Criticism and Web Design

 “Don't take it personally.”

As a designer, dealing with criticism is one aspect of your career you will never be able to avoid. You can construct the best piece of artwork you've ever created, get accolades throughout the graphic community, and you will still feel the sharp edge of criticism coming from someone.

Whenever I'm trolling the blog sphere and come across an article on this subject I find I'm quite drawn to it. Over the past ten years I'd had the pleasure of working with many clients, (and employers), who have made criticizing an art form. Unfortunately most of their criticisms are not very helpful. So I keep reading and hoping to find some key to dealing with the criticism, and deriving some useable direction out of it.

Here's the scenario, you start a new project, full of great ideas from the client, you've done your research, and drawn up some basic wire frames and get down to to work. You put in a lot of hours crafting the perfect site that in your mind meets the clients every need. It's graphically pleasing, audience appropriate, and user friendly. You gleefully send your mockups to the client, sure they'll love it and instead end up getting, “I hate this.”, “I don't think this is going to work for me”, “This isn't the direction I wanted to go”, and so on.

What to do?

You can argue with the client that everything you've created follows the basics and fundamentals of design principles. (Cause that always works.) You can feel deflated and start all over again, creating something totally different, repeating the process over and over until either you or the client gets so fed up that either hands are thrown up in the air or you settle for some Frankenstein design that makes the client happy and you miserable. (Well that's not going on the portfolio.)

Right from the start, a great practice is to present your mockups to the client with a detailed explanation. Tell them up front why you chose certain colours and fonts. Explain to them why this layout will be the most user friendly, pointing out that the overall look and feel is directed at their targeted audience. (Not them) The more understanding you impart to the client, the less of a negative gut reaction you'll receive.

When and if you do receive any unhelpful criticisms, what I would suggest is to help the client to better articulate what they do and do not like about the design you've presented to them. Ask questions and be specific, “What don't you like?”, “What isn't working?”, touch on everything, the colours, fonts, layout, content presentation, etc. When they start asking you to change or add things that you know won't fit, offer suggestions why certain elements will not work. Often I've found that you can take the essence of what a client wants, adding it to the design in the proper way and the client will love it.

Some Guidelines

• Start off by giving detailed explanations about your designs when presenting them to clients.
• When dealing with boards or people who join a project that has been under development for a while, define some boundaries about what is and is not being discussed, what has already been approved and so on.
• Help your clients to articulate and be specific about what they do and do not like.
• Take the essence of what they want and mold it into something great. (You'll kick yourself in the pants if you skip this step at the beginning of a project)

When it comes to other designers, if you manage a team or are asked for your opinion, remember to never give another designer a gut reaction. It's as unhelpful to them as it is to you. If there is something you don't like, take a few minutes to explore and articulate what you don't like. Offer suggestions and remember this isn't your work, style or client. Help to guide younger designers who may not be as up on design principles so they and their work can grow in quality.

And remember.... Don't take it personally!