This is an updated version of Discussing Design: The Art of Critique.
We’ve all struggled at times in sharing our designs with teammates and stakeholders and collecting feedback on them. The comments we receive can seem to more about personal preference or indicate some misalignment of goals and vision for the project.
Our ability to critique and to facilitate critique with others speaks directly to the quality of these conversations. Designers frequently complain about the quality and uselessness of the feedback they are given, but we rarely take a step back and examine how to collect useful feedback and make our discussions around our designs more productive.
With this talk we look deeper into the various aspects of critique, not just as an activity for collecting feedback, but as a key skill in our ability to communicate and collaborate. We examine the language, rules and strategies for critique and provide participants with takeaways that can immediately be put to work to create a useful, collaborative environment for discussing designs.
3. The new Spotify design is perhaps even worse than the old Spotify
design. The visual hierarchy and underlying IA are terrible.
I would never use this. I don’t
like the layout.
We should make that a dropdown
instead of radio buttons.
This is terrible. I have no idea what
the lines mean.
We're disappointed in this solution. We're going to have our own
designers come up with one.
I like the paper form better.
None of this is what I asked for.
Here is a rewrite. My intention
is to sharpen the language,
make it more precise.
Looks ugly. Make it pretty.
What. The hell. Is this?
Make it look more
like SharePoint.
What kind of company shuts down a much-loved
service like Google Reader but keeps the vegetative
Google Plus?
I'm just not feeling it. I don't know what, but
It doesn't have enough spunk.
The wireframes are still not answering our
problem and are not providing enough an easier
solution for the page.
No. That won’t work. What if
we do it this way...
it isn't right yet. Just needs to be more
innovative.
Change the order of the screens so that
the 3rd and first one are switched.
It needs more flululululuh!!
It’s laid out too much like [popular service]. We should be
different.
4. The new Spotify design is perhaps even worse than the old Spotify
design. The visual hierarchy and underlying IA are terrible.
None of this is what I asked for.
We should make that a dropdown
instead of radio buttons.
What. The hell. Is this?
Here is a rewrite. My intention
is to sharpen the language,
make it more precise.
Change the order of the screens so that
the 3rd and first one are switched.
No. That won’t work. What if
we do it this way...
30. Set your foundation with...
Personas
User Archetypes that describe their average
behaviors, goals, expectations, knowledge, etc.
31. Set your foundation with...
Goals
Desired, measurable outcomes of the user
interacting with the product or service. Can be
user oriented, business oriented or both.
32. Set your foundation with...
Principles
Desired qualities or characteristics of the
final solution.
33. Set your foundation with...
Scenarios
Short narratives that the describe the desired
behaviors, thoughts, reactions, emotions, etc.
of the user as they move through a particular
flow or use case.
36. Critique is about iteration and
improvement. So long as you’re
looking to improve on whatever
it is you’re doing, you’ve got an
opportunity for critique.