So MakerWorld has definitely come a long way and larger than we anticipated in a short time. As a designer we support everyone that dedicates their time to provide services and models of all kinds simply for fun or to get their name out there.
Since we’re a small team with limited time, we don’t see growth as much as we would love to if we sat down and pumped out models every week. One thing we’ve noticed is there isn’t really a breakdown or trait of designers listed. So all of our models pretty much get pumped out into this MakerPool and the best ones get plucked and put on front street.
But what if MakerWorld separated/Categorized each designer/modeler but what they specialize in modeling/making.
We tend to simply model useful stuff, so our popular creation was the “X1C,P1P,P1S Poop Chute Boot” which we stumbled upon with one of our newer P1 series printers and wondered why our X1C and older P1P didn’t have one. So now it gave users the peace of knowing you could replace yours or make it any color you’d want.
I’d say a good list would be the following:
Functional Creator
Artistic Modeler
Business Creations
Free Range Designer
Precision Engineer
Mechanical Complex Modeler
Just threw some ideas out there on tags the creators could be labeled as. So say we have 1 art model and 5 functional models, I’d say we would go with “Functional Creator” so someone who was searching could see our 5 models instead of maybe the art print was more so popular.
I could be out of the realm here but any feedback from the MakerWorld community would be awesome!. Let’s not forget we’re building this platform so let’s utilize and shape it the way we want to!
This is strictly focused more on the higher tiered creators, not saying we are.
This is more for business oriented makers. If you want to excel and build on your skills you focused on 1 area. Flexi factory is a great modeler but he doesn’t design functional things like a lamp. He more than likely could be he doesn’t because he’s great in his area now.
Sure you can model anything and everything, but what would you be known for being the best at? Out of 12 various models ranging from tools,figures,phone stand you’d probably have a vast following with only 2 or 3.
This is more so an idea of breaking down the creators that stick to what they do best. This could also simply be a label on a Maker’s profile which could go with a tag.
i see where your going and that sounds like just adding stuff to add stuff a whole lot of unnecessary sections if i want a toy ill look up toy if i want it functional ill look up functional its really not that hard and even if i dont know exactly what to search for there is already categories
Some kind of added flare that a designer can add to their profile could be fun though. I like on like thingiverse, that they give a few extra fields that give some common tags, for like the design tools you use, or who are you (Artist, designer, engineer, student, etc). It could be added for what your area of focus/interest is too. Just a few extra ways to express ourselves.
I don’t know if this is exactly what is needed, but, there IS something missing.
For example, I’m creating public collections, and I’m shoving all my own creations inside for a specific type of make (video game, functional prints, etc). I somehow feel dirty collecting my own stuff, but, I see no other way to help users quickly find “this type of stuff I make”.
Users seeking video game themed items don’t give a ■■■■ that I also made a spoon dispenser adapter or a modular Tupperware lid organizer; They want more video game stuff - why make them browse my creations that they aren’t interested in?
SO… I guess I agree with OP. Something is missing, I just can’t put my finger on it.
Using collections to group your own projects is a good idea, I think maybe what’s ‘missing’ is being able to group them yourself on your main page instead of through the collections page. I would definitely group all my models up with self-made categories on my main page
I agree with this. This overall is one of the things makerworld really needs, as a few creators get into the hundreds of objects. It’s messy trying to look through those people’s items! Like there’s nothing wrong with sorting them into collections! But I agree, that there should be a way to sort your own stuff into collections, as it’d appear on your home page, separate from the regular collections.
I don’t think people are as likely to go to the collections tab on their own, so I think having a designer set of collections that are specific to their home page, would be great!
I can imagine something like this. You go to a designer’s home page. Instead of it just listing all of their objects by release, it has 4 items along the top which are featured, then a collection of folders below that for categorized items, then below that is a list of items sorted by release.
Agree. I created collections of my designs some time ago and would like to show them prominently on my Makerworld page.
It would also be necessary to be able to edit the collections yourself. For example, I would like to be able to choose the cover image and perhaps also the order.
Ahh speaking of collections, I really want to be able to search for collections instead of individual models. I’ve mentioned this before, and I’ll say it again, it’s a much better way to find relevant models.
It’s hard sometimes parsing through the junk. Most collections are decently curated though, so if I’m searching for “trains”, it can be difficult to find what I’m after, but finding a “trains” collection, can be much more fruitful. This isn’t speculation. This is how I started to find difficult to find stuff on like thingiverse, very specifically, model train related models. I came across a ton of stuff I struggled to find just through the search function.