Critique in design: a practice in the making

Critique in design is first and foremost an opportunity to gain valuable feedback on our work. It allows us to discover what aspects need refinement, what alternatives can be explored and how to reinforce the decisions we have made. However, it is also a fragile art: it can easily fall into an exchange of personal, superficial or poorly argued opinions.

The typical situation of a design critique goes something like this:

1. The designer presents the context of his project: what is the problem, what is the intention guiding his decisions, what aspects are still pending.
2. The audience, in turn, responds from their own perspective: they validate whether the proposal meets their needs, raise doubts or suggest improvements.

The challenge is for this conversation not to become a sum of “likes” and “dislikes”, but an exercise that adds depth and opens up possibilities.

In a recent forum of the Interaction Design Association (IxDA) titled The Critique: your rules for a productive session, Several professionals shared experiences and tips on how to get the most out of the critique. Among the most repeated ideas were:

• Make justified comments: say “this works because...” rather than simply “I like it”.”.
• Listen and respond with arguments, avoiding visceral or defensive reactions.
• Delimit lThe following are the aspects on which feedback is sought, rather than leaving the critique completely open-ended.
• Seeking diversity of voicesWe need to listen to those we respect, but also to those who see things from a different angle.
• Remember that the design is criticised, not the designer; Criticism should never become a personal attack.
• Recognise that finding fault with one's own work is positive: does not mean failure, but that the critical process is working.
• Rescuing the valuable even in weak proposals: a poorly executed idea can hide a powerful germ to develop.

Many designers trained in art schools have learned to give and receive criticism from day one. But in the fast-growing field of interaction design, which attracts very diverse profiles, not everyone has had such training. That is why it is essential to start defining shared rules and shaping a culture of constructive criticism.

If one thing has become clear in these conversations, it is that criticism is not a test or a plebiscite. It is a space to think out loud, to test our ideas and to let others help us see what we might not have discovered on our own.

 

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