Ask HN: Are there any good online communities for UX design? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Are there any good online communities for UX design?

73 pointskhurram27 comments

I'm wondering where i can find good online communities for front-end design. There's too many 'graphic design' forums but I can't find any good places to get feedback on GUI design.

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Forrst: http://forrst.com/

Also invite only?

The Root is amazing, you will not find a more talented group of people. A couple of us post here on HN. It's invite only but getting in is just a matter of having a connection (you do) and an impressive portfolio (do you?)

http://www.theroot42.org

So if we are interested in joining do we send an email to ben (at) carbonfour.com, or do we talk to you?

For the record, Ben is an incredibly inspiring designer at Facebook who brings a whole 'nother dimension to tech and design.

http://designforfun.com/display.php?id=99

We can talk, sure.

And yes, pxlpshr speaks truly--Ben is a great designer, the founder of the root, and he was the first rooter to work for FB.

I don't have a huge claim to fame, just the design work that I am doing for my as of yet uncompleted web app. To make a long story short I don't consider myself to be a really professional web designer, but I would like to learn and get feedback on my design efforts.

I can send you an email with examples of my design work. Should I send it via the contact form on your site?

what if one doesnt have any impressive portfolio or any even. Could one just join & learn??

It's a voting system. If you don't have anything to show, people probably won't vote to let you in. You need a minimum number of votes to get in, so I'd get crackin' on those impressive projects 8)

Uhg, talk about a community that I don't want any part of. Can you imagine submitting sample code to be 'allowed' into Hacker News or a similar service? No thank you.

You say that so negatively, but I bet, at the very least, it would mean we could skip the "HN Sucks now" threads that pop up every month.

Edit: I just wanted to say that I was joking there, since it might not be obvious. The detriment of course would be that we'd lose out on the advice of the non-technical members we have here.

I don't get why those sites are invite only. I'm a total beginner concerning UX, and I'd like to learn, but I can't because the content of those sites is inaccessible for non-logged in users. What's the point ?

TR42 was once public but later overran by anime and insulting people. Invite system allows us to operate an incredibly close knit community (300-400 active users) which has been around since about 2000/1. Furthermore, an invitation is half the battle... membership is still based on whether or not the community votes you in. From a commercial designer's perspective, we have more freedom to share behind close doors.

Because of the trust that's formed the last decade, we've had meetups all over the world. No matter what country you're in — there's usually a rooter who's got an open door. In addition, TR42 isn't just about art... it's a living community and people share very personal details that they don't want index by spiders or viewable by the general public. I'm not going into specifics but it gets very personal.

The Root still exists? That's just crazy. I remember first visiting that place back in the days I was still active at deviantART as well, which must have been like 8 years ago now.

Don't think my account is still there though... ;-)

I caution you here, the problem with UX design groups is that you can become a product of group think. You have to remember above all else, that you users first and foremost are the greatest experts on UX design. While professionals can teach you theory, they can also become dogmatic about sticking to the principals (some, not try to generalize here).

My point being is relying on UX patterns and human factors theory does not negate the most important UX principal and that is A/B testing. Users may not be able to vocalize what they want but their actions and conversion rates speak volumes about what is intuitive and what is not. Employing this simple technique can teach you volumes about intuitive interface design.

Now with that being said these communities are great for inspiration and as a support network when creativity or ideas fade. When you hit a creative block they provide a plethora of talented people that can be extremely helpful.

Just remember, if you A/B test something and it goes against conventional wisdom, stick with what works avoid the dogma. Always do what works, not what is supposed to work.

http://dribbble.com

so, assuming that you're a dribble user, how do you rate the experience of using the service? How does it compare with showing screenshots to your friends over aim or talking at each other's desk? I'm intrigued, but i always find the more immediate, non-crowdsourced techniques have worked really well.

Sorry, I don't actively use dribbble myself. I recommended it based on the opinion of a very good graphic designer, who swears by it.

The Interaction Design Association has a pretty active community: http://www.ixda.org/

http://undrln.com/ exists, but it has been pretty dead lately.

http://Pick.im.

While Pick.Im isn't exactly a community, it's a pretty fine resource for getting your name out there (or finding developers); I just used it the past week to find a bunch of great local (Denver) UI designers that I'm interviewing.

Konigi: http://konigi.com

I'd add UX Bookclub, and the UX Freelancers group on LinkedIn.

I'd also look at Product Management groups as UX is a specialism within that, so ProductCamp and ProductTank for starters.

Stack Exchange for UI -> http://ui.stackexchange.com/

For SF Bay Area => http://www.baychi.org

I visited the site. I couldn't stand the design. I left.

boxesandarrows.org is way to go :)

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