If you’re reading this, it’s likely that you have chosen me to work on your design because you resonate with my style and feel it’s right for your brand.
However, even after going through your brand strategy, learning more about what styles you love and creating concepts that are inline with this. Doesn’t necessarily mean that you will always be in love with your concepts straight away.
Therefore, this is why providing well structured feedback is a vital phase within the design process for both parties. When giving feedback, it’s important that you understand and express the reasons behind why you do and don’t like particular aspects. It’s so important that we both get the best out of each other throughout this project, so here are some tips on how to give clear and quality feedback.
01 | Consider your Goals
Visual design can be subjective, so focussing on whether the design is meeting the strategic goals is a great way to keep feedback discussions productive. Instead of asking yourself if you like the new design, pause to recall the strategic goals and key audiences.
❔Does the design successfully address the needs of the audiences it serves?
02 | Put yourself in your Client's Shoes
When looking at the designs, try and view it from a client's perspective. The designs I present to you are based on strategic decisions to appeal to your audience so try not to let slight personal aesthetics stand in the way.
👎🏼 feedback: "I'm not really a fan of purple."
👍🏼 feedback: "I'm worried that the purple color might be a bit feminine for our target audience."
03 | Be Specific
Please try to be as specific as possible, if something doesn't feel right, try to explain why.
👎🏼 feedback: "I don't think it pops enough."
👍🏼 feedback: "The colors feel a bit muted for our young audience. I think a brighter color scheme might appeal to them more."
04 | Be Honest but Nice
Don't be afraid to be honest about how you're feeling. At the end of the day, my mission is to create a brand that you love and are proud to take to the world.
Speak your mind but stay concise. However, if in doubt it’s better to say too much than not enough. Use terms that are concrete, not wishy-washy. Keep everything connected back to your context. “I don’t feel any emotional connection to this hero image. I worry it won’t engage our core audience” is far better than “make it pop”. Comments like this make it much easier for me to revisit, revise and rejuvenate.
👎🏼 feedback: "I hate it."
👍🏼 feedback: "Thanks for your hard work with this concept, unfortunately, it is not really hitting the mark with what we envisioned for our brand, can we please revisit this."
05 | Ask Questions
I will walk you through each of our design presentations and explain to you why I made each of the design decisions. However, the branding process is a collaborative process so if you have any questions at any stage about why I have made certain design decisions, please ask away!
06 | Problem Over Solution
When you’re supplying design feedback, it’s natural to want to offer solutions. But try to explain the problem rather than the solution.
👎🏼 feedback: "Make the title bigger."
👍🏼 feedback: "I worry that the title doesn't stand out enough. Can you tell me walk me through why you chose this size?"
07 | Avoid Gut-reaction Comments
From “try make it pop” to “I’m not really feeling it” – vague design feedback like this can be a designers worst nightmare. Why? Because it doesn’t really mean anything. Before sending your feedback, ask yourself “why?” until you reach a specific piece of feedback. First, make sure you frame your feedback and describe precisely what it applies to (is it color, layout, content design, etc).
For example: “I don’t like it.” → “It doesn’t feel strong or impactful enough.” → “I need the business name to stand out even more.” Voilà!
Here are some more examples of DO’s and DON’Ts to help guide you:
DON'T
“I don't like it!"
DO
“I love the typeface you have used but I don’t feel like the layout represents my brand as well as it possibly could. I would love if we could try…”
In order for me to make relevant changes, we need to know what you don’t like and why you don’t like it. Provide reasoning for every statement you make and suggest changes that you would like to see.
*Remember we choose everything for a reason because it resonates with your target audience and other strategies, so the design is much more than your personal preference.
DON'T
“I think it looks really uncreative and I’m really disappointed.”
DO
“I can see that you’ve put a lot of time and effort into this design and I am very appreciative of that. However, I think I had some different ideas in mind such as…"
We are humans that have feelings. We have probably spent hours and hours perfecting the design and it becoming a piece of work that we are really proud of. A little kindness goes a long way and in fact, that second statement is much more constructive.
*In this situation I would send over a few more examples of designs you like or amend your questionnaire. Usually, situations like this are a result of the client being unsure of what they want or not being clear enough.
DON'T
“Can you please move this piece of text underneath and perhaps center it and maybe also add a little line here?”
DO
“I’m really liking the direction so far! Perhaps we could make some changes to the primary logo so that it appears a little more centrally aligned? I would also like to see a little more detail if possible.”
Dictating your changes to your designer isn’t the most constructive way to get your vision across. Remember that your designer is the expert and they know what works and what doesn’t, so listen to them and trust their decisions.
*You may feel the urge to draw the logo yourself or create it in an app like Canva and then send it over to us. Please don’t do this. Designers are hired for our ability to come up with creative solutions, not just to recreate the design that you have created that probably doesn’t follow a lot of design principles or follows the strategy of your brand.
DON'T
“Can I see something more modern?”
DO
“Could I possibly see a more modern design? I have sent over a few examples of what I mean by this, perhaps a thinner font and a simpler layout?”
What ‘modern’ means to you might be something totally different to us. The same goes for any adjective that you use such as ‘bold’ or ‘badass’. You need to tell us what you mean by this and send some visual examples so that we can understand what you mean and how to make the right changes.
Stay objective
This one can be really challenging for some people because our personal preferences are so innate to our decision-making process. But you are not your customers.
Your preferences have very little weight unless the product you’re designing is made for you as the sole user.
When providing feedback, it’s vital that you remove from the equation as much of your own aesthetic preference as possible. Instead, focus on what your customers will like.
What makes them feel they can trust your company?
What makes their lives easier?
Your subjective impressions rarely impact heavily on those goals. there should be very little need for comments like “I don’t like this”.
Instead, think “our users may not understand this."
Stay objective and aligned with your project goals at all times.