On Design Critique — Part 2 : Receiving Critique
The art ofreceiving feedback is equally if not more important than the art of giving good feedback. In my previous article, we saw that there are bad and good practices of giving critique. Similarly, there are bad (Antipatterns) and good practices of receiving critique.
How many times have you said something similar in a presentation — “Yes I’ll get to that point in the next slide” or “I’m just coming to that point…” Here’s one trick that helped me in being able to avoid such situations. I would tell the attendees to hold on to their feedback till the end of my presentation and to not interrupt in between. And that I’d go back to the very beginning of the presentation and then take their feedback slide-by-slide. This helped me in completing my entire presentation at least once in the designated time and helped avoid waterfall discussions that would derail the entire presentation. But for this to be a success, I had to keep my presentation short. I realised that around 15 minutes was the threshold till which people held on to their feedback.
Antipatterns
- Asking for feedback without listening
- If we ask for feedback we need to be ready to listen to whatever we receive in response. By not listening we miss out on valuable insights that can help improve designs
- Asking for feedback for praise or validation
- If you go with the intent of seeking validation, and you dont get it, there are higher chances of you getting hurt.
- Not asking for feedback at all
- Will miss out on huge opportunities to improve and grow
Good Practices of receiving critique
1. Remember the purpose
Critique isn’t about pass or fail, approval or rejection. It’s about understanding and improvement , not judgement.
2. Listen and think before responding
Prevent natural tendencies to form rebuttals and instead focus on listening to peoples’ entire thoughts. Doesn’t mean you need to take feedback at face value. You can always choose whether to incorporate/use someone’s feedback or not. But it is basic courtesy to at-least hear what the person has to say…ponder about it before replying.
3. Return to Foundation
Sometimes the feedback may be based on personal preferences. In this case having mutually understood foundations or set of objectives is important
4. Participate
Sometimes people giving feedback are wary hurting the feelings of the designer. Becoming a critique yourself and participating in the process will help. Being able to shift mindset from creative thinking to being analytical about what we are designing is a key design skill.
Further Reading : Discussing Design by Aaron Irizarry and Adam Connor
