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Bryan Robinson
Bryan Robinson

Posted on • Updated on

Do you want a design critique? I want to help

Hey everyone! I'm toying with an idea for doing regular videos where I do design reviews and critiques for folks.

My hope would be that beginners get a lot of benefit from it, but also seasoned developers who are looking to grow their design skills would also gain from it.

Quick bit of history on who I am and why you might want this sort of content: I've got 13 years doing web design and development. The past 6, I worked at a design agency. In that time, I was the main UX strategist and then lead the design and development teams. I was involved with hundreds of design reviews and found that it was a passion of mine to help designers reach the next level with their designs.

Interested?

There's been so much interest in getting critiques and I'm loving each request that's come in. I've currently grabbed all the requests from this post. I'm moving the request functionality to its own site to help make this better:

Get a Design Critique or a Code Review

Critiques

As I publish, I'll try to add them here for now.

Latest comments (47)

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lisandropat profile image
Lisandro

Hey, I would like to hear your opinion, here is my portfolio

lisandropat.com

Thanks!

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brob profile image
Bryan Robinson

Hey Lisandro! I've got this added to my list. Looking forward to it!

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ilovecode profile image
Chris Magee

2 for 1? My colleague @debpu06 and I have blog sites:

davidboland.site
ilovecode.io

They're fairly similar, so might make sense looking at both?

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brob profile image
Bryan Robinson

Sure thing! I wouldn't mind seeing @debpu06 pop into the replies here and give a +1 just so I know he's on board :D

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debpu06 profile image
David Boland

Yes, please!

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brob profile image
Bryan Robinson

Got it! :D

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andrerpena profile image
André Pena

Hey Bryan. Thanks for offering that. I could use some help.

I'm working on https:/remoted.io, an open source remote job aggregator for IT professionals.

The website only exists for a month and it is not doing bad but I'm struggling a bit to retain users. If you could give me advice that would be lovely =)

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brob profile image
Bryan Robinson

I've got it added to my list! I'll respond here when I get it up and running!

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andrerpena profile image
André Pena

Thank you very much =)

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andersonjoseph profile image
Anderson. J

Awesome! I don't have design skills, so I would love some feedback on my portfolio Thanks for this!

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brob profile image
Bryan Robinson

Hey, Anderson! I've got your design review up! You can head over here and take a look: peerreviews.dev/videos/anderson-jo...

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andersonjoseph profile image
Anderson. J

Thanks!!!! I'm going to check it right now.

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brob profile image
Bryan Robinson

I've got it on my list! I'll respond here when it's up!

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florimondmanca profile image
Florimond Manca

Awesome! I’ve been wanting some feedback on my personal blog, so I’d be pleased to hear your opinion. :-) Please note the site is desktop and mobile friendly.

Here it is: blog.florimond.dev

Thanks 🙌

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brob profile image
Bryan Robinson

Hey Florimond! Your review video is up and running!

peerreviews.dev/videos/florimond-m...

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brob profile image
Bryan Robinson

Hey Florimond! I've got yours in my list! Will respond with a comment when I get it online!

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thorstenhirsch profile image
Thorsten Hirsch • Edited

May I have a try, too? I find the design very pleasing in general, but there are 2 things I'd change:

  • the search bar doesn't match the columns below; you might want to end it where the main content column ends

  • a menu with only 1 entry is not worth a menu, so just put the theme selector on the page and get rid of the hamburger menu

I'm curious what Bryan says...

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florimondmanca profile image
Florimond Manca

Thanks! Those are two very relevant points.

I actually have private menu items which I use for the admin part of the blog, but regular users indeed see only one item. Good catch!

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codingcardio profile image
codingcardio

Hey Bryan! I've actually been doing portfolio reviews and mock interviews on my streaming channel. Would love to talk about collaborating on something!

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brob profile image
Bryan Robinson

I'd be open to doing some sort of collaboration. I've never used the chat functionality here, but feel free to hit me up on that, or shoot me a DM on twitter (twitter.com/brob)

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jamonjamon profile image
Jaimie Carter

Sure! patch.team

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brob profile image
Bryan Robinson

Hey Jaimie. Would you like me to critique the landing page/signup or would you like me to critique the logged in experience? I probably won't have time in the length of videos I'm doing to do both

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jamonjamon profile image
Jaimie Carter • Edited

Hi Bryan. The landing page is pretty rubbish, and I know that... Bear in mind the target user group is about 40 people in Australia. So I know them all personally, and it will never be a commercial project. I made the app primarily for my own use, but thought it would be cool if my colleagues would use it, too. However, nobody is using it - at all - despite it actually being pretty much exactly what is needed for the job. They're all using paper and/or PDF (really), which are always wrong for the crew. I'm absolutely astounded and baffled that they all can be so pig headed and will not use patchTeam. The industry and job is very competitive - we're all after the same jobs every year, but surely this can't be the reason my colleagues aren't using the app.
Perhaps you can look at this from a programmers point of view and critique the user experience in general???

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kjlarson profile image
Kari

The ideas of reviews and critiques make me nervous, so I better start getting used to them...here's my portfolio: kjlarson.com

Thanks for doing this!

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brob profile image
Bryan Robinson

It can definitely be nerve wracking, but it's also one of the best ways to grow as a designer.

Peer review is also a great starting point. I've presented and received a lot of critiques from clients and those can be less fun ;)

I'll get you on my list and let you know when I've got one recorded!

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jcsmileyjr profile image
JC Smiley

I would like a design critique for my portfolio: jcsmileyjr.github.io/v2-Portfolio

Thanks in advance

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brob profile image
Bryan Robinson

On it!

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coreyja profile image
Corey Alexander

I'd be interested in this for my personal blog! coreyja.com

Sounds like a lot of fun! I like the idea and wonder if I could apply a similar format for some code review kinda thing! 🤔

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brob profile image
Bryan Robinson

Hey Corey! I've got your design review up! I really liked a lot of what you had going on!

Here's the video:

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brob profile image
Bryan Robinson

Awesome! I'll add you to the list!

You can and totally SHOULD apply the format to code reviews. I've been thinking about this for a while, but the inspiration for me finally making a big push on it was my friend James Quick publishing his first code review video.

youtube.com/watch?v=dgttPoE_R5Q

I think it can be SO worthwhile for everyone involved in it.

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laurieontech profile image
Laurie

I'll bite Bryan :) I've been meaning to do a design overhaul for my site! Care to give it a whirl? laurieontech.com/

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brob profile image
Bryan Robinson

Woohoo! I'm sprinting through as many as I can today and will be scheduling them out to have weekly content. I'd literally sat back down when I got the notifications, so UP the standing desk goes again and I resume my screencasting posture :D

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danjelvdwal profile image
Danjel

Oh I would love that!! I'm no designer, but like to make it more appealing to the eye.

Danjel.dev

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brob profile image
Bryan Robinson

Hey Danjel! I've got the video up and running. It's up above but also, for ease, here's the link:

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brob profile image
Bryan Robinson

Awesome! I've got you on the list and I'll reply here when I get one recorded and edited!

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pixmy profile image
Arturo Cabrera

Hello! I totally want to hear your opinion.

Here is my portfolio
codepen.io/Pixmy/full/XeqvNm

Thank you so much!

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brob profile image
Bryan Robinson

Hey @pixmy ! Since you posted a link first, you get the first video!

Here's the first in the series:

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brob profile image
Bryan Robinson

Awesome! I'll add this to the list and reply here when I record it!

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ben profile image
Ben Halpern

This is great! I think we could brainstorm here how this format could fit best into the site.

It probably comes down to coming up with the proper tag to imply the format for the input/output dynamic here. If we get the format right I think this could be an awesome regular thing for you (and others) to take on.

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brob profile image
Bryan Robinson

I’d also be curious how live Q&A might fit the platform

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brob profile image
Bryan Robinson

It’d be really great to have some form of form that has responses chronological. I could be wrong but it seemed the comments jumped around, so hard to figure out “first come first served”

Also some way to make a question/answer look and feel maybe?

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brob profile image
Bryan Robinson

Out of curiosity, what sort of tags do you think would do best for content like this? First video is transcoding now ;)

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brob profile image
Bryan Robinson

Also, first, getting folks who are interested ;)

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brob profile image
Bryan Robinson

See, I didn't even think about the fact that features could be made around this idea ;)

I figured low-hanging fruit was, get a site or a design, record a video doing the crtique (with as little editing needs as possible), then post :D

I'm definitely game for bigger and better

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brob profile image
Bryan Robinson

A couple other notes:

  1. I don't bite. I believe critiques should be kind and compassionate, but with actionable solutions coming out of them.
  2. It would be free with the knowledge that I'll be using it as video content for here, my site and youtube.
  3. There's no such thing as a perfect design. Everything can be made better :D
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ihesiulor profile image
. --. ..- ... ..

Hello Bryan, so i have been working of the UI for what is to be a portfolio site for a photographer friend of mine, anyways i would love to here your opinion.
Its a figma design so i would need your email to give you viewing access.

PS: I'm a total newbie to design.

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brob profile image
Bryan Robinson

Hey Dan! Shoot me a DM here or on Twitter (twitter.com/brob)