- Conducting design critiques for user interfaces (UIs) need to be performed throughout the entire product design and development process to keep the product design on track. 

- They are also useful in an interactive agile and lean UX product environment, where designs go through multiple iterations before employment. The best example is the design critiques conducted every week at the 1Cademy UI Design weekly meetings.

- Running a UI design critique is a challenge, requiring you not only to explain decisions, but also to listen carefully to other ideas.

- Start by setting specific principles and providing everyone with a clear understanding of the intention of the design being critiqued.

- The following concept nodes breakdown a few standard principles that maybe applied to any design critique as well as those that need to be applied specifically to a UI Critique.

Principles For Running A Great UI Critique

To make sure that the critique ensures collaboration rather an combat, here is a list of few questions that can be asked.

- How did you come with that solution?
- Where Did You Get the Idea To Do It That Way?
- When Does That Need to Happen?
- Can We Use Motion to Add Visual Cues?
- How Could We Make It Simpler?
- What Happens Next?

Asking The Right Questions

Whenever you ask a question, listen patiently to the answer that is given. Then craft your reply based on the answer given, not based on what you expected.

Don't Just Ask Questions to Answer Them

A good UI critique slows down to consider every element of the design but recognizes that this is not how the user will be seeing the design. Some of the important factors to consider in all UI designs are as follows.

- Ensuring consistency in color, typography, controls, images, and any other design elements (static or interactive) used more than once in the interface.
- Ensuring that the context of the user as they use the product is respected.
- Ensuring that the brand and design have a clear, consistent, and recognizable voice.
- Ensuring that motion and transitions work to provide a seamless and modern UI to the user.
- Ensuring that the design is simple as it can be to get the job done.

What A Good UI Critique Looks Like

- It is important that members of the team focus on the design with regards to the user instead of bringing their own biases to the design.

- The key to avoiding aggressive critiques is to set out clear principles and ask open-ended, constructive questions.

- It is important to remember that the idea is to strengthen the design collaboratively, not to win a design battle.

Avoiding Hostile Critiques

- It is important to remember that you are not your audience! Thus, design critiques cannot replace usability tests, no matter how many you conduct.
- Usability tests is more precise and accurate than internal critiques, but are generally more time-consuming and expensive.
- Regular design critiques are invaluable for keeping a project on target but can never replace getting out in the field and testing with real-life users.

Final Word: A Critique Is Not Usability Testing

- Design critiques are an important part of any product exploration.
- A good design critique should not be focused on pushing the designer to explain each one of their design decisions.
- A good design critique is meant to explore the design, find where it is working, and where it could be improved.
- If done well, design critiques allow everyone on the team to feel as if they have been heard and allow clients to give valuable feedback.

University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

- How To Run A UI Design Critique
- Web Design Trends 2021

Smashing Magazine Articles

Smashing Magazine Reference: How To Run A Design Critique

How To Run A UI Design Critique

As a consequence of the challenges and opportunities presented in 2020,  the landscape of the digital design industry has developed some major themes that will guide web design throughout 2021. These themes were identified by Shaping Design – Editor X's online design blog. The themes are largely centered around customization, blurring the boundaries between real and virtual, and social activism.   

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