As an ad-agency refugee, I’ve struggled with my fair share of design debates with copywriters, project managers, clients, and everyone in between.
Maybe you’ve been there, too. The copywriter you’re paired with doesn’t think the marketing page you’re working on “feels right yet.” (As it turns out, the tone of voice is just off.)
In dramatic fashion, your client thinks the design you just presented is “way off base.” (You just happened to use a color they absolutely detest.)
It’s been five years since I’ve had a client meeting, yet the road blocks of vague feedback still come back to haunt me within the programmer to designer relationship.
The other day, Nick and I were debating the look and feel of shared code snippets. Or, so I thought…
I needlessly fiddled with new color schemes and different monospaced typefaces because Nick thought our code snippets “looked terrible” and were “not pleasing.”
All he really meant was, “the syntax parser isn’t accurate.”
When everyone’s expertise comes to the table, it’s easy to fall into the trap of worrying too early about the details that matter to them most. Save yourself a few minutes of needless fiddling, ask for clearer feedback sooner than later.
Related: Quick little UI feedback tip
Steve Woodson
on 16 Nov 12Absolutely agree, and would add that it should work the same in reverse. Always assume that additional clarity in your comments are welcome – even necessary – when discussing a topic with someone who isn’t familiar with your industry. When it comes to clients in particular, it’s better to come across as verbose rather than unclear.
Michael
on 16 Nov 12Man, I’ve been there. What’s annoying though is that when people are entirely displeased with something, they won’t be as direct as if they just had a small problem. So the little things get fixed more often as the serious problems.
This obviously does not apply to anonymous online debate.
I am not talking about svn here. I like it.
Ricky Salsberry
on 16 Nov 12Parsing feedback is one essential skill designers often overlook or fail to develop.
In reading Mike Montiero’s book Design is a Job he writes about taking feedback, and often how we as designers are unable to record or parse feedback properly. We blame idiot clients, with wives who love the color pink, or must come from hell.
I was guilty of this until Montiero’s point sunk in – that I was responsible for much of the poor feedback I was receiving – not the client. I am supposed to be the professional at design, and part of that job is getting the feedback you need to improve your work. Clients are rarely professionals at giving feedback to designers – so it’s on us to ask enough right questions and get to the true meaning of their feedback.
GeeIWonder
on 16 Nov 12Nick says Mig’s thing looks horrible in a chat. So Mig says Nick’s feedback was horrible on a blog.
This is what happens when people can’t get Twinkies anymore.
MR
on 16 Nov 12@ Anonymous Gee I Wonder,
I asked Nick if he’d be up for me sharing our exchange. He was for it. No co-worker relationships were harmed in the posting of this screenshot. :)
Mark
on 17 Nov 12Is it really a matter of vague feedback, or rather closed and segmented communication that was a failure on both ends?
You both approached this conversation stuck in your own professional mindset—Nick as a programmer, you as a designer. What if you had both taken a few minutes to understand the context of each others role in this effort before sending the text and responding to it?
Anonymous Coward
on 17 Nov 12As has already been mentioned this is clearly a failure in communication on both your parts. Shame on you for presenting it as ‘a case for clarity in feedback’. Its just as much a case for openness in receiving feedback. While Nick comes across as the typical vague client, youre coming across as the typical smug designer.
Michael
on 18 Nov 12I appreciate whoever tried to fix my Markdown in #2, but what I wanted to do was put asterisks in front of two of my sentences, and then connect them to two footnotes. Is it not possible to use an asterisk or double asterisk natively in Markdown?
Trystan
on 19 Nov 12I’ve noticed that this is often the reason why I have trouble answering someones question or explaining something: what I’m thinking about and what they’re talking about don’t quite match up. Now when I notice I sound like a bumbling idiot, I take a few seconds to ask, “wait a sec – what do you mean by _?” It’s a good habit.
Matt Kelly
on 19 Nov 12Instant messenger and email tend to be poor mediums for delivering feedback because they lack context. They also make it easy to give brief feedback like “it looks terrible”.
Giving feedback directly on the design itself allows people to saw more with less.
This discussion is closed.