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Show DN: Meet the new Geisha

9 years ago from , Co-founder of Panda

Designers like to browse, a lot! We’re always on the hunt for the latest thing to give us that edge. This means many opened tabs. But what if you could browse all your favourite sites, like Dribbble, Designer News and Hacker News, all in one place?

Meet the new Geisha http://geisha.io

For the past couple of months Ahmet and I have worked closely with our users to learn and improve what Ahmet had originally built last year. And the response has been good. Now, we want to take make things better for designers. So expect to see new cool things. For example, in a couple of weeks, we will be adding ffffound to the mix.

Probably the most exciting news is that Geisha can be now accessed as web app http://geisha.io/app Whilst our Chrome extension replaces your default tab the web app does not.

Love to gather your thoughts. Tell us what you think in the comments below!

Ahmet and William

79 comments

  • Sacha GreifSacha Greif, 9 years ago

    Now with Sidebar! :)

    5 points
  • Sarah Mills, 9 years ago

    Hi Ahmet and William, awesome app! I was just curious, because I can't find the answer on the site, why you named it "Geisha"?

    4 points
    • Ahmet SulekAhmet Sulek, 9 years ago

      I've saved the name for a design project as I was looking for it's meaning. Quoting wikipeidia;

      Geisha (/??e???/; Japanese: [?e??a]),[1] The word consists of two kanji, ? (gei) meaning "art" and ? (sha) meaning "person" or "doer".

      0 points
      • Sarah Mills, 9 years ago

        Cool. In the spirit of honest feedback, and I am sure it wasn't your intention, but: I am finding the name/branding problematic (though it doesn't appear anyone else is), combined with the feedback text of "How can I serve you better?" and the mascot illustration...I would really like to use this and add the extension, but I am finding it kind of offensive. Specifically in regards to perpetuating an asian female submissive stereotype—as designers we have to be cognizant of cultural implications of our designs and I like to think, inclusive of everyone.

        Anyway, best of luck, it seems like a really useful tool.

        6 points
        • Emelyn BakerEmelyn Baker, 9 years ago

          You're not alone — I find it incredibly problematic as well. The illustration is playing on some really outdated and offensive stereotypes, in my opinion.

          5 points
        • Nancy TsangNancy Tsang, 9 years ago

          Same here!

          2 points
        • William ChannerWilliam Channer, 9 years ago

          I've offended you and I’m sorry. We called the app Geisha because traditionally they where known to be ‘person of the arts’.

          With regards to 'How can I serve you better', you're right, it was uncalled-for. I've changed it. Sorry.

          Thanks for the honest feedback. Happy to talk more: william.channer@gmail.com

          2 points
      • Allison HouseAllison House, 9 years ago (edited 9 years ago )

        The word geisha definitely sounds cool, and I understand why the translated meaning was interesting to you. There are just tons of historical, cultural, and social implications wrapped up in Westerners distorting and capitalizing on cherished parts of Asian tradition. It's not just a word; doesn't exist in a vacuum. It's a cultural symbol and deserves authentic and respectful representation.

        9c962c4765db2f8195a3424e5873250b

        When I imagine the most damaging, racist stereotype for East Asian women, it looks something like this. The "china doll" or "geisha girl" caricature consistently exoticizes, commodifies, infantilizes, and misrepresents us in every form of Western media. Did you know 40–60% of Asian women experience sexual violence during their lifetimes? The dehumanization and fetishization of Asian women has horrific consequences, and stereotypes around submissiveness are a big part of that.

        That's why it's disturbing to see your mascot, an Asian woman, say eerily obedient stuff. Like, "My sole purpose is to [do stuff for you]," and "I will serve you." She doesn't get a real name or identity, (literally) serving to embody and reinforce the stereotype.

        This is only a shred of the greater context, but I hope it clarifies why the branding is problematic. These stereotypes infect every aspect of Asian women's lives, and it's a bummer to see them (accidentally) bolstered in our community. I'm 100% sure no harm was intended by Ahmet or William, and it's otherwise a fantastic product. We'd just like to feel welcome using it! :-)

        4 points
  • Sherizan SheikhSherizan Sheikh, 9 years ago

    SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY. Oh wait, its free! Good one Ahmet!

    3 points
  • Jamie MillJamie Mill, 9 years ago

    Nice work! I didn't see the previous version so I'm not familiar with this.

    Some feedback:

    The description ("what if you could browse all your favourite sites, like Dribbble, Designer News and Hacker News, all in one place?") made me assume I could see content from all these places on a single page. But when I tried it out, I could only see Dribble and DesignerNews. So I hit the "menu" icon and saw icons for other feeds, assuming I had to activate them too. But what actually happened is it replaced Dribble with Behance. For me, this doesn't live up to the expectation of being able to browse in one place if I can only see two at a time. For now, I'll continue to use the links in my bookmark bar which are just as easy as your toggling.

    I accidentally discovered that clicking a title bar cycled through the feeds. I don't think that's obvious or intuitive. It wasn't clear what was going on for me there, and I'm not sure how people would discover it. Likewise with cycling through latest and popular. I was still confused about why I couldn't get everything to display at once so my mental model was not in tune with the system.

    I think your "collapse" arrow on the left-hand is pointing the wrong way. When it points to the right I expected to expand or see more somehow, but it actually collapsed it.

    Keep up the nice work though! These feeds are all favourites of mine, so I very much like the idea.

    1 point
    • Spencer BombermanSpencer Bomberman, 9 years ago

      Regarding the lines of the "collapse" arrow pointing the wrong direction, it seems that all of the buttons indicate the current state, NOT what state the UI will be in after clicking. The title bar cycling through the feeds is another example of this. It is very confusing.

      0 points
  • Murat MutluMurat Mutlu, 9 years ago

    Been using this for a while now, love it. Great way to keep up to date. Keep up the awesome work!

    Would love to fit HN, DN and a single line of Dribbble in the same screen.

    1 point
    • Ahmet SulekAhmet Sulek, 9 years ago

      We've never thought of this! Nice feedback, could be possible for larger screens..

      0 points
  • Ahmet YalcinkayaAhmet Yalcinkaya, 9 years ago

    Nice to see an app instead of chrome extension. Awesome work, one of my favourite bookmark :)

    1 point
    • Ahmet SulekAhmet Sulek, 9 years ago

      It's sad to lose you from the extension crew, you have to promise that you'll be visiting everyday :)

      0 points
  • Lucas BebberLucas Bebber, 9 years ago

    Nice work!

    One thing I miss is a link to the comments/comments count on each post. Is there any plans for that?

    1 point
  • Cihad TurhanCihad Turhan, 9 years ago

    Woohoo, that's awesome. Bookmarked already. New design rocks. I didn't prefer extension because it removes all my bookmarks so I can't access them in a new tab. Thank you guys.

    1 point
  • Sebastián RibasSebastián Ribas, 9 years ago

    I have been using Geisha since the beginning of the year and I love it. Thanks for the hard work!

    1 point
  • Arun DadhwalArun Dadhwal, 9 years ago

    My favorite homepage. Up-voted! :)

    1 point
  • Lewis FludeLewis Flude, 9 years ago

    I find the lack of scrollability a little bit confusing. Other than that, excellent job!

    1 point
    • Ahmet SulekAhmet Sulek, 9 years ago

      Thank you Lewis! In the application or on the landing page?

      0 points
      • Lewis FludeLewis Flude, 9 years ago

        Just the landing page. Not a big deal, just wanted to give constructive feedback. :)

        0 points
      • Al HaighAl Haigh, 9 years ago

        Great work! One small thing is, I couldn't find the scrollbar in the application until I realised it was that little circle. Personally I don't feel like you should replace the default browser scrollbars. I love how the loading 'throbber' replaces the circle, but I think if you just made that circle a rectangle, it would prevent people from becoming frustrated :)

        0 points
  • Recep KütükRecep Kütük, 9 years ago

    Now my firefox has a new start page :)

    1 point
  • Noah BuscherNoah Buscher, 9 years ago

    Awesome work, man! Looks great.

    1 point
  • Nattu Adnan, 9 years ago

    Thanks for the wonderful plugin. Can you please add a favicon to chrome app? Thanks

    0 points
  • Thom StoodleyThom Stoodley, 9 years ago (edited 9 years ago )

    This has destroyed my productivity – thanks! :–D Is there a way to get rid of the Dribbble feed?

    0 points
  • s0fa potato, 9 years ago

    now if only this could be manipulated to include Pinterest feeds....

    0 points
  • s0fa potato, 9 years ago

    this is awesome!

    0 points
  • Emily SaforrianEmily Saforrian, 9 years ago

    Great product, two small feature requests:

    1. Can I get a link to DN in the sidebar somewhere? I like the list of links but sometimes I want to come here instead.
    2. What about giving a link to comments for each item? The number of comments on an item might be useful too.
    0 points
  • Laurie CaiLaurie Cai, 9 years ago (edited 9 years ago )

    Awesome product. Setting as new homepage!

    0 points
  • Jim SilvermanJim Silverman, 9 years ago

    wish it was more customizable. would love to have more than two columns going at once.

    0 points
  • iBeck ErkinoviBeck Erkinov, 9 years ago

    Geisha is really great app, I think I use it from its release. Maybe just for me but I think overlay is not so useful. Anyways keep up great work guys!

    0 points
  • Evan KnightEvan Knight, 9 years ago (edited 9 years ago )

    that switch between DN and YC is so smooth. omg. <3

    0 points
  • Pizza Yap , 9 years ago

    Love the new layout! Awesome work!

    0 points
  • Felipe HernandezFelipe Hernandez, 9 years ago

    I actually like that you guys decided not to use a traditional scroll bar but I think the circle looks a little out of place. Other than that I'm loving the Chrome extension! Great job!

    0 points
    • Ahmet SulekAhmet Sulek, 9 years ago

      We'll consider this, we got the same feedback from 2 other people as well. Thank you Felipe!

      0 points
  • Daniel HaimDaniel Haim, 9 years ago

    Looks great.

    0 points
  • Alasdair MonkAlasdair Monk, 9 years ago

    Looks awesome – lovely ui

    0 points
  • Ryan LeFevreRyan LeFevre, 9 years ago

    Are you guys using the new Designer News API for this by any chance? If not, email me (ryan@layervault.com) and I'll hook you up with some OAuth credentials.

    0 points
  • Novita PrasetiaNovita Prasetia, 9 years ago

    Hey guys, I think I found a glitch on my Geisha.. i.e: when you hover over any Dribble's or Behance's thumbnail, suddenly all thumbnails just disappeared.. do you know why?

    0 points
  • joe andersonjoe anderson, 9 years ago

    Nice! Would love bigger font sizes on the nav items. Also lines rather than spaces to separate the list items so its super easy to scan

    0 points
  • Josh Sanders, 9 years ago

    I wasn't aware of any coming updates to Geisha, but i randomly started browsing last night and i have Geisha set to my default opening page in chrome. needless to say, I LOVE the new design and functionality! keep up the awesome work

    0 points
  • Ahmet SulekAhmet Sulek, 9 years ago

    Nice to see these feedbacks, thank you all. We're really glad to see these nice feedbacks and can't wait to improve Geisha with your suggestions.

    0 points
  • Ozgur OzerOzgur Ozer, 9 years ago (edited 9 years ago )

    Çok hos bir tasarim yeni güncellemeleri de sabirsizlikla bekliyoruz :)

    0 points
  • Joshua MartensJoshua Martens, 9 years ago

    Looks great! Good work. I like the new features. I'm loving the chrome extension. Thank you for making this.

    0 points
  • Garth BraithwaiteGarth Braithwaite, 9 years ago

    nice progress.

    0 points
  • Kat BobbittKat Bobbitt, 9 years ago

    Great job, guys! Are you planning on incorporating Chrome notifications into Geisha?

    0 points
  • Hmphry xHmphry x, 9 years ago (edited 9 years ago )

    Awesome improvement, however sometimes the setting menu is open for a split second when loading and then slides out. Not sure why. It seems to happen at random and I didn't get much of a chance to look into it. It doesn't affect usability, just a bit jarring.

    0 points
  • Fabian ValkenbergFabian Valkenberg, 9 years ago

    Very nice! Why is it not possible to view one stream of the behance and dribble posts?

    Looking forward to the possibility to add fffffound. Are there also plans for other sites?

    0 points
  • Belkin FahriBelkin Fahri, 9 years ago

    Awesome work! Good job guys!

    0 points
  • Kaan Eryilmaz, 9 years ago

    Amazing job, keep up the good work! :)

    0 points