10 Best Subreddits For UI & UX Designers

Original Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/1stwebdesigner/~3/XpS3Na-3JQA/

Reddit is the #1 social news community for every topic. Sports, gaming, fishing – there’s a community for everyone. Naturally this includes all kinds of design topics from web to mobile.

So I’ve curated my picks for the top 10 subreddits geared towards designers. Each sub comes with a different community, but all of them can be useful if you’re looking for design ideas or advice from other designers.

Take a look and see what you think!

1. /r/Design

First in this list has to be /r/Design. This subreddit is also one of the largest digital design subs with over 200k subscribers.

Granted, this community isn’t just focused on interface design. It runs the gamut of digital design including logos, branding, print work and even motion graphics. There’s a lot you can learn from skimming the front page.

But it’s also one of the best subs to pick up ideas for new projects, find cool interviews, or just share your ideas with the community. Since it’s a fairly large sub you’re guaranteed to get some comments on anything you post.

2. /r/web_design

The default web design community is /r/web_design and it has been around for quite a few years. This one’s even larger than the main design sub with more active posts per day.

At the time of this writing it has a total of 290k subscribers and counting. Many front page articles relate to guides, tutorials and general resources for web design.

But this is also a place for newbies to come and ask basic questions. You’ll see a lot of beginner-level questions on the front page so this can feel like an introductory forum at times. Yet there’s also a good number of pros who lurk around as well. This one is full of gems.

3. /r/webdev

It may seem weird that I’m recommending a development community in a UI/UX design list. But /r/webdev isn’t just for developers. In fact, it’s mostly a frontend community so there’s a lot of overlap.

The front page updates daily with new posts, most of which relate to professional development work. HTML, CSS, and JavaScript are key topics. If you consider yourself a designer who codes, you should definitely subscribe.

But even if you don’t code, this is still a great community to keep up with the pulse of modern web development.

4. /r/userexperience

Reddit’s /r/userexperience sub is pretty small but very active. Most regular users comment frequently and the sub has grown a lot over the years.

User experience is a tricky subject because it doesn’t just relate to websites. It can cover mobile apps, software and pretty much anything that’s interactive and digital.

This sub is a fantastic place to learn and pick up advice relevant to the UX field.

Also, if you want another place to browse, this subreddit is one of the more active UX communities.

5. /r/UI_Design

General interface design is a broad topic with a lot of room for discussion. The /r/UI_Design community is a small one, and not necessarily the most active.

But it does allow for a huge range of topics – so long as they relate to interface design. It’s a great place to share an article you’ve read or even share an article you wrote on your blog.

Each day there’s an estimated 2-4 new posts, so the front page does move. The community is also engaging if you pose a great question about design.

6. /r/servers

You may not think that designers need to know anything about servers. But if you work as a freelancer, then you should understand them – at least at a basic level.

On the /r/servers subreddit you’ll find advice for managed hosting, VPS hosting and shared hosting alike. Depending on the type of site you’re launching, this subreddit can help you make a great decision that will fit your needs.

However, it can also be a fairly complex community, discussing more advanced technologies like memcached & varnish. You certainly don’t need to delve that far, but it helps to have a working knowledge of web servers.

7. /r/learnwebdesign

While this sub is small and very quiet, I still think /r/learnwebdesign is a great place to subscribe.

It’s a small community geared towards beginners and semi-intermediate designers. Every post links to a tutorial or detailed article that can help improve your design skills.

Articles range from how-tos in Photoshop all the way to more technical guides for frontend design in the browser.

8. /r/design_critiques

Here’s a much larger and more active sub, totaling nearly 30k subscribers at the time of this writing.

In /r/design_critiques, you can post your work and ask for honest critiques. The community is full of beginners, semi-skilled pros and industry veterans alike. This means the critiques you’ll get can range from simple quips to incredibly useful paragraphs.

For a free community, it’s one of the best you’ll find on this topic. Whether you just need a small pick-me-up or need genuine design advice, I highly recommend checking out this sub.

And, you can even learn from the critiques of other people’s work – if you browse around long enough.

9. /r/usability

Humans are the ones who use technology and it’s humans that we’re designing for. The /r/usability community forces you to keep this in mind by sharing articles related to HCI and general usability.

This sub is not just about web design. It covers everything related to usability from wearables to desktop software.

But what I’ve found is that most usability topics relate to each other. Yes, there are differences between mediums and devices, but usability is an easy topic to read through once you understand the main goal: to help the end user.

10. /r/UnsolicitedRedesigns

I stumbled onto this sub a few years back and it’s been one of my favorites to hit every so often. As the name suggests, /r/UnsolicitedRedesigns is a curation of redesign projects created by designers – just for fun. They include new branding & identity designs, new websites and mobile apps.

It’s a pretty small community and there’s usually about 1-2 new posts per week.

Still, the community is fantastic and some of the constructive critiques are surprisingly helpful. It’s a place you come back to time & again for new ideas.