Collaboration site, Hunie, allows self-taught designers to receive constructive critique from industry peers on their work.
Damian Madray, founder of Hunie, said when work is submitted to the site, it’s subjected to “straight-up, no-holds-barred, constructive criticism", from a community of designers.
Lots of sites already enable designers to share work. However, with the number of lone designers in the industry increasing, Madray said there’s a need for such collaborative sites, which enable designers to learn from peers and improve their skills.
He noted that, in design schools, there’s often an emphasis on critique as a skill, but that’s little use to self-taught designers. “Hunie therefore stands to fill that gap where self-taught designers can still develop this skill by interacting at this level with their peers,” he explained.
With sites like Dribbble also offering peer feedback, we asked Madray if there’s really room for Hunie. “Other sites exist for peer-to-peer feedback, but whether they succeed is a different question. I don't think they do, otherwise I wouldn't have created Hunie,” he said. “Most communities for designers are built with showcases in mind and hope for feedback. With Hunie, we're built specifically for constructive critiques and hope for nothing else.”
In part, Hunie distinguishes itself by how comments are added via annotation rather than a thread under some work. This, argued Madray, gives specific in-context advice to enable fast iteration, for example, “These icons feel quite large and should be reduced 60-75%”.
Initially, Hunie will share one aspect with the likes of Dribbble in being invite-only. Madray said this was due to the site’s focus on building a strong culture around critique: “Community is extremely important to us. This kind of site has never been done in this way - and it's risky. We want to foster a sense of respect and admiration in sharing your work in the early stages.”
The site is currently in private beta and, until it's opened up to the community, about 200 invites will be rolled out a week.
