How to give design feedback

There’s a designer I used to work with at a previous agency. He was the best critic I’ve ever had the privilege of working alongside, and would give design feedback like he was giving a toast at his best friend’s wedding. I’ve always tried to carry that energy forward as a general guiding message — be positive, celebrate accomplishments, and be both kind and direct when talking about where things fell short.

Three ways to give feedback

There are three different modalities of teaching that I’ve found helpful to keep in mind. Not everyone needs (or wants) a checklist of feedback to work through, and there are some times when a designer needs someone to be a champion for them to other parts of the biz or needs a gut check to reassure them they’re on the right track.

Art direction

This is the teaching modality that is most associated with the arts and design. It places importance on the aesthetic outcomes and the artifacts produced, but it doesn’t teach designers how to solve problems or why it’s the right path forward.

Socratic method

Places an emphasis on asking questions to help a designer find answers. It can be frustrating to leave a review with more questions than answers, but this is super important to helping designer develop their own process and perspectives. It’s better for early-stage work, and should be used with the other teaching modalities.

Coaching

Somewhere in between the two is the coach. This is about guiding the designer to the activities or frameworks that will help solve the problem. They still may not understand fully why it’s the activity to use, but it’s really helpful in developing fresher designers into more mature designers with a stronger gut instinct and rigor in their process.

Feedback should be a gift

In any given situation, I like to ask myself:

• Do they need the answer, the question, or the path between the two?
• What do they have time to explore?
• How much room and trust do they have with the stakeholder to potentially make a sub-optimal choice and learn from it?
• What skills are they trying to build that I can push them towards so they don’t rely on the tools in their toolbox they’re most comfortable with?