Question: Is it Essential for an Inspiration Gallery to Have Ratings?
Last year I launched my second site: Nice Stylesheet. A while back, I decided to start development on a second inspiration gallery centered around logo design and I have a question that I’m hoping I can get answered here.
Are Ratings Really Necessary?
When I developed Nice Stylesheet, I set it up just like every other design gallery out there and didn’t really put a whole lot of thought into it otherwise. I still enjoy updating the site and have plans to expand on it but I’m wondering if a rating system is really neccessary for a gallery site? I know personally, when I visit a gallery site for inspiration, I’m there for one reason, that’s to soak up some inspiration, not rate the designs. I will occasionally rate some designs, but it’s just that, occasionally and it’s pretty evident that the same thing happens on Nice Stylesheet. For the amount of pageviews Nice Stylesheet receives, for each design to only receive around four ratings each when when I update, that proves that majority of people are stopping in to be inspired, not rate designs.
What do You Think?
What do you think? Are ratings a must-have on an inspiration gallery website? I think it’s definitely neccessary to separate the top designs in the gallery from the rest and have some way to display those and I do have a way to do that which doesn’t involve ratings, so I’m not sold on the idea that a rating system is actually needed.
Help me out by leaving a quick comment to give me a yea or nay on the idea.
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I hate rating systems on inspiration galleries. If you’re good enough to get on a gallery, that’s a rating in itself ! 
Posted on Mon Aug 11, 2008
It’s nice to be able to line the listings up some other way than by date posted, of course your current version already has categories. I really like CSSRemix (Before it slowed down anyways). The site owner had, as does CSSMania a way of starring the sites as a favorite, and also Web Standards Valid work, and some others. It’s easier to trust the site owner doing a fair job of rating things, as opposed to users who sometimes rate unfairly. Usually you will find ratings consistently low on most sites, and there is no point in that.
Targeting a way for users to participate is a good thing, but ratings not so much.
Posted on Mon Aug 11, 2008
Jarkko: Thanks for your thoughts. I agree with everything you’ve said. The top 10 designs (in the sidebar) are probably not the best 10 on the site, but that’s just my opinion. You’re exactly right though, if ratings are done away with, something else is needed and I do have something else in mind, two things actually. One of those things will be a commenting system, which could be good or bad. A commenting system could turn out to be the same as a rating system. People are there for inspiration, not to comment on designs. The other idea is a simple “favorites” section where members of the site can favorite a design and have it stored in their profile page for fast access later. Then, somewhere in the design I’ll display “most favorited” or something like that.
Renee: Thanks for stopping by to leave your thoughts. I agree with what you’ve said too. If it’s good enough to make it into the gallery according to the owner of the site, that should be good enough and additional ratings aren’t really needed.
Ty: Yeah I agree. With the new logo inspiration site, I do have a couple ways in mind to line up the listings other than date posted. Like I told Jarkko above, I’ll have a favorites section where members can favorite a logo and then I’ll list the top favorited items. I’ll also have another way to sort through designs that doesn’t involve categories. I’m trying to really think my way through this site and make it as good as I can with the tools I have at my disposal.
Posted on Mon Aug 11, 2008
Personally I use such sites just to browse and then click on what I like the look of. Quite often there are designs that I really like that others don’t (or vice versa), so I don’t pay a great deal of attention to what other people think. Eye of the beholder and all that!
Posted on Mon Aug 11, 2008
I think having my favorites and then showing a list of top favorites is best. I also like the idea of community tagging to add more ways to browse overall or under a section ("edgy", “bright”, “cheerful”, “dark”, etc.). I think this would make a lot of sense with logos since there are so many different options. For instance “animal” for those that include an animal icon, “company name” for simple logos that only include the company name, etc.
Luther
Posted on Mon Aug 11, 2008
Andy: Yeah, that seems to be pretty consistent from everyone I’ve talked too. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
Luther: Great ideas Luther! I think Solspace has a nice tag module. I’ll definitely be looking into that. I appreciate you stopping by to offer some ideas.
Posted on Mon Aug 11, 2008
Hm.. comments. Why not? It’s an extra feature which is not getting in the middle of the core functionality, so some users will vote and express an opinion. And if for example i make a research about a website for some reason it could work as another “quality” indicator. Low priority given but it could be counted as an indicator about the website.
Posted on Tue Aug 12, 2008
I was searching for a gallery, can’t think of the name of it.
Searched design gallery CSS and this one came up first on google.
http://www.cssdaddy.com/
The ratings here are just visually noise, I really don’t think I want to see sites in a gallery being in competition, that’s what stars are competition, it really doesn’t work for me. I want every site in a gallery to be a “10”!
Posted on Tue Aug 12, 2008
http://www.designsnack.com was the site I was trying to find, they track submussions with a vote, and with enough votes, sites get placed.
Quite a bit more interactive than just a star rating metric, worth a look.
Posted on Tue Aug 12, 2008
Gerasimos: Yeah I’ve thought about comments too. I probably will include comments simply because they are easy to implement and it would add an extra feature that wouldn’t get in the way.
Thanks
Posted on Tue Aug 12, 2008
Ty: Visual noise is a good way to put it! I think I’ll use that verbiage on the new gallery site if you don’t mind? 
Yeah, Design Snack is a well put together site and the voting system for placing designs in the gallery is a great idea! Unfortunately, I’m at the mercy of ExpressionEngine on the sites that I develop. If EE can’t do it, then chances are I won’t be able to do it unless I pay someone to do it and I just don’t have the budget for that right now.
Posted on Tue Aug 12, 2008
After the hassle we went through to get them working… you’re thinking of removing the ratings...?!
I think if you’re not seeing much usage of the ratings then having them there is not of much use. As has been suggested, perhaps a comment system or just a simple thumbs up/down, similar to stumbleupon, will still allow a bit of interaction and a way to determine the top 10 (number of comments or number of thumbs up).
Posted on Tue Aug 12, 2008
SarahG: haha! Nope, will not be removing them from NiceStylesheet (I appreciate all the work you did). For LogoGala.com (my new gallery site) I just won’t be adding ratings to it, but I definitely won’t be removing them from NiceStylesheet.
Posted on Tue Aug 12, 2008
Hello Deron,
I must say that I do like ratings and would keep them.
Comments are great but after they grow to a significant size I simply don’t have the desire to read through all of them-at least not when it comes to gallery or some form of chase. After all, the quickly predictable since they are not comments on articles where there would be some conversation-provoking material to base it on. Having 100s of “nice”, “I like”, “great job” comments just don’t hold much value in my mind and quite honestly most of them are posted simply so that visitors provide a link to their site is all. Something I came to call ‘blog powered traffic-whoring’ .
Therefor I like the quick and easy ratings, ‘scales’ or ‘+/-’ works out pretty good as long as they are limited to 1 per IP so they remain unique....not that there is not a way around it and opportunity of ‘self rating’ but it beats the comment system in this case.
So, here is my ‘thumbs up’ for rating
All the best!
Posted on Fri Aug 22, 2008
Lebisol: Thanks for stopping by and leaving your thoughts.
I see what you’re saying about the comments and that has crossed my mind. There really is no point in having comments when all that is said is “nice work” and on a gallery type site, that’s likely what the majority of the comments would be. I think I will probably still include them just as an added element that could potentially get people coming back to the site. If someone leaves a comment and elects to receive notifications when someone else replies with a comment, that will get people clicking back to the site (hopefully).
As for your “easy ratings” that’s more what I had in mind but instead of an easy rating like a thumbs up, I’m going to have “favorites.” So, when a member finds a logo they like, they can “favorite it” which in theory would allow me to display the top logos on the site without having the over-done star rating system. That’s my plan anyway.
Posted on Fri Aug 22, 2008
Hi Deron,
That is a great idea and on the ‘ee techy side’ I looked over at solspace.com for their ‘favorites’ module which looks pretty cool. I must say that is always nice to have this feature on site vs. having to grow your own ‘bookmarks/favorites’ collection in browsers. I must agree that I value ‘my own favorites’ more so than ‘votes’ I have given. 
All the best!
Posted on Mon Aug 25, 2008
Lebisol: Yep, right you are about the Solspace favorites module. I’m already using it on my golf site and that’s what I plan to use for LogoGala.
Have a good one.
Posted on Mon Aug 25, 2008
I don´t think a rating system is needed in this situation. An inspiration gallery website in itself is a rating!!! Cool article!
Posted on Mon Sep 1, 2008
I definately think that top ranked items matter, because if you´re in a hurry or just browsing then this can make the difference between searching the site for longer and leaving it. However, if you want all items to have a chance of being shown, then maybe a ratings system isn´t so good? - Let people make up their own mind?
Posted on Fri Sep 5, 2008
I like the idea of comments. Not everyone is going to read all of them but I think they create a nice sense of community and let everyone feel they can contribute, even in a small way. Just my two cents!
Posted on Mon Sep 15, 2008
I wouldn’t waste the time it would take to implement the feature unless you just want to and aren’t worried about the time spent on it.
It would be a useful feature, however, I don’t think it would be a huge improvement.
Just my thoughts,
Josh
Posted on Tue Sep 23, 2008
Maria: Thanks for your thoughts. That’s true, having the logo on the site should be enough rating in itself. I’m pretty certain that the rating feature is not the way to go and thus why I’m leaning more toward favorites which members of the site would control.
Karlin: Good stuff! Thanks for stopping by and sharing you thoughts.
Sinead: Yeah, that’s how I feel about comments too. Majority of people are not likely to comment, but it does add a sense of community and it’s an extra feature that could potentially keep people coming back to the site, which is the idea.
Josh: Yeah I agree. Since there really is not plug and play rating feature for ExpressionEngine, it does take a fair amount of time to set up ratings and I’m not sure it’s worth the time either. It’s always something I could add later should I decide too or if I an easier solution becomes available. The most important thing is getting the site online.
Posted on Tue Sep 23, 2008
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My name is Deron Sizemore and I am a web designer, web publisher, blogger and serial internet entrepreneur living in Lexington, Kentucky.
When visiting Nice Stylesheet, I usually first check the list of top designs, and then go through the rest. For some reason, I think the ones rated top 10 are often not the ones I would consider best. Maybe that’s because more people are just looking at the site pictures than rating them - which leads to the situation where fans of a site can affect the poll a bit too much.
So, I think an inspiration gallery without ratings might well be a good idea.
On the other hand, ratings are an easy way to make visitors feel that they are participating. So, if you get rid of the ratings, you should probably add something else instead.
Maybe commenting? Or a simple thumbs up instead of a star based rating?
Looking forward to your new inspiration gallery!
Posted on Mon Aug 11, 2008