As things get more complicated we need better ways to think.

1. THE LOST ART OF THE
CRITIQUE
David du Plessis
And what UX designers can do about it
UX Craft Meetup May 2016

2. Hi, I’m David du Plessis
UX Designer

3. WHAT I’M GOING TO TALK
ABOUT
Thinking about thinking
Conversations
What about agile?
Make critique part of your process
Doing critique
3 Types of feedback

6. DECISION MAKING

7. BRIEF HISTORY OF CRITICAL
THINKING
SOCRATES
350 BC
• Discussion between
individuals
• Call everything into
question
FRANCIS BACON
1600
• Scientific method
• Observation and
experimentation
• Testable hypothesis
?
Uncertainty is on the increase

8. Observation
Theory
Prediction
Experiment
THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD

9. “It blends the best interaction design techniques with the
scientific method to create products that are easy to use,
beautiful, and measurably successful.
SCIENTIFIC METHOD + DESIGN = LEAN UX
It will help you with uncertainty,
and give you ideas for what to do next.

10. TWO MODES OF
REASONING
Inductive
If all assumptions are true, the
conclusion must be true.
Conclusion can be false, even if all
assumptions are true.
All biological life we know
of depends on liquid water
to exist.
Therefore all biological life
depends on liquid water to
exist.
Deductive
All humans are mortal.
I am a human.
Therefore I am mortal.
UX designers do a lot of this.

11. AUTOMATIC VS DELIBERATE
THINKING
System 1
• Jumps to conclusions with limited
evidence
• Substitutes easy questions for hard
ones
• Believes things that are easy to believe
System 2
• Does the job properly
but uses a lot of
glucose.

12. BIASES DISTORT
REASONING
Availability heuristic: “Flying is dangerous.”

13. “Due to a cognitive bias known as the planning fallacy,
executives tend to make decisions based on delusional
optimism rather than on a rational weighing of gains, losses,
and probabilities. They overestimate benefits and
underestimate costs. They spin scenarios of success while
overlooking the potential for mistakes and miscalculations.
THE COST OF SYSTEM 1 THINKING

14. CONVERSATIONS

15. The primary human reality is
persons in conversation.
“ Rom Harré

16. INTERPRETATION
Tools to focus minds in the same direction

17. CONVERSATIONS AT WORK
Ideation
Review Critique
It is the UX designer’s job to drive and frame the conversations

18. 3 KINDS OF
FEEDBACK

19. REACTIVE FEEDBACK

20. DIRECTIVE FEEDBACK

21. UNDIRECTED FEEDBACK
IS NOT HELPFUL

22. CRITIQUE

23. CRITIQUE IS A FORM
OF ANALYSIS

24. How is specific thing helping
to achieve specific objective
(for specific user)?
THE SHAPE OF
CRITIQUE

25. THE PURPOSE OF CRITIQUE IS
CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT
Ask yourself ‘why am I doing what I’m doing’?

26. WHAT ABOUT
AGILE

28. Within the cyclical, rapid pace of Agile projects,
designs (and designers) can often become
lost in the race to continue “feeding the Agile
beast”. This makes thoughtful reflection on
the design even more difficult to achieve.
Jeff Gothelf

29. LOSING THE BIG PICTURE PERSPECTIVE

30. MAKE CRITIQUE
PART OF YOUR
PROCESS

31. A CRITIQUE NEEDS FOCUS
Personas
User stories
Journey maps
Principles
Test results

32. SHORT-FORM CREATIVE
BRIEF
“Something this simple shouldn’t
have such wide-spread, long-term
effects on the quality of a team’s
work. Yet surprisingly, it does.
Jared Spool

33. USABILITY TESTING =

34. HIPPO TRAINING
Evidence

35. DESIGN SPRINTS / DESIGN
STUDIO

36. THINKING MODES
Creative thinking (Problem solving) Analytical thinking (Critique)
Develop
stamina by
practicing
switching often

37. HOW OFTEN TO CRITIQUE

38. WHAT SHOULD YOU CRITIQUE?
Anything you want to improve.
Artefacts Tools Process

39. CRITIQUE OFTEN LEADING UP
TO DESIGN REVIEWS

40. DOING CRITIQUE
- FACILITATION

41. BASIC CRITIQUE
FRAMEWORK
What is the objective of the design?
What elements of the design
are related to the objective?
Are those elements effective in
achieving the objective?
Why or why not?

42. RULES OF CRITIQUE
Avoid problem solving.
Don’t rush: new insight and understanding,
not a list of changes.
Everyone is equal.

43. PREPPING YOUR CRITIQUE
SESSION
Decide who to include.
Create an agenda and timetable, and state
the rules, make sure everyone understands.

44. TOOLS

45. In today’s session we are
only focusing here from
persona Y’s perspective
Define scope and goals

46. Active listening

47. Thinking modes / lenses

48. Make notes, summarise & distribute

49. “Design like you are right.
Listen like you are wrong.
STRONG BELIEFS, LOOSELY
HELD
John Lilly
Greylock, Mozilla

50. dduplessis@deloitte.co.za
078 235 0229
THANKS