How to give feedback on design
“Sparring” (otherwise known as the “design critique”) is an art.
Not all feedback is equal: make yours count.
Sparring
At Atlassian all our teams run design Sparring on a weekly basis. It’s a really important part of our design process. We come together to show our work and to leverage the experience and knowledge of the other designers. We walk away with encouragement, direction, and candid, constructive feedback. Most importantly, we walk away with the means to improve on what we have already done.
Creativity inc has a great section on “The Braintrust”:
The first is that the Braintrust is made up of people with a deep understanding of storytelling, who usually have been through the process themselves. While the directors welcome critiques from many sources, they particularly prize feedback from fellow storytellers. The second difference is that the Braintrust has no authority. The director does not have to follow any of the specific suggestions. After a Braintrust meeting, it is up to him or her to figure out how to address the feedback. Giving the Braintrust no power to mandate solutions affects the dynamics of the group in ways I believe are essential.
Our sparring follows the same principles as “The Braintrust”. It has traditionally been by designers, for designers. Seeing as in our teams, design is completely integrated into the product development process, we have opened our doors to everyone in the team.
We’re excited to have a wider audience and we have seen that we move much quicker when everyone is involved in an organised way. Knowing how to give constructive feedback is something we learn and doesn’t necessarily come so naturally to everyone. There’s no doubt that being candid is a requirement for feedback, but it also need to be constructive. Saying ‘I would never click on that” or “I don’t like it” isn’t going to cut it.
Bad Feedback:
- Wastes time
- Confuses the team
- Frustrates everyone
- Beats about the bush
- Drains morale
- Lacks clarity: “I don’t like it” or “I love it”
- Makes it personal: “I don’t like icons”
- Is apathetic: “It looks fine as it is”
- Lacks decisiveness: “I’m not sure what do you think?”
Constructive Feedback:
- Points out any weakness or misdirection
- Prevents a project from meandering
- Builds on an idea
- Introduces new concepts or information
- Helps the team move forwards
How to give feedback
Designers put a lot of work into articulating the problem clearly. There’s a lot of homework that needs to be done before you can design a solution for something complex. If the homework is done properly and well presented, then it’s time for feedback.
Things to remember:
- There’s likely method to the madness before you
- Everyone round the table is smart and experienced
- You don’t have all the context
- Focus on the design being presented
- Be candid
- Be helpful
Use social psychologist Anatol Rapoport’s method:
1. You should attempt to re-express your target’s position so clearly, vividly, and fairly that your target says, “Thanks, I wish I’d thought of putting it that way.”
2. You should list any points of agreement (especially if they are not matters of general or widespread agreement).
3. You should mention anything you have learned from your target.
4. Only then are you permitted to say so much as a word of rebuttal or criticism.
As you become more sophisticated in the art of feedback you can move through these 4 stages much more rapidly. It certainly doesn’t mean that you have to beat about the bush and hold back from expressing how you feel about something. It does mean that you need to ask clarifying questions and avoid jumping to any conclusions before you are ready to unleash your views.
It’s possible that your first gut reaction is “I don’t like it” and that’s fine, but being able to say “The different illustration styles throughout the user journey change significantly. I understand why you’ve chosen to do this, but it’s still really jarring to me” results in a far better conversation. Sparring is an art, not all feedback is equal: make yours count.
