A lot of our work happens in a digital environment, but unfortunately it's not always the best medium for getting feedback. There's a lot to be said for face-to-face meetings and here at ZURB, we take a hybrid approach to sending and receiving feedback on design work. Here's an inside look at our process.
Digital feedback keeps work focused
Digital feedback has a lot going for it. First of all, it can be a lot easier to articulate an idea because writing things down forces the person giving feedback to think through the idea. Written feedback also serves as a great historical reference so you can recall what your team said in years past.
Digital feedback is also terrific for keeping things brief and succinct— no need for endless conversations that go on and on. It's also asynchronous and doesn't rely on matching schedules or hard-to-plan meetings. Feedback apps like our
Notable are particularly useful for getting feedback because it's very specific, contextual, and takes the guesswork out of exactly which concepts are under discussion.
Some things can only be done in person
No matter how useful digital feedback is, in-person meetings can provide much better insight. For instance, body language and tone of voice are very revealing. You'll get a sense of how comfortable the feedback giver is with what they're saying and their tone of voice can help you better understand the scope of the discussion.
Feeling the intent of the feedback can also give you enough insight to get the point of the directive. Don't over look the power an in-person meeting can have toward building and creating momentum based on positive reinforcement. After all, digital feedback can seem rather critical all the way around, but both positive and negative feedback can be easier to appreciate in person.
We use a hybrid approach
At ZURB, our team use a hybrid approach because we feel that practice in digital form makes in-person delivery more efficient and powerful. Indeed, sometimes we switch back and forth several times in the course of a day. The key is to be flexible when working in the web world— being able to switch gears smoothly is important to getting useful feedback.