In this week’s episode of Design Life we are talking about design reviews. Design reviews can seem a bit like a holy grail but using them to the designer’s advantage to create a successful project is key. We dive deep into the processes in place for formal and informal design reviews and crits where we work and share what we have learned from giving and receiving feedback.
Design reviews can be a good way to get feedback, but only if they are well managed. Lack of feedback can cause frustration. Make sure you’re hearing from the right people on your team. Ask for feedback from the key people on your team, from stakeholders if appropriate and from fellow designers as well. For a successful design review, try to update necessary people beforehand, like engineers, if you have the opportunity.
In this episode we discuss in depth the different ways we give and receive feedback at our companies. At Convertkit, we don’t run design reviews. We gather feedback on an ad hoc basis, asynchronously and at design team meetings. While at Uber, design reviews take place on a regular basis with a large team and a schedule for presenters. Design crits take place twice a week and are for getting down to the nitty-gritty of a design.
Don’t feel like you have to act on every piece of feedback. Your job as a designer is to interpret feedback and figure out how best to manifest it in the work, which can be tricky. When a suggestion for improvement is made, think about how it is trying to solve the problem at hand. Is there another solution that you could create based on the feedback.
00.54 – Catch up
03.26 – Getting feedback at Convertkit
09.36 – Design reviews at Uber
14.05 – Design crit
17.42 – Getting engineers on board
19.24 – Collating feedback
25.42 – Trust your design instincts
