Discussing Design: Improving Communication and Collaboration through Critique

by Adam Connor

Not all feedback is wanted, relevant, or actionable. This is to be expected and we should do our best to salvage what we can from it, if possible. When giving feedback to someone who has difficulty receiving it, be considerate, focus your language on the work (not the person) and the iterative aspect of critique, be honest, and balance the conversation around strengths and weakness. Facilitating reactive or directive feedback relies heavily on a methodical asking of the question “Why?” Ensuring that everyone involved in a group critique has an understanding of what useful feedback (critique) is and what the focus of the conversation should be on can go a long way toward keeping conversations efficient as well as providing tools to refocus them when they go astray. If someone has responded to proposed designs by sending her own versions of the design, take a step back and look at what she sent, analyze the differences between the proposed design and hers, and then follow up to discuss it with her. Use preestablished artifacts such as goals, personas, scenarios, and principles to center conversations. If you know someone is going to be difficult or tends to be difficult in meetings, communicate with that person ahead of time. Communication is at the core of critique. When things start to go awry, the best way to get things back on track is to refocus the conversations on the objectives. Putting the focus back on the product can get to the intent of unwanted critique or situa...