This is a writeup of some of the functional areas for the Design for Drupal site. Please feel free edit or comment on them.
Main functional areas
Site showcase
This will be an area where firms can post their recently released sites. We will encourage submitting firms to add case studies, and develop a standardized format for the case studies.
Certainly we should try to encourage commentary about these submitted sites, but keeping the discussion friendly in tone and design-centric. In the future we may be able to find an outsiders to write reviews of major sites.
Press room
Any news coverage or press releases issued by Drupal firms would go here, provided that the main subject relates to design, information architecture, or user experience.
Training
D4D’s training area will focus on having a combination of formats for teaching aspiring designers and themers. It should not overlap with the developer forums from d.o. or g.d.o., but focus on issues related to the creative community instead.
Library
Part of the site’s mission is to serve the creative community by developing a library of content that is specifically geared to design/IA/UX professionals. Rather than leaving them to find needles in the d.o. haystack, this area will have content aggregated and written especially for this audience.
Opportunities
This section will be geared at matching talent with positions, either salaried or consulting. It should also be a place that lets potential clients post RFPs and RFQs for Drupal firms
Design Directory
This is a place to have creative firms list themselves and their services. We should also let them report information about themselves that would be important to prospects (capabilities, industries served, minimum budgets, average budgets, reference projects, awards, sales contacts).
Talent could be divided into areas such as design firms, consultants, themers, freelancers, individuals.
Requirements
Reciprocal syndication
News articles, press releases, jobs, and directory listings should be available as RSS feeds or web services so that they can be mirrored or syndicated at Drupal.org. This can also be reciprocal: we should consider having design-related articles on d.o. be set up for syndication on D4D.
Spin-offs:
Design competitions
Annual design review
How-to books geared at designers and themers
Design-specific events (Drupal DesignCamp?)