I have been a part of a lot of design projects throughout my career in the past 20+ years. One thing that is very common with the design efforts around almost any project is some type of “review.”
This may be a review by the client or stakeholder, it may be other designers, Sales & Marketing teams, or it could be other disciplines such as Engineering/Development and Product. One thing that is also very common is that you will almost always get a mix of subjective and objective feedback.
That should be expected and welcomed. What to do with that feedback may sound trivial, but it can cause a lot of confusion and challenges.
Objective vs. Subjective
First, let’s review the definitions of some terms:
Objective: “(of a person or their judgment) not influenced by personal feelings or opinions in considering and representing facts.”
example: “Based on my color contrast analyzer, it appears that the color contrast of the buttons and labels are lower than the minimum thresholds recommended for WCAG 2.1 level AA compliance.”
Subjective: “based on or influenced by personal feelings, tastes, or opinions.”
example: “I really like the colors used in the buttons.”
Opinion
The key theme here is, “opinion.”
Let’s define that while we’re at it:
Opinion: “a view or judgment formed about something, not necessarily based on fact or knowledge.”
It is no surprise that an individual’s “opinion” will play a large role in a review and feedback. When you put almost anything in front of someone to gather feedback or critique, the natural response will likely be subjective and based on “opinion.” This goes for visual, tactile, audible or scent-based, such as art, music, film/video, hardware, and software (UI’s).
Then as the user engages with the subject matter more, that is when they start analyzing deeper and you may receive some more feedback. This feedback may be more subjective, but hopefully you receive some objective feedback, especially if the reviewer has the knowledge or experience to back it up with data & facts.
User Experience
Why does an “opinion” matter?
When any of these things evoke emotion, that is a direct influence in the user’s experience. There will be things that are both qualitative or quantitative when you’re measuring the user experience of anything. These have a direct connection to subjective and objective feedback.
Subjective feedback is usually related to being “qualitative,” or to the quality of something relative to that individual’s or group’s personal reaction or response.
Objective feedback is usually related to being “quantitative,” or backed by a measured defined value or metric.
More definitions:
Qualitative: “relating to, measuring, or measured by the quality of something rather than its quantity.”
Quantitative: “relating to, measuring, or measured by the quantity of something rather than its quality.”
Giving “Good” Feedback
As a designer myself, I try to preface or categorize my feedback when possible.
I suggest that everyone involved in providing feedback on a design should consider if their feedback is a personal opinion, or if it relates to a more objective guideline, or justification.
This helps a designer consume and have clear direction to act upon that feedback.
Avoid providing ambiguous or unclear feedback. If you can’t articulate it yourself, you can’t expect someone else to comprehend it. The recipient of the feedback can help steer that vague feedback with their knowledge and expertise around the subject matter, if you fall into this vagueness.
It is totally ok to also provide subjective feedback (your opinion), as it is likely the “truest” form of feedback based on personal reaction. This opinion may contradict or misalign to an actual quantitative definition or justification; and that is ok, but that’s where it may also get challenging.
Try to give feedback that is actionable and can provide a clear direction.
Receiving Feedback
When you open up a forum for feedback, you should enter that space with an open mind. You may have to also retract your personal feelings about the work with the expectation that you may receive feedback that you may perceive as negative or positive. Take it as “constructive criticism.”
As mentioned above you’re going to receive a mix of feedback. It is very important how you absorb, consume, translate it, and execute on that feedback. You have to do some synthesizing and attempt to make sense of the feedback.
All feedback provided may be relevant, but not necessarily valuable or crucial. Be open to take in the feedback, but take time to filter the feedback towards the goals of the solution.
It can be helpful to set up some specific aspects of the design in question to request feedback on. It is helpful to identify areas or solutions that you may have a low level of confidence in and focus the feedback on those parts vs. the entire concept.
What to do with this feedback?
It is our job as a “good designer,” to analyze and translate feedback into something actionable.
Some feedback that is considered subjective, may very well be due to a more objective underlying reason or principle.
example: “I don’t like the way the content is displayed, it feels crowded or something.”
This comment uses the term “like” and “feel” which is usually very opinion based. As a designer you can interpret this subjective feedback into something that has a more objective reason.
Why does this reviewer feel that way?
Looking at principles such as Gestalt theory, you may find that proximity and spacing between objects is a fundamental principle that plays into how a user may perceive the design, content or subject matter. This may go further into accessibility compliance and best practices related to minimum spacing between interactive elements. Once you determine if the feedback has any objective backing, then you can take a more strategic approach to address it.
You may also receive feedback that is strictly subjective and may not have any major objective reasoning behind it.
example: “I really like navy blue for buttons, navy blue is my favorite color.”
This statement really emphasizes personal opinion and may be challenging to argue for or against it. That’s where you may have to lean on more objective things that argue against it.
You could reply with something about how the product integrates the company’s brand colors into it, and unfortunately, navy blue, is not one of the brand colors, neither does it it complement or supplement the defined palette. Navy blue may also cause some color contrast issues and impact accessibility compliance or other usability methods of distinction.
Sometimes, you may get subjective feedback that is simply pure opinion and may not have any way to argue for or against it. Welcome to the politics of our industry. Now you have to walk that fine line of how and if, you will execute on that feedback. That’s a whole other article, but I will simply say, “pick your battles.”
Summary
Good Design typically involves creating good qualitative and quantitative results. Design is typically an attempt to solve a problem which should have some type of data that shows the problem(s) exist, what it may be, and then some defined goals & objectives that the solution should strive to achieve.
The problem itself may be qualitative, or quantitative driven, or both.
Being able to translate feedback into actionable tasks will be one of your most valuable skills for reviews. This can be done in many ways, from expanding your knowledge, growing your experience, and simply asking questions to get better clarity.
Remember, it is our job to translate feedback, but it is not considered the reviewer’s job to always provide “good feedback.”