The Art of Giving Good Feedback
At ZURB, we've worked extremely hard to understand what makes good feedback. With the launch of our website feedback tool Notable, it became apparent it wasn't enough to simply get random feedback, it had to also be meaningful and push our product forward.
The next time you need to provide feedback to a designer or design team, here are four questions to ask yourself to make sure your message is clear, meaningful and relevant.
1. Is the feedback specific and actionable?
There must be a call to action and you'll want to be sure the designer can follow through on most or all of the suggestions you make. Also, make sure to differentiate between changes you want now, and what you consider to be future changes -- don't make the designer guess. Deadlines and timeframes should be reasonable enough to allow for the changes you're requesting.
2. Is the feedback contextual?
The designer should be able to quickly identify what your suggestions mean. Notable is a great option for putting feedback directly on a screenshot. Alternatively a print out with hand written notes works well too.
3. Does the feedback encourage your team?
Tear down any roadblock so the team feels empowered to get results. Get people excited about your insights and save any cutting or extremely negative remarks for a private conversation. But don't sugar coat mistakes or problems.
4. Is the feedback within the recipient's scope of skills?
Whenever possible, break down the feedback and expected actions into smaller, obtainable chunks. This will expose any potential challenges that occur when the changes you request don't match the designer's skill set. Remember, just because it needs to get done, doesn't mean the person you're talking to is the one to do it.
Jonathan (ZURB) says
Would definitely second that feedback needs to be actionable. In many cases nebulous feedback can be...okay, if the recipient is good at reading you and knows how to turn your feedback into action. Many times feedback that's just 'yeah it's....I dunnno, I....' results in frustration for the designer and ultimately the entire team or client.
Jeremy (ZURB) says
Great advice in this post. I like that we're covering feedback as a topic on the blog.
Timing can make or break feedback that applies any of these ingredients. The right feedback at the wrong time--too late in the game, too early--can have a big impact on whether your team is receptive to what's being said.
Good example: Detailed nitpicks in the early phase of a project can slow things down. Remember that brainstorm rules often apply to feedback early on.
Another example: On the flipside, broad feedback that opens problems up late in a project can cause frustration and missed deadlines. Don't avoid conflict if something was missed--you should call it out, but do it in front of the right audience (maybe even raise it with one person first) and consider your timing.
Connor (ZURB) says
Lots of good stuff here. One of the things to remember in designer to designer feedback sessions is to look at things objectively. Designers, especially younger ones, tend to only look from the perspective of how they would have solved the problem.
While this approach isn't always bad, it can hinder you from giving good feedback on solutions that are different from your own.
There is always a better way. We should be open to seeing it.
Matt (ZURB) says
Question number three is especially important when giving designers feedback on the feasibility (or complete lack there of) of a design.
When a wireframe lands in your inbox detailing how the app will make use of the users web cam to identify their gender for the sign in form, you have a couple options.
The first option leaves everyone feeling like shit. In the later you recognize that thought (good or not) was put into the design and try to salvage the thinking if possible.
Dave (ZURB) says
I'm definitely with Jonathan that feedback needs to be actionable. Nothing is more frustrating than pumping out what you think is a killer element, then getting feedback from the client that they "don't really like it." Maybe they love the structure and typography, but it's only the colors that they aren't feeling.
Often time it can be hard for clients to identify specific details of a design that they don't like, but it always helps to get direction instead of straight dislike.
Jacob (ZURB) says
I really love the little graphics you folks use to illustrate your articles. They always entertain me, and make the concepts that much easier to grasp.
With regards to giving feedback, we find using usability tools (yes, like ours) a great tool to giving and getting great feedback. You get the numbers telling you where people clicked for each given task, and how long it took them to click there.
It's pretty easy to figure that you have a problem if people are all clicking in the wrong place, or taking too long to click - these kind of numbers can't lie, and from there you can go on to improving the design. Simply rinse and repeat to get a great site.
Thanks for sharing!
Bryan (ZURB) says
Thanks Jacob, we've been playing around with the images in our workshops and thought the style would work for the blog.
When you can use data to support your feedback it's even better. It helps to get designers seeing the problem qualitatively and quantitatively.