After putting your skills and tools, including web design software, to work, the best way to know if your efforts yielded the required results is through design feedback. According to Adobe, it’s an essential part of every designer’s job, and you need to treat it objectively and with an open mind.
However, reviewing teams use different strategies to convey their feedback, and each tactic yields a varying level of success. As a result, it’s essential to understand a constructive way of delivering feedback to your designers and guaranteeing success. Here are some tips to help you understand the different types of feedback and how to make your comment constructive.
Adobe CEO Scott Belsky says about design that what people need to understand and accept is that, they are not just buying technology or a product, but the experience of that technology or product. The job of a designer is not simple and requires cooperation with other colleagues – from directors to marketing who will review and comment on their work and only after that it is sent to developers who will make it happen.
What Are The Two Types Of Design Feedback to Give To Your Team?
Design feedback can either be praised for delivering good results or critiqued. However, how you provide them can break your team’s morale or challenge them to do better. Here are two ways of delivering feedback.
Reinforcing Feedback
This is the type of feedback you give to encourage the team to continue with their positive behavior. First, you acknowledge and praise their efforts on the project and then encourage them to keep at the performance.
Redirecting Feedback
Instead of delivering plainly negative feedback, consider making your opinions redirecting. That’s because negative feedback will most probably bruise your team’s ego or make them unwilling to act according to the idea. Make your opinions directive and descriptive without directly criticizing the designer.
How to Give Constructive Feedback
With the proper knowledge of the two types of feedback to give, here are the tips to make your opinions constructive and beneficial to the project.
Ask Questions
Collaboration is the central anchor of a successful design, and asking questions encourages communication between design teams and clients. Instead of issuing the changes you want, pose questions and pick suggestions from everyone. That causes a discussion to ensue, clears further doubts, helps you understand the client better, and completes the project without making assumptions.
Address the Design, not the Designer
To make the feedback constructive and involving, try as much as possible not to direct your opinions to the designer. Making personal reclamations kills designers’ morale and may bruise the ego of someone, especially if it’s a critique.
Mention Problems, not Solutions
While it may be tempting to give your suggestions on the changes you want to see, communicating the problem opens room for discussions. Sharing the problem gives your design team a clue on your audience’s preferences and invites further proposals and suggestions that can provide better solutions.
Concentrate on the Design Goals
Avoid anchoring your feedback to your likes and preferences. Instead, go back to the design goals and base your opinion on the objectives you stated while starting the project. Directing the conversation towards the design goals will yield better results and keep the project on the right track to success.
Accept the Teams’ Opinions Gracefully
Being defensive or argumentative about your design decisions will hinder the teams from offering constructive feedback in the future. If you don’t accept the client’s input and the design doesn’t meet their specifications, you may lose projects from them in the future. The best way to go about this is to take all critiques and praises objectively and look into their concerns, providing possible solutions.
Share the good
Everyone loves to hear praise, whether it’s at work or in private life. Even as you prepare to share criticism, praise the designer if you feel he is on the right track, give him support to keep working, correcting some little things you pointed out to him.
Build a trust
Building trust in the team is key to success in business, and for the criticism that comes from such people, you know that it was said for a reason, so you will accept it with open arms. Show that your goal is the best design outcome for your project, and it’s never muddled by personal preferences or competing agendas.
Avoid “sandwiching”
This technique has proven to be very impractical and actually causes a counter-effect. Never try to “pack” negative feedback between two positive ones, as this will result in the employee totally ignoring the positive criticism and focusing on the negative. Be direct, but choose words.
Seeking quality feedback is a good way to improve your designs’ effectiveness. Similarly, effective design tools like Adobe XD’s website design software will increase your chances of success.
How to distinguish between constructive and negative criticism?
No one is comfortable hearing any criticism, but it is an integral part of life and something we will sooner or later experience on our skin. However, not every criticism is malicious, and here are a few facts that confirm it:
- constructive criticism points to the work, never to the person
- it is logical and structured
- was uttered without harsh words and a raised voice
- It is educational
- is benevolent and offers the support of the person giving it
- supported by evidence and facts and
- offers a solution to the problem.
Conclusion
The best way to learn how to present a website in a professional way is through work and mistakes. It is necessary to try different tips and concepts and see which gives results and which does not. Patience and experience that will come in time is very important in this business. What is important is that you try and do your best, and the results will be visible. Of course, you are ready to receive constructive criticism, but also to express your opinion if you do not agree with it.
