UX Critique and Culture Of Healthy Feedback

April 2021 
UX Critique and
Culture Of Healthy
Feedback 
Anna Iurchenko

I’m Anna, 
Product designer at Google Health 
anatinge.com 
sketchit.co

Anna Iurchenko (@anatinge) — Design Critique as Part of Your Design Process
What design
critique (crit) is  
 
 
 
 
Overview

Value of crit for
a designer  Get feedback so you
can improve design
Grow as a designer
Get visibility and
learn what your
team is up to
Improve your
presentation skills
Practice explain your
design and rationale
Get ideas from others
if you feel stuck

Improve design   Help designer grow 
 
Goals of design crit are

Design review 
≠
Design crit 
getting someone’s
approval
creating effective
design

Is this helpful feedback? 
 
I think you should move
this section to the left…
This button should stand
out more…
This form is too long!
This will be confusing for
the user…
Nobody is going to click that…
They are opinions and reactions, not a feedback

Crit feedback is:
an analysis to determine if a
design is achieving its objectives 
 
Crit feedback isn’t:
about instant reaction to
someone’s work 
about how we would change
someone’s design

This form is too long… 
If the objective is to improve
onboarding a long form will make
it harder for a user to get through
the flow and could impact
conversion metrics.

How to give feedback 
Dos and don’ts of design crit

Bad feedback
Selfish 
Driven by critics’ personal
goals, ex. be recognized as
smarter, superior
Incomplete 
Talks about outcomes of
design but misses “WHY”
Preferential 
Justified by personal
tastes, likes and dislikes

Bad feedback
The image is
too big.
Nobody is going to
click this card!
I don’t like
orange here...

Right feedback mindset
Radical Candor is guidance
and feedback that’s both kind
and clear, specific and
sincere.

via radicalcandor.com

Sandwich feedback

Framing feedback
Share your reaction to
encourage discussion 
 
I’m curious about…
My impression is that…
The way I interpret [x] is ...
I’m curious how you
choose the size of the
thumbnails in the
preview.
Why thumbnails are
so small?
DON’T DO

Make suggestions (not
mandates) 
Did you consider exploring...
What do you think about...
I wonder what would happen if...
What alternatives did you consider...
What do you think
about placing this
button from the left?
The button should
be on the left
DON’T DO
Framing feedback

Key strategies for giving feedback
Start with question 
Get more information for your
analysis and make the designer
more comfortable talking about
their decisions
Talk about work, not
person 
Critique the design, not the
designer
Talk about strength 
Critique it about honest
analysis. It includes
recognizing what is working

Rules, frameworks and
things to keep in mind 
 
 
 
Design crit inside

Crit meeting plan:
Remind crit rules 
Set the stage 
Present work 
Facilitate discussion 
 
everyone is here to give the
designer feedback so they can
make the product better
everyone’s observations and
perspectives are listened to
equally
Good feedback is about how the
design meets or doesn’t meet
objectives
call out what’s working well
for designer to continue to
pursue those solutions

Crit meeting plan:
Set the stage 
Present work 
 
https://gumroad.com/sketchit

Crit meeting plan:
Set the stage 
Present work 
 
Purpose of the product, business goals – why we are building
this, what problem it will solve for people, business.
Personas and use cases - who are your target user and what
they want to accomplish
Focus for crit session – point on the specific parts of
design or user journey that you want feedback on, set
expectations on fidelity
Design goals – describe where are you trying to go with the
design that you bring to crit, outline the future (ex.
decrease time of checkout)

Framework: design goals, focus for crit
I am showing
[early/mid/late] work  
Around [the problem,
flow, design element] 
My goal is [state your
design goal] 
I am showing you early
explorations of design
around tickets
checkout ﬂow.
My goal with this design
is make the checkout
process as quick as
possible.
And I am looking for
feedback around
[specific focus] 
And I am not looking
for feedback on
[specific focus] 
I am looking for
feedback on
interactions and layout
I am not looking for
feedback on the details
of aesthetic just yet.

Framework: user and use case
As a [type of user,
persona] 
I want to [goal, what
they want to
accomplish] 
As a working mom…
I want to plan a
weekend for my family.
So I need to be able
to… [tasks] 
- Find activities for kids in the walking distance from our home
- Buy tickets and share them with the family member
- Make sure I don’t forget about my plans

Crit meeting plan:
Set the stage 
Present work 
 
Before presenting ask if folks have questions about product,
problem space, users or anythings else.
---
Present design from the perspective of the user – “When
user opens the app they will see their account balance and
the latest transactions...”
Give a focused walkthrough - go through the specific
aspect of the design that you want to discuss.
Don’t explain every decision - give just enough
explanation so the team understand how the design is
intended to work.

Crit meeting plan:
Set the stage 
Present work 
 
Provide structures for feedback to encourage conversation:
- Round robin. Simply call everyone around the room and
ask to share their thoughts (everyone participates).
- Ask to share 2 positive things, and 1 area of concern
Get to specific of feedback:
- 5 WHYs helps you to determine the root cause of a
problem, help move on from reaction

Don’t take 5 WHYs too literally! :)
“This page is too confusing, users
won’t know what to do here...” 
 
- Can you tell me a little more about your concern? 
- What elements of this page worry you? 
- Is there a particular persona that is likely to be lost
here?

When bring your work to critique
Understand
problem
Explore
designs
Frame
assumptions
Too early
Stop iterating to be
able to implement
Reﬁne
designs
Too late
Anywhere here!

What to bring to critique
Understand
problem
Explore
designs
Frame
assumptions
Too early
Stop iterating to be
able to implement
Reﬁne
designs
Too late
Lo-fi wireframes,
IA, flows
Problem statement;
value proposition
Mid/high fidelity
prototype
VisD, icons, illy,
motion design,
handoff
UXR plan Workshop plan

How to start
1. Talk with 1-3 designers about having a regular design critiques.
2. Agree on the schedule and block time on everyone’s calendar
3. Create a signup doc (ex. Google Sheets).
4. Consider assigning everyone a date to present something they’re working
on or decide who will be pinging people to sign up.

Recap 
Summary

You can tell a design critique has been
successful when everyone involved
have learned something to make them
better designers. 
Jared M. Spool

Value of crit for
designers  Get feedback so you
can improve design
Grow as a designer
Get visibility and
learn what your
team is up to
Improve your
presentation skills
Practice explain your
design and rationale
Get ideas from others
if you feel stuck

Resources
Jared M. Spool: What Goes into a Well-Done Critique
Google Design: A Collaborative Approach to Shaping
Successful UX Critique
UX Crit Cheat Sheet: gumroad.com/sketchit
Respecting individuality radicalcandor.com
Braden Kowitz: GV Guide to Design Critique
More crit ideas: Design critiques at Figma
Tanner Christensen: Four Things Facebook Has Taught
Me About Design Critique
“New Layer” podcast: Presenting Work for Critique

My things online:
1. Design blog on Medium https://medium.com/@anatinge
2. Blog on visual thinking https://sketchit.co
3. What I am up to at work – LinkedIn and Twitter (@anatinge)
+ stories on Instagram (@anatinge)
4. Best way to reach out – send me a Linkedin message!
Glad to connect!

UX Critique and Culture Of Healthy Feedback

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