Design critique is how we get better.

Just as peer review is the life-blood of science, critique is the life-blood of design.

Here’s my guidelines and thoughts on running successful crit in design organisations:

  1. This is how we get better quality. There is probably no other ritual that is more important in improving quality than crit. Having a safe, productive environment that welcomes robust debate will dramatically improve quality, team connectedness and morale, and de-risk the work.
  2. Leaders establish the behaviour in the room. Anyone of any level should contribute and all feedback is helpful and welcome. You will hear that ‘I don’t like it’ is not acceptable critique. I feel this is an opener, so it’s ok to say it. It will encourage investigation and it’s really ok to lean into intuition and gut feel. Post-rationalisation to a feeling is often one part of the brain acting much faster than the other. Learn how to harness this. Be careful about moderating your thoughts and behaviour to adhere to a set of rules. Part of making a safe environment is that people should bring their whole selves to these things.
  3. It’s non-negotiable. Of all of the meetings in the week, this is the one you must attend. And you must bring work. How frequently is up to you. Senior designers set the expectation by being vulnerable. They should establish the safe environment with how they behave, the work they bring, and the feedback they give and receive. From there, the effect will snowball.
  4. Who should be there? In my team, I have four disciplines: product design, content design, user research, technical writers. They are all in crit.
  5. The Wall. Crit can be exposing. Anyone who has attended a life drawing class, or formal art or design education will know ‘The Wall’. At the end of the day, or a project, or the term, the lecturers gather everyone together. Everyone puts their work up - no exceptions. Then, they chose some work and systematically interrogate it. I say that carefully. They don’t rip it or you apart. They don’t pick on you. This is about understanding the decisions you’ve made and offering constructive feedback into what they’d like to see.
  6. The Work. Any work should come to crit. Early work, polished work, work you’ve discounted, work you don’t ‘like’. It’s a snapshot. Quite often the most fruitful discussions are from those where someone just fires up some work, explains the context for 2 minutes, and we have at it.
  7. Be inclusive. Be agile in your process to build the right balance between silent and verbal discussion and critique. I’ve got to be honest, I struggle with the former. For me, crit is about discussion. It’s a dialogue as I try to build understanding in what I’m seeing.
  8. Keep context short. Set the context but be very brief. Two minutes. Five minutes at the maximum. Be clear on what you want help with but don’t bat away comments that fall outside of that scope.
  9. Take the feedback. We all hear things we don’t want to in crit. Comments that will feel like a setback, or discourage you from progressing. At worst, they can feel like a gut punch. If the feedback is constructive, fair, and not a solution, then just take the feedback. Thank the person giving it and say ‘I’ll take that away and come back’.
  10. The role of taste. Good taste comes from exposure over time. Be it food, art, design, music. Building a broad palette of experience means you can give more feedback in crit. You have a deeper well from which to draw. Having good taste is about having a honed muscle of observation, openness, and objective critical thinking. It’s also about having a good and practiced ‘gut feel’. One you are tune with and can draw from.