Give Design Critique that Creates Teamwork, not Conflict
How to give and receive honest feedback from your fellow designers
This posting expresses the views and opinions of the authors and does not necessarily reflect the views of Yext and its affiliates, employees, officers, directors or representatives.
Our Consulting Design team works tirelessly to curate a collaborative environment so that we can become better designers together. We are competitive — but it’s a relay, not an individual race — and we succeed together or we fail together.
Giving and receiving feedback can be difficult, especially for something as seemingly subjective as design. As a reviewer, sometimes it feels like it might be easier to just nod and avoid conflict, but you won’t be helping your colleague or yourself that way. Giving constructive criticism is a skill we’re constantly working on and refining, and here are some tips and tricks to get through it.
As a Designer Giving Feedback:
- Ask thoughtful open-ended questions. Asking questions like “how did you come up with this idea?” or “can you explain this feature to me?” allows you to get more context on the design intentions before you jump the gun. Letting the primary designer think out loud will help both of you collaborate on the problem you’re trying to solve.
- Don’t overuse fillers like “I think” or “I feel”. While these phrases are often used to soften the blow of criticism, they reduce the strength of your opinion and might be dismissed. Use them when you have a suggestion, but not when you’re pointing out a mistake that needs to be fixed.
Example: Instead of “I think this feels crowded” say “these two sections could use a bit more space”.
- Suggest other options and collaborate. Jumping on a Zoom call or white-boarding ideas is a fun and effective way to brainstorm design options, especially if there’s something that isn’t quite working for you. It will show your investment in the quality of the designs and that you’re excited to collaborate with your peers.
- Compliment their work. It’s easy to forget to point out the good stuff when you’re looking for the bad, but sprinkling a few “this looks great!” or “I love this section” will go a long way. This lightens the delivery of criticism, will strengthen your relationship with your team, all while making them more likely to follow your advice.
- Avoid accusatory language. This goes for almost all constructive criticism, but avoid using words like “you” to describe what the designer did. It might seem counterintuitive to not say “you” when we’re talking about “you”, but replacing phrases like “the way you did this” with “the way this was done” makes a huge difference to someone who might be receiving difficult feedback, and makes sure that the feedback surrounds the work and not the person themself.
Example: Instead of “why did you put these sections next to each other?” say “why are these sections next to each other?”
As a Designer Receiving Feedback:
- Think of feedback as a learning opportunity. It can be difficult to reframe someone’s criticism as something that you can learn from, but this is exactly what you have to do to maximize your potential as a designer. The more you fail, the more you learn, right? And someone who has never received a lick of feedback has probably not learned very much about their own ability or whatever lies beyond that.
- Take criticism with a grain of salt. Design is subjective and everyone has a different background and opinion, but in the end it’s likely that you know more about your project than most people. Listen to feedback with an open-mind and consider it, but ultimately if you feel confident in your design decisions, then say thank you and move on.
- Don’t take it personally. The intention of constructive feedback is to maximize your designs and help you grow in your own skill set. Try to separate yourself from your work and see it from an outsider’s perspective, so that you can be open to suggestions and enhance your designs without taking it personally.
These are skills that even we on the Consulting Design team are constantly working on, but have gotten better at through frequent design reviews and show & tells. Let us know if there’s something your team does that works for you!
