Would providing a review type question be a useful add to UX SE

Question

A few years ago (about 10 in fact) I joined a page called Concept feedback which allowed users to post their webpages/app pages and get the visual design reviewed. It was actually a really very good idea and I learnt alot both as a reviewer and by having my work reviewed. I was a free lancer at the time so it was incredibly useful to have my designs eyeballed by a few others. In the end I became an expert reviewer on the page and got paid for my reviews (but that is not the point here).

I noticed that UXSE is slightly less busy than it was. I wondered if this could be an idea which would add some energy back in. Concept feedback had some mighty fine review tools (a bit like invision) where you could tag the original graphic to show which part you were talking about and the comments would be threaded. So what that would be a nice to have enhancement.

But to be honest all the basics are already here in stack exchange to do the rest of it.

If not I was wondering if anyone would like to try and start an open source version. I think it would be a valuable additional tool for the UX community globally (unless there is something like this out there now and I have just missed it).

Answer 1

Those sort of sites are good, sure. But I would be really nervous about allowing such questions here. How much use would such posts be to everyone else? Sure, maybe they'll be interesting to read through, but how would they help people coming here find the solution to a specific problem?

There are many popular ideas that get people interacting with the site. Things like 'what is the best icon for a parking garage..' or other simple poll type questions, but they only serve to benefit the asker themselves.

At the core, SE is a searchable knowledge repository, beneficial to people today as well as in 1,2,5 years time. I'm not sure what benefit there is to the community as a whole just to be a bit more popular, but without useful content.

Answer 2

I do think that the UX community missed an opportunity to create a service for critique/review of user interface design, and now this need has been filled by companies that provide usability/user testing services where the design is uploaded and a panel of users are recruited to provide feedback. Many of the companies that provide prototyping tools have also implemented online collaboration tools so that you can share designs and get feedback/comments.

In one respect it seems logical to go straight to the source and have users provide feedback, but in many cases there might be too many design issues to allow real user experience problems to be identified (because the design is not usable).

I think there is value in identifying specific design trends, patterns and use cases for discussion on UXSE, and these are good questions for the community to ask and answer, however, I do think that many of these existing services would serve the need of the designer better by connecting them directly with their end users groups (when they are unable to test it with their own users directly or effectively).

There are other potential channels for doing what you are suggesting on UXSE, such as using the chat rooms and posting the links to the design (if you are using Invision or Axure, etc.).