Designer’s Guide to Giving and Receiving Constructive Criticism
A few tips on delivering valuable critique, receiving feedback and where you can turn to for constructive criticism
Constructive criticism, or more plainly, feedback, plays a crucial role in a designer’s job. Design is an iterative process, so we are often either asking for feedback on our own work or dishing it out to a fellow designer.
It can take a lot of practice to be able to give criticism that is honest and constructive without coming off as pretentious or harsh. Learning to receive criticism can sometimes be even harder, especially when it can be so easy to get attached to your work. By following these simple guidelines, you will be able to properly engage with other designers in giving and receiving constructive criticism.
Giving constructive criticism
Ask questions
Often when we are asked to give feedback on someone’s work, it can be tempting to rush to give our advice. After all, they asked for our opinion and we want to give it to them. But by giving criticism without any context, our feedback can potentially be destructive instead of constructive.
Stop for a minute and ask some questions. Understand what the project is about and why they made the decisions that they did. By stopping to learn about the designer’s point of view, it allows us to get a better sense of what obstacles they encountered. With that information, your feedback will be more impactful when you’re giving it.
Structure
If you’re not sure how to begin giving your feedback, use the Compliment Sandwich technique. It’s a three-step process designed to help soften the impact of giving constructive criticism by sandwiching it between two compliments.
- Compliment: Begin by complimenting something about their work that you like. Even if you find it hard to compliment anything about their design, there is always something encouraging that you can say about their approach, their effort or design direction.
- Constructive criticism: Take a moment to think about what you’re going to say and how you will deliver it. Ensure that your feedback is succinct so that you don’t start rambling. Pick out the things that you think could use improvement, think about how to explain your thoughts in a clear way and then address them one at a time.
- Compliment: Finish off your critique on a positive note. Encourage them to keep up their good work or reiterate your previous compliment. This will leave a good impression in their mind instead of all the negative points that you just brought up.
Delivery
It’s important to watch the tone in which you deliver your criticism so it doesn’t come off as sounding offensive or pretentious. A sentence spoken in two different ways can have completely different meanings. Be patient and understanding when giving feedback, just as you would want them to be if the roles were reversed.
Receiving constructive criticism
Set context
When you ask for feedback on your work, the other person might not be familiar with the project or process. Always start off by providing them with context, including a general overview of the project, what demographic the user is and any constraints you had during the work.
Also, be specific with your goals and what kind of feedback you’re looking for. If you only want a certain part of the design critiqued, then let them know in advance so that they know what to focus on.
Give permission
In my opinion, this may be the most important part about receiving constructive criticism. If you truly want honest feedback, then give the person the permission to say what is on their mind.
Openly welcome feedback and make them feel as comfortable as possible to speak freely. Often times, people will tiptoe around the things that they think need improvement and provide vague feedback. By only saying positive comments without properly critiquing the design is nothing more than an ego boost and provides no real value to anyone.
Instead, ask them to be intentional and specific about what they point out. Get them to really drill down on the individual elements that they think could use improvement.
Take it all in
Even when we want them to be honest with their thoughts, it can still be hard on our emotions to receive constructive criticism. Understandably, we have put in so much time and effort into our projects. We may have faced some obstacles, such as short timelines or push back from stakeholders, that they aren’t aware of.
However, the criticism shouldn’t be viewed as a reflection on your skills. There isn’t a right way to approach a design, so any critique you receive should be taken the same way you would receive user feedback. You don’t ask a user to test out a prototype and tell them what they’re doing is wrong. You watch and learn from what they are doing and take notes on how to improve your design.
Whatever you are thinking about while receiving the criticism, hold back all of your thoughts and comments until the end. Meanwhile, focus on taking notes on what they say and keep them going.
Thank them
At the end, thank them for their thoughts and then, if necessary, bring up the comments that you have about their criticism. Make sure you acknowledge that you have considered what they have told you and ask them what they think about your perspective.
You definitely don’t want to turn this into a debate. Even if you don’t agree with some of their points, just thank them for their advice and consider it when informing your design decisions during the next iteration.
Where to go for constructive criticism
Design platforms
Some popular sites to receive feedback on your work are Dribbble and Behance. These are both great places to share your projects in a community of designers. Make sure to explicitly ask for feedback in the comments and give permission for others to critique your work.
Social media groups
Social media is obviously a great alternative to sharing your work as well. There are countless design groups and communities on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter or Slack that open up the world to give you constructive criticism on your work.
Just remember, don’t be selfish. If you ask for feedback on your work, be willing to spend the time to give feedback to others as well. Besides, when you are the one giving the critique, you can often notice details in their work that might affect the way you design in the future.
Friends and non-designers
Before turning to any of these online spaces, ask your friends and family. Being close to you, they may be inclined to be supportive of your work and go easy on you. In this case, you might have to really push them to be constructive and rip apart your design.
Feedback from a non-designer can often be beneficial as they can provide the perspective of a consumer. They may not be able to articulate their thoughts in “design language”, but can point out if a colorway doesn’t seem right or a layout isn’t intuitive.
In the end, you’re usually not designing for other designers, so don’t count out your friends and family from giving great constructive criticism.
Thanks for reading!
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