One of my favorite Flickr photostreams is that of Chris Messina, aka “factoryjoe.” Messina, an open source advocate and web consultant who currently works at Vidoop, packs his Flickr photostream not with photos, but with screenshots. Interfaces, applications, web sites, user flows, design patterns — his photostream is an object lesson in web and application design (as well as occasionally a source of scoops on cool new apps or new features).
Thus, ScrnShots, a screenshot sharing community site aimed at web and applications designers, feels something like a public version of Messina’s Flickr feed. Created by Vancouver-based Orange Peel Media, ScrnShots differs from other design showcase sites in that it is less focused on eye candy, and more focused on creating a community atmosphere where designers can share and discuss screenshots of their favorite designs (or works of their own, completed or still in progress). ScrnShots also differs from general photo sharing sites for much the same reason — the focus is on designers sharing and discussing good designs.
Designers can upload an unlimited number of screenshots to the site, which can be tagged, grouped, searched, discussed, and even embedded on other sites or blogs (as below):
The site offers desktop tools for Mac and Windows that allow user to take, tag, and upload screenshots from off site. The Rails-powered community also has a public API that lets other apps integrate ScrnShots’ library and functionality.
Co-founders Greg Bell and Derek Kehler told Web Working Daily in May when the site came out of beta that they were looking to more deeply integrate ScrnShots into designers’ workflows. “Design shops have expressed interest in creating private areas for their teams to brainstorm and share screenshots with clients to replace traditional mood-boarding techniques,” they said. They had planned to release a paid PRO version of the site that included private collections last month, but the release appears to have been delayed.
In general, ScrnShots offers a great place for designers to congregate and share visual inspiration. It is more focused than general photo sharing sites, and has more of a community feel than most design showcase sites. The community is young, but healthy. I counted just over 5800 screen captures on the site, with what looks like hundreds being added each day.
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When I visited, the majority of recent uploads were spam photos. The site looks nice, but I can’t see much difference between Scrnshts and the multitude of other design galleries, or even the old fashioned bookmark browser function.
They obviously have given themselves a big policing problem to ensure that the images are uploaded are screenshots of websites and not spam photos.
July 11th, 2008 at 5:30 pm
I think these are cool resources. I can see the theme, history and development of that websites.
July 11th, 2008 at 6:39 pm
I recommend fireshot (a firefox add-on) to capture and edit screenshot. It fairly easy and quick.
July 12th, 2008 at 4:25 pm
Nice. Another great way to get some design inspirations and get feedback on current designs.
July 13th, 2008 at 9:14 pm