How a young designer takes advantage of Dribbble
Reasons why starting to Dribbble might actually help you in certain ways.
Introduction
Hello designers, are you aware of a platform called Dribbble? You are not? Hmm…Then, I suggest you to go check it out because I’m going to talk about a few reasons why Dribbble might help you in a lot of ways, especially if you are a young designer just like me. If you already do know about Dribbble, then tie up your shoelaces and see you soon at the basketball court! (if you know what I mean…haha!)
*Note: The intention of this blog is to help other young designers like me based on my personal experience , not to just promote using Dribbble.
Discover design inspirations
Dribbble is a fantastic place to browse through many creative designs from individual designers, teams and companies all over the world. The designs posted here aren’t just limited to web or mobile app design — there are icon design, branding, animations, prototypes, illustrations, graphic art and many more. Most of the posts (called “shots”) are design-related and only those that are invited are allowed to upload their shots (but browsing is not limited at all) which gradually allowed Dribbble to evolve into a unique playground mostly for designers.
View current design trends
As a designer, it is probably a good idea to keep yourself updated with the current design trends for your own sake.
- “How do people design a landing page of a website?”
- “How does modern app design look like?”
- “What’s the trend on color or gradient usage?”
- “How to designers utilize white space and typography?”
- “What kind of tools do designers use to craft certain things?”
I’m sure you have asked yourself questions similar to the ones above when you were designing. Being knowledgable about the current design trends is extremely useful when coming up with UI Designs or even before the design phase. Considering that attractive UI Design plays an important part in creating a better User Experience (UX), staying up-to-date on what the users are accustomed to and would like to interact with will help you for sure in the future.
On Dribbble, try searching and browsing through the designs that interests you. You’ll be amazed at what designers from all over the world have shared. For me, viewing work done by other designers when I first got into design actually helped me a lot in understanding more about the design trends, strategies, layouts and what the expectations would be for my products in a design standpoint.
Get motivated and figure out a way to learn more
Every time you log into Dribbble and browse through the shots posted by other designers, you might be fascinated and at the same time, think, “Wow… there are so many things that I don’t know how to do.”
To be honest, when I was first getting into design, I kept saying to myself that I would never succeed as a designer because it seemed like there were so many talented people out there with diverse skill sets that I don’t currently have. However, thankfully, I learned to shift gears and stay motivated and inspired to learn rather than to moan and worry.
One day, GIFs posted by designers that I follow captured my interest. I wanted to make one for my own little design challenge. But at the time, I didn’t know how to make one which I thought I should know for future benefits. Therefore, after browsing through the internet for several hours and asking people on Facebook groups, I was able to learn how. Truthfully, I wouldn’t have known where I stood strong and where I was weak unless I was inspired by the shots uploaded by other designers.
From then on, I’ve decided to create a list of design-related skills and knowledge to upgrade myself. Every time, I come across things I don’t yet know how to craft or be amazed at, I put them on my list so that in near future, I’m able to tackle them. Some of the things that are in my list are:
- SVG/CSS Animation
- Adobe Aftereffects Prototype Animation
- Getting comfortable with using colors and gradients in my design
- Become a master at responsive website design (tablet + app)
- Trying making a GIF with Origami prototype
- Create cute character designs using Illustrator
- Popular platform redesign
Save inspirations for future references
Dribbble allows you to create “buckets” for design inspirations you like. Recently, I started to spend about an hour per day to look at other designers’ shots not only to keep myself motivated but also to put them in my buckets for future references. For my current projects and my future projects, I will refer back to my buckets for some design inspirations such as colors, information layouts, shapes, typography and more to crafting better UI Designs and interactions.
Beneficial for your projects
When doing projects whether it’s at school or at work, you might try searching for some design inspirations of whatever product you are working on. Sometimes, (in my personal opinion) having to think of everything from a plain white canvas is often challenging, time-consuming and often, you might see yourself sitting in front of your computer doing nothing productive but to stare at your monitor with your Sketch or Photoshop opened.
Discovering design inspirations is very important just like I mentioned in the previous section. It is especially helpful when doing your projects and Dribbble is a great place to visit for your own benefits.
During your projects
On Dribbble, I suggest you to search to see any previous design concepts that other designers have came up with. Pay attention to detail such as colors, fonts, layout structures, call-to-action factors in certain locations, usage of images, symbols and more. With previous steps finished during your own project, you could then try to incorporate the useful and logical aspects of other people’s designs that you looked at to make your own project better and better. Also, it might provide you a good starting point during the UI Design phase of your project.
As time passes by and as you become more familiar and confident with designing (+ sometimes being stressed out), I believe your “eyes” for design will improve by a lot with your “hands” for design.
After your projects are finished
With hard work done with you and your teammates for several months on a project, you might want to layout your final designs to impress the viewers of your portfolio website. I bet many of you have thought about how to showcase your work because you are designers and like I said, attractive design actually matters — even in your portfolio project contents.
So, as you may have witnessed from looking at shots on Dribbble, it is actually a great place to learn how to showcase your final designs to the public effectively and attractively. I’ve included some snapshots of how designers become creative when they present their work but as you explore, you’ll start to realize why you should try doing it also.
Dribbble as an additional design portfolio
When you apply for design jobs, (typically) the two most important things are probably your resume and your portfolio website. And for both, there’s always room to put your other design-related (Dribbble, Behance etc) and professional-related (LinkedIn, Github, Medium etc) links to make you stand out, prove that you are a passionate candidate.
Before your next job application, try to get an invite to Dribbble and start posting some of your creative design shots. Then, provide the link to your potential recruiters, interviewers and to the general public to prove your design skills and more importantly, your passion for design.
Unleash your creativity and impress others
Sometimes, projects on your portfolio may not 100% reflect your design skills. For instance, you may have not taken a UI Design role but instead participated a lot in other places that made your project a successful piece. However, at the same time, you might want to show that you are a designer and that you are able to design well. Moreover, you might want to be able to show more than simply writing “Sketch, Photoshop, Illustrator” or “Framer.js, Origami” under the skills section in your resume.
This is one of the reason why I post my designs on Dribbble — I want to convince others that I can use the design-related tools and that I’m a creative person. Also, by taking the initiative of doing things like the 100 Daily UI Challenge, I believe I can show whomever is reviewing me as a candidate that I’m passionate about what I do. Although I don’t have the time to finish everything on my plate, in my opinion, it’s certainly better than nothing. Actually, it has been super beneficial because a few people I’ve interviewed with appreciated it.
Receive job offers or apply for jobs
On Dribbble, job hunting can go both ways. First, you can set your account status to “Hire Me” if you are actively looking for any design roles (it’s basically your another portfolio website!). So, based on your shots posted on Dribbble in addition to other related links (LinkedIn, Portfolio website, Resume etc), employers might contact you through messages for any opportunities that aligns your skills. On the contrary, companies also post available opportunities in the “job” section and you can directly submit your application through their website.
Personally, I did receive several job offers regarding web/mobile UI designs in the past. I thought some of the not-so-heavy contract roles would have been great experiences to take on while I was at school but unfortunately, being an international student had certain limitations.
Anyways, what I’m trying to say is that there are some potential job hunting opportunities through Dribbble that you might be interested in applying for and even for employers to find you! And who knows, you might find an opportunity that you can tackle to get something extra on your resume.
Conclusion
Dribbble is an awesome place to not only do the things that I previously mentioned but also to interact with other designers, look for jobs and critique others’ work. I did come across many designers that dislike Dribbble because of its several limitations like, only being able to upload fixed image size (400x300 or 800x600) and specific number of shots per day or per month. However, I think there’s way more to gain from utilizing it to your advantage.
And yes, good projects doesn’t always depend on pretty-looking designs. As long as you know this, I think you’re fine.
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