How to provide feedback to your designer

Feedback is a fragile subject for most of the designers. In fact most of use would just love to skip that stage sometimes. But we all know, feedback is necessary.

In our careers we all had some really great feedback experiences, and some bad ones.

Understanding who you are working with

It’s no surprise that designers love design, and sometimes feedback may even hurt their emotions because all of that effort that has been put into a piece, that it becomes personal, even though the work will be handed to the client.

Designers supreme goal is to have a legacy, a contribution to the design community no matter how small it is.

We always believe that every project can be a game-changing one, even though we are obsessed with details, we have a bigger vision.

A designer is there to solve a problem, so instead of suggesting solutions, bring back the problem you are trying to solve. Don’t just explain what you like and don’t like, because that will not help.

Trust your Designer

Don’t just point out changes and revisions, and take over the whole project, because the designer has the skills to do that, and you don’t (that’s why you hired him?). Instead just share your expectations beforehand, that gives the designer an opportunity to balance your goals, and their own too.

Don’t just send, discuss

If you want to be a good feedback provider, don’t just send a 20+ pages word document with the changes, instead ask your designer what he thinks. What is the reason behind those changes.

Basically what they are trying to say is Help me, to help you!, you should collaborate with your designer.

So to wrap this up, understanding, trust, communication are key not just for the design projects, but for everything in life.