How to Give a Critique

This acknowledges their ownership and investment in the work and gives them a certain amount of control over a process that can put them in a fairly vulnerable position. What they want and where they are in their process will guide you as a reviewer to give helpful and actionable feedback.

This creates an artifact that will help the person receiving the feedback to remember what was said about their work. It also communicates to everyone involved that the work being shown is not precious - just a part of a process. It takes the pressure off of any single person's work and normalizes critiquing for everyone.

Smiling communicates that you want to be there and will make others want to be there with you. It signals that you are approaching the process with a positive attitude - making it easier for someone to receive your feedback with an open mind. While some critiques may need to be fairly serious in nature most are more effective and more fun if you approach them with a sense of humor.

Keep in mind that the goal of a critique is to improve the work being assessed - not just to hear your thoughts on that work. That MAY look like you speaking the whole time but more often than not an effective critique includes some back and forth exchange of ideas between the designer and the person delivering the critique. Critique "with" not "at" someone.

The least helpful critique is one in which nothing actionable is shared. Being "nice" or making the designer feel good is not the goal of a critique and will not help the designer to improve their work. As someone giving feedback it is your responsibility to say what needs to be said in order to take the work to the next level.

It's easy for a designer to lose sight of the group that they are designing for on a project. You can bring an important "audience check" to the critique to make sure the designer's work is appropriate for the right people. Ask the designer how each element in the work makes it more or less accessible to their intended audience.

Often the majority of the content in a critique is about what needs to be changed but it's also important to highlight what is working. This helps the designer know what they should protect in their design as well as what they might want to build onto as they make changes to other areas of their work.

Once a language of consistent visual elements is established in a design that "visual language" becomes a standard by which you can judge the "fit" of any one design element into the work as a whole. Is there a consistent visual language being used in the work? If so, discuss which elements were chosen to make up that visual language. Look for parts of the work that "break" that language and discuss.

When you encounter the work for the first time take note of its visual hierarchy - what you see first and how it affects you, what you see second, third, etc... Sharing this experience can help the designer understand what sort of hierarchy they've built into their design and if that organization of elements accomplishes their goals or needs to be adjusted in future iterations.