First, cool idea, being a designer I know how much a good critique can really help you polish your design and really improve it (so long as you don't take it personally).

Second, how does the process go once you do improve on your design and heed the advice given, can you upload your new design (replace the old one, show them side to side, represent a timeline of the iteration?) will it tell the people who critiqued that you followed their advice? and will your old design, having already been polished and finished, will it stay on there forever continuing to get critiqued on things that have been fixed already?

looks good I'll probably upload something soon, good luck

ps: if I did upload something are there any other incentives other than the critique (like maybe a linkback to a site) just curious.

Your second point is almost exactly what we're looking to impliment in version 2! We want to give the designs you make a "life", so you can see the process and progress towards the final product. You can imagine this evolving into a sort of "portfolio timeline" view, where you and other users can see your progress and improvements over both one single design, as well as all of your designs.

In terms of other incentives, we are looking into that now, and we would love some suggestions if you have any!

any chance we could get that employee handbook leaked ;) would love a chance to read it.

I can't find a specific quote but I know Deiter Rams said that design should make a product useful, or give priority to usability. I've always felt the same and am often perplexed by what is shared around the internet passing for "good design". I've been doing/learning graphic design since I was a little kid (photoshop 7 back when I was 12) I've since moved on to marketing and entrepreneurship (more of an evolution than a transition) but it's only further cemented this idea for me that design should be useful and achieve something not merely be pretty.

Minimalism is awesome, but your right often people take it too far and sacrifice value for the sake of making it pretty. The real crime isn't in designers doing this, but in the community celebrating it as good design.

but your absolutely right.

This is a how I feel too, so many ideas that have fizzled and very few actually being finished, which after so many times gets really discouraging. Maybe this is your problem to solve, for yourself and for the rest of us?

I'll lend a hand anyway I can if you set out to solve this -Mike

wix is just as easy to use and slightly better designed

one thing I always wanted to build but probably never will (other things being more important) was to have a company that used 3d printing to make stylish frames for glasses. Why you ask, because it's a pain to find good styles when you have either a big or small head, it's not that good styles don't exist, just that since your not a significant enough market for them to mass produce it your mostly ignored having to settle on ones that just happen to be in your size. Plus you could totally have retro and strange styles and since you don't have inventory stocked the sky's the limit on how many styles you could keep in your inventory.

I just can't focus on this idea since I have other ones to pursue (the ones more akin to my lifes work sort of thing) so feel free to rip me off, maybe if you do you could toss me a pair of frames for free ;)

Talk to DreamForge (YC s12). I'm sure this is on their list.

http://dreamforge.me/

Most people often attribute design to making something pretty, or using photoshop, or tweaking a color, true design is about functionality not aesthetics.

At the core of it design is functionality done right. Most of my engineering/programming/logical friends look at me strangely when I try to explain this but it is true.

It's about human interaction, what is your desired response, how will people react to this, how will it be used, etc.

Color theory is only important because it invokes certain emotions, font's because it conveys they tone you are speaking in, using lines and the other elements of design all work together to lead they eye and evoke a desired response.

There are a lot of things out there that are considered good design but are ultimately useless in achieving their goals, these are simply works of art done in a designed style and not true design.

It's about purpose and intention.

I'm willing to bet you know more than you think you do, that you've been exposed to so much design your whole life that your guesses would be more educated than you think, and that coming from a background in software your ability to run tests (like A/B tests) would be invaluable.

To conclude, everyone thinks that design is art but really it's psychology combined with rapid iteration(thumbnail sketches) and lots of tests (color swatch tests etc) based on best guesses. That and most great design just rips off something else anyways.

I usually just watch and read the articles but I've been wanting to get more involved for a while. I know I have a future doing the kinds of things you guys have done, and someday very soon I hope that I will. By keeping people like me who haven't yet accomplished anything out, you would be denying a real chance at digital mentorship.

I know how much I've learned and how grateful I am for having the chance to learn from this community, I'm sure there are many others as well that feel the same.

So to the community as a whole thank you for the chance to learn until I've mustered up the courage to take the plunge.

You would still be able to comment and submit. Your voice would still be there. This would just test the hypothesis that people who have put themselves out there are more sympathetic to other people who have put themselves out there.