Filed under: Design, Design Tips, web 2.0
Let me start this off with a disclaimer: If you feel any sort of aversion towards hipsters, you should probably move on; I don't think you can enjoy Forrst. However, if Tumblr feels like a second home, and you spend your days endlessly gazing at ffffound and sharing snarky comments over at the Shirt.woot forums, you are probably going to love Forrst.
The site has a simple, clear-cut mandate: it's "a place for designers and developers to share inspiring code, screenshots, and links with their peers." That is very much to the point; it almost sounds boring.
Forrst is currently in closed beta, but I was curious enough to ask for an invite. To see how the site goes about accomplishing its mission, continue reading after the fold.
I cannot claim objectivity here; I am thrilled with the site. It feels very much like Tumblr but with a far more professional angle. It's a fantastic place for sharing code and screenshots of your work, getting genuine feedback and inspiration (as opposed to genitalia), and maybe even making some friends.
When you first log in, you get a dashboard of recent activity. This has become a staple of social networking, and Forrst really doesn't break the mold here. One thing you can already see is that the design is extremely well-executed. I guess it's a matter of taste, but I find the whole site to be super-polished and an example of top-notch, current Web design.
You can see the single ad unit on the right side of the window; I will be focusing on that later, but it's worth noting that this is the only bit of advertising that I spotted on Forrst.
Let's zoom in on the header; as you can see, each category has subcategories. The dashboard view lets you easily filter posts, for example.
Now, let's look at a specific feed. Here, I am looking at Questions. As you can see, the content is focused and to the point. These are really questions from designers to designers. I don't think they have a point system (a la Stack Overflow), but I'm hoping that they will add something like that in the future.
Next, we'll look at what a single code post looks like. As you can see, people are sharing snippets of code on the site. There's a nice box with proper syntax highlighting and alignment. What you can't see is that there's a short blurb describing the code right under the box. Anyone can comment on any piece of code (or any post, for that matter) or "Like" it. The whole thing feels much like a Tumblr clone, only with professional content and some designer-friendly features.
So, we're done with the feeds. Let's click a single post now and see what it looks like. As you can see, they're into huge typography. This is a link post, but it gets its own page, complete with discussion thread, tags, subscription options, etc. Note the "Flag" link; that's just one example of how Forrst is trying to keep content on mission.
Here's an image post with a lightbox showing the image. One noteworthy posting guideline: "Photography is not permitted on Forrst, including photos of your workspace, unless it shows something you designed in the wild." I love that, actually. This is just one of quite a few stringent posting rules that, if actually enforced, will truly set Forrst away from the pack.
In fact, let me show you two more of these rules. They are not hidden away in some "usage policy" page that is set in 8-point type and full of legalese; they are in your face and on the right side of every post that you write. Way to go, Forrst.
Here's another choice rule: "Self-promotion doesn't belong here unless you are genuinely looking for feedback on your site, blog or product. The Forrst community takes this seriously so think before you post!"
If after reading the guidelines, you still feel your post is relevant, here's what the New Post page looks like. This looks like a direct copy of Tumblr's new post page, except that you get Markdown instead of an editor with a toolbar. (I happen to like Markdown, so this makes me happy.)
By this point, I've shown you most of the major stuff, so let's look at some of the smaller touches. Here's a close-up of the ad unit (the only form of advertising I've seen on the site). The image is 120 by 90, and it's always relevant to design or development (from what I've seen). There's a little blurb under the image that I find irritating, but I guess they need to make money somehow. Still, if we could have just the image, it would be nicer.
Here's another small design touch: when you scroll down the feed, the site loads more posts automatically. This isn't new. (Facebook does this, I think, as well as a ton of other sites.) This is the AJAX face that Forrst decided to put on this feature:
One last thing that I wanted to show you is the "scroll to top" button. Whenever you scroll down a page, this huge "scroll to top" button shows up. Click it once, and the page smoothly scrolls all the way to the top. I find this to be symbolic of the whole site's design aesthetic; it's nice, but it's almost over the top.
Bottom line: I think that, as a platform, Forrst is fantastic. If they can keep content to the point (as they seem eager to do), it can become one incredible community. I just hope they understand that communities are built on people and content and not on flashy graphics and neat AJAX.
So, I'm done here, and now it's time for you to weigh in. Is this just a Tumblr copycat with nothing new to offer, or is it the Next Big Thing for developers and designers?
Beta Review: Forrst is an awesome community for designers and developers originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 21 Jul 2010 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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