Digithoughts

The best way to describe Dribbble -- a self-proclaimed “show and tell for creatives,” centered around a basketball theme -- is to imagine if Behance, Twitter, and ESPN had an “it’s complicated” relationship, and 9 months later out popped Dribbble.

The delicious display offers snippets, titled “Shots,” that Dribbble’s short list of members, known as “players,” upload from projects on which they’re currently. The exclusivity of the site only allows “current players” to upload shots; “rookies” must be “drafted” by current players before they are allowed to upload shots of their own. Wannabe draft picks join a “prospect list” until a current player drafts them.

Shots can be “rebounded” by the individual player and others, as they post revisions, final products, related images, etc. Shots rebounded multiple times become classified as a “playoff.” The basketball motif suits the site well and creates a unique experience, though a few flaws stick out.

I won’t ignore Dribbble’s blatant rip-off of the Threadless logo and site layout, but the clean design undeniably makes for easy navigation. The thumbnails of additional players’ images in the right-hand rail should probably be more prominent, and implementing a “You Might Also Like” section of Players with similar work would encourage deeper exploration.  It would also likely increase the average time spent on the site, so often regarded as the elusive digital Holy Grail. The name itself is simple and fine, minus its unnecessary third “b,” which I only imagine creates more headaches than peace of mind (especially considering nothing is currently live on the correct spelling’s URL -- perhaps a future switch is in order).  Final eccentricity: you can only create a Dribbble account if you have a Twitter account.

Overall, though, Dribbble is a very engaging site that makes me want to enter the draft. Just as long as I don’t get picked by the Cavs...

Zack Travis Marketing Creative Coordinator

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