Let's get critical: Mar 2013 Site Evaluation

Question

We all love Graphic Design - Stack Exchange, but there is a whole world of people out there who need answers to their questions and don't even know that this site exists. When they arrive from Google, what will their first impression be? Let's try to look at this site through the eyes of someone who's never seen it before, and see how we stack up against the rest of the 'Net.

The Site Evaluation review queue is open and populated with 10 questions that were asked and answered in the last quarter. Run a few Google searches to see how easy they are to find and compare the answers we have with the information available on other sites.

Rating the questions is only a part of the puzzle, though. Do you see a pattern of questions that should have been closed but are not? Questions or answers that could use an edit? Anything that's going really well? Post an answer below to share your thoughts and discuss these questions and the site's health with your fellow users!

Answer 1

I'll focus on the questions themselves rather on the search results they give. I'll try to add more information once I have enough time to start this task.

All of these seem quite similar to the previous(es) quarter(s). We have some typical "How to" for Photoshop and Illustrator, a subject that has been discussed before; some (from my point of view) interesting broader ones that generate good quality content; and some very specific one that point issues and might work better for seo.

It's definitely important to evaluate the last few months, although I was surprised none of the new "Art" questions were on the list. These are quite recent, of course, but it's exactly what we have been discussing in Meta. We think it would be a good idea to broaden the scope to include illustration and general fine arts questions (the results from this change will not be visible for a couple of months, but it's something to keep in mind). We are also discussing changing the name to "Graphic Design & Art", and there seems to be an agreement in doing it.

So while these past questions are worth taking a look at, and if the name and scope changes take effect, we will now probably enter a new period with more visitors and new families of questions. For these reasons I think it's important to evaluate the last quarter, but to do it considering the possible future changes and improvements.

Answer 2

Final Results

• How can I determine if my color QR code is reliably readable?

  Net Score: 5 (Excellent: 5, Satisfactory: 11, Needs Improvement: 0)

• How would I know how good of a designer I am?

  Net Score: 7 (Excellent: 9, Satisfactory: 3, Needs Improvement: 2)

• Is there a metric for "apparent" chroma?

  Net Score: 4 (Excellent: 6, Satisfactory: 6, Needs Improvement: 2)

• How to create a smoothing photo effect in GIMP

  Net Score: -4 (Excellent: 1, Satisfactory: 8, Needs Improvement: 5)

• How do I create a look & feel?

  Net Score: 10 (Excellent: 11, Satisfactory: 2, Needs Improvement: 1)

• Use fill/stroke with rounded rectangle that only has 3 sides in photoshop?

  Net Score: 1 (Excellent: 2, Satisfactory: 10, Needs Improvement: 1)

• Group paths into fillable objects/Join open paths in Illustrator?

  Net Score: 4 (Excellent: 5, Satisfactory: 7, Needs Improvement: 1)

• Layout with Tables - Hierarchy

  Net Score: -2 (Excellent: 1, Satisfactory: 9, Needs Improvement: 3)

• How to change patterns in a clip with an alpha matte version

  Net Score: -3 (Excellent: 0, Satisfactory: 9, Needs Improvement: 3)

• Is there a way to script InDesign to read the EXIF information of a photo?

  Net Score: 5 (Excellent: 5, Satisfactory: 7, Needs Improvement: 0)