A Critical Analysis of Feedback

You’ve been sweating on this cart page redesign for almost a week now, and even though your eyes are tired from intense, late night pixel-pushing, you’re confident that you’ve nailed it with this wireframe. You present the redesign to your stakeholders, but these are some of the responses that you receive:

Aside from these responses being rather demotivating, and in some cases downright absurd, these responses all have something in common. They are all statements. Statements do not initiate a conversation or dialogue. They simply state. Statements can be broken down into 2 categories: reactions and directions. “I don’t like it” is an example of a reactive statement, since it communicates how the person feels about the project. “We should make the call to action bigger” is an example of a directive statement, as it only serves to instruct the contributor without an explanation of why.

The above statements are not overly helpful when discussing a project, because they are grounded in subjectivity and assumptions, and they act as the endpoint of the discussion. Instead, what we want is a factual, objective, starting point of a discussion or, in other words, a critique. Where feedback could be considered a reactive or directive statement, critique could be described as a dialogue which curates the critical thinking and response to the content of a project in relation to the goal of that project.

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A critique’s framework can be broken down into the following four pieces:

The Goal  -  Refer to the goal the contributor is attempting to accomplish.
The Assessment  -  Refer to a specific way the current project fits in response to this goal.
How Effective is the current solution in regards to the goal?  -  Communicate how effective (or not) this solution is.
Why?  -  Why is that solution effective or ineffective?

To clarify the difference between feedback and critique, let’s take a look at the same situation with a response given in feedback form and another response using the critique framework.

Feedback Example:
The call to action needs to be bigger.

Critique Example:
If the objective is to increase conversion rate, using the same-sized font as the rest of the page for the call to action isn’t effective, because it lacks visual hierarchy.

The feedback example uses a directive statement to tell the contributor what to do. In the critique example, let’s break it down into the 4 sections of the framework.

Goal: “the objective is to increase conversion rate”
Assessment: “using the same-sized font as the rest of the page for the call to action”
Effectiveness: “…isn’t effective”
Why: “because it lacks visual hierarchy”

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At the foundation of critique is intent. Even by following the framework mentioned above, a critique can still be unpleasant if there is foul intent. Here are some helpful tips to consider when giving a critique:

Use a filter. Gather your initial reactions and thoughts and think in context of the goals of the project. Before you shout out why you hate the call to action, first think about why you hate it and why it’s not effective in this case.

Don’t assume. Always ask questions and dive into the reasoning, constraints, etc. Is this call to action adhering to some kind of branding guideline that we have in place for some other reason?

Talk about strengths. Don’t forget to talk about what is working. The left column is working great, but since you gave general and negative feedback, the designer now changed everything, including the elements that were effective.

Avoid problem solving. This is one of the common misconceptions of a critique. You’re not here to solve the problems for the contributor, only to communicate how effective you think their solution is in regards to the goal and why. Now is not the time to suggest that the call to action should be red.

Say something. Don’t let others take all the spotlight. It’s important to speak up, even if you feel you don’t have much to say. Even if you don’t see any problem areas, feel free to pick a piece of the project that you think works well towards the goal and critique it. “The goal of the project was to increase conversions, and this new call to action is effective because it uses a bold weight and is surrounded by plenty of whitespace.”

Equality. In a group critique, you all have equal say and value, and this should be made clear. Just because your CTO is in the meeting, doesn’t mean that he has more say over the Junior Web Designer.

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Of course, if the intent is wrong from the person who is receiving, the dialogue can also get ugly. These are some things to consider when receiving critique:

Don’t take it personally. Assume positive intent in others. This requires humility and selflessness. This is much easier when you consider the next point.

Improvement. Remember that critique is about improving your work, not judging it.

Listen. Do you understand what the critic is saying? Don’t be afraid of awkward silence, as this motivates discussion. Just because you know that the call to action fits the branding guidelines, listen carefully to what the critics are saying and think about their comments before speaking.

Set the right foundation. Explain exactly what you’re looking for help with. Perhaps you were just looking for feedback on the product section, since the call to action has nothing to do with your redesign. By focusing the critique, it will ultimately save time on both ends.

Align yourself with the group. Instead of thinking about it as you and your project in front of everyone, put the project on the wall and sit with everyone. This will help set the precedent of collaboratively analyzing your work and not being the defender of it.

When we are emotionally attached to a project, our actions are manifested in the critique through selfishness. The more able we are to overcome our subjectivity, the better we can create a critique that clearly expresses our intention and ultimately helps improve the project we’re critiquing.

So the next time your eyes are tired from pixel-pushing, and you are about to present your redesign to stakeholders, consider the framework and align yourself with the right intent. By communicating this framework, you’re setting the right foundation for your meeting, and it makes it easy to rope the conversation back in towards the goal.

The beauty of critique is that it’s applicable to nearly anything, as in essence, it’s simply a tool to guide progress and facilitate improvement. What ways can you apply critique in your day to day? Share in the comments below!

*Credit to Aaron Irizarry who demonstrated this framework in his workshop at UX Week ’16. He has written a ton of content on critique here.

Full discolsure: This is a cross-posting from my article on medium.