Design feedback is an integral part of any successful design project, it gives clients an opportunity to review and critique a design solution that has been presented. It is the role of the design contact (the representative that liaises with the design team) to collate and manage internal communications at their end and provide the agency with a concise list of feedback.

Start by clarifying the objective.

Whether viewing a new design for the first time via email or in person, these three questions will put you in good standing to provide effective feedback. Does the design meet my brief? Any design agency worth its salt will produce designs that visually represent the client’s objectives and requirements, provided in a well-documented brief. To assist, consider your organisation’s key objectives and discern whether the design team has addressed them.

Is the design aligned with our organisation’s brand? In most cases, designers work with brand guidelines to ensure the correct imagery, graphics and fonts are used, and that the design adheres to the general rules outlined in the guidelines. However, designers rely on your experience and knowledge of your brand to tell them if they have hit the mark or if there is room for improvement.

If your organisation doesn’t have brand guidelines, the process involves reviewing existing branded materials and asking specific questions to determine a look and feel that accurately reflects your organisation’s personality.

If your organisation doesn’t have brand guidelines, the process involves reviewing existing branded materials and asking specific questions to determine a look and feel that accurately reflects your organisation’s personality.

Be clear.

As the old adage says… keep it simple! Providing simple, clear feedback will ensure the designer implements it accurately, which means a faster start to your website/print project!

A few pointers on supplying well-formatted feedback:

• Bullet points are best, ideally one for every item that needs to be addressed. This is much more effective than providing a paragraph-based dialogue on what needs to be changed.
• If there’s a lot of feedback, try to break it down by section e.g. per page, or item being delivered like “940px banner”. Simple identifiers like “top-left” or “third section” helps to quickly identify the issue and amend it.
• Screenshots never hurt!

Be specific.

It’s no secret that designers the world over get frustrated by ambiguous feedback that doesn’t really tell us much. In fact, there are websites dedicated to client feedback fashioned into creative and hilarious pieces of art – these posters by Mark Shanley and Paddy Treacy are original pieces that they and their industry colleagues designed based on “their favourite worst feedback from clients.” 

The more specific the feedback, the better. Try to avoid generic comments like “change the font” or “I don’t like the image” that leave designers asking why or to what? Instead, provide specific, actionable suggestions. Offer alternatives, sketches and details, and if you’re unhappy with something, give your reasoning; it will take far less time if the designer knows exactly what the issue is.

Be descriptive.

The more context and reasoning, the better! In general, comments like “I just don’t like it,” or, “This sentence isn’t true,” aren’t constructive; they simply don’t provide the detail and necessary guidance to make changes from a design perspective.

Attempt to understand why you don’t like it. Does the page look too busy? Are you finding areas of copy hard to read? Are the colours around the wrong way? Don’t let this issue overwhelm you; more often than not, it’s an easy fix and rarely something to worry about. It can be challenging to put reactions to a design into words, especially if you’re not used to critiquing design work, but if you take the time to articulate emotions or questions, you’ll have a better chance at attaining your desired outcome.

Be disciplined.

Most agencies follow a clear process when working on design projects. Usually there are s several ’rounds’ of ‘design’ with ‘design feedback’. Agencies present designs to clients and give them several days (depending on their individual project timeline) to review and consolidate their feedback. The agency then undertakes the first, second and third rounds of revision.

3-round revision model

First round: Identify major issues and provide feedback to address them. If you’re presenting a design to stakeholders, use the first round to get the design to a stage where you think you have nailed the brief. This should give it the best chance of success.

Second round: Confirm that the changes made have resolved the issues identified in the first round; tweak and respond if they don’t. Ensure the design composition is balanced after addressing latest changes. Get any stakeholder feedback required and consolidate into one final group of changes. Let them know there is only one chance to give feedback. If your project is time sensitive, provide all stakeholders with a feedback deadline.

Final round: Approve the design tweaks and move forward.

Ideally, major issues should be discussed immediately, and minor tweaks can be provided at both the first and second rounds. 

Round three should be near-perfect if you have thoroughly reviewed the previous rounds. When a design reaches the 4th, 5th, and 6th rounds of revision, there is clearly a problem that has to be addressed. 

Also known as “design by committee”, this usually indicates that multiple stakeholders are involved in the project, giving feedback to the key design contact, and that this feedback has become disjointed. It is important to remember (particularly on a website project) that excessive rounds of feedback can throw a project plan (and a design!) out of whack and potentially result in a delay – (that’s like telling our team there is a delay in the release date of the next season of Game of Thrones… a huge disappointment for all!). 

Butterfly strives to keep our projects on time and on budget, so if you can prepare yourself in advance by scheduling meetings within your team to collate feedback, this will ensure the design phase of your project runs smoothly.

Listen

You’ve no doubt realised by now that designers are a finicky bunch, we like things ‘just so’. The design team at Butterfly prides itself on upholding an exceptionally high standard of design, and we genuinely want the best possible outcome for our clients. That being said, we will always give our professional advice on design feedback we don’t agree with.

By now, I hope you have a good understanding of our design process here at Butterfly as well as some tools to help you manage your next design project. Creating a beautiful and effective web design is a challenging task; it involves distilling vast amounts of information into a visually appealing and balanced composition that appeals to a specific target market. It needs to be an effective communication tool that can successfully market a service or product. It must reflect the organisation’s brand and be intuitive for users to interact with, providing easy access to the required information.

Having succinct, considered feedback is the dream scenario for designers; it allows us to maintain the integrity of the design without compromising any of the core functions listed above.