“This Feels Like a Joke”: Learning from My First Design Criticism
“This feels like a joke”
It is gut wrenching to hear those words, isn’t it?
At the time, this really hit me hard and it created a lot doubt within me. There were many confusing emotions going through my head after being told that my passion and hard work felt “like a joke” to someone.
Just like many others, I left a stable career that I had been in for several years to pursue my passion in UX Design. I took a leap of faith and quit my job to start UX Design Bootcamp. I wanted to learn all that I could about UX Design, and strived to do the best work that I possibly could. The teammates I had on this project felt the same way. When we came together, we all worked incredibly hard and were very proud of our first UX Design project. But then to hear that our first design project felt “like a joke” to one of the instructors, really stopped us in our tracks.
I felt like I was stuck. What do I do from here? I need to learn from this experience and do even better next time, but where do I even begin? The criticism, it felt “like a joke” really wasn’t helpful to me. During bootcamp, we learned the ways in which we should give constructive feedback, and why it is important to do so. In fact, Gregory White wrote a great article about feedback where he said,
“A giver of feedback is stating a concise item of review intended to be received by the recipient for their betterment, so that future interactions between the recipient and others may be more pleasant and/or productive.”
That was not the situation in this case. I can’t go back in time and change what happened. But I can learn from this experience, and make the most of what happened.
I know that many of you out there have experienced this to some extent, and that is the reason I wanted to write this. To let you know that although this can be a gut wrenching experience, you can learn from this experience. You can learn not only the steps to be better prepared for situations liked this, but you can learn how to benefit from this learning experience.
And so, this is what I learned from my first design criticism.
The Difference Between Criticism and Feedback
One of the most important things I learned from my first design criticism, is that there is a difference between criticism and a feedback. Benedictine University makes it easy to discern the difference between the two in this article, and as shown by their chart below:
I call my situation a criticism, because it focuses on what happened in the past. I only will talk about feedback in the rest of this article, because feedback focuses on the future for me. I’m sure we’d all rather receive feedback, as we want to move forward and not dwell on the past. This isn’t to say, completely disregard the past. However, we should be moving forward, focusing on what we want, and how we can make it better.
Reframe Criticism, Don’t Be Afraid to Ask for Feedback
I cannot stress this enough, but never be afraid to voice your opinion and question someone’s criticism/feedback on your design. Even if you are uncomfortable, still try and ask for constructive feedback! This is your learning experience, and it really is what you make of it. It’s not about pride or ego. It’s about what will help you learn, reflect, and do better next time. And I believe that all feedback, just like I learned in bootcamp, should follow the A.S.K. model:
- Actionable: It has to be actionable on your part. A feedback should be something you can immediately act on or change that will be useful in accomplishing the goal of your bettering your skills;
- Specific: It has to be specific enough to where you know exactly what your next steps will be in response to the feedback, to create a better design solution;
- Kind: Although common knowledge, this often gets overlooked. We are all human and we all have emotions, and isn’t very helpful when you unintentionally bring emotion hurt into the mix.
When you are told that your project “feels like a joke”, it becomes difficult to learn from. It wasn’t actionable, it wasn’t specific, and it clearly wasn’t kind. In order for me to learn and to do better, I needed to know:
- Why did they come to the conclusion that my project felt “like a joke” to them? (Specific)
- What parts of the project felt “like a joke” to them? (Specific)
- After that, then I can explore and take the steps of how to make my project not “feel like a joke” to them. (Actionable)
In an ideal situation, this is what I wished would’ve happened. But now I know what I can do in similar situations like this in the future. That’s all I can really ask for.
Where to Seek Validation and Approval
As humans, it is in our nature to seek both validation and approval, especially when it comes to trying something new for the first time. In this case, it was completing a UX Design project with a team for the first time. As a young UX Designer, I looked up to the instructors at my bootcamp for validation and approval. Since they’ve been here and have done this for many years, I felt that they were who I look up to. This is only true to a certain extent, though. You’re always going to mesh well with some people, but not with others. Not everyone will have the same understanding as you, and that’s just the reality of this world.
That’s when I learned that you can turn to your peers. They’re the same ones you’re going through this experience with, and the same ones who will eventually work in the same industry as you. These are people that you can also seek validation and approval from. They understand where you’re coming from, they will be able to validate your feelings and emotions, and can also offer approval as well.
Your peers can and will be just as great of a resource to you. It’s all about learning, and there is so much to be learned from others in the same situation as you.
Understanding Your Path Forward
Overall, I learned that although this was an unpleasant experience, this was one of the best experiences to learn from. My path forward now is to never stop working hard, and to create even better designs that are backed by stronger design processes. My path forward is to make the most out of any experience, and more importantly, learn from it.
You can never change the past, and you should never dwell on it. You can, however, make the most of what happened in the past by learning from it and making sure that you are better prepared the next time around. Everything is a learning experience, and an opportunity to be even better the next time. I will always try and reframe my experiences with criticism, to help myself continue to learn and improve. And I hope that you feel the same way too.
