How to Get The Most From Design Reviews
Lessons I learned this week about how to discuss my work more efficiently.
The past few months have been hard for me. I was burnt out, stressed and not at all confident in my design work. We all experience this from time to time, but what is important is to not allow it to bleed into the way you show up in your professional life. I lacked enthusiasm, I looked tired and I often said things before a work review like “I know this is not great,” or “I don’t like the way this turned out.”
I hadn’t realized it, but comments like these discredited my work and me as a person. Really, my goal was to lower expectations and make it clear that I knew it wasn’t perfect. I didn’t want anybody to think the work I showed was fully indicative of my talent. However, what I actually ended up doing was setting an unwanted tone for the conversation and making it impossible for the other person to look at the work objectively. Instead of getting feedback I wouldn't have considered, I got lackluster reactions.
I also wasn’t able to show off the good parts of what I had done. Sure- I wasn’t confident in the fidelity of my wireframes, but I was proud of the strategy and use stories I had developed. Of course, this didn’t come through, and I appeared to not trust my own design decisions. If you don’t respect your work, nobody will.
Instead what I have been trying this week, is to have a positive attitude and set context for the situation. For example, I might say, “I am so excited about the strategic direction this has taken. My design is not pixel perfect yet- I really want your feedback on the overall concept first.” The shift this has caused my work reviews to take in just one week has been incredible. I get the feedback I am looking for and reactions to my work have been much better.
I also have worked on coming prepared to discuss my work. By that I mean bringing not only questions I know I need answered, but simple notes about why I did the things I did. This enables me explain my decisions and tell the whole story. Complex thoughts often are better explained visually. For example, showing a picture of the whiteboards I used to draw some simple user flows helped justify a change I proposed to to the IA.
This week has been much better than those last few where I felt so burnt out. It was an endless cycle of stress and self-doubt, but I finally feel like I was able to break it. These small changes have vastly improved my work reviews, which in turn, has improved my work. As I continue to practice, I hope to see even more results.
