A total of 46 designs (forty-six!) were accepted for judging. And are being judge as I write this post. So I thought I’d update all the participants and other interested parties in what’s going on in the competition.
- The judges are viewing the designs on a secured Web site. They’ve been given user names and passwords. This allows a certain amount of tracking and, well, checks and balances.
- As much identifying information has been removed from the judging Web site as possible. Be assured they are judging the designs, not critiques from blog posts and are not trolling the forums.
- Results are on track to be announced on August 6, 2007, by 12:00 AM (UTC). If something happens, I’ll let everyone know immediately.
- The live preview site will go “live” by 12:00 AM (UTC) on August 5, 2007 (updated from August 2). It will probably go live sooner, but let’s see. Either way, you can count on them by August 5.
- I have posted all “bios” for participants that I received; if yours isn’t there and would like it to be, please email it to me. (See the Participants for more info.)
- Three designs were disqualified: one was submitted several hours after submissions closed; two were disqualified for being themes, not designs. Those affected were notified.
- Everyone has had very kind words for the competition so far. Thank you. Please retain some of these for after the results announcement.
But seriously, I’m very pleased with the quality and the number of designs that were submitted. I think that these are really going to be of value to the community and will help reinvigorate creativity into the community. Or at least that’s what I hope. At least everyone can enjoying watching things unfold, having new designs to tweak, etc.
If anyone has any questions about any aspect of the competition so far, leave a comment below or feel free to email me directly. I’ll keep everyone abreast of developments.
And two new items to consider:
- I was thinking of asking the judges to submit snippets, eg, mini-reviews, for any design(s) that caught their eye. Nothing hateful or aggressive or even overly critical. Is this something that participants would be interested in seeing posted here? Or does that make anyone uncomfortable? Not sure.
- I was also thinking about having participants take turns posting about their experiences creating their design on this site, post-competition. Would any of the participants be interested in writing about their experiences or their process in creating their design? Once again, not sure.
Not only participants can comment on those items above. I’m just as interested to hear what the silent majority (?) thinks, at least about the latter of the two.
23 Comments
Yeah to both suggestions around comments. As a non-participant and non-judge I’d be love to hear the behind the scenes on both submissions and judgements.
Also. I can’t wait to see (more) designs!
I like both of those suggestions…I’d be willing to write something about my experiences, and feedback would be very nice.
A vote for “snippets”. I was kind of hoping for something like this.
I definitely like the first suggestion there. I’d love to hear what people think about my design.
Both suggestions sound ok to me, any feedback small or large would be really great.
Good Idea Scott I agree with everyone here. I would love some feedback and criticism from the judges.
I know that I’d like to have feedback on my design from the judges and I wouldn’t mind describing my experience in creating my theme.
Anyone can write a blog post raving about their favourite entries, but the judges seem to me uniquely placed to give more of a trend-based analysis which encompasses the whole field rather than a chosen few.
So, for example, rather than saying ‘I really liked this particular skin by X because of its big blue header’ they might say ‘I was glad to see so many big blue headers among the entries.’ It would also enable them to make constructive criticism much more diplomatically than individual reviews would allow, e.g. ‘I would have liked everyone to have checked their designs in Safari’ rather than ‘this design looks hellish on my Mac’. I want constructive criticism. I could even handle hateful aggression, as long as it was directed at the group rather than individuals. We design for Wordpress, we’re used to being treated like crap
As for #2, I’d like to hear about other people’s experiences and wouldn’t mind sharing my own if you run out of other volunteers.
I’m glad to see participants willing to share their experiences participating. I think I’ll definitely move forward with idea #2.
For idea #1, it’s important that this be done carefully, thoughtfully, and, of course, without malice or “hateful aggression.” Heh.
@That Girl Again:
Would it be appropriate for a judge, in giving trend-based analysis, to say something like, “Design P embodies the best of big blue headers. It does X, Y, and Z; however, Design Y fumbles its big blue header in that it did A, B, and C.” I mean, if in trend-based analysis, would it be appropriate for the judges to give specifics-based analysis?
I’m rambling. Heh.
me likey that girl’s suggestion.
Personally, I’d like to see my design ripped a part. I knew I wasn’t going to win anything when I entered… I want to learn more
1. I would be ready to write about my experiences with the sandbox, and moreover, I would be very eager to read the other reports about their design processes and especially how they handled difficulties.
2. Criticism should always come as a tip for improvement. I think this was more or less said here before. Instead of “The buttons do not look appropriate” let’s say: Why not choose smaller buttons like those in the upper menu? They go well…”
Something like that.
Yes to both ideas.
Constructive criticism is welcome. I would love to have feed back from the selected judges. I know Steven and I have both talked about taking feed back we get on our design and releasing an updated version.
As for sharing my experiences. I’d be glad to. I’m sure I’ll write about iton my personal site. It would not be too hard to copy/paste them over here
I think both are really good ideas. I think it’s helpful to have feedback on the design.
In terms of experiences designing with sandbox- it was really great and I am planning a write up on my blog anyways. One thing that I change though is the use of headers - I use h1 for the post titles (for better seo) - just my 2 cents.
Oh yeah, I wouldn’t want to stop judges mentioning specific themes in order to illustrate their points, I just wouldn’t want them to focus on specific themes. Because then everyone else will be like ‘they didn’t namecheck me, I must suck’.
You’re already singling out the best designs for praise by giving them prizes. And we probably won’t need it explained to us why the winners won. At least, I hope we won’t need it explained to us, because that would be drama, and we don’t want no drama. Not even me.
recap posts from judges would be nice, i suppose. i can’t imagine taking offense. i doubt i could say anything meaningful about my experience (writing is not my gift), but it might be nice to hear from people who can write.
There will already be some sort of explaining regarding who wins, since I will publish the judges final scores, albeit anonymously. So that will take care of any “How did they come up with that?” questions.
@Daniela: I hope the judges, with their backgrounds in graphic and/or Web design, would approach it giving critiques as you describe. Might require some editing on my part. Very slippery slope.
@Engtech: Maybe a feature called “Everything that’s wrong with ‘Design X’” that provides nothing but the aforementioned hateful criticism?
Kidding, of course. Think the Insult Dog. Forget its name.
@Everyone: What I’ll do is, after results are announced, email all the participants asking them to write a short post about their experiences designing. Can be about any aspect. Then I’ll tally up the volunteers and get a schedule together.
Hell, I might just make this site a ‘design sandbox’ post-competition. That’d be interesting.
As for the judges’ critiques, I’ll let them know after another day or two and see what their thoughts are as well.
Yes to both, as well. I think reading the feedback from the judges would be beneficial, and I think reading the designers experiences would be fun and insightful.
Well… I don’t mind the idea of having my work criticized, I actually kind of crave it. That could go as far as pointing out major flaws and color schemes, whatever, as long as it doesn’t degenerate into name calling or just flat out ridicule without explanation then it is fine and can be learned from…
Somehow I doubt that very many people around here are going to degenerate themselves to that point
As far as as the second thing, I’m not real sure what kind of stuff I could write, but I suppose I could give it a go?
I’m for both items
I want my theme to be ripped apart piece by piece by the judges and for them to explain to me what I should do to make it better, as this is my first public release of any theme whatsoever.
I’m pretty much just a web coder, and I don’t have any backgound in Graphic design so advice there would also be awesome. But this is just me rambling so ill puta stop to it XP
I think both ideas are excellent. I’m always open to feedback and I’d be interested to learn from other designers. I’d also be happy to talk about my experience, though I’m not sure it would make for very interesting reading.
Both sound fine with me. I would really like to know what the judges liked about my design and the other participant’s designs as well. It can only help us all become better designers.
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[...] sitio oficial, pero algunos de sus autores ya han publicado su diseño y demo en sus blogs. Este 5 de agosto, habrá una demostración oficial en línea de todas las plantillas participantes. Los ganadores serán anunciados el 6 de agosto a las 12:00 [...]
[...] descargarse, pero algunos de sus autores ya han publicado su diseño y demo en sus blogs. Este 5 de agosto, habrá una demostración oficial en línea de todas las plantillas participantes. Los ganadores serán anunciados el 6 de agosto a las 12:00 [...]
[...] I had mentioned in an earlier post that I had asked, if only generally, about sharing some of the feedback that the judges provided [...]