conversation is a great opportunity to share your analysis with them. If
someone is telling people about their creation, it may just be to get the word
out or simply that they’re excited about what they’re working on.
In order for the receiver to really listen, process and make use of critique, they
need to be in the proper mindset. Whether at a team member’s desk, in a
meeting, or on social channels, when critique is uninvited it can lead to
defensiveness, communication breakdowns, and often paints the person giving
it as a “know it all”.
Incomplete
For critique to be useful, the creator(s) need to understand not just the potential
outcome or reaction to an element of their creation, but the “why” behind it.
We often see feedback in the form of things like:
“I think the button is better than the link.”
“Nobody is going to click on that.”Or, even worse:
“This is terrible...”This type of feedback typically comes from the reactive form of feedback we
discussed in Chapter 1. It lacks the extended critical thinking that allows those
working on the design to understand what they might need to change in their
next iteration. In order for these critiques to become valuable they need to be
followed by an explanation as to “why” the giver is having that reaction or
foresees a certain outcome. For example:
“Nobody is going to click on that because the current page design
leads the eye down the left side of the screen away from the call-to -
action.”Good critique is actionable. When the “why” behind the feedback is included,
the comment can now be fully understood and the creator can take action. That
is to say that the creator has enough of an understanding of what is/isn’t
working and why that they can explore alternatives or make other adjustments.
Note though that this is different from prescription or direction. It is not the
case that critique should tell the creator how to act on something or
specifically what changes they should make (i.e. the directive form of
feedback). Good critique tries to avoid problem solving as it can detract and
distract from the analytical focus of the discussion. For more on this, check out
Chapter 4.