Rockbeatspaper

Yannick
Mon Apr 10, 2006

I think they can definitely be good for getting the word out about a website, also I see them as a good place to get inspiration here and there (though I find looking outside of the web for inspiration also helpful and better at times).

As for whether they hurt, well I don’t think so or at least haven’t heard of any case where it did. If there was a case where someone had a bad experience from being featured then I’d love to hear what happened.

The comment system can be good as long as people are giving constructive feedback.

Hope that helps.

Chris Williams
Tue Apr 11, 2006

Hi John,

I’ve actually already made some comments on your site redesign over at the CSS Showcase site you were featured on, so I won’t repeat myself here – but don’t worry it wasn’t negative!!!

I think being listed at CSS Showcase sites can be good or completely meaningless depending on the type of site featured.

The circumstance where it is meaningless is when the people/sites don’t even care if they’re listed and probably don’t even know they are – such as big business or corporate sites that have been submitted by someone completely unrelated.

For web designers or any sort of business that may be web related however, I think it’s almost like an initiation. As designers I feel we want our site designs to be highly regarded, which in turn helps our reputation grow within the online design community. With this reputation comes possibly more work and revenue. It’s also helpful to point out to potential clients that your past websites have been featured and applauded for their quality of design.

However, the problem with these sites (as you alluded to) are the comments…

You have to accept that you will receive negative comments no matter how good your design may be. Like every product on this earth – if there’s a ever any feedback you can guess that 90% of it will be nagative. People only seem to shout about something when they’re unhappy or disgruntled – hardly ever making the effort when it comes to giving something praise. The only time you see sites receive a high amount of praise is when it’s a redesign by someone already revered and respected within the design community – people seem to follow a sort of sheep mentality sometimes and decline to be negative about anything if everyone else is jumping on the praise bandwagon.

I myself will be re-launching my website in the next week or so and will probably be submitting to these showcase sites – but I’m already prepared for the kind of feedback that may be received (if the deign is accepted by these sites). You just have to learn to take the comments with a grain of salt and have faith in your own design and reasons for doing things the way you did.

If you feel your design is good and that it achieves yours and your clients’ expectations then that’s all that really matters.

Chris

John Peele
Tue Apr 11, 2006

Thanks guys for the responses… Well put.

finbarr
Thu May 11, 2006

Having those sites around has taught me to look closely and think clearly about how and why a design is not as good as it could be. I often judge my own designs on whether I would be happy to submit it to these gallery sites… if not then chances are the design is not up to scratch and needs tweaking.
Having said that, I didnt submit my portfolio site (november redesign) to any because I wasnt completely happy with it and yet it still found its way to numerous showcases… it’s really nice to know that someone you dont know will go to the bother of ‘submitting’, or as you mentioned ‘commenting’, on your work

Dave Peele
Thu May 11, 2006

Finbarr,

We like to make sure that we would want to submit a site to a gallery before we complete it, we just no longer pay much attention to the comments that are left. It is nice to get featured and hear nice things about your work.

BTW – nice redesign.

finbarr
Mon Jun 26, 2006

thanks for the comment about my redesign.

Just thought I’d add my compliments on your re-design and also state the fact that while people like you and I have been talking about the gallery sites some clever guy has come up with this:

http://www.css-galleries.com/

basically aggregating feeds from all the gallery sites together. Clever!

Robert Toth
Fri Sep 01, 2006

I enjoy your articles. I will visit your blog again.
Robert