Questions for Researchers to Ask at Design Critique

Critique meetings are hard. When audience members don't align their questions with the right phase of design, it can become inefficient. Here I'm sharing a lightweight framework (DONE) of questions, that I ask myself, and designers throughout the design journey.

Develop — Brainstorm

When: When the ideas are fresh and it's the first time the designer is showing possible solutions for the project.

Questions:

  1. How do these ideas help the customer complete their task?
  2. How are we making sure that we're approaching this design from the eyes of a customer?
  3. Does this design add value to our customers?
  4. Does this design improve on what is currently out in the world?
  5. What can we add to make this feature set more complete?
  6. What are the short-term and long-term objectives of this approach?

Organize — Order & Flow

When: The team has aligned on a specific solution and the entire flow is visualized.

Questions:

  1. Have we proven this design is the most efficient as possible for the customer?
  2. Does the customer have all the information they need to complete their task?
  3. Does the tone & language of our content seem consistent across the entire flow?
  4. Does the order of screen make sense for our customers?
  5. Where did we discover the breakdowns in the flow? How have we eased those parts for the customer?

Nitpick — Polish

When: At this stage, most of the interaction design should be squared away. This is the time for the content and visuals to be inspected.

Questions:

  1. Are we staying consistent with our design principles?
  2. Are the visual elements consistent with the rest of the experience?
  3. Does the customer know what are the possible actions that can be taken on each screen?
  4. Does the intent come across easily from the design?
  5. Have we been completive about this design? Have we fully thought through our ideas and all parts of the feedback?

Execute — Sign-off

When: The team is aligned and has made all the final decisions before development begins.

Questions:

  1. What can be measured as success?
  2. How might we feel confident about this design before it gets released into the wild?
  3. What kind of language do we expect marketing to use about this feature?
  4. Does this meet our standard of quality?
  5. Does this affect any other product areas that need updating when this is released?