Literacy on Dribbble

Dribbble jargon is quite easy to pick up on. As with any social networking site, Dribbble has it's own set of Web 2.0 words that define actions performed on the site. Twitter has Tweets, Facebook has Pokes, Fourqaure has Mayors, etc. The Dribbble lexicon is based off of basketball terms. For example, when you post a 400x300 screengrab of your work, it is called a 'shot' and people participating on the site are called 'players'. Designers can 'rebound' other players' shots by posting a screengrab of their own in response to another player's shot. Furthermore, shots that have a lot of rebounds become 'playoffs.' There are additional buzzwords that further designate the players on Dribbble. Players who have been on the site for long enough are called 'pros' while new players are labeled 'rookies.' Since you must be invited to participate on the site, a new user can indicate themselves as a 'prospect' to signal that they want to get 'drafted' as  player.

Learning these terms are quite easy, as is with joining any social networking site. However, there are literacies involved with being familiar in graphic, product, and web design to fully understand the discussions on the site. For example, players may comment on the type design in a certain shot, and write about kearning and leading, which are all terms related to typography. They may even go into talking about crossbars, terminals, and apertures, which are again, all terms related to typography and type design. Below, I've included screengrabs of another conversation that utilizes non-colloquial abbreviations:

Here we see players using terms such as UX and UI, which stand for 'user experience' and 'user 'interface' respectively. They are both specializations in graphic design.