1/2 Giving Design Feedback
How to get your point across without making creative enemies.
Feedback is great, it drives the creative process and leads to a better end result. But giving design feedback can be hard. There’s a fine line between making your thoughts constructive rather than critical. So here are my ten top tips to guide you through the minefield and help make the feedback process a delight.
10. Preparation is key
Make sure the brief is correct and includes all of the project information (even if you’re not sure it’s relevant).
9. Avoid contradictions
“Our current user group are in their mid 30’s so the design needs to cater to them. But we’re also keen to expand and appeal to teenagers, so it needs to work for a younger audience too.”
It’s extremely difficult to create a design that caters to multiple user groups or satisfies differing stakeholders. A clear brief at the outset should avoid contradictions later down the line.
If there are multiple people feeding back, make sure you’re aligned before passing on the comments. It helps to have just one point of contact between client and designer.
8. Avoid cliches
“Let your creative juices flow.”
“Take it to the next level.”
“We want to break the internet.”
All of these phrases are a sure fire way to switch off your designer’s feedback receptor. Which leads us nicely on to the next point…
7. Be specific
Try not to leave your feedback open to interpretation. For example, don’t say: “It needs to be more fun.”
Fun to you might mean a comic book style with rounded elements, whereas your designer might think a fun design means bright colours.
Is it the font, the colours, the positioning of an image? If there are elements you don’t like, be as specific as possible.
6. Be honest
Pretending to love a design to avoid hurting your designer’s feelings will only leave you dissatisfied with the end result. Of course designers are passionate about their work, but they will still admit that they don’t know everything. At the end of the day you know your business and audience best.
If you’re worried about upsetting someone, try framing a negative as a point that needs improvement. Wording is key. You can get the same outcome without needing to say anything bad.
The same applies if you don’t have any feedback to add. You don’t have to give feedback for feedback’s sake. It’s ok if you love the first or second iteration of the design and feel confident that it meets the brief. Forced feedback can actually harm the design process.
5. You’re not always right
Whilst you know your business and audience best, your designer knows design (and should have gone through a thorough research phase to make sure they understand your customers). You may not like a colour they’ve chosen, but if they explain that it converts better, listen.
4. Don’t make it personal
Your personal feelings and preferences shouldn’t play a part in this process. Although it would be nice to have a design with all your favourite colours and fonts, remember this is for your target audience, not to hang on your wall at home. For example;
Don’t say: “I’m not a big fan of red!”
Do say: “Red is a very aggressive colour. Could we try blue or something with calmer connotations? I think it would work better for our customers.”
3. Don’t get stuck on what you have in your head
You might start with a clear picture in your head of what your website will look like. Don’t restrict your designer by expecting them to duplicate what you’ve already mentally designed.
You hired a designer for their expertise and experience — make sure you get your money’s worth.
2. Avoid designing by committee
You may want to share the designs with your whole company. This can be helpful and highlight issues that you may not have noticed. However, if you ask for everyone’s opinion you’ll also get a lot of subjective feedback based on people’s personal tastes.
In that case it’s a good idea to keep a list — clear out any duplicates and highlight the important points. An easy way to share everything with your designer, but keep it clear that not all feedback has to be implemented, is to categorise points into “musts” (i.e. goes against brand guidelines), and “maybes” (i.e. icon or colour changes).
Alternatively, it can be simpler to keep feedback to key stakeholders who are aligned on goals and understand the brief.
1. Don’t be dramatic
Choose your words carefully. Remember there’s no body language to help communicate your tone of voice when you’re providing feedback online. What might have been meant as a jokey, ironic comment could be taken as offensive. Avoid CAPS LOCK, bold formatting and underlining.
Bonus: Keep it in context
If it’s a website design, look at it on a screen, don’t print it out. Try it on different devices or screen sizes. And remember, different screens and brightnesses might make colours look slightly different.
If it’s a design that needs to be printed, then try printing it out at the correct size. Don’t forget colours are likely to change depending on your printer.
Remember to prepare, be specific, listen to your designer, and you’ll end up with the best possible outcome. Everyone’s happy :)
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