[Last Updated: 28 November, 2011]
Since the early days of using Twitter, I’ve had a fascination for the insides of idzr, a closed designer community. I saw links by elite designers on twitter, but visiting the site was always faced with disappointment that I couldn’t get my own idzr account (or a dznr, or h4xr, or one of the other few such secret communities in existence).
Recently, idzr got a beautiful facelift, or so said a few elite twitterers part of this community. I contacted Na Wong, the guy behind this project, knowing fully well that he would reject my proposition to do a feature on the site. Turns out he was quite willing to have me post screenshots of the insides on our site, although he warned me that our readers wouldn’t like the idea of seeing something without the opportunity of getting it themselves. A small twitter survey later, I was assured that people wanted to know no matter what. If you are cool with looking at something you can’t have, click ahead to see idzr in all its glory.
So, what is idzr? It’s a service for quickly sharing images, text, and shorturls over the internet. That’s all it does. But it does so with such beauty and elegance, that you’re hard pressed not to use it. I don’t know what the user interface looked like before, but what I like what I see now. Modern buttons, CSS effects, no clutter, no ads—everything feels so pixel perfect, so personal, you can try to upload this on any king of blog hosts you use and see the wonders it can do. Moreover, the workflow is geared to getting your message across instead of racking up pageviews. Part of the reason is because the Na Wong built the site for himself first, so why would he clutter up his own workflow? You can upload images in two steps, or create a text note that renders beautifully to whomsoever you choose to send it to—definitely going to use that instead of Tweetlonger. idzr of course has bookmarklets for creating shorturls no matter where you are. Click it, and a little link bar slides down at the top of your page. Lastly, idzr has an organiser, which allows you to see your gallery of uploads, as well as click tracking for any links or images you’ve shared.
Na Wong writes:
idzr was, and still is, made for my personal need. I needed a way to share urls easily, so I created bookmarklet for that, I want to share text and so there is markdown-powered text sharing. I am not competing with any other service, I just want it to fit my need, that is all.
You can view bookmarks as thumbnails as well.
The thing about idzr, is that its closed community gives you a sense of elitism that you cannot get from using any other service. I’m sure no one really takes notice of the kind of url one shares on twitter (unless of course they’re ugly tinyurls), but for me to send out something with the idzr stamp on it, makes me feel special.
A beautiful minimal widget for uploading images
But I won’t leave you empty handed. There is some pixel goodness that you can get your hands on. And that’s the idzr 404 error page. Just visit any crooked url, and you’ll see something truly magical.
14 Comments
NEED NAO!
Looks really slick. Maybe I’m missing something, but aside from the cool factor of being part of an elite community (and don’t get me wrong, that *is* cool), how is idzr different from some of the other really slick sharing apps/sites like Zootool, Cloud, or Droplr?
@Link: There’s no ads, and that’s one huge difference. Although, Cloud and Droplr have native Cocoa apps which offer a faster workflow for uploading and sharing files. I don’t know, I just can’t explain it. Perhaps I’ll grow out of it. I hope not. :)
Sorry to say this, but it’s not that beautiful. These dark interfaces are not too user-friendly.
@Vojto: Perhaps it’s because you’re seeing it in a cramped up size and missing out on the gentle animations. I found it very usable, unlike other dark UIs.
Always wanted a invite because it’s just SO DAMN COOL U GUYZZZ. Nah, seriously; I was jealous at the people using it (like Jonathan). I’m now using the closed beta of his Cloud App, which comes pretty close and is awesome as well, but still.
If I’d showed some of my awesome-o work to someone, any possibility of getting in? *gets down on his knees and begs*
I’m not sure why I’m even asking this, as I the answer will be No anyway, but hey, who cares?
I love idzr. As Philipp Antoni puts it, “it’s the best clone [of dznr] out there”.
I like how it’s pretty secretive. Adds a nice touch.
To be honest, it is not a design or commercial project, so you may find it is not beautiful.
@Vojto
But I don’t see why dark interface = not user friendly. For me, if I have to find an interface is user-friendly or not, I would have to use it first.
@Link
You are right that all those file-sharing service are almost the same, the difference may be so little. Just when I create idzr, there is no cloud or droplr I can use.
Their motto is a bit pretentious to say the least – aside that why they would even market themselves if they are so exclusive. I don’t see exclusive islands advertising their beauty or exclusive destination telling people sorry you can’t come. In the end they will lose as the force ultimately resides in numbers. I am not envious as I am not a designer my profile is business and business wise this doesn’t make sense – if they have that website just for kicks then good luck with that maybe mom and pap will pay for the website ;)
@T,
The article specifically stated that this was originally just for Na.
As for the website, it is just as I expected – awesome. Well done Na and company.
hmm… if i got one, that’s great… if i don’t, it doesn’t really matter. As long as there are people who thinks it’s useful and great, it’s cool to have it on the web =)
how do you get an invite to idzr??
I want in…
I’m also wondering if there is any way to get an invite, please respond if you know :)
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