Discussing Design

What We Really Need Is Critical ThinkingCritical thinking is the process of taking a statement and determining if it is true or false. When we’re designing something, we’re doing so to meet or achieve some set of objectives. When looking for feedback on our designs, we should be working to understand whether we believe that what has been designed will work to achieve those objectives. We should be looking for a form of analysis to take place. And that’s exactly what critique is.

Good critique is comprised of three key elements:It identifies a specific aspect of the idea or a decision in the design being analyzed.It relates that aspect or decision to an objective or best practice.It describes how and why the aspect or decision work to support or not support the objective or best practice.

Critique isn’t about that instant reaction we might feel when seeing something, or about how we would change someone’s design to better solve an issue. Critique is a form of analysis that uses critical thinking to determine whether a design is expected to achieve its desired objectives (and adhere to any pertinent best practices or heuristics).

Central IdeaFeedback encompasses three forms: reaction, direction, and critique. Reaction and direction are limited in their ability to help us understand if the design choices we’ve made might work toward the product’s objectives. Critique, a form of analysis that uses critical thinking, is feedback that focuses on exactly that understanding.

Members from IT, design, and business might all have different ways of referring to the same thing. By bringing your project team together to critique on a recurring basis, you provide a venue for this shared vocabulary to build up and take hold. As that vocabulary is being built, it’s happening across roles and silos, improving the ability of team members to communicate more efficiently with members of other roles.

Critique should not tell the designer how to act on something or specifically what changes she should make (the directive form of feedback). Good critique avoids problem solving because it can detract and distract from the analytical focus of the discussion.

Another common characteristic of bad critique is feedback that is justified by the giver from purely preferential thinking.

This kind of feedback is not only unhelpful—it does nothing to analyze a design with regard to objectives—but it can also be distracting and counterproductive. This is especially the case when it comes from team members or stakeholders who are in a position of approval. In these situations, the team begins, consciously or subconsciously, to prioritize that individual’s tastes alongside or above project and user goals, even if they conflict.

Lead with questionsGet more information to base your feedback on and show an interest in their thinking.Chances are, before being asked for your feedback, the presenter will give a brief explanation of what he has put together so far and how it would work. This gives you some context and understanding of the objectives he has and the elements of the design he has put in place to achieve them. But he likely hasn’t explained everything.

This is your chance to open up the dialogue. By asking questions you give yourself more information on which to base your analysis and give stronger, actionable feedback. If done in a noninterrogative way, it shows the designer that you’re genuinely interested in not only his work, but the thinking behind it, which can make discussing it and listening to feedback easier for him

Examples of questions you might ask:Can you tell me more about what your objectives were for [specific aspect or element of the design]?What other options did you consider for [aspect/element]?Why did you choose this approach for [aspect/element]?Were there any influencers or constraints that affected your choices?

Don’t assumeFind out the thinking or constraints behind choices.“To assume makes an ass out of you and me.”

Avoiding assumptions is simple: ask about them.Yup. Ask yet more questions. Put your assumption out there and ask if it’s accurate. If it is, continue on with your insights. If it isn’t, you might need to adjust your thinking a little.

Talk about strengthsCritique isn’t just about what’s not working.We sometimes have a tendency to focus on negatives, the things that cause us problems, get in our way, and that we’d like to see changed. We often take the positive for granted. In our project meetings and design discussions it’s often no different. We spend the vast majority of time talking about what isn’t working. But that can be harmful. Remember that critique is about honest analysis. It should be balanced, focusing on the design and its objectives, regardless of their success. It’s just as important to talk about what is working and why as it is to talk about what isn’t working.

Where are you in your process?This question reveals a designer’s intended fidelity of thinking. Everyone’s design process is different, and in many cases they vary from project to project. By understanding where a designer feels like he is in his own journey, I can tailor the language in my feedback to reflect that. Is something about to go to a client? Then, it’s probably too late to revisit larger decisions. Is this early thinking? Then, don’t pick on details; look for more interesting conceptual discussion. This question usually uncovers the designer’s rationale for key decisions very quickly. Knowing the intended fidelity of someone’s work goes a long way toward not reacting to something they may have not even considered yet.

Central IdeaGiving good critique is a skill that begins with the right intentions. Help the recipient understand how effective the design is by making sure that you’re avoiding selfish, untimely, incomplete, or preferential feedback and by following best practices.

To ensure that we uncover and include all of these details there is a simple framework of four questions that we can ask ourselves, or the other individuals participating in the critique, as shown in Figure 2-1.

These four questions flow together to generate feedback in the form of critique. By asking these questions, we collect the necessary information with which we can think critically about the design we’re examining

What is the objective of the design?We want to understand what we’re analyzing the design against so that we can focus our attention on things that are pertinent to the conversation and the improvement and success of the design. Try to identify the objectives that the designer was aiming to accomplish through the choices she made. What are the objectives of the product or design that have been agreed upon by the team?

What elements of the design are related to the objective?Next we identify the aspects and elements of the design that we believe work toward or against the objective. Whether the aspect or element is the result of a conscious choice by the designer doesn’t matter. We are analyzing the effectiveness of the whole design as it’s presented.

Are those elements effective in achieving the objective?Now that we are thinking about specific objectives and the aspects of the design related to them, it’s time to ask whether we think those choices will work to achieve the objective. This is the crux of critical thinking.Why or why not?Finally, we need to think about the result that we think the choice will actually produce. How close is it to the actual objective? Is it completely different? Does it work counter to the objective? Maybe it won’t work to achieve the objective on its own, but in conjunction with other elements of the design it contributes to the objective.

But, what about other aspects of the design? What about other questions that come up? For example:What new problems, complications, or successes might arise from the choices being proposed?What other objectives should the designer have been considering, but didn’t?Raising these kinds of questions can be important. Ignoring them might mean missing something that becomes problematic later in the project’s timeline, or it might give rise to a new objective for the team to discuss and agree to (or discuss and agree isn’t an objective).With additional questions like these, however, it’s important to keep in mind scope—both the scope of the product and the scope of the feedback discussion. These questions can lead to spending too much time discussing things that are outside the scope of the project or product itself

Central IdeaForming critique is a simple four-step process. What are the design’s objectives? What are the elements of the design related to those objectives? Are those elements effective? Why or why not?