Dribbble - A play ground for designers and developers
9 April, 2010
Dribbble is show and tell for designers, developers and other creatives. Share sneak peeks of your work as “shots” — small screenshots of the designs and applications you’re working on. It’s also a place to talk design, give and receive feedback and iterate toward better work.
What exactly is it?
Dribbble is an innovative site created by designers for designers. The site had a long and active private beta and was only launched this last week. This is where amazing work will be available to view for all designers looking for inspiration and that 'wow'.
Dribbble is definitely a place where any dedicated and passionate designer will dream to be part of.
How does it work?
When someone has been drafted and they join, they receive 24 shots. Each member can use their 24 shots as quickly as they please but once those shots have been used within a month, they can't upload until they have been topped up at the first day of each month with another 24 shots, meaning that each month all players get 24 chances to showcase some of their latest and greatest.
Grab a shot
What are you working on? Share a sneak peek of what’s on your screen.
Shots on Dribbble are small screenshots of what the player is working on with a maximum resolution of 400×300 pixels. A shot can be a fragment of a work in progress, or an idea to generate feedback, or an iteration on a previously uploaded concept.
Upload to Dribbble
When uploading your shot, the bite-sized taste of what you want to display, make sure that it's at the right size. If however it's larger, Dribbble will help you crop it.
Tag, comment, like
Once a shot has been uploaded, you can tag the shot and comment. Other members will be able to tag, comment and like. Basically it will make it easier to find and interact.
Follow other Dribbblers
Keeping up to date with what one of your friends and colleagues are working on is as easy as clicking the follow link and following them.
Rebound shots
A rebound is a shot uploaded in reply to another shot. Rebounds offer a way to follow up and “link” two shots together. For example, a sketch can be rebounded with a finished design, or alternate concepts of a design can be rebounded so there’s a reference trail for other players to follow.
Monitor feedback
Easily keep track of the latest activity on your shots and those you follow.
So you think you've got what it takes?
Unfortunately for the public and lucky for the designers, the membership is by invitation only. Membership access is driven by other members. All current members have been drafted by other members. As a designer site, Dribbble has a narrow focus on high-quality design work. This is where amazing designs will shine and designers get inspiration. According to Dribbble they are aware that there are many fantastic designers who have not received an invitation. In the up side, this allows them to grow the content and community at a pace where they can preserve their vision and ethos.
How does anyone get 'drafted'?
They routinely issue invites to existing members. When this happens, members often announce on Twitter that they are looking for folks to draft. If you’re interested, be sure to have a URL handy to show off some of your work.
Future plans...
Dribbble have reviewed the setup of their site and will be making all member content like users, shots, rebounds and comments publicly viewable. They will however still continue to allow only members to contribute content and to draft new members only by invitation from other members. This basically means that Dribbble will be read-only for non-members, and read-write for members.
Curious? Visit Dribbble
