I’ve been a dribbble account user for over a year now, and a casual “browser” for quite some time. It’s great for collecting inspiration and ideas, but lately, I’ve been looking less and less at it.
These last couple of months, I’ve been working on some web design projects that have required some added thought about user flow and experience, usability and the better design of UI components. For additional research, dribbble was one part of my regular design arsenal.
Most work on dribbble isn’t real world
But, there’s one problem with dribbble when it comes to capturing ideas for the web, or for mobile for that matter and that is most of the shots you see on the platform are not real-world examples. They haven’t been tested for usability, and in most cases, they are just designed to look good. Either that or they are WordPress themes.
It seems to be a common issue with other platforms as well, such as Behance, which is a real shame. If you’re a photographer or illustrator, these platforms are ideal for both posting and inspiration – web designers not so much, which is why I don’t post any design work up as much.
Alternatives?
I haven’t found any decent alternatives, but I’m finding that simply spending longer on researching is more beneficial. Looking at competitor sites or similarly sized websites gives great inspiration and ideas.