Dribbble is a painkiller, not a vitamin

How instant gratification can curb growth

This year, a major focus for me has been to grow as a designer, and I’m writing this to myself as much as to other designers I’ve interacted with and mentored.

Many of us within the design community (especially younger designers) have fooled ourselves into thinking we’re growing when we’re not. Though this behavior manifests itself in myriad ways, it’s most clearly manifested itself on Dribbble, the popular designer showcase. And to be clear, it’s not Dribbble the platform that’s the problem, nor do I think its founders intended this. I love Dribbble, and think it’s a net gain for the design community at large. But for all of us it’s easy to get sucked into that false measure of quantitative growth Dribbble provides with likes and comments. We’ll this bad pattern of thinking “painkiller thinking.”

On Painkillers

The painkiller–vitamin metaphor has made the rounds in business circles, but I heard it the first time watching an episode of Apple’s app-themed game show Planet of the Apps (I know, I know—the show is super cheesy, but it has its moments). On one episode, one of the VC investors had the following to say about a product he was skeptical of:

A vitamin is something you should be doing every day, and it has a diffused benefit over time. In our experience as Venture Capitalists, we’ve found it’s much, much harder for products that feel like vitamins to reach scale and be successful than products which are more like painkillers: where the user is grasping for any solution, right away, because they have a burning, pressing headache of some sort.

Someone pitched a “vitamin” idea when he was gunning for a “painkiller” idea. Painkillers sell. Quick, effortless results sell. People want their problem solved instantly, and money follows desires.

Dribbble, for most people, is a five-minute experience. Pop it open, like some shots, close it. Maybe if you’re doing research, you’ll even spend fifteen minutes collecting shots into a bucket. But you can only use Dribbble for reference when you’re creating visuals solely for 30-and-unders that pull from popular design styles of the last few years. Oh, and make sure you steer clear of all the useless designs that can exist nowhere else other than Dribbble itself.

409 likes, almost 10,000 views, but this unusable “credit card UI” shot should probably NEVER be implemented into any sane website. It exists for Dribbble, and Dribbble only.

Essentially, relying on Dribbble is the same as eating Cheetos™ instead of veggies. Great as a snack; horrible for three meals a day. It makes the bad hungry feel go away, but doesn’t leave you with many nutrients.

Dribbble is designed to give you that instant relief: it tricks you into thinking you’re growing and becoming a better designer in five minutes. But really all it did was stave your appetite for growth.

If you’re carefully monitoring your own thoughts at this point, you’re probably thinking “Yeah, yeah, OK. I get it. Dribbble is bad. What’s ‘good’ so I can agree or disagree with you and move on?”

If you’re thinking this way, you’re still looking for that painkiller—that easy, quick solution. Stop seeking out painkillers, switch to everyday vitamins, and you’ll see great results in six-to-twelve months.

On Vitamins

So what does this “everyday” behavior look like? One example that came to my mind is Tobias Frere-Jones, designer of the Gotham typeface as well as many others you’ve probably used before (Whitney, Archer, Interstate…).

“Use Gotham.” It never fails! © Fuzzco, http://pocketartdirector.com/

In 2015, Tobias gave a talk on bank note design. More specifically, the hundreds of minute security details printers hid in their banknotes to detect counterfeits (it goes way deeper than the “hold up to the light” trick):

Tobias Frere-Jones: type designer, or functional hoarder? Why not both?

Behind that talk was years and years of research, and along the way, Tobias collected sample after sample after sample, initially to scratch a personal itch. His collection isn’t available online other than the samples he’s scanned for his blog, and I’m not sure just how large it is, but judging from him describing himself as a “pack rat,” and the obscene amount of niche references he drops on a regular basis, I’m going to guess a lot.