Design review: one overlooked reason why you want it in your life
As a director of a UX group supporting dozens of product teams and diverse users, delivering quality is critically important.
But even with a great rationale for quality, any extra process is often met with resistance by designers at all levels:
- Design review slows me down, or doesn’t meet my schedule
- I’m not sure my designs are ready for review yet
- The reviewers don’t understand my product area or our previous decisions
- I’m a senior / principal designer and I’m above critique
- I’m embarrassed to show my work and receive feedback
And while there are many answers to these points, in any situation it’s best to understand what motivates people, and what their biggest challenge is. For most designers, it’s:
Convincing product & engineering to build the design exactly as spec-ed.
This is hard. Really hard. For designers who are embedded with a product team they support, it’s a huge decision-point: should I be a good team player and continue to make concessions until my design is worthless or unusable? Or, should I have some integrity, possibly escalate to upper management, and get the team to build it right? Both of these things feel like they could come back to bite you in the end…
But what if your design had the backing of best practices and a review by your design peers, your researchers, and your manager?
Now how confident would you be convincing your product team to follow your design, knowing it’s great quality and already has support from your closest allies in your craft?
And it’s not just about quality & support, involving your UX peers in your design process creates cross-product visibility & alignment, goodwill & deeper relationships, and shows your growth mindset!
And all of this goodness also applies to a UX research review process.
It takes a UX village, so leverage your peers!
Wishing you the best of success!
