As has been mentioned, including more high quality long-form writing has taken Smashing Magazine to the next level, making it more of an "essential resource for designers."
However, Smashing Magazine has always been great for many designers in the research and inspiration phase. What is in style right now? What looks good? What is out there that will inspire me? For these questions, the lists and inspiration collections on SM have always been perfect.
Please continue with these excellent, high-quality articles. But in doing so, don't neglect posting the inspiration galleries!
winst0n - 17 years ago
The "original content" you post is always heavy with bias and personal opinion, rather than being factual. I have read many articles on here that make big claims about how people do things "wrong", these articles have a very pretentious air about them, and almost belittle people who may use techniques your content providers don't approve of.
You need to try and create unbiased informative articles, and keep the personal opinion for editorial sections and comments.
As others have said here, the ideal would be a nice balance of both the articles and the inspiration lists, but these lists need to be better thought out, with more comment within them rather than just literally a list of links.
I like the lists and unique content in equal measure really, I think they are there for totally different uses so covering the bases for informative content and for aspirational inspirational content can only be a good thing.
I love the changes! Finally we have more informational topics instead of inspirational ones. After a while, a lot of sites end up looking like every other site and it's less about inspiration and more about theft. Great job on the new style.
Cheryl - 17 years ago
I had begun ignoring the inspirational lists because they were waaaaaay too long and much too frequent. At one point, reading and checking out all those lists would have been a full time job unto itself, with no time to get real work done. So I'm really glad you've introduced the original content, thoughtful articles. I agree with a previous poster: I would much rather see fewer posts, 2-4 per week, at higher quality. And definitely no more than one inspirational list post per week, and that needs to be kept to a manageable size.
Providing useful content is key to differentiate from the half-human aggregators around and their never-ending lists. Great work!
Steve - 17 years ago
I like both types of articles but I think the newer articles help differentiate SM a bit from the other design blogs that are churning out all the "top 3762 social media icon packs" articles. Keep up the good work.
I used to complain about rehashed content interspersed with quality, well-researched posts appearing on SM. That's fixed now!
There are dozens of smaller blogs with lists every day (Noupe, Sixrevisions etc.), we get enough rehashed/rewritten lists already. SM's recent change to original, longer articles is refreshing - it has made SM look more of a professional blog than one which cares only about pageviews from social media.
I can only hope you continue with these posts, add a few tutorials and such, and also release more freebies. Oh, and if need be, reduce the posting frequency to 3-4 per week or whatever, I'd much prefer fewer quality articles than more low-quality ones.
I need to say that i noticed that there something changed. But i cant say what, and i also cant say that the smashingmag is getting better or worse. its pro like before but in my opinion not one of those two options.
Philip Benton - 17 years ago
I much prefer the new SM, the web is full of far too many inspirational lists. The new SM is far more useful to fellow professionals.
I didn't really like the lists so much, mostly because I found they were too long. I would usually look at the first 10 or so items and then leave because I didn't have time or got bored. I really appreciate the new content. I think it's very helpful.
I'd still like a bit of both. Inspiration is always useful, i couldn't go without, and the focused articles are great too. Just that sometimes there's just not enough time to read it all. Still, it's good to keep Smashing Magazine as a point of reference. Great work, keep it up!
Mike D - 17 years ago
The focus on unique content has taken SM to the next level. The lists and inspiration are great and still worthy of inclusion, but the recent articles about freelancing, Google Analytics and HTML 5 in particular have transformed SM from an interesting blog to an essential resource for web designers.
A mixture of both would be the best way forward in my book, the inspiration articles are great but any help to create unique content is also very welcome!
AuroraLee - 17 years ago
I like both types of articles. The unique content is definitely much more useful to beginners (and all levels) to learn or refresh skills. The lists and inspirations are also useful too. I like a nice mix of each. :)
I may be slightly biased being an agency worker as a web project manager, but the recent focus on more business related topics is defintely a positive shift from my perspective.
I still love Smashing Magazine, of course- however I have noticed that I tend to prefer the lists and inspiration. It's not that the unique content isn't great- it is. But the longer form writing takes a bit more time to read, and I tend to use Smashing Magazine as more of a reference (as in, I need to make a favicon or a footer, and need high quality examples) than a blog.
As has been mentioned, including more high quality long-form writing has taken Smashing Magazine to the next level, making it more of an "essential resource for designers."
However, Smashing Magazine has always been great for many designers in the research and inspiration phase. What is in style right now? What looks good? What is out there that will inspire me? For these questions, the lists and inspiration collections on SM have always been perfect.
Please continue with these excellent, high-quality articles. But in doing so, don't neglect posting the inspiration galleries!
The "original content" you post is always heavy with bias and personal opinion, rather than being factual. I have read many articles on here that make big claims about how people do things "wrong", these articles have a very pretentious air about them, and almost belittle people who may use techniques your content providers don't approve of.
You need to try and create unbiased informative articles, and keep the personal opinion for editorial sections and comments.
As others have said here, the ideal would be a nice balance of both the articles and the inspiration lists, but these lists need to be better thought out, with more comment within them rather than just literally a list of links.
I like the lists and unique content in equal measure really, I think they are there for totally different uses so covering the bases for informative content and for aspirational inspirational content can only be a good thing.
I love the changes! Finally we have more informational topics instead of inspirational ones. After a while, a lot of sites end up looking like every other site and it's less about inspiration and more about theft. Great job on the new style.
I had begun ignoring the inspirational lists because they were waaaaaay too long and much too frequent. At one point, reading and checking out all those lists would have been a full time job unto itself, with no time to get real work done. So I'm really glad you've introduced the original content, thoughtful articles. I agree with a previous poster: I would much rather see fewer posts, 2-4 per week, at higher quality. And definitely no more than one inspirational list post per week, and that needs to be kept to a manageable size.
Providing useful content is key to differentiate from the half-human aggregators around and their never-ending lists. Great work!
I like both types of articles but I think the newer articles help differentiate SM a bit from the other design blogs that are churning out all the "top 3762 social media icon packs" articles. Keep up the good work.
I used to complain about rehashed content interspersed with quality, well-researched posts appearing on SM. That's fixed now!
There are dozens of smaller blogs with lists every day (Noupe, Sixrevisions etc.), we get enough rehashed/rewritten lists already. SM's recent change to original, longer articles is refreshing - it has made SM look more of a professional blog than one which cares only about pageviews from social media.
I can only hope you continue with these posts, add a few tutorials and such, and also release more freebies. Oh, and if need be, reduce the posting frequency to 3-4 per week or whatever, I'd much prefer fewer quality articles than more low-quality ones.
It's nicer to see more fleshed out articles on the site. Now if only you could ban any post with the word "first" in it. Those really annoy me!
I need to say that i noticed that there something changed. But i cant say what, and i also cant say that the smashingmag is getting better or worse. its pro like before but in my opinion not one of those two options.
I much prefer the new SM, the web is full of far too many inspirational lists. The new SM is far more useful to fellow professionals.
I didn't really like the lists so much, mostly because I found they were too long. I would usually look at the first 10 or so items and then leave because I didn't have time or got bored. I really appreciate the new content. I think it's very helpful.
I'd still like a bit of both. Inspiration is always useful, i couldn't go without, and the focused articles are great too. Just that sometimes there's just not enough time to read it all. Still, it's good to keep Smashing Magazine as a point of reference. Great work, keep it up!
The focus on unique content has taken SM to the next level. The lists and inspiration are great and still worthy of inclusion, but the recent articles about freelancing, Google Analytics and HTML 5 in particular have transformed SM from an interesting blog to an essential resource for web designers.
A mixture of both would be the best way forward in my book, the inspiration articles are great but any help to create unique content is also very welcome!
I like both types of articles. The unique content is definitely much more useful to beginners (and all levels) to learn or refresh skills. The lists and inspirations are also useful too. I like a nice mix of each. :)
I may be slightly biased being an agency worker as a web project manager, but the recent focus on more business related topics is defintely a positive shift from my perspective.
I still love Smashing Magazine, of course- however I have noticed that I tend to prefer the lists and inspiration. It's not that the unique content isn't great- it is. But the longer form writing takes a bit more time to read, and I tend to use Smashing Magazine as more of a reference (as in, I need to make a favicon or a footer, and need high quality examples) than a blog.
Either way, though, keep up the great work!