Design Critiques — Art, not craft
5 actionable ways to elevate design critiques
Before we get into design crits, let’s talk art vs craft. What is each and what is the difference? Setting this stage is important to understand the context of this article, so let’s dive in.
Art is unstructured — it’s imaginative, provocative, considerate and compassionate. It’s the juice of creative thinking. Art originates from the heart
Craft is about structure — it’s about excellence, flawless execution and the pinnacle of practice. Craft originates from the mind.
Now that we have the nomenclature out of the way, let’s talk design crit. Ask any (good) designer and they will tell you how much they love design crits. They love the idea of jamming about design ideas, thinking about (im)possible futures, and dreaming up near perfect experiences. Designers will often tell you crits get their creative juices flowing.
However several times here’s what ends up happening — The presenting designers often feel attacked — even if they are not the type to take things personally. Designers that put up their work up for critique can sometimes emerge feeling unheard, and even disrespected by being bombarded with solutions that are unrealistic or not contextual.
The reason? Though the critiquing design committee might come from a good place, several times as designers, we tend to focus and provide feedback on craft than the art of user experience. Craft based critiques are prescriptive, based on personal biases, and usually provided without consideration to the context. Several times, this is what leads to hurt feelings. So my kind request to fellow designers, focus on art. The craft will follow!
So here are some actionable ways as the quorum, to make the design crit experience better for your fellow designer. It’s great karma to get on your side, as you might be the presenting designer one day after all.
Acknowledge the hard work
The presenting designer has spent an incredible amount of time and effort coming up with various design solutions. Acknowledge the hard work — not just in terms of effort, but in actionable aspects that you find are inspiring. It’s ok to get prescriptive here and say things like — I love the color scheme you put together, this IA is so effortless to understand or this is such a unique way of solving the problem. The reason I suggest getting prescriptive with praise is because it makes the praise genuine — and gives signals about aspects that the designer should preserve in their upcoming iterations.
So go ahead, get specific about your Kudos!
Ditch the “Nice” sandwich
I might be ruffling a few feathers here, but I’m not a fan of the nice sandwich. Why? — It is long-winded, it creates anticipation that bad news is coming, and it treats professionals like amateurs who can’t have their feelings hurt.
If you think there are aspects of the design which could be executed differently, lead with questions, ask why’s. Once you have the context, make bring up suggestive examples of alternate executions you have seen to enable the designer to stretch their imagination. Talking in usability principles that specifics can also enable elevating the discussion around problems to be solved over specific solutions.
Focus on adding value and getting the designer to think out loud, through your feedback than forcing niceties. Honest, astute, clear feedback is a gift. Give it to your fellow designers without masking it in mayo!
Lead with questions
I hate to say this — but we all could ask more questions. We all are asking 50% lesser questions than we could be, and being 50% less curious than we could be (yes, I’m making a broad assumption, but this is what the nature of our job does to us)
One of the best ways to learn and grow as a designer is to lead with questions. Some very specific examples of great questions to ask during design crits (if the designer has not already set the context).
- What would be the goals of this design? What are KPIs you are tracking (if any) and what will make this successful?
- What stage of maturity is this design? Would there be benefit in aligning to an existing design system?
- Have you considered how this design could scale?
- Is accessibility important to you at this point of your product development cycle or do you have a limited audience you are targeting?
- Should you be considering design accommodations for localization as yet?
Resist the urge to come up with solutions
It’s as simple as this. When you see yourself saying things like— you should do the horizontal nav bar instead, I really hate apps that use this design pattern, you should make this all blue or this will be so much better with a rounded corner button — understand you don’t own the design. The presenting designer does.
You don’t have the context to the design work or constraints, that the presenting designer does.
You don’t own the consequences of your suggestions — the presenting designer does.
So when you feel the urge to come up with solutions on the fly — please consider telling yourself — STOP!
Respect the designer’s work, role and their capability!
Share inspiration
People love to be inspired. Inspiration is the positive energy that fills up the world with possibilities, so try your part to inspire the designer that’s presenting the work.
Suggest aspirational examples from similar or tangential products, weave in experiences from a different vertical that could be applied to the current context leading to innovative experiences, and suggest ways to rekindle the fire of inspired design work.
Again, with inspiration it’s easy to get prescriptive, so ensure that you articulate the shortcomings of the design and why there’s scope to enhance it to apply it to the current context.
In conclusion, design crits should be about leaving the presenting designer and the quorum inspired. Strong subjective opinions don’t hold their place in such contexts. Realizing that can elevate the conversation to focus on problem solving and creating inspired solutions.
Hey there! I’m Sindhu — A Senior Product Designer at Roku. Previously I built my own startup and worked at a startup studio called PSL. Oh also, I worked at Amazon building Amazon Key :) I love building new products and ideas.
Want to discuss startups and design? I’m all ears! Email me at sindu.ux@gmail.com. I can’t wait to hear all your stories :)
