Top 7 Ways to Provide Better Feedback to Designers

Many man many minds. Creative design comes from thinking and from the perspective. Something may seem lucrative to you and something may not. It depends on the perspective and the angle you are trying to reach. This is why, providing feedback to the designers is so tough. You may be thinking or have a different thought but your designer is thinking entirely from a different perspective. 

Briefing is a good idea but still, you may find design not lucrative and catchy. Something is missing, that gut feelings hunt you and you keep pushing your designer for the best one. But not following a proper approach your designer couldn’t fulfill your expectation. So, you got frustrated as well as your designer. So, how to provide better feedback to your designers? Since designing is a creative work you have to be very careful in the communication and the feedback. Only with proper feedback you can get a good outcome. In this article, we have discussed the top 5 ways to provide better feedback to designers. So, keep reading this blog and explore the exact way of giving feedback to the designers. 

Top 5 Ways of Providing Feedback 

1. Communicate problem not changes 

2. Ask Questions 

3. Avoid Vague Word 

4. Keep realistic expectation 

5. Do not micromanage 

6. Avoid digital medium for giving feedback 

7. Avoid multiple feedback 

1.Communicate problem not changes  

Creation takes time. Finished design may seem pretty simple but it is not. A huge amount of thinking, concept are put into the design. So it is not a good idea to tell them to change the whole design. You may not like it, but ask yourself why you didn’t like it. What specifically is not working fine. Is it the idea or the color or the size of the text? Find out and communicate the improvement instead of the changes. 

Such feedback will help you in two ways. In one way your designer won’t get demotivated and secondly they will understand your expectation and will deliver accordingly. But if you directly tell them to change the design then it will give a vague idea to the designer. They will keep working but couldn’t meet your expectation because the expectation has not been communicated yet. 

Besides, it also saves your valuable time. Designers need not to start again from the beginning. So, your time and their effort both can be minimized. Remember, design is a creative work, and creativity varies person to person. So only with your constructive feedback can bring the best output otherwise not. 

2.  Ask questions

Perspective can differ from person to person. Since you are not the professional designer your perspective won’t be similar to the designer. The iPhone logo is the best one, but for designers they have reason for the colors, for the logo size for the placement. A simple black and white design may sound elegant but for your audience it may sound cliche for them. 

So, asking questions on why they have used something, what is the reason behind will ease the communication. Your designer may tell you something important that you haven't thought off. 

Instead of pushing your ideas or just being so judgemental, asking questions brings collaboration on the table. Besides it strengthens the relationship to the client and the designer. Since you asked, you will learn their perspective and then you can communicate easily what exactly you want or your audience want. 

3. Avoid vague words 

Be very very specific in your feedback. You may feel bad for the design but it is not a good idea to improve it because it feels bad. This is something that can not be understood from the designer's side. Simple it raises so many questions; why does it feel bad? What is the problem? Is it the size of the text? Or It is the color in the design? Or is it the color combination? 

A designer is creative but they are not a mind reader. If you communicate with such vague words it will frustrate them and waste time. Rather be specific. Tell them what exactly is not working. Why you think it is not working and why.  Why do you need such color in the background? 

Tell them in detail, if it is the color combination that is not feeling well, communicate it with them. Tell them you are not feeling well with the color combination. Or the button, or the background. Be technical and very very specific. 

Even if you find too much gap between letters or the white space is not used properly, communicate that. This will help designers to come up with a better version after your feedback. So, next time when you give feedback on creative designs be very very specific and never use vague words. 

4. Keep realistic expectation 

It often happens to all of us. We set higher expectations that often do not match reality. Everytime we surf on the internet we see so many eye-catching designs without knowing that those were made with a troop of expert designers. So we set expectations that are too high for our own ability. If you are hiring a local designer set your expectation based on his/her portfolio.  

Design work involves a lot of brain work,discussion and research. So never set your expectations higher than your budget. Unless you are working with the Graphics Design Limited team. They are the only company who can deliver top notch design regardless of your budget. They never compromise the quality just because of the budget. To them every project is equally important. 

However, for others, budget may sound the main motivation factor. So, if your budget is low, expect a bit lower outcome. Besides, never expect something out of your designer’s comfort zone. Ask them something they have already done. Check their portfolio before your order. This will give you proper direction and realistic expectations for your project.

5. Do not micromanage 

Never ever do that. You are not an expert. You may not feel ok for something, then it is a good idea to communicate with them. But if you micromanage each of their work it will entirely ruin the design process. As a human being you may feel pushed by your idea in the design. But remember, you are not designing for you rather they are designing for your audience. So you may not like pink color but your woman audience may love it. You may not love the way design is presented but your audience may like it. 

Design is a creative process. In this process, designers research the target audience, objective of the campaign and their behavior of the design. Putting all together they may come up with the design that may seem pretty simple to you. But it is not, it surely has a reason behind each of the elements. So, if you micromanage you ruin the whole process as well as the motivation of the designer. Let them create, let them think. 

However if you really do not feel good about any design or feel it could look better with some other design, then tell them to make another mock-up instead of ruining their entire creative work. This will show the concrete path for both of you. You will see what looks better finally and can decide on the best option. 

6. Give Feedback In Person 

Email, text messages are comfortable and fast but they can give wrong messages to the designer. If you talk face to face you can guide them for the smooth revision. 

You can avoid mistakes or miscommunication from the feedback. Moreover, it saves time, as you can see the improvement right away and can work for changes if required. 

Besides, it will comfort your designers and motivate them for coming up with a good one. With email communications or with the text messages the problem becomes more complex rathen being solved immediately. If it is not possible to give feedback in person, try phone or virtual meetings. 

7. Avoid Contradictory Feedback 

Do not confuse your designer with multiple feedback. Be specific and accurate. It happens when we have to work in a cross functional department. As I said before, perspective may differ, so the feedback will differ too. Marketing may like the pink color since the campaign is for women but other departments do not like the color due to their personal preference. So if your team gives completely two different comments on design it surely confuses the designer. 

The best idea is to sit together and decide which one is ok and which one is not among your team. For example, if your company is working with a cross-functional department then sit for a meeting. Tell them the agenda of the campaign and the expected outcome from the campaign. Explain your target market, their preference and what is expected from the design. 

This will help the whole team to think from one perspective. After such collaboration, send one final feedback to the design team. This will surely give them a solid direction for improvement. 

How to Find Best Graphics Design Team 

Graphics design limited is the best graphics design company in the market. They have bunches of expert designers who have passion and full dedication. They never compromise service just because of your budget. They can even deliver eye-catchy design within a day. 

They have 3 different plans which are affordable and can fit easily with your needs. Graphics design limited are well known for their on-time delivery. They are very professional and expert that they can meet any of your expectations for design. They are experts in all kinds of graphics design which include : logo design, t shirt design, business card design, mug design and so on. 

Since they are experts in design that makes them pro in communication. Even if you are not expert in feedback, with their expert communication process they can easily figure out your expectation and can deliver accordingly. So, your expectation will always be met no matter how high you set them. 

Design is creative and collaborative efforts. With good collaboration and proper feedback you can get a good design. Without proper feedback no good design can be done. Rather it will break the expectation and motivation for both the designer and you. But if you give proper feedback with the proper formula described above surely you will get good results from the designer. Besides all, never forget to appreciate a designer for something you really feel good or got impressed.  A feedback with mixture of appreciation will surely bring higher result.