Counting down hurdles to design feedback (5 must-use sites)

Dribbble is just one approach to the feedback web app “genre”; I’ve noticed that they’re making it easier than ever to receive and leave feedback on designs, as you’ll discover when you go down this list:

Usabilla

Usabilla has the most features out of the lot, letting you test both images and live websites with click markers, notes, and heatmaps. There’s a free plan but you’ll enjoy more test participants and pages with the premium plans.

ConceptFeedback

ConceptFeedback anchors on a thriving community and and offers special perks for both individual designers and businesses, including compensation for giving feedback. Not only can you get reviews for your current work and inspiration for your next one, your profile, design, or product can get featured to earn better exposure and business—but you need to jump in with both feet and register.

fivesecondtest

As the name implies, fivesecondtest focuses on first impressions as a test-takers look at designs for no more than five seconds and answer custom questions from test-makers. This means judgments can be rash, but the barrier to entry is very encouraging. For extra good measure, the app runs on a karma system where the more tests you do, the more test results you can make.

FineTuna

The Flash-based FineTuna creates a link for every image you upload, which you can send to specific people for feedback. That link is a space where one can insert notes and doodle on the image. You won’t have a community of users at your disposal, but you have complete control and privacy over the feedback process. It’s also available as a Firefox add-on.

CritiqueTheSite

CritiqueTheSite uses hackable URLs, iframes, and JS-Kit’s Echo to let visitors leave comments on a currently loaded site. Append a URL of any website (like Aviary Screen Capture does) after the slash and it loads that site, ready for critique. Public, no-registration-necessary feedback makes the service prone to abuse, but it also means it has a low barrier to entry.

No clear winner here!

If you want a more detailed level of testing, Usabilla is the way to go; if you need something lighter and more accessible, the likes of CritiqueTheSite, FineTuna, and fivesecondtest may be better for you. If you’re all about building your reputation and relationships as an added bonus, pick ConceptFeedback. Or why not use all of them? Using all these tools for online critiquing lets you reap the unique benefits for each.

The future of the Web may not be free

It’s not just about net neutrality or privacy anymore. Our future internet could be the very opposite of what it is today—free—specifically due to companies dominating their markets and the constant push to simplify the user experience.

Tim O’Reilly predicts a war is coming, one where we are at the mercy of the internet giants like Google, Facebook, and Apple: they stop making the services we are so highly dependent on interoperable.

It could be that everyone will figure out how to play nicely with each other, and we’ll see a continuation of the interoperable web model we’ve enjoyed for the past two decades. But I’m betting that things are going to get ugly. We’re heading into a war for control of the web. And in the end, it’s more than that, it’s a war against the web as an interoperable platform. Instead, we’re facing the prospect of Facebook as the platform, Apple as the platform, Google as the platform, Amazon as the platform, where big companies slug it out until one is king of the hill.

Chris Messina fears something similar as well: the death of the URL, as new formats for delivering web content are abstracting the website-going experience and letting ourselves relinquish control.

By removing our ability to navigate, choose, and share freely — these app stores are exchanging our freedom for a promise that they’ll keep us safe, give us everything we need, and do all the choosing of what’s “good enough” for us — all starting at ninety-nine cents a hit.

I know that if we always look at things with a worst case scenario in mind, we’ll never get any work done from here on out. But better to worry now than when it becomes impossible to undo things. I like how the Web is now, no matter how chaotic and crap-filled it can be.

That said, if the URL disappears, I know few people would be troubled by it, and an overhaul of the system may be needed anyway.

And as for the giants bullying us into a corner, it makes me wish the Long Tail would stand a chance.