We like to think that you (the users of DesignCrowd) drive the car; we just make sure the motor runs. On a regular basis, we receive hundreds of requests and updates to DesignCrowd. In fact, I can almost guarantee that whilst in the process of writing this blog, my inbox has already been filled with new ideas and improvements to our site. For the most part, we implement these on a daily basis and just save some of the big juicy ones for our ongoing development schedule. This blog talks about some of those new big juicy ones - and how our website community helped design them.
Improved Design Submission
Our designers will be happy to note that we have a brand-spanking-new file upload system for designs which should make your lives much easier. As promised, source file are now optional for the initial design submission - this means that you can simply design and upload a preview file (JPG or PNG... oh yeah, now we support PNG too) and hold off on uploading the large source files until your design gets selected by the customer. If you want to upload your source files straight away because you prefer the efficiency, then we allow you to do that as well.
The Design Handover System
After picking the brains of our customers and designers (not literially), there was an overwhelming sense that we needed to bring our customers and designers closer together (not literially). To be more specific, customers wanted more access to their designers once they had selected a winning design.
As a result, we have introduced a new design handover page to help once design was selected. This features essentially offers an avenue for customers to communicate with their selected designers to produce revisions / changes to their designs before they approve their designs (and allow DesignCrowd to the designer). One of the key benefits to the designer is that we anticipate that this should speed up the time it takes for quality assurance checks to take place and ultimately ensure designs are approved so that designers can get paid.
Multiple Designs per Upload is No Longer Supported
You have probably seen some designs on our site that have three of four different concepts in a single submission. To be honest, whilst we totally understand why this happens, this became a bit of an issue when displaying around the site.
To resolve this problem, we have introduced:
- New Submission Rules & Guidelines
- Designers now need to submit 1 design per upload
Design Linking Function . The Missing Link
Designers can now also `link' associated designs together through our system. What this means is that now instead of submitting multiple designs in one upload / JPG preview, you submit multiple times and just make sure you tell our system that they are `linked' together. For example, if you are submitting to a web page design that requires multiple pages, you simply submit a linked design for every page. Easy. Designer portfolios we look more appealing and customers will more easily be able to view your designs and provide feedback.
My Profile Updates
We have spent some time upgrading and tweaking the designer profile to make it easier for designers to track their submissions and manage the projects they submit to. A core part of this upgrade is the introduction of the Notifications and Watchlist to designer profiles - a feature that was essentially designed by a few designers on the site! Thanks @sD and co for the recommendations.
In addition to these, we have made over 5,482.73 updates in the last month ranging from small bug fixes to larger performance improvements. The fun does not stop there though, as we are planning another series of upgrades over the next few weeks/months.
Let us know if you have any other ground-breaking ideas via our contact us page or the comments below. Also tell us what you think of the changes we have made so far. Hope you like them, you designed them!
Kind Regards,
Adam "addicted to the crowd" Arbolino
Written by DesignCrowd on Tuesday, May 18, 2010
DesignCrowd is an online marketplace providing logo, website, print and graphic design services by providing access to freelance graphic designers and design studios around the world.
