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.