.

      6 points
    • Sean HealeySean Healey, over 4 years ago

      What about a content filter option? It could auto-group topics that could maybe be chosen when forming a post, and display them in a filter panel, and work like AJAX does so the page doesn't even refresh as it shows/hides posts that YOU actually want to see, this way you don't even lose your scroll position on the page. Content for you, and different content for the other commenters with opposing views, on demand at everyone's fingertips when they want it.

      1 point
    • Randy HRandy H, over 4 years ago

      Design is a multidisciplinary process that is informed by many things. Semiotics, culture/pop culture, language, art, psychology, neuroscience, trends, fashion, technology, music, etc can all contribute to how we design and how an audience processes our work. I want to hear about what makes a great designer great and that isn't going to be the tools that he/she is using. I enjoy seeing content that other designers find interesting, even if it isn't directly related to design. HN's policy is similar:

      "On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity."

      Breadth is important . I realize that nobody wants DN to turn into a pile of blog spam, but I think there is a happy medium. I am quite happy with the current content. It could maybe use a little tweaking in its ranking.

      3 points
    • Account deleted over 4 years ago

      Dude...design is communication, theory, critical thinking, ideas, typography, craft, emotion, making lives better etc...and it spans all disciplines. Design is not just the latest web framework, app, or software tool that might interest just the product, ux, and developer folk. SMH..If I could throw my 2 cents into this survey, I would ask that the "power users" filter themselves from submitting so many junk articles about "This weeks latest CSS fad".

      0 points
      • Catalin CimpanuCatalin Cimpanu, over 4 years ago

        You're talking out of your a$$ son! or you can't read English. That's exactly what I was saying. If you'd really look through my submitted links you'd find the most design theory links of all people around here. They all have 1 vote, so I know you haven't read them! Thanks for the personal attack though. People like you make this site what it is.

        0 points
  • Charlie McCullochCharlie McCulloch, over 4 years ago

    Since the community transitioned from closed to open it feels like there's loads more content for junior designers or those starting out. This is great for those with less experience, but I find less and less of interest in the site as the amount of superficial "how do you share assets" type stories has increased. There are many technical questions which just get recycled endlessly, and they're usually about things which don't have a huge cost impact on a project.

    Not really a suggestion as such, just a problem I noticed. Maybe it's inevitable when you open up a community. But it would be nice to see a way to cater for both experienced and junior types.

    10 points
  • Chris ColemanChris Coleman, over 4 years ago

    I forgot to say this in my survey, but don't prevent zooming on mobile. It's a huge accessibility issue, and it's a one-line fix.

    9 points
  • Ryan RushingRyan Rushing, over 4 years ago

    Ah, thought of some ultra-specific feedback after submitting the survey...

    While browsing I'll hover over links to see what URL the link is taking me to, but on the DN homepage, hovering on a story's link shows a http://news.layervault.com/click/stories/99999 URL, and I would rather see the actual URL when I hover. That's specific, but it's been bugging me ever since I noticed it.

    9 points
  • Caleb SylvestCaleb Sylvest, over 4 years ago

    Thought of one new thing:

    When you go to create a New Story, and post in the URL, it would be great if the site would check whether that URL has already been posted right then instead of having to attempt a submit first.

    6 points
  • David BarkerDavid Barker, over 4 years ago

    I agree with the comments about keeping DN similar to how it is right now.

    However, I've noticed there seems to be an increase in people who just come here to self-promote. I'm all for self-promotion, but there are quite a few people who post their new project then disappear until the next time they want to post their new thing. It almost feels like they're just using DN as a free advertising site. I quite like Reddit's rule where only 10% of your posts should be about your own work.

    The other big issue is search — it's almost unusable as it is.

    6 points
    • Caleb SylvestCaleb Sylvest, over 4 years ago

      Agreed. Being involved in DN is great, and it does help when you have a new project or product you want to promote (and the target audience is designers). But, the real problem seems to be people promoting non-project/product things. Like, posting links to Dribbble shots, etc.

      I think the "rules" for self-promotion may need more declaration.

      1 point
  • Jared CJared C, over 4 years ago

    Some moderation around posts that amount to: a catchy title, a substance-less blog post, and a big button to buy a course/book/workshop. These sorts of posts have been cropping up a lot lately. I think if you have a course or whatever you think the community will like, just be up front about.

    4 points
  • Sjors TimmerSjors Timmer, over 4 years ago

    Forgot to add it to the survey, but to have the points you score in the comments somehow be reflected in your total score.

    Some people are great news finders others are great comment writers and they both should get some recognition.

    4 points
    • Drew BeckDrew Beck, over 4 years ago

      Yes this!! My comments are AMAZING and it's important for people to know that ;)

      But for real, this is a good idea.

      Signed, a great commenter

      0 points
  • Tom WoodTom Wood, over 4 years ago (edited over 4 years ago )

    Hey gang,

    I love you all (even Eli Schiff!) - this is easily the best community I contribute to, I really feel that this site has led to an improvement in my work! :)

    On the other hand, just play ball with Andrew and fill in the survey rather than listing all your gripes here. It will benefit everyone if it's all centralised.

    3 points
  • Nick Inzucchi, over 4 years ago

    Would be amazing to have a Top-Stories-of-the-Day section, just like Medium. I run in to this use case all the time: 'I want to find this thing again, it was #1 on Designer News like 2 weeks back...'. There is no way for me to recover from this situation currently. If I could browse top stories from past days, we'd be all good. Probably other solutions to the problem of re-locating past stories (through means other than keyword search), but this one's simple & vetted.

    Thanks! N

    3 points
  • Alec LomasAlec Lomas, over 4 years ago

    Thought about this after: reply notifications, in their current form, aren't very useful.

    2 points
  • Sherizan SheikhSherizan Sheikh, over 4 years ago

    Feedback sent!

    1 point
  • Isabelle LepezIsabelle Lepez, over 4 years ago

    Feedback sent.

    1 point
  • Jesus GallentJesus Gallent, over 4 years ago

    Feedback sent! :)

    1 point
  • Nick FieldsmanNick Fieldsman, over 4 years ago

    Just make sure to have an eye over the feature requests thread as well. And I agree with Catalin, just design news please. It's in the name.

    1 point
  • James Young, over 4 years ago

    Stop making everything open in new tabs/windows :)

    1 point
  • Mitch De CastroMitch De Castro, over 4 years ago

    Submitted my feedback! DN's been so great for learning about design, y'all have no idea. Hoping to see some good changes soon.

    0 points
  • Afnizar Nur Ghifari, over 4 years ago

    More feature please :D

    0 points
  • Daniel WinterDaniel Winter, over 4 years ago

    You can't send the form without at least sending one mobile app, maybe you wanna fix that, especially as the feedback is horrible. But other than that - good luck!

    0 points
  • Cesare Rocchi, over 4 years ago

    I'd like some form of notification when somebody posts a comment on a post of mine, or a post I commented on. Or maybe a daily summary. Anyway, anything that avoids "polling" to see if I should reply to someone.

    0 points
  • Andy LeverenzAndy Leverenz, over 4 years ago

    I just want designer news :)

    0 points
  • David BarkerDavid Barker, over 4 years ago

    More profile colors, pretty please.

    0 points
  • Oscar MarceloOscar Marcelo, over 4 years ago

    I already completed the survey, but only remembered of this now. Please, fix the ghost replies bug. I have one sitting on my sidebar for ages!...

    0 points
  • Braden HammBraden Hamm, over 4 years ago

    User search

    0 points
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