The quality of an organization hinges on the strength of its processes. Although feedback mechanisms are common, designers frequently find it challenging to determine whether the feedback they receive is genuinely constructive for project advancement. This piece delves into design feedback, providing insights on both giving and fostering a culture that values it.
What is UI design feedback?
Design feedback provides a valuable opportunity for team members, clients, and stakeholders to review and analyze design concepts. This crucial step in the design process reveals what's effective, what isn't, and areas for improvement.
Constructive feedback is instrumental in creative development, fostering learning from experience and refining your skills. It also illuminates potential design flaws, providing clearer direction. This early awareness of optimization opportunities ultimately leads to an enhanced user experience.
While collaboration is key to good design feedback, merely convening individuals isn't sufficient. It requires an intentional and thoughtful approach, ensuring that team members, clients, and stakeholders possess a basic working knowledge of how to analyze and critique creative solutions effectively.
How to give design feedback
Most designers have experienced the frustration of leaving a feedback session more perplexed than before. Whether due to overly subjective or disappointingly vague comments, the feedback ultimately lacked the actionable insights needed to refine their ideas.
The issue isn't that your colleagues are unable to offer good feedback. It's that they haven't yet learned the specific skills for providing constructive design input. However, with a bit of guidance, you can unlock the potential for feedback that truly drives your projects forward – both the feedback you receive and the feedback you give.
How to effectively critique designs
Keep the project goal in mind.
Every project aims for a specific outcome. Instead of merely reacting to a design, ground your critique in the project's overarching goals.
Ineffective: Make the buttons blue.
Effective: The brightness of these button colors could potentially cause visual fatigue for our users. Considering our goal of a seamless user experience, how might we adjust this?
Be specific.
Unclear feedback creates confusion and stalls project momentum. Instead of fostering understanding, it leads to misinterpretations. Before long, subsequent iterations miss the mark. Remember, clarity is key – the more specific your feedback, the more effective it will be.
Vague: I like it. or I don't like it.
Specific: The extended loading time is causing frustration and could lead to user drop-off. What strategies can we implement to improve this?
Be clear.
Be precise in your communication. If you're struggling to express your ideas, leverage visual references from existing designs or quickly sketch your suggestion to clearly demonstrate your intent to the designers.
Unclear: Make it pop.
Clear: The menu design currently blends in too much. Could we explore different color palettes, font styles, and size variations to make it more prominent?
Who should give design feedback
Effective design feedback hinges on the right participants, whether in person or online. Including too many unnecessary individuals inevitably leads to wasted time for everyone involved. When organizing design reviews, ensure you invite only those whose presence is absolutely essential. A simple yet powerful step is to review your invitation list and confirm the direct relevance of each person to the project.
The list of necessary attendees will evolve as the project progresses. For instance, an internal creative review would typically involve only the core creative team, a creative director, and the project manager. A client review would then expand to include these individuals plus the client and relevant leadership team members.
Tip: Including just one or two representatives from the client and leadership teams in a design review is often sufficient to convey the client's perspective effectively, significantly reducing the risk of lengthy and unproductive meetings.
Asking for feedback
The challenge with design feedback lies in two critical areas: mastering the art of giving constructive criticism and understanding how to effectively solicit feedback. To optimize this process, it's crucial to set clear expectations by asking targeted questions, seeking feedback regularly, and providing sufficient time for review. Implementing some structure can further benefit both you and your clients in achieving desired outcomes from the feedback process.
Schedule design reviews.
Thoughtful design feedback is hard to come by if it's not valued by your organization or team. Scheduling dedicated review sessions signals its importance and provides the necessary time and space for thorough consideration of designs.
The frequency of these sessions will vary based on the project's needs and scale, team and client availability, and organizational approval processes. Remember, reviews should be a catalyst for progress in both the project and the creative process – an asset, not an obstacle. If they become the latter, pay close attention to the following advice.
Create a design feedback checklist.
Providing an easily accessible design feedback checklist that guides individuals on how to offer constructive input will significantly enhance the quality of your review sessions. This checklist should incorporate the tips discussed here, along with collaboration guidelines specific to your organization. It would be beneficial for your creative team to collaboratively define what constitutes effective feedback and establish clear expectations for review meetings.
Talk through the design feedback process with employees and clients.
Simply distributing a design feedback checklist isn't enough; it's crucial to discuss it with team members and clients to ensure understanding and adoption. For many organizations, this discussion is a standard part of both new employee and new client onboarding.
For existing client relationships, a design or account lead should proactively schedule time to discuss any upcoming changes to the design feedback process with stakeholders, ensuring everyone is aligned.
To keep feedback focused on project objectives, consider creating tailored checklists for different project types (e.g., product launches versus feature updates). Furthermore, including the design feedback checklist in every brief and client-facing presentation can help maintain focus during review meetings.
Use tools that encourage feedback.
Using Figma or Sketch apps, you and your team can provide valuable feedback before UI design review meetings. This shifts the meeting focus to collaboratively finding solutions for already highlighted concerns. Transform your static designs into interactive prototypes for compelling presentations in any setting. Encourage direct, in-context commenting on your designs, ensuring you understand the precise focus of each critique.
A cycle that drives results
Ultimately, feedback is frequently more complex than givers realize. However, with clear explanation and some direction, the entire process can evolve from a source of conflict to a collaborative endeavor, ultimately yielding a more thoughtful and comprehensive product.
