Design critique

Avoid pitfalls, move smart and ace your review.

Monday, 9.30am, starting today you’ll be working on a new task. It’s about designing a new module for a website of one of your clients. You don’t know much about it yet, except that the team will be you and your boss as a sparring partner.

How many times I found myself in this situation. Feeling curious, stressed, excited, eager to start. My experience normally helps me dealing with these feelings, there’s though one aspect that is totally out of my hands: handling the collaboration with my reviewer. I am aware this figure won’t be there to follow the entire process. I fear that all the explaining will not allow me to move fast enough. I fear that the lack of context will lead to poor feedback sessions, hence me using loads of time on pointless iterations. Been there, done that. Many times.

9,5 years later…

I became that reviewer booked on hourly sessions. I have now the chance to study a process for our design critique, that focuses on generating as much value as possible for both me and the team every time we have a review booked in the calendar.

— let’s get started.

Briefing/kick-off

Back to the Monday example. It’d typically start with a reviewer plus a designer, unpacking the brief. Normally they’d look at:

1. Client perspective: the brief, the comments from the client, deadlines
2. UX perspective: who’s going to use this? For what purpose? They’d gather ideas from similar contexts, best practices and if it’s part of the project, by talking to a UX specialist.
3. Brand perspective: how’s the brand currently implemented into the website? How can this feature add value to it, while satisfying user needs?
4. Digital & UI perspective: Do they have available components to setup a primitive version of their idea? What interaction could this feature generate, to get the job done in a satisfactory manner?

It’s good practice to always touch upon these 4 areas, in various measure, according to the anatomy of the task. They would then sum their brainstorm into 3 initial directions: A, B and C.

• Option A: the one the client asked for
• Option B: the one we believe works best
• Option C: the one your reviewer came up with (despite the designer‘s skepticism about it)

The session would end with them setting a date for the next review, for a status. Let’s say the following Thursday at lunch.

—

3 days later, Thursday

The reviewer’s calendar warns him there’s a review booked at lunch time. Rapidly, he glances at his notepad to catch up with the project main points from last time, he’s excited to see what happened since, trusting the designer’s skills to help him catch up with what he can’t remember.

As soon as the session starts, the reviewer is sensing that something ain’t right: loads of windows are open on the screen overlapping the file, which has a myriad of art boards; nothing seems to respond at speed, seconds feel like minutes and while the designer tries to re-establish control over his machine, he blushes bits and pieces of the work he’s done. After reassuring him that it’s all good, the reviewer tries to find a starting point, by asking about the 3 options they agreed on last time. And it turns out that:

• Option A is not designed based on what we agreed
• Option B isn’t finished
• Option C is missing- He argues he tried, but then he deleted because It didn’t make sense
• There’s a new Option D, which the designer presents as a new variation he thought of, that makes more sense.

At this stage, the reviewer is totally confused (imagine if it was a client). What has possibly gone wrong?

—

For the briefing

1. Pen and paper, always: leave everything behind but pen and paper. Note down every single detail that can help you later on, during your focus time, to come out with a solution. It is completely human to not be able to remember 20 small adjustments to implement on 3 different design iterations. Do yourself a favour and note them down, easier for everyone.
2. Capture the process milestones: shoot a photo of the board when the session is finished, mail it to your team as a recap. You’ll have automatically a saved reminder of all the topics discussed; it will serve as a starting point for the next review, your PM will appreciate it a lot too.

In between sessions, your focused design time

1. Start from what has been agreed: if the agreement with your team is that you’d design option A, B, C, just to start from there. It is what the reviewer and the PM are looped in with, if anything happen to you, they will be able to take over the project and brief a new designer. If the client rings, they will be able to illustrate him few points from the explorations you are working on.
2. You got better ideas right after the brief: at this stage, whether you get a better idea or not it’s irrelevant. It’s a team sport where the others rely on you to work on what has been agreed. If you really believe the idea you got is worth showing, make sure to finish the agreed options first, maybe utilising less time on them, and only then carve time out for sketching your option.
3. If you disagree with your reviewer/the client option: the best way to prove it is to actually execute the wrong option, surely not to delete it and design another one. Your boss might, due to his experience, understand why you did it, but a client might not. Your decision, despite taken for the greater good, will come out as a lack of understanding towards the client’s needs.
4. Structure your design time: 3 days to draw 3 options. Set gates for your explorations, use time as a precious ally to take decisions. So many good aspects come with a structured approach: FX, if at the end of day01, you aren’t finished with one option, you will be able to either notify your boss that you are in need of help to finish on time, or to adjust your workflow to focus less on detail and more on nailing the main expression (we call it “rough and ready”).
5. Be always ready for drop-in reviews: by following the previous points, no matter when and whom will drop at your desk for a “quick look”, you will always be able to show how much ground you’ve covered. It’s a mirror of real life: your bosses’s boss shows up because he’s the one who sold the project, the client pops-in unannounced, your PM receives a change of schedule, if there’s organisation in your way of proceeding towards the delivery, you won’t fear any of this.

At the review

1. Get ready 5min before: you know there’s a meeting approaching, prepare for it. Using the last 5 minutes in continuing to design will barely add any value to what you are doing. As oppose as 5 minutes invested in closing all useless tabs, organising the art boards, get a glass of water will help you feel ready and will look professional.
2. Have a simple narrative: when meeting with somebody who’s not 100% involved in the process, start always by setting the context: open up the photo of the board or pull up the old sketches: bring you audience to the same page as you. Only then move onto how you worked the 3 options, so that everyone has a chance to understand and contribute.
3. Unpack each options’ pros/cons: guide the reviewer through your designs pointing out what worked and what didn’t. Ask for feedback, this is the right moment for example to manifest you disagreement with the input from your boss or the client. If you seek extra points, show them how would you solve it, and if they buy into your proposal, you’ll have their trust in your pocket, rightfully.

Conclusions

I want to help designers developing their solutions by using only what is essential to get the job done — which is a great rule for good design. I believe that an organised approach highlighting pros and cons of every design option can serve as a simple, yet solid agenda for those designers whom struggle a with creating a narrative for their presentations, or in general with storytelling.