As $pachunka put it, I had a good run on naming things up until Project Sleek. But the good news is, it should live up to its name, minus the poor taste.

Sleek

The driving factor behind this project is a rather simple question: Why do we even have a Browse section, when BROWSING ART is the very essence of deviantART.com? So we've made the decision to Merge Browse, Search 2.0 (which releases with Project Sleek) and the deviantART Home Page in place of the Customizable Slots. Not to worry, we aren't eliminating the slots they'll still be available.



Even better than Slots however is what we should have always had, but couldn't afford to pull off; a full featured Search Index with mass-filtering capabilities. Translation: You can check and un-check Root-Galleries and Sub-Galleries of deviantART, SAVE, and from that point forward your browsing and Searching is auto-refined to your favorite deviantART Categories. Essentially permitting you to easily filter-out hundreds of galleries that don't suit your tastes.

Did I mention name searching for artists?

Anyway, in testing this I've refined a Browse Mode for myself which narrows my viewing experience to approximately 24,000 deviations per day, vs. the 80,000 that are submitted every day. This way I'm able to slice the gallery index in a way that is favorable particularly to me, yet there are still enough deviations in the view so that I could never possibly browse every one in a day.



With millions of members browsing through slices this way, much larger audiences will able to filter down to YOUR art work. Especially if you're not super-popular! Also with the highly increased targeting for every member, we find the experience to be considerably more......... crack-addictive. Good bye good grades. Unless you're in art school and in need of inspiration.

Sad side note: I get quite a few notes from dAddicts who can't seem to log off while at work and get FIRED for deviating on the clock. We understand. Film launch has been especially distracting around HQ. Fortunately for our team it's somehow "work"

For Fellow Designers: A Favor to ask!

If you've got a particular passion for deviantART in the form of feature requests, and especially if you tend to mock them up and post them in your gallery, or other such awesomeness. Firstly, LET ME KNOW. Link me, I'll collect thoughts and I may merge your suggestions in to upcoming projects if they fit with what we're doing. If we use your ideas, we'll hook you up some way or another. In fact, it could lead to a design job with deviantART in our Creative department, or as a UI designer within Devious Technology, or ... you could even end up on my direct design team!

I'm pretty ... silent and ninja-esque about my behind the scenes work on deviantART. In fact that's precisely why I'm the black ninja who... *ahem* hides in the shadows But I do UI Lead various deviantART software projects, especially these days. And I'm always looking for designers to work with me. Currently I'm working on some projects with ^zilla774 and with =ipholio and Project Sleek with ¢starvingartist

Hints:

Your deviantART Gallery (on your user page) is in need of folders. We've got the UI concept for this pretty nailed down, but if you've had something on your mind for that... now's the time to scream from the mountain tops.

Obviously Browse & Search functionality you wish you had is a red hot item at the moment. I think you're going to love what we've come up with, but unique approaches may open our eyes in time to a unique perspective outside of the box.

Message Center - The new message center is pretty much super-charged in terms of interface. We think we've got a killer approach to it. But, give it a shot! No limits, you don't have to stick to any boundaries currently in place... like, don't feel restricted by the current function of the thing. Feel free to think completely outside of what's currently available with the Message Center; what would you like to see there? Go for it. Hint-within-hints: We're going for full blown email-client style ala gmail.

If you need it, if you really want it; show us. Chances are, we're missing something you see clearly. We'll build it. Hell, one of these days, we'll open up the platform.. let you help the community directly. Meanwhile, have fun with it... I don't know, perhaps this is a shot in the dark but... Being a UI lead for deviantART is my favorite thing to do.

Listening intently,
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