Helpful feedback
Giving feedback is an inherent part of life in a creative studio.
Giving helpful feedback - the kind that inspires rather than backfires - is a subtle art.
There are countless nuances, edge cases, and personality-dependent factors that make it impossible to write a recipe of what the right way of giving feedback is.
But, there's one thing anyone can do.
Avoid all-or-nothing mindset.
It's natural to default to thinking in extremes. We channel our emotions instinctively. Particularly when it's hard to determine if something works or not, we defer to our taste and aesthetic sense.
Before I move to the practices we conceived, I'll mention that I acknowledge the grey area. Some of them seem contradictory, some of them utterly vague. We revisit and refine them on a continuous basis.
When nothing looks good, don't focus on details.
End this quickly. A clean slate is better than the rabbit hole of endless changes. "We need to start over" is valid feedback. Even better when backed with suggestions on where to start. Starting over might be quite liberating for designers.
When calling out the wrong direction, acknowledge the good parts.
For a designer, this is the trickiest place to be - all is seemingly alright, but the overall feeling is off. Being candid about the need to change the direction is okay, but pointing out the good chucks will make the designer less stressed. While these well-designed parts don’t match the whole today, they might be reused at some point in the future. Hence, don’t hesitate to vocally appreciate these bits.
Ask for a clean-up if needed.
When files look messy, it's easy to miss the good parts and focus on shortcomings. Ask the designer to take a moment to clean it up (e.q. paddings are even, font sizes are consistent, etc.), and start from there.
Embrace an average start as an opportunity for iteration.
If it just looks fine and you find nothing exciting about it, that’s okay. Try to come up with ideas for what can be amplified, highlighted, or accentuated. Often, great designs start very simple, almost boring, but all they need is one non-obvious idea. A tiny friction or subtle distortion that turns ordinary into interesting.
Cherish a good direction even when the execution is not there yet.
When the direction is exciting, but the execution is far from perfect, excitement is the right reaction. This is excellent news. Nailing the direction is 90% of the battle. However, the remaining 10% a.k.a perfecting the details can constitute of 90% of all project effort. The creative now needs space for focus and deep work to take it to the finish line.
Be mindful about perfecting the perfect.
You absolutely love the designer's work but feel there's room for improvement in certain minor areas. Before you share these suggestions, consider all the ways it can go wrong. Trying to over-optimize one detail might lead to endless loops that will inevitable creep on the rest of the project. It's not to say to always settle for imperfect to de-risk the rest of the work. But use your best judgement anytime you're about to write "I absolutely love it, it's perfect BUT [...]"
Last edited on Oct 29, 2024 by
