UX Content Critiques: Get Better Feedback in 3 Steps
Stop spinning in circles with stakeholders and use this simple, effective critique framework instead
One of the biggest frustrations shared by writers and designers alike is getting helpful, actionable feedback from stakeholders or clients. It’s… hard.
At some point in our careers, it seems like all of have heard some version of “Can we make the logo pop more?” or maybe a “This is great but could you make the writing…. punchier?” Maybe someone even threw jazz hands into the mix. Who knows.
My favorite ever piece of feedback was “Can we make the content more… razzmatazz?” (I did eventually figure out what razzmatazz meant, and we sure did design some razzmatazz content in the end).
But after a few more similar instances I began to realize that maybe I was the problem, not the people providing the feedback. And perhaps I could also become the solution.
After some tweaking and testing, I landed on this simple yet very effective 3-part critique framework. Let me first say — it works great. Keep reading if you’d like to learn exactly how I run critique workshops and how you can do it, too.
The root of the revision problem
The people who are reviewing your work are, in most cases, not experts at what you do. They’ve hired you to be the expert because they are not.
Stakeholders are not experts in your craft.
They don’t know what makes copy good, or what makes design good, or how to articulate what they like and don’t like. Whether you’re a UX writer, a UX designer, or a UX content strategist, sharing your work can be challenging when stakeholders aren’t UX savvy. They certainly won’t understand why you’ve made certain decisions unless you explicitly explain the rationale behind your work. (Again, because they are not the expert at your craft. You are!)
If you really think about, it’s quite silly that we ever expect a non-expert to critique our work in a helpful way. Think of a topic you know nothing about, and then imagine being asked to critique someone’s else’s work in that topic. It would be hard, right? Right.
Even if someone does have a background in what you do, they’ve still hired or tasked you with the work for a reason — whether it’s because they don’t have time, or they’ve transitioned into a new role, etc.
Just as we are responsible for doing the work, we’re also responsible for presenting it in a way that promotes shared understanding, clarity, and alignment for everyone involved. All that said, here’s how to present your work in a way that helps you and your reviewers.
What is a critique workshop?
A critique workshop is a guided or facilitated meeting in which a writer, designer, or creative team share their work with their stakeholders to receive live feedback. It might last anywhere from 30–90 minutes, depending on what you’re presenting.
Why should you do one?
When you guide people through the critique process, you are more likely to get constructive, useful, actionable feedback. You’re also likely to get much less feedback overall, because you’ve eliminated any feedback that would’ve been based on the stakeholder’s misunderstanding or lack of clarity. In general, workshops are a great way to help people get aligned and feel good about where a project is going. Whether it’s a brand voice workshop, design sprint, or critique session, being able to facilitate a great workshop is an invaluable skill to cultivate.
Benefits of running critique workshops:
Creatives benefit by getting more actionable, specific, helpful feedback in the areas where they need it the most
Reviewers benefit because this makes it much easier for them.
As stakeholders improve their critique skills, and creatives improve their presentation skills, it continues to get easier and easier for everyone. In fact, you can often transition from doing formal critique workshops to async critique (more on this later).
Who can lead a critique workshop?
Anyone who needs to present creative or UX-related work. Really, anyone. Whether you’re in-house, agency side, or freelance, if you need to present work to stakeholders you can most likely get better feedback by using this workshop format. (Introverts, too).
P.S. Check out our best tips to become a pro workshop facilitator.
Remote critique workshop tools and tips
Many, if not most design professionals these days seem to be working remotely. (Our agency included!) Running a successful critique workshop can absolutely work remotely. Here are some suggestions on tools and tech.
Any video conferencing tool will do
Zoom, Google Hangouts, WebEx? Doesn’t matter. Honestly. All you really need is “mute” and “screen share” features.
Record and save the workshop
Personally, we always hit record. It’s great to be able to go back and reference exactly what a client or stakeholder said and how they said it. I also like to share the recording with the client or team, and keep all the videos in a shared Google Drive folder.
Plan for good audio and internet connection
The whole point of doing critiques in a structured workshop is to be more efficient and improve the experience for everyone involved. If you’re presenting work and your internet is constantly cutting out, or no one can hear you, it’s going to be frustrating. Plan accordingly.
Tip for consultants/freelancers: Nice lighting and a cool background is absolutely a bonus, but don’t let it stop you. The most important thing is that the client can hear you well, see you, and see the work without interruption.
How to lead a critique workshop
Presenting design and creative work can be made much easier when there’s structure. All you need to do is lead your group through a 3-part agenda.
The 3 parts to a successful design critique:
Part 1: Present the Work. Whoever is responsible for the work (strategic work, copy and design, etc) presents the work. The goal is to provide context and clarity.
Part 2: Questions and Answers. Every reviewer/stakeholder must ask a question. The goal is to make sure everyone understands the work.
Part 3: Guided Critique. The presenter guides stakeholders through review by having them provide feedback in a series of categories.
Prepare for the workshop
One of the important things here is the critique categories. These are themes or areas of the work that you’d like feedback on. For example, if you’re a writer, you might ask your stakeholders to give feedback on the accuracy of the subject matter, the brand voice, and the messaging strategy. This helps your stakeholders focus their feedback and pay attention to what’s most relevant about your work.
This might sound like it limits your stakeholders, and it does — but I’ve found that people welcome the guidance. Someone who doesn’t know much about copywriting may feel unsure of what to say when providing critique. You’re actually making their life easier by giving them some guidelines.
Critique category examples for writers:
Information hierarchy or layout
Alignment with business/brand strategy
Brand voice and tone
Subject-matter accuracy
Messaging strategy alignment
Search-engine optimization (SEO)
Accessibility & inclusion
Critique category examples for designers:
Information hierarchy or layout
Alignment with business/brand strategy
Use of color palette
Typography
Size and scale
Usability
Create and send an agenda
Let people know that the critique workshop will have 3 parts, and that you’ll guide them through it. Be sure to set time limits for each part of the meeting. If it’s an hour meeting, I’d do 20 minutes for each part. Time-boxing can also help avoid unnecessary spin and keep things productive.
You don’t have to get more detailed then that, but it’s important to set the expectation that it will be a structured meeting and not a free-for-all discussion.
Bonus step: assign a note-taker
If you’re hosting this in person, you can assign someone on the team to be a note-taker to record the feedback points. If you’re virtual, just hit record. If for some reason you can’t do either, let everyone know that during the feedback round you’ll be taking notes as people talk.
Part 1: Present the Work
This step is crucial. Before anyone should get to critique what you’ve done, it’s so helpful for them to understand why you made the choices you did.
Potential talking points:
The problem-solving process you used
Any research you did that informed the work
Strategy or brand guidelines that informed the work
How a user will interact with the work, if applicable (the user flow or functionalities)
What you’re most proud of
You’ll wrap your presentation by talking about your feedback categories. Explain that the categories are areas that will be most helpful to improving the work.
Part 2: Questions and Answers
Now that you’ve presented the work, you first open up the floor for questions. It’s so essential to do to questions before critique.
First, because it encourages people to ask questions they may not have otherwise. Sometimes reviewers don’t want to sound uninformed by asking too many questions, especially if no one else in the room is asking any. By dedicating time to it, it opens people up to get clarity. This is so valuable because people give can’t give good feedback if they are silently confused.
If no one says anything, just say that you’re going to go around the room and everyone needs to ask at least one thing. Make it fun!
Part 3: Guided Critique
It’s finally time to get feedback. Once questions are answered, open up the floor for feedback in your first category. Most of the time, stakeholders will have feedback in your critique categories. If you hit a category where no on seems to have much to say, feel free to ask your stakeholders more specific questions that might be helpful to you. If you don’t have anything you need from them, you can always move on.
Remember that you have a time limit — and you can remind your team, too. Even though the goal is that all feedback will be covered in the meeting, know that people will often have additional feedback they’ll want to provide later. To account for this, I create and share a stakeholder feedback document where they can add any additional comments later.
How to make asynchronous UX feedback work
At this point you might be wondering — but wait, this seems like so much more effort! How can you do a formal design or content critique every time?
Example of a stakeholder feedback template for UX writing, content design, or content strategy.
Well, you don’t have to. That’s part of the beauty of it. When I work with a new group of stakeholders, I always do a critique workshop the first few reviews. But after they’ve gotten some experience (and education) about how to provide feedback, we often switch to primarily asynchronous feedback and reserve critique workshops for big project milestones. You can do this the same way I mentioned earlier, by providing a feedback document that includes the critique categories.
A great way to do asynchronous feedback is by recording a short of your work on Loom to provide context, and then having stakeholders fill out the feedback form on their own time. Loom is a free or paid tool that allows you to record your voice and screen, and in general is a great tool for anyone doing content or design work.
Once they’ve participated in a workshop once or twice, stakeholders start to get better at providing helpful feedback — because you taught them how.
This solves the core problem: stakeholders are not experts in your craft and don’t know how to provide feedback that is helpful.