Discussing Design: Improving Communication and Collaboration through Critique

Key Takeaways

Critique is not meaningless. The argument that critique is a meaningless term just to make feedback sound important it’s not true. Critique is a specific discipline of specific kind of feedback targeted to improve the design to meet the end goals. It’s separate from other forms of feedback.

Details matter. The devil is in the details, or rather the devils in ignoring the details.

Critiques don't have to be overly complex. Here's potential outline of elements for a critique:

• What is the object of the design?
• What elements of the design are related to the objective? Do they work for or against the objective?
• Are those elements effective for achieving the objective?
• Why or why not?
• What new problems are introduced by this design? What other objectives should the designer be considering but hasn’t

Critique anti-patterns tear down a positive critique culture. Help design groups avoid these patterns:

• Asking for feedback without listening or being prepared to listen
• Not asking for feedback at all.
• Remember the purpose.
• Listen and think before responding
• Return to foundations to understand why the feedback is important
• Participate by critiquing your own work

Design Studio. The goal of a design studio is to iterate on the design. Here's an example approach.

1. 8m to sketch as many ideas as possible
2. Post ideas on the was all receive critique 3m to present 5m feedback.
3. 8m take feedback and sketch more ideas.
4. post ideas on the was all receive critique 3m to present 5m feedback.
5. Teams work together to land on a final solution. Present and get feedback.

Design Review. The goal of design reviews are to get alignment and signoff on work. Here are a few things to consider when running a design review.

• Generally, at the end of the design work
• The goal is to get sign off, which expose what needs a change to get sign off
• The outcome is approval the design
• If you don’t receive approval, you should at least receive a list of things that need to change or be addressed so that approval can be accepted

Our brains can’t actually do analysis and create thinking of the same time. So we’re dealing with a problem. Don’t try to problem solve the fly. Spend time in taking information. If we try to both problems solve and the analysis of understanding the problem dividing our brain resources and both suffer.

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