Today I thought I would write about a subject that has in some way, fascinated me: critiques. Let me start by explaining the concept, or better yet, the job of a critique.
Fair enough, a critique is a discussion or review of one’s work(s). Critiques mostly pick on web designers and focus on website layout to ensure a client can easily navigate the site and reach all the important information intended.
Critiques are quite hated in the world of web design as much as they are appreciated, this depends of course, on you.
Many fail to understand that as part of a critiques job, criticism is required. And so they let too much get under their skin leading them to take things personal. If you want your project to be the best it can, you have to accept other people’s advice, and critiques are ones who’s reviews must not be taken lightly or neglected. Learning to accept criticism and use it to your own advantage will surprisingly, get you to love these buggers no matter how harsh their comments might be!
If you’re a web designer and you’re reading this right now, you probably have had your work knocked quite a few times, or maybe you’re looking to do it yourself, why not?
And so in this section of the article, I will give you a hand by explaining some of the things you should take into your consideration when given the “fun” task of criticism. Stay tuned!
Now although this might seem like a step you can’t really have your designer rely on, your gut usually knows best. But unfortunately, the other part is also true, you can’t have someone change something in their work because you have “a feeling” it isn’t so great. And for that very reason, you need to back up your gut reaction with a reasonable explanation.
Saying “I don’t like so and so…” won’t be of any help, in fact it could be downright depressing for a designer to hear that all the effort they put into a project it unappreciated and no help will be given. However, stating you don’t like a certain feature in a website because it shadows a more important element that would benefit customers a lot more (for example) is much more helpful and appreciated!
Always consider the target audience your designer’s project is aimed at. Never criticize if you don’t know what you’re criticizing. It’s true that some factors go for all websites, but that’s not enough, sometimes you have to dig a little deeper in order to provide an accurate and well-balanced review.
Sometimes, you open a website and you just “expect” to see something there, though this might be linked to gut reaction, it is usually a logical thought, because you are the user here, you are the one who is checking out the website and so, what you want to see and what you expect to find, is probably what anyone who browses the website will want to see too. So having things meet your expectation is awesome.
As a critique, you’re judging the website as a whole, this means content design too! A skimmed review will be considered superficial until further insight is practiced. Content is not a critiques job, but what you can do, is make sure the design presents the content nicely. (Of course this sort of depends on a website’s context.)
A great way to give a great critical review, is to get as close as possible to the division, in other words, learn how to criticize, get familiar with the job -practice! It’s actually not that hard once you get the hang of it, just remember to always think logically and articulate all your ideas and opinions clearly, and remember to give merit to designers even if you are not 100% satisfied with some bits and bobs, you can’t forget that anything they put in their project is there for a reason, so understand that reason and give your ideas accordingly. Praise their effort and respect their work, you will definitely get the same back!
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