When to Get Feedback
During the design process, getting feedback from coworkers and the client.
Or, during A-B testing the product, getting feedback from customers and users and changing the design accordingly.
Feedback Mediums and Forms
- In-person
- Calls; video calls, voice calls
- Written words; chat messages, emails, social media comments, verbal, etc.
Challenges of Receiving Feedback
- Emotional response: you’re not your design; a criticism of your work is not a criticism of you.
- Navigating unclear feedback
- What to do with the feedback
Types of Feedback
1. Constructive criticism:
Positive, points out where improvements can be made, clear and easy to take action on, without being prescriptive, etc.
2. Non-constructive criticism:
Feedback which doesn’t help you improve your design to meet the goals of the project. This type of feedback can leave you confused, unsure, and feeling as if your professional skills are in question.
- Prescriptive feedback: Feedback which tells the designer what to do. It doesn’t clearly articulate why your solution isn’t achieving the project goal, thereby making it difficult to learn from and act on.
- Preferential feedback: Feedback which is just the opinion of the person providing the feedback, and doesn’t represent the project’s audience.
- Non-specific feedback: Feedback which leaves no clear path forward and leaves the designer to play a guessing game.
- Irrelevant feedback: Feedback that is not applicable to the project
- Untimely feedback: Feedback that is given without consideration of the project timeline.
- Selfish feedback: Feedback that twists the design solution to the critic’s advantage and not serving the target end user.
- Off-topic feedback: Feedback that doesn’t pertain to the project or your role in the project.
- Incomplete feedback: Feedback which lacks an explanation
Example Responses to Feedback
If the feedback is irrelevant: The goal is to [explain goal]. The target audience is [describe audience]. Include any relevant user research.
If the feedback lacks context to your decisions: I made this technical decision in order to solve [state the goal]. This solves the goal because [insert explanation].
If the feedback lacks awareness of the project state: This project is in the beginning stage, I’ll scope that out to determine the effort needed to develop that feature.
If the feedback lacks awareness of the scope: The goal is to make an MVP in [amount of time]. We can iterate and improve upon it later as time permits and a need is identified.
If the feedback lacks explanation: Can you help me understand the reason for those changes?
Five Mindset Tips
- Distance yourself from the design so you feel like an objective observer
- Accept that you may not have the best idea
- Understand that this one design doesn’t define your skills and abilities
- Build an inner strength
- Develop a growth mindset
Remember: You’re not designing for yourself, you’re designing for others.
Benefits of Feedback:
- Improve your skills
- Create better designs and products
- Synthesize ideas from a variety of perspectives
- Build trust with coworkers and clients
Feedback Tools
Most famous ones are tweakr.io and invisionapp.com, they allow annotated comments on designs.
Before Requesting Feedback
Here are the elements you should communicate when asking for feedback:
- Project state
- Goals
- Constraints (technical, time, financial)
- Explanation of what you did and why you did it. For example, “The goal is to do [ BLANK ], so I made [ this decision ]”
- Type of critique sought
Asking for Feedback
Questions that dig deeper:
- What problem do you think this design solves?
- Who would this design appeal to?
- How do you feel when looking at this design?
- What areas capture or lose your interest?
- What could be removed to simplify this design?
- Is there anything missing that’s necessary?
- Is there anything that’s unclear or confusing?
Say Thank You
Say thanks for the feedback.