5 tips for giving feedback to your designer… the correct way
Art of giving feedback: experienced v/s amateur? Dear non-designers, you need to learn this…
Intro
As with any other profession, the design is something whose unanimous acceptance is solely dependent on the fact that it’s exposed to a lot of feedback & criticism. That is a good part!
But this feedback itself becomes the bone in the neck for designers when they come across stakeholders, with only GOD knowing what they want to convey…😭🤣
“Dear confused, unclear firend, who thinks they know all! your feedback instead of being constructive is a disaster. Please learn this!”
The real problem
The limitation here is that most of the feedback nowadays is done either over emails or through online messaging platforms (due to the COVID-19 pandemic), where it is easy to simply jot down how we feel about a particular design.
But, constructive feedback requires more thought than it does in real life:
What we can’t communicate in tone, body language & expressions, have now to be consciously arranged into words.
In case, you fail, this could react negativity- even if the sender meant well.
Learning the correct way
Different scenarios require different levels of preparation for giving or receiving feedback. Experience with clients for receiving feedback can differ from receiving input from a colleague.
Thus, it becomes really important to learn the art of giving feedback like a pro!
Let’s get started:
1. Seedhi baat, no Bakwaas
(Trans: Come straight to the point)
Subjective feedback is always hard for others to actually figure out what you mean. Also using subjective words can mean different things to different people (e.g. is the alignment issue really due to the grid system or is he talking about the leading?)
✅ Thus, it’s better to use objective words that are not open to interpretation to describe your subjective feelings.
2. This is not a Drama Club
We need to understand & accept this change in the trend, what we normally use to communicate via body language and tone will need to be converted into the written word.
✅ Softening your language with words like ‘maybe’, ‘a little’ etc. may help as well.
🤐 SECRET TIP 🤫
Leave caps lock off, and resist the temptation to bold, italic, and underline.I know your mind at first caught the attention of this secret tip & generated a different kind of excitement and urge to read this….correct? Similarly, these punctuations can sometime generate different emotions for different people, which we should avoid.
3. This is an internal review & not user-testing
Undoubtedly, it’s an easy way to start talking about what you think the user will feel or your ideal use case. But the discussion gets more complicated when you’ll find that everyone has got their own different ideal, yes! It’s true.
✅ Thus, to have constructive feedback it’s better to tell what you yourself feel because it then reduces the chances to argue defensively for hours about what others think is the ideal use case.
4. Understand, that we both are on the same side!
I believe, the word ‘ever’ pushes the designer into an unexpected combat mode with the sole aim of defending himself with his ego & self-respect at stake.
✅ It’s just a matter of usage of some gentle words so that even the designer could feel that you are actually in a mood to focus on higher-level motivations and goals, rather than specific executions.
5. Give the design some time
Let the design sit for a bit. Often it’s good to assess your gut reactions, but let them stew for a bit before you comment on them…..Why?
✅ Think of a larger perspective, if possible to anticipate the possible logic the designer must have applied to eradicate a design problem may be for a longer period of time. Feedback solely based on gut reactions works best for 1-time experiences but isn’t as accurate for parts of the product that are used/seen day to day.
Conclusion
Simply putting it up, feedback is nothing but our assumptions based on personal experiences, it can vary from person to person. However, when conveyed poorly, it can result in conflicts.
Be it some gentle vocabulary or some typographic terminologies-
we all need to understand the need for a special thought process so as to make sure that the person seeking feedback understands your point
such that they doesn’t have to curse about this sweet & sour culture of WFH…;)
Thanks for reading it to the end. Don’t hesitate to share this with someone troubling you!
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