The funny thing about interface design is that everyone thinks they can do it, or try to do it, but few people actually do it well (or at all). But it’s easier to say "Move the button to the upper right and make it green" than "The button feels awkward to me" or even "The page doesn’t look right to me with the button in that position".
Everyone’s guilty of it; I know I do the same thing to other designers. It’s a hard habit to break. Many times, though, the designer knows what you really want more than you do. Pose a problem and let him or her fix it, instead of dictating a solution.
Tyler G said:
Good post Chris.
To give my two cents; as a designer I am constantly asking myself and others the question why? Why should I a put the button 4 more pixels to the left? Is it necessary? Do I need that 1 pixel #f2f2f2 bottom border, should it be #f3f3f3? Is it subtle enough? Too subtle? The mind of a designer (or developer) can be a very tangled and bi-polar place during the process of creating. While all designers should be able to take whatever criticism is thrown at them without feeling attacked or offended, sometimes you put so much of yourself into a project that It’s hard to turn the ego off and just pick out the constructive parts and know that the criticiser is only doing so to help the project along in the best way he sees fit. The biggest separator, for me at least, between constructive criticism and not-so-constructive criticism is that magic word, why? Did they ask the question? Do they have an answer? Like you said, asking questions always gets more done than simply dictating.
Jess said:
You are speaking to my heart. Seriously though, to your point – at the end of the day as designers, we’re just problem solvers. Tell us the problem and we’ll craft a creative way of fixing it, we’ll make a strategic design decision. Tell us how to fix the problem (move that button over there, etc.) and we lose the chance to do that. It’s a very hard thing to convey to people, but it’s so important. It’s simple, like you said; just let us do our thing!
Tim said:
I think you are raising a really important point – one that I often struggle with as the “non-designer” on a project. Something to keep in mind is that I feel a deep emotional connection to the product (notice the differentiation here from “The Design”), which might be less strong than the designer’s, but is strong none-the-less. So any feedback I give is coming from that place that this thing is ours, not just yours…
…that said though, just like in most aspects of life, it’s all about how you communicate. Coming to the designer with my concerns, particularly phrased open-ended and as a question, is SO much more effective than saying “that button looks terrible, move it”.
Jess said:
Tim, great comment. Projects are first and foremost, always a team effort – agreed. The deep connection you bring to the work can only result in positive things. I think what this comes down to is relationships and effective communication. Isn’t that always the situation!?
creatino said:
HMMMM… COULD YOU MAKE THE LOGO A BIT BIGGER?
Chaz said:
Amen. For really really good, sensible advice about how to deal with difficult client situations like this, I’ve found no better source over the years than http://www.creativebusiness.com
(No, I’m not a shill, just a longtime subscriber.)