The Story of Designers’Couch
Posted by damian.m in Projects, on Jul 2009 with 3 Comments
It started as a group on deviantart.com, the largest art community online, and became the largest design group on the site. Since deviantart.com wasn’t built for groups, the site went dormant because manually managing the group became an overwhelming task. We had to review & submit hundreds of designs being submitted to the deviantART gallery as well as accept members.
The decision was made about 2 years after meeting with a few members who helped managed the group to develop a site for Designers’Couch. This goal was met with various challenges. I tried to put together a volunteer team of developers twice but that initiative failed because of everyone had different and more important priorities. Even I was busy with school afterwords there was work (I still am).
As time passed the idea of Designers’Couch seemed to be drifting further away into the dark, the community growing weaker as each day passes. After finishing my studies and setting up my own home studio (Depthskins), I decided to fund the project with my own income, no investors, no loans, no favors which inevitably meant I had to cut back on certain luxuries.
I did this because I truly believe in Designers’Couch and this does not necessarily mean I know it will succeed. Given I’ve invested so much into it and keep on investing, I don’t see failure as an option because then it would be the biggest fail of my life. But right now, in this moment, there’s an achievement to enjoy because at one point I didn’t think designerscouch.org would ever go live but today, I’m here to present Designers’Couch.
Designers’Couch model is much different from most communities because it is application based meaning applicants must demonstrate a passion and interest for design before being accepted. The site offers an array of features that aims to making designers better through interaction.
The Gallery
The gallery is one of the most important features of Designers’Couch. While it looks like every other gallery, it functions quite differently. It has all the usual features like faving designs, but where it differs is that the gallery works in 2 modes: Published and Unpublished.
Published mode has designs that anyone can see. It means that membership is not required to browse these designs and it’s the design DC community is most proud of. As such, these are our inspirational designs fulfilling one of DC’s missions: to inspire.
Unpublished is the opposite where these designs are seen only by registered members.
There are 2 reasons for these 2 modes:
Showcase & promote purely inspirational work:
This is decided using 2 different methods.
An admin can see a truly remarkable design and publish it instantly.
The community plays a role in what gets published by faving, recommending and critiquing. All these factors come together to decide whether it should be published. So please, fave and/or recommend what you like. Recommendation is there because you may think it can be published but you don’t necessarily want to fave it.
Protect your work
One consistent worry among designers is the fear of their work being ripped. In fact, I know a few people who don’t upload their work period because of this fear and others have left communities that doesn’t do anything about it.
Since the community is one that’s handpicked, there’s a certain trust among members so members can submit their work for review, feedback and showcase internally where only members will see. Another use of unpublished work is that it allows me to submit a work in progress for feedback.
Critique
DC was built to establish a community where the comments are insightful and constructive. You’ll find this a key focus of our community. Our comment system for designs is termed ‘critique’ and it only allows a critique of no less than 140 characters. This idea stemmed from @designcritique on twitter.com which basically critiques a design within 140 characters.
After running @designcritique, I realized that it’s pretty damn hard to critique a design in 140 characters so I figured that it should be the least required at DC.
Experts
I don’t want members to just make a critique with no reward, because I want this place to be competitively fun. So I had the idea the ‘Expert’ feature. It works directly through critiques because when you make a critique, the person receiving it has the ability to rate it as an ‘expert critique’ by clicking a little star icon visible on rollover of the critique.
If the person clicks this star icon, it’s like a ripple effect because it affects quite a few things. For starters, your standing as an expert increases by 1 and you’re positioned on the experts page based on the number of expert critiques you have. The great thing, in my opinion, is that the person who rated your critique gets to review it later under ‘favourite critiques’. I thought this was a great idea because it allows you to later review some of the critiques you got in design so you can later implement in other works.
In addition to that, you can review all your critiques rated as expert critique under ‘activities’ in your account center. Later down the line, DC will reward the monthly top expert to further encourage this activity. Your standing as expert is proudly showcased on your profile and has a further use down the road.
Collaboration
This concept is only 50% developed but it’s functional and usable at this level. What collaboration does is allow you to work with fellow DC members on projects you might have. For example, let’s say you got a client who wants to develop his brand. The client wants logo, business card, website & web development. The problem is that your specialty is brand identity so you’re short on web design requirements of the project. The collaboration board is meant to solve this issue.
It allows you to post the description of the project where fellow members will apply. You can then select whoever you choose to work with via the collaboration post. From that point you can establish contact with the selected applicant and collaborate on the project. We do have plans to improve this feature so expect more.
The Content
We provided the ability to submit articles and events. We will work on our own internal articles but we thought articles should be a portal to the various other articles around the web. As the site evolves, I envision separating external and internal articles so it promotes internal article a little more and improves usability.
Events might not be so important to some but for others it’s helpful to know events in your area. In fact, if you contact us about an event in your area, we’re willing to send you at our expense to represent the community.
Discussions
What’s a community without discussions? This feature function at it’s core, in a very basic manner. The resource didn’t exist for a full-fledged forum but form & function is what matters. The forum allows you to do exactly what it is intended for: conversate.
Discounts
Being a member of Designers’Couch gives you the opportunity to receive special discount from our supporters. For example, the following partners offers:
Subernova: 15% discount on annual subscription (savings of $12)
Sharpshirter: 15% discount on it’s products (includes t-shirts & iPhone skins)
GoMedia Arsenal: 15% discount on anything in their store
AdaptivePath: 15% discount on all physical events
SlideRocket: 15% discount on annual subscriptions
This allows the site to go a little further than just the average community but one giving you more than functions and features but something you can use to grow your freelance company or yourself.
So there it is, a great little story of a big dream I have. Join Designers’Couch, I’d love to see you there..
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stevemorel 09/25/2009
Hey, I'm glad to read this story ! It gimme lot of motivation, and I just want be a part of your project ! Long Life to DC ! it's just soooo nicee =}} I'll give ya all the support I can ! : ) ek.
Wood Door Builder LA 10/19/2009
I'm glad I stumbled here. I really like the values you put into creating this site. It's limited open and very welcoming for outsiders to view. Thanks.
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