How to conduct Design Reviews
By: Bryant Hodson
Tags: Design Process, Product Design, UX, Design, Resources

Having others review designs provides a perspective that the designer alone cannot attain.

By simply by working on a problem, the designer is automatically blind to it. Some designers may think that they have better taste than their peers or that they have enough experience that they don’t need someone else looking over their work. They may even consistently produce good designs alone. However, it’s the shift in perspective that someone else brings that leads to greater breakthroughs.

“People who take on complicated creative projects become lost at some point in the process. It is the nature of things–in order to create, you must internalize and almost become the project for a while, and that near-fusing with the project is an essential part of its emergence. But it is also confusing… Where once he or she could see a forest, now there are only trees.”

— Ed Catmull, President of Pixar Animation and Disney Animation, Inside the Pixar Braintrust

“Where once he or she could see a forest, now there are only trees.”

Even the original STAR WARS would have likely ended up just another forgotten sci-fi B-movie if George Lucas had not turned to his trusted collaborators to review it. After re-editing the film, it turned out to be the beginning of the most successful movie franchise in history, influencing nearly every facet of pop culture for decades. Sometimes all it takes is a design review to move the needle from mediocrity to greatness.

Sometimes all it takes is a design review to move the needle from mediocrity to greatness.

Not only do design reviews help to improve the work, they also serve as an invaluable mentoring opportunity that can build rapport, strengthen skills, and unlock possibilities.

When to Do Design Reviews

At the very least, each design should be reviewed twice:

Before production starts Before the final product ships

That’s at the very least and at the very last moment. In some cases, daily design reviews may be preferable. When to do design reviews is going to be different for each person/team/organization. The key questions to answer are:

How will you get holistic issues to surface early enough in the design process?

And what frequency will allow for sustainable feedback?

You don’t want to be thrashing about fundamental design decisions the day your product ships. Err on the side of over-reviewing than under-reviewing. Err on the side of reviewing too early than reviewing too late.

Err on the side of over-reviewing than under-reviewing. Err on the side of reviewing too early than reviewing too late.

Who Should Be Invited

Design Reviews are about bringing the right minds together to collaborate and course-correct. The following are the three roles that should be present in a design review.

Keep in mind that the larger the group, the less time each reviewer will have to speak and the more intimidating the review may be for the designer.

The Designer(s)

Perhaps it goes without saying that the individual(s) that conceptualized the thing that is being reviewed should be in the design review. It was their work, and it will continue to be their responsibility to revise the design after the review is done. The fate of the design is in their hands; they must be present.

The designer’s job is not to sell their design. They want the design’s flaws pointed out so they can further refine the work, not convince everyone in the room that the design is flawless. The designer can explain their design decisions, but when a designer gets overly-defensive, it may be an indication of a culture or safety problem.

They want the design’s flaws pointed out so they can further refine the work, not convince everyone in the room that the design is flawless.

Just like any good presentation, the designer should first give a quick, high-level overview of what will be covered in the design review (e.g. let the room know, “There will be three stops on this trip (three major screens).” Then, proceed to demo the parts in more detail.

The Reviewers

The most debated aspect of implementing design reviews is ‘who should review designs?’. Should it be limited to other designers? Should it be clients, or an art director, or senior management? Ed Catmull, co-founder of Pixar, provided this counsel about who should review designs:

“Here are the qualiﬁcations: The people you choose must (a) make you think smarter and (b) put lots of solutions on the table in a short amount of time. I don’t care who it is, the janitor or the intern or one of your most-trusted lieutenants: If they can help you do that, they should be at the table.” — Ed Catmull, Inside the Pixar Braintrust

I tend to agree with Catmull. I would add, that the better the reviewers are at articulating their feedback, the more productive and efficient the review will be. Putting design into words is a skill. It’s best if the reviewers are able to tell the story about what the design makes them feel. For an exceptional example of this skill, watch an episode of World’s Most Extraordinary Homes on Netflix. The way the hosts Caroline Quentin and Piers Taylor describe the architecture feels honest and eloquent.

The designer needs to feel that the feedback isn’t simply subjective and dismissible but that it is grounded in real-world examples and tried-and-true design principles. This kind of foundational experience and knowledge will give the reviewers legs to stand on.

Reviewers should try not to derail the designer as they present their work. Listen for a moment. Hear them out. Wait for a logical break to chime-in with feedback.

The Note-taker

Get someone to take notes. You want the designer to walk out of the room and be able to take action. Without notes of what what said, it can be hard to know what to do next and valuable ideas or feedback can slip through the cracks.

The note-taker doesn’t have to be the designer, but it can be. In some cases that may be ideal, since they will be able to write notes in a way that will make sense to them later on.

Another important reason to have a note-taker: to avoid rat-holing and redundancy in the design review. When the note is captured, that thought doesn’t need to be brought up again and again by multiple people. Having the notes visible to the group will help ensure that their meaning was properly captured.