The ability to seek out critical feedback on your own design work is, unfortunately, an increasingly rare trait. It can be uncomfortable. Expecting a lone designer to understand all possible interactions, emerging design trends, cross-product dependencies and impacts of their product is unrealistic and places unfair expectations on designers to design amazing solutions in isolation. Here's a design critique framework I've been pulling together over the last couple of years, some of the ideas will be familiar, some may be new, hopefully there’s a takeaway for everyone.

1. Design Critique
@cameron_rogers

2. @cameron_rogers
(or “How can I make this design better?”)

3. Me
Almost 20 years of UX
10 years in UX
Leadership roles
A psychologist by trade
#notacreative
Don’t mind a dress up

4. @peterme

5. “You cannot have great design, without great
feedback”
-Scott Berkun
Author, The year without my pants

6. “Dysfunctional design critiques can lead to
broken teams and bad product.”
-Caitria O'Neill
UX Researcher at Airbnb

7. Is this good design?

8. What do I mean by Design Critique?
A Design Critique is a regularly occurring group conversation
involving both designers and supporting team, where designers
present their unfinished work.
The goal is to create a space for designers to seek feedback and
review whether or not the proposed design fulfils its
objectives.
It does not mean simply judging whether you like a design.

9. Design critique is a learned skill
The ability to seek out
critical feedback can be
learnt and practiced,
and with the support of
a great team, it is
something that can help
take your own design
work to another level.
Ditto giving critique.

10. Getting into the critique mindset
It is important for designers to embrace that critique:
• Allows stakeholders and peers to better understand rationale.
• Is about the product, not you as the product designer.
• Is about making the product better.
• Is about how the design is or isn’t meeting its goals.
• Helps focus your energy to improve design.

11. “Don’t ask for critique if you only want
validation. If you want a hug, just ask.”
— Adam Connor
VP Design, Mad*Pow

13. “Do not seek praise. Seek criticism... If,
instead of seeking approval, you ask, ‘What’s
wrong with it? How can I make it better?’, you
are more likely to get a truthful, critical
answer.”
-Paul Arden
Creative Director, Saatchi and Saatchi

14. “Do not seek praise. Seek criticism... If,
instead of seeking approval, you ask, ‘What’s
wrong with it? How can I make it better?’, you
are more likely to get a truthful, critical
answer.”
-Paul Arden
Creative Director, Saatchi and Saatchi
critique

15. Priming critique participants
The primary job of the designer, before even presenting their
designs, is to help critiquers understand what feedback is, and
isn’t, required.
1. Establish product goals
2. Frame completeness – 30:60:90
3. Establish urgency

16. “It’s tempting for designers to jump into
solutions and start showing off what they’ve
designed. But if you don’t start with why
you’re even bothering to work on this in the
first place, you may well be barking up the
wrong tree.”
- Julie Zhuo
VP Design, Facebook

17. Focus on your goals
To prime your team to provide good feedback, you must first
know and outline your product goals
• What are the business goals?
• What are the user goals?
(and yes, hopefully there’s some overlap here)

18. Establish what feedback you need
At what stage is the Design? 30, 60 or 90 percent complete
30:60:90
@30% - feedback focuses more on the big picture stuff, and may
even send you off in a totally new direction
@90% - feedback on every little detail. Copy included

19. Outline the required timeframes
Ensure folk participating in the critique understand your
timeframes
Combine this with the step above:
eg “The design is 30% complete, but I need to have it done
by the end of the week”

20. A framework for priming critique
I am showing [30:60:90%] complete work
Around [the problem]
Because [why it’s a problem]
And am looking for feedback around [specific focus for feedback]

21. We’ve all heard these…
“It just doesn’t pop”
“My partner / pet / mother doesn’t
like it”
“I don’t get it”
“I don’t like purple, can we make
it red?”

22. Advice when giving critique
Separate like/hate from
good/bad:
Good = a design that
meets goals
Bad = a design that
fails goals

23. Critique vs Criticism
• Criticism passes judgement —Critique poses questions
• Criticism finds fault —Critique uncovers opportunity
• Criticism is personal —Critique is objective
• Criticism is vague —Critique is concrete
• Criticism tears down —Critique builds up
• Criticism is ego-centric —Critique is altruistic
• Criticism is adversarial —Critique is cooperative
• Criticism belittles the designer —Critique improves the design
Taken from Writing Alone, Writing Together; A Guide for Writers and
Writing Groups by Judy Reeves

24. Giving great design critique
• Clarify with the designer if they haven’t set context
• “What kind of design feedback are you looking for?”
• “What are the business goals?”
• “How complete is your thinking?”
• Product goals over personal opinions.
• Give feedback so the Designer can make the product better.
• Where possible, phrase feedback as questions.

25. An important note
It is not incumbent on the designer to incorporate every piece of
feedback but it is incumbent on them to consider every piece,
and polite to close the loop.

26. Poor giving, poor receiving
• Park your preferences at the door

27. Critique framed in terms of goals
• Park your preferences at the door
If the goal is to have the user
register quickly, are we
placing emphasis on the
wrong elements and hiding
the primary task by making
the button hard to find?
OK, yes
that makes
sense.
Thanks, that
was a good
observation.
Good point,
perhaps I could look
at making the call
to action orange
instead of blue?

28. So, is this good design?

29. Remembering
Good = a design that
meets goals
Bad = a design that fails to
meet goals

30. We can’t possibly know…
What (business) problem
is it trying to solve?
What business and user
goals is it trying to
achieve?
How complete is the
design?

31. Questions?