Four classic ways to design critique

Design critique is not only an objective activity, but also a subjective activity.It is an objective activity, which is to say that design critique has an objective criterion;Calling it a subjective activity is to say that there are many subjective components in design critique that are hard to quantify. The following four design critique tell us how to design critique.

First, like Socratic Questioning

In this way criticism, you can only ask with the design-related issues . For example, “Which way does this choice satisfy the needs of the user?” This approach can help designers improve their ability to justify design decisions. It interrogates the core assumptions of a design and explores the evidence of the design, allowing you to think about the top-down impact of the entire system.

Second, positive positive consent

In this way of criticism, you can only express which parts of the design are valid , or suggest that the designer develops and enhances existing ideas, so to speak: “Yes, and…”. Sometimes I use this method to let everyone participate in the design review — everyone must say what they really like and then develop one of them. Expressing positive consent replaces brainstorming while allowing designers to retain their agency role in design.

Third, expressing opposition

In this way of criticism, you can interrogate to any extent. You can suggest what is invalid, what works, and provide advice that promotes people’s approval. If necessary, you can abandon the current design. Design works may be used to compare with other works. This is a fairly typical art school criticism. This method requires us to criticize only the work itself, not the designer. Its goal must be , and always is, to make the work better. The designer will learn how to draw feedback and then process it into something workable.

Ritual Dissent

In this way of criticism, designers show their works first, and then they are back to the audience. The audience can only express their favorite aspects of the design and feel that they have problems. Designers must write down all negative feedback on a whiteboard or paper and do not respond. After the criticism is over, the designers classify all the feedback: those who will act directly, will not take action, and need to experiment again on the design (Let’s “Test this approach with somebody) or need to experiment on the problem (“Let’s validate that this actually a problem people have”). Designers will learn how to intently listen to feedback, and what the difference is about design issues, what about the regional issues of.