Characteristics of Bad Critique
Selfish
The wrong intentions for giving critique are often selfish. They’re focused on
personal goals and desires for attention at the expense of the team or other
individuals, specifically the creator of whatever is being discussed.
Selfish critique comes from the motivation of the giver to not only be heard
and attract attention, but also to be recognized as smarter or superior, or
further personal goals.
The most recognizable examples of this can be seen on social networks like
Twitter or Facebook whenever there is a change to a popular app, device etc.
A new feature is added or something is changed, and people immediately
begin slamming decisions, calling them ridiculous and stupid and stating how
things “should have been designed.”
But in most of these situations, the commenters have only a cursory
understanding of what the designer or team was working towards and the
constraints they were working within. How is this helpful?
When we do this (and Aaron and I are guilty of it too, as do most people) are
we really trying to help someone improve their design? Or are we more
interested in showing others in our community or organization how smart we
are on a certain topic?
This type of feedback happens on project teams as well. Maybe you’ve
encountered it at work, are thinking of a colleague who’s done it to you, or
maybe you’ve done it yourself.
Sometimes, this kind of feedback comes from having our own ideas of what
we think the design should be but not having had a chance to share it with the
team. So we set about to use feedback as a way to diminish the design being
presented and (in some cases) propose our own alternative. While Aaron and I
are firm believers that a great idea can come from anywhere, and team
members in any role should be given an opportunity to share their ideas, this
path to doing so is detrimental to a critique.
As we’ll discuss more in Chapter 4, critique is not the place for exploring new
ideas. Its purpose is to analyze the design as it has been created so far. Shifting
a group from an analytical mindset to an explorative one is best done with
deliberate facilitation.
Untimely
Despite what we may think, and what some people may even say, people
aren’t always looking to hear feedback on their work. Unless someone has
specifically told you they’d like your feedback, it’s unwise to think your