CRITIQO: Designing a Community-Driven Portfolio Feedback & Peer learning Platform for UI/UX Designers: Inspired by Stack Overflow's Knowledge Ecosystem
Many designers have trouble getting organised, useful, and reliable feedback on their UI and UX portfolios. Critiqo is an online platform that helps with this problem. A lot of designers post their work on visual media, but the quality of the criticism is really different. Because of this, professionals don't know how to develop their abilities or portfolios. Critiqo was inspired by the interesting patterns discovered on Stack Overflow. It helps designers by making it easier to share expertise, get recognition based on reputation, and hold structured Q&A sessions.
This research was part of my Masters in Human-Computer Interaction at the University for the Creative Arts in Farnham. It shows that I want to create platforms that focus on teamwork, skill development, and measurable progress, rather than aesthetics. I was in charge of making prototypes, designing interfaces, and completing UX research for the project. Using tools like Figma, Framer, Miro, and Notion, I turned the idea from the initial challenging framing into a working high-fidelity prototype.
Feedback is often given to designers in an informal and disorganised manner. For critique, many people turn to private groups, close friends, or random posts on social media. The lack of a clear procedure frequently leads to feedback that is vague, contradictory, or unhelpful, although sometimes it can provide useful insights.
Behance and Dribbble, two popular portfolio websites, focus on visual inspiration and showcasing work; however, they generally prioritise presentation over peer skill development. In rare cases, critique is limited to brief comments or general praise, with little guidance for meaningful improvement. As a result, designers find it difficult to identify specific adjustments that could enhance their work.
Critiqo was created to address this issue. The platform offers a community-centred, measurable, and transparent approach for giving and receiving design feedback. Critiqo aims to make the feedback process enjoyable and efficient by employing peer recognition systems, structured response formats, and categorised feedback types.
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Existing platforms like Stack Overflow vs Critiqo approach
I conducted a case study of Stack Overflow throughout the research phase to examine how its engagement mechanisms, reputation systems, and community activities facilitate knowledge sharing. The thesis has all of the analysis, and the table below displays the important points and how they affected the design of Critiqo.
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| Criteria | Stack Overflow | UX Portfolio Community (Your Platform) | Comparative Insight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Target Audience | Developers | UX/UI designers | Different professional bases but similar needs (feedback, trust, visibility) |
| Core Functionality | Code Q&A with upvoting | Portfolio critique, structured case review | Apply the same format to design problems. |
| Reputation System | Karma, badges, privileges | Reviewer credibility, critique badges | Encourages quality responses |
| Motivation for Seniors | Recognition, career visibility | Public profiles, leaderboard, expert badges | Adapt to design the community’s values |
| Content Longevity | Indexed, searchable answers | Archive of design critiques by topic | Build reusable knowledge base |
| Community Moderation | Peer edits, close votes | Flagging low-quality critiques, senior moderation | Maintain quality in subjective field |
| Business Model | Ads, SaaS (Teams), hiring | SaaS model for bootcamps, design orgs, hiring boards | New monetization via UX partners |
| AI Competition | Threat but source of training data | Human nuance preferred in design | Your platform’s value is authenticity |
The study phase began with a mixed methods approach to understand the extent and nature of the issue. I surveyed 32 designers with varying levels of expertise, from students to experienced professionals, to gain a broad perspective on how they currently receive feedback and the issues they encounter. The results showed that 76% of respondents believed the feedback they received from their peers was inconsistent or unclear. Many mentioned that time constraints and the absence of formal critique frameworks were common sources of frustration.
I also did a competitive analysis of current portfolio systems and online communities, looking closely at how well they did or didn't do at encouraging meaningful interaction around creative work. I also looked at non-design communities like Stack Overflow in this analysis. I looked at the site's badge system, reputation scores, and ways to encourage high-quality contributions. These results were significant in creating Critiqo's concept for engagement and recognition.
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User Persona
To make the research data more valuable, I created a user persona that reflects common patterns observed in the study. This persona combines typical behaviours, needs, and frustrations of the participants, rather than representing a single individual. Grace, presented as a typical profile, illustrates how junior designers perceive building their portfolios and seeking constructive feedback. The details are anonymised but rooted in real observations from testing and community feedback.
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User Empathy Map
The empathy map reveals what Grace was doing, saying, feeling, and thinking when she asked for comments on her portfolio. It emphasises the emotional challenges and rewards that inspired the creation of Critiqo, ensuring that the platform addresses both the practical and emotional needs of its users.
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User Flow Diagram
The user flow diagram shows how a designer moves through Critiqo's main features, from signing up and publishing work to joining a Crit Circle, getting input, and getting recognition. Mapping this journey helped make sure that the platform's structure met the needs of users and gave a clear base to build on before moving on to wireframes and interface design.
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Key Survey Insights from 32 Designers
The survey results indicated that most designers find the input unclear or inconsistent, which often leaves them unsure about how to improve their portfolios. These findings confirmed the need for a platform that offers structured, actionable criticism.
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I held a brainstorming session to define the study's goals, the platform's layout, and the design methods. Before creating sketches and wireframes, this helped to unify initial ideas into a more coherent framework.