How do you give and receive design feedback?

Direct answer

What a strong answer covers

How it works

Useful feedback is about the user and the goal, not about taste. It names the user goal the design serves, the constraint in play, and the observed or predicted effect: this label is ambiguous for first-time users because it uses internal terminology. Before prescribing, the giver asks what the designer intended, since the choice may address something not visible. Blocking issues, which prevent the goal, are separated from preferences, which are offered and can be declined. Suggestions are concrete enough to try and to test. When receiving, the designer restates the concern, asks for the evidence, and the decision and its owner are recorded so the same debate does not recur.

Example

In a critique of a settings page, a reviewer said: users who arrive from the billing email need to find plan changes in under a few seconds, and the current grouping buries it under account; that is blocking. A second comment about the toggle style was marked as preference. The designer explained that account grouping came from a stakeholder request, the group agreed the user goal outranked it, and the product manager was recorded as owner of the decision to regroup.

Common mistakes

• Saying I do not like it with no user goal or effect.
• Prescribing a solution without asking what the designer was solving.
• Mixing blocking issues and preferences so the designer cannot tell what must change.

A useful answer structure

Answer from your own work.

Do not memorise a script: use only examples you can explain honestly in follow-up questions.