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Crit Ettiquette suggestions

Logistics:

• One person at a time: classmates fully engaged in critique of their work (10 min each)
• Verbal and written Slack channel: we will have a dedicated Slack channel for critique of the project. While others are verbally critiquing, others can participate by writing their own comments in slack making sure to tag the person who is being critiqued. One person will be designated official note-taker for the person presenting. Once the critique is over, the former presenter becomes the next note taker.

How to approach the critique:

For Presenters:

• Provide as concise as background as possible, but try to keep the amount of talking you do to a minimum and the amount of listening and consideration of comments to a maximum. Don’t be afraid to discuss and clarify but don’t feel the need to be overly defensive.
• If there are specific issues you want feedback on, let that be known.
• Be receptive to critique, concentrate on the discussion and be sure you truly understand what others are identifying.
• Remember, this is not a personal attack. We are critiquing the work, not the person who made the work.

For the Critiquers

I’ll repeat: This is not a personal attack. We are critiquing the work, not the person who made the work.

Understand the Problem Area and Designer Intent

First, try to fully understand the context and goals of the project, and then offer critique. This means making sure you ask questions. What is the problem that the presenter is trying to address? What was the desired outcome? Why does this thing lead to that thing? Etc.

Unhelpful Critique

Personal taste comments (“I like”, “I don’t like”)
Making value judgements (“This is good or bad”)
I like it
I hate it
It’s cool
I love it
I hate you
I love you
You suck
You are awesome
I wish you would shut up
Your work is bad
I would have done it like ______
You should try it like _____
This is right
This is wrong
[Yawning]
[Tweeting]
[Facebooking]
[Internetting]
[Ignoring]

Helpful Critique

Generally this revolves around what is effective and ineffective and why. Considering if it matches the intent and why or why not.

Bringing up precedence or similar work is helpful, especially when you can pinpoint exactly how that work functions in an effective manner in relation to the presenters work.

It can also be useful to just describe what you’re seeing and clarifying how things work, it can often prove to unearth some other observations or suggestions.

Some specific questions and considerations for this project:

For the Presenters

• Introduce your app, give a short 1 or 2 sentence summary of your new feature and what problem it is trying to address, and take us through the user flow.
• Use your promotional website as a tool to show the feature, but also explain why you approached the promotional website the way you did

For the Critiquers

Macro

—Does the app and website meet the intended goals?

—Did the feature deliver on your expectations?

—Is the visual system cohesive? How does it relate to the platform’s overall graphic and UX system?

—Does the tone of the website match the app feature? Does it make you want to use the app or explore the new feature?

Micro

—Any parts of the promotional website that are particularly memorable, especially in moments of interaction and delight that could be using jQuery?

—Is the iconography and UI elements communicating accurately?

—How is the organization of elements and information in both the app and website?

—Is there adequate feedback in UI elements? Is the navigation evident? Are the intended affordances made clear? Does the mental model implied by the feature fit with the rest of the app?

—Any instances in the code that you are curious about?

Experience & Flow

—What’s the experience of getting started?

—Was it clear about what it did and how it works? How did the messaging come across?

—How easy does it seem to use the app feature? Did you understand immediately what the app was about, or did you need a lot of time to figure it out?

Visual Aesthetics & Craft

—Do the colors and forms work?

—Is the typography working?

—Are the aesthetics working considering the original platform (google or apple)?

—How are colors used? How is imagery used?

—Does it feel complete and put together?