Critiquing 101: How to give and receive feedback

[nitroseed]

I've been noticing lately that the feedback being given on people's work is minimal and hardly beneficial to the designer who presented the work. So, I've decided to provide all of you with a little guide to critiquing others' work, as well as how to take feedback and critiques and apply it to your work.

This community is a very valuable resource for any aspiring designer because we have a very wide audience. We can present work freely and receive feedback from a multitude of perspectives from all around the world, something that is rarely achieved. So, it's important that we use this resource wisely for the sake of everyone involved here.

Presenting Your Work

The first step in the critiquing process starts with you and your work. When you decide to present your work, don't just slap an image on the screen and say "what do you think?" More often than not, people will be as simple in their responses as you were in your presentation and you'll receive a lot of "that looks good"s and "doesn't work for me"s. When you present your work, you should always expand on your thought process. Some questions you might want to answer:

- Why did I develop this concept?

- Where did this idea originate from?

- What specific elements did I include in this work, and what reason did I have for using them?

- What special aspects of it do I want the viewers to know about?

And so on. The more information you provide about your thought process, the more we'll have to go on when we provide feedback.

Also, when you present your work, make sure it is presented very cleanly and is organized well. If you want your work to be taken seriously, you have to take it serious yourself first. Respect your own work and put a little time into making your presentation look nice for your own benefit.

Giving Feedback: Critique vs. Criticism

After someone has presented their work, your first responsibility as a viewer is to be respectful, whether you like the work or not. And by respectful, I don't mean to be sycophantic and kiss the guy's behind or anything; I mean show a little class in your approach. There is a big difference between giving a critique and being critical.

Critiquing is exploring every side of a concept. You point out the good things about it, and say why you think they are successful. You can also point out the bad things, but in a polite way, and say why you don't think they work as well. If you do point out some weak points, be sure to suggest how you think they could be fixed. Just saying something is weak without giving someone any help in fixing it is useless and only serves to inconstructively degrade the work. Always provide suggestions on how to improve the work if you feel there is room for it.

When you criticize someone's work, you're not providing anything beneficial to the designer. It's hollow and rude, and it should be avoided when you're giving feedback. Criticism is not feedback at all; it's expressing an opinion without any foundation. Criticizing a work is a waste of time. If someone puts the time and effort into creating a concept, whether you love it or hate it, the very least you should do is respect that person's effort. Don't just spit venom if you absolutely abhor the concept. The best thing to do in that scenario is either politely say that you don't think it works and then give some ideas on how to fix it, or don't say anything at all. Rudely attacking someone's work and telling them how horrible it is without any constructive feedback is highly disrespectful and doesn't make you look any better either.

What to Do With Feedback You Receive

All of this critiquing business is a two-way street. You put effort into your work and post it, and then others take the time and effort to provide feedback. As a designer, you should take that feedback and apply it to your work, and then repost it. If you just put your work out, receive your feedback and do nothing with it, it's frustrating to people. Why bother with asking for feedback if you're not going to listen to it? A critique should not become show-and-tell. Critiques are intended to be a creative process involving many people to improve upon the work to make it as strong as possible.

All of this advice I am providing is for your benefit here. Take the time to develop your concepts to their fullest and you will be pleasantly rewarded with the satisfaction of having created something that both you and your fellow board members will all be proud of. Most importantly, you've got to give respect in order to receive it.

I'm going to make it a personal task to eliminate some of the worthless crticism given in some of these threads because they don't benefit anyone and only instigate further problems. Try to make an effort to follow this guide and learn to improve both your presentation and your critiquing skills.

Thanks, and happy posting!

[NewYawkSeahawk]

hey Nitro....

Maybe you could write up a guide for business ethics that might help some people out?

[andrewharrington]

this has been bigging me for a long time, tanks, nitro, for saying everything that needed to be said. now lets hope people follow the model.

[DEAD!]

As for me, I rarely put up a work and ask for critiques. I just either put them as my avatar or as a signature. But for those who need a critique or who do critique, I think these guidelines should be followed and should be posted to any newbie on this board.

[Grish]

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more as in "mmmmmm?"

[rtrich11]

Well said, Nitro. I get weary of sifting through "I don't like the blue." etc.

Also, some critiques/criticisms end up degrading to a string of "Your team sucks". "No. Your team sucks." These type of comments can go on for pages and the whole posting takes on a life of its own. The art is totally forgotten.

Another thing to mention to people presenting work is not to post every tiny tweak and variation of those tweaks. Often I have to seriously hunt to find the difference between versions. All 10 versions. Posting logos can play with your confidence, but if you have enough to put your art up for crucifying, you can have the confidence to decide some of the minor adjustments on your own. We will pull you back in if you go too far. Usually a good round of corrections can go 2 or 3 pages, takes a few days, and we see up to 3 or 4 versions.

[the_cynic]

Not too many true concepts are really posted these days either. They're always hockey or football uniforms.