Pixelvetica

As designers and developers, we have to give and get feedback on things we’ve made, perhaps even more often than we actually create things. There is one cardinal rule of giving feedback, no matter who you are; plain and simple: if you give good feedback, you will get good feedback. What is “good feedback?” It is constructive, it is specific, and it is actionable. 

However, giving this “good feedback” is much more difficult than it sounds. Let’s start with some examples.

It’s true, getting a compliment is nice. But, while “dude, that’s amazing, you’re the best illustrator I know” may be nice to hear, it doesn’t help you improve your current or future designs. You may even be the best illustrator the guy knows, but that doesn’t mean there’s no room for improvement.

Likewise, undiluted, unconstructive criticism is similarly unhelpful. It doesn’t feel very good inside when the only content of a comment on your newest Forrst or Dribbble post is something like “the margins are bad” or “I don’t like that font” or else “it doesn’t feel right.” This sort of feedback only makes the creator disposed to dismissing your “suggestions” completely, even valid points you may present. The kind of suggestions one is really looking for are “the margins need to be larger on the left and bottom” or “instead of Arial, try Helvetica.”

So, what are the elements that make feedback valuable? It does depend on the situation, but generally, start off with some aspects of the design or project that you appreciate. Regardless of how little you may find to admire in some cases, always approach the task with a constructive attitude.  By leading with something honest and positive, the recipient will be more likely to be predisposed to accept any suggestions you have to come. Following your positive comments, you can be straight-forward and more candid with your critiques, but don’t be hostile. Try to be factual and specific. Think of it as the difference between “that button looks atrocious” and “the button’s corners should be less rounded and your gradient needs to be less dramatic.” Pinpoint what you are really trying to say.

When you cast your feedback, you should probably present it as your opinion, not dogmatic fact. Creativity is in the eyes of the creator, not the beholder.

Soliciting feedback follows a similar set of principles. The more specific you can be in asking for feedback, the more likely you are to get useful critique. You may want general opinions in some cases, but the more specific you can be about what you think you need, the better. Instead of leaving it open, á la “What do you think of my buttons?,” try asking “Are my buttons’ corners too large, too small, or fine the way they are?” Remember, if you set the tone by providing constructive feedback, you are likely to get good feedback yourself. It’s all about relationships; about a “signal-to-noise” ratio.

When you ask for feedback, you should oblige yourself to genuinely accept and act on feedback you get. At the very least, you should also thank the person who gave you the suggestions and explain why you elected to use or not to use their suggestions. It is not uncommon for designers or developers to ask for feedback, and then proceed to ignore it completely. Furthermore, frequently the creator feels the need to “defend” himself or herself in response to feedback, no matter how subtlety. The most common fusion of these two “no-no’s” goes along the lines of, “well, I meant for it to be like that,” or else “I don’t think you’re right, but I’ll give it a try.” The person who says this is unlikely to “give it a try;” it’s their way of dismissing the comment and rationalizing to themselves that the feedback is somehow invalid. If you want good feedback, give good feedback, and if you get feedback, accept it and take action upon what needs to be changed.

Please understand that all of this does not necessarily mean that you have to stick with the changes that were suggested. Ultimately, you are the the creator, and it is well within your rights to decide what goes into the final product. By committing to a system of good feedback, however, you be willing to consider all suggestions. Usually, “imagining” what suggestions would look like and thinking “that they wouldn’t work” is not an acceptable way of responding to feedback. You might be positively surprised.

It is also important to note that there is a difference between “feedback” and “review” or “critical analysis.” The difference isn’t some freudian-fruit notion of commenting, but rather each method does imply its own set of requirements to be effective. When giving feedback, you are a mentor, not a critic.

Are you required to stick with this model of giving good feedback for every comment you ever make? Certainly not. As the author, even I don’t. But hopefully, having read this article, you will commit from now on to trying your hardest to give effective, valuable feedback as much as possible. I know I will.

Carson Kahn is a user-interaction designer and copywriter at Design Vetica Interactive. You can get in touch with him and view some of his work here.

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Most recently, developer and designer Kyle Bragger, the genius behind Forrst.com, was kind enough to grant me an interview. As the homepage pronounces, Forrst is a “place for designers and developers to share inspiring code, screenshots, links, and other work with their peers.” What follows is my transcription of some of the questions I asked Kyle and the answers he so kindly took the time out of his busy schedule to give me. Some of the references he makes have been linked to for your convenience.

Who are you? What do you do for a living?

I’m Kyle Bragger. I am a developer (mainly for the web) and web entrepreneur.

What is your history? What are your hobbies? How long have you been doing what you do now?

I started about 13 years ago reading Visual Basic 3 tutorials I found on the internet (probably through Dogpile or something; remember them?) and wrote lots of silly little apps. I also started writing apps for TI-82 calculators, and mucked around with QBASIC, too.

Eventually, I came across an old Windows Explorer shell replacement called Cloud9ine and spent months and months trying to replicate it in VB5, following along with its source code. It taught me a bunch about the Win32 APIs, GDI, and all of that, as well as gave me my first taste of OOP.

I also started getting into web development; I bought a book (I can’t remember the title) and started making simple HTML pages before getting into PHP (I think right around the time PHP4 was released). Around the same time, I stumbled across DeskMod; DM was probably what sparked my interest in building dynamic websites. As always, I attempted to build my own website engine mimicking DM and their ModWorks engine. I’d say a lot of my early development was trial and error, and emulating other apps/sites quite a bit, trying to figure them out. 

Are you a designer or developer, mostly? Back-end or front-end? Why?

Developer, but somewhere along the way I picked up some decent design chops (nothing to write home about, but I can hold my own in Photoshop and Illustrator). Every day I wake up thankful that I happened to pick those apps up, because I can’t tell you how awesome it is to be able to imagine, concept, design, develop, and launch projects without reliance on anyone else. I’m well-versed in HTML, CSS, and JS, in addition to the back-end engineering I do. You’re doing yourself a disservice if you isolate yourself to a single specialty.

So, someone comes up to and says, “I’m a complete design/development noob.” What do you say to this person; what advice can you give them?

Try as much as you can. Be a do-er. Make lots of cool shit. Screw up a lot. I’m a firm believer that you have to actually dive in and create, it’s not the same just reading about it. (Disclaimer for Pixelvetica readers: I have no formal CS background or education and can’t speak for those wanting to get a formal CS degree. However, I don’t think they’re necessary for everyone. I also don’t think that college is the best place to learn web stuff; not by a long shot.)

What’s the most important thing for a designer to remember as he or she goes through life?

In general, get a good therapist.

Who’s your biggest role model, your inspiration?

I have a mentor (although I doubt he would call it that) named Mark that I’ve worked with at a few companies. He’s old school and an incredible dev & systems guy. I’ve learned a lot from him.

Talk about your projects. What have you created, what are you creating, what do you plan to create? We’d love to hear about the process.

I’ve made a bunch of stuff over the years— much of it hasn’t ever seen the light of day. I made a site called Placefav a few years ago, but didn’t have enough foresight to create a compelling location-based service. I made a to-do list app which I recently sold called Done.io. 

I’m always interested in building small projects to test an idea/theory, or just play with neat new tech. In terms of companies, I started one called BricaBox with a good friend named Nate Westheimer; that was probably the best thing that could have happened to me as far as cutting my teeth in a startup. It failed, but the lessons learned were worth every second. (EDIT: By the way, Kyle is currently perusing Forrst full-time.)

Give me a little blurb on Forrst— everyone wants to hear something.

In general though, my goal for Forrst is to keep nurturing community growth, and creating a place in which any developer or designer passionate about their craft feels at home.

Favourite fonts? ;)

Gotham Rounded, Avenir, Helvetica, Monaco.

Thanks for your time Kyle, I really appreciate it!

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If you didn’t visit it already, you can check out Forrst and apply for membership at Forrst.com. Once again, a huge thanks to Kyle for donating his time and expertise for Piexlvetica and for you. You can find Kyle on Twitter via @kylebragger.

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First off, sorry about the title of this post. It’s provocative, is it not? But in all sincerity, here’s what I mean:

We all have them, those designs or applications we just want to get done and release so people will see it. “Meh, I can just add a drop shadow if anyone notices, but they won’t. Meh, I’ll release it on Twitter now. Meh.” Or we post our design “looking for feedback,” when in reality it’s supposed to be a release. Everyone has done it.

But it’s time we start really thinking before release; we need to preempt the criticisms and provide our best work right off the tee. Don’t wait for someone on Forrst or Dribbble or M* to say that you need to round the corners— step back and take an objective look at what you’ve made. Ask yourself, “Would someone think I should change that?”

Inevitably, there will always be things you won’t catch, some gradient you screwed up or a bug in your code. But the fewer revisions, the higher quality your work will be regarded as. This isn’t to say that revising is bad (never add “_FINAL” to the end of a file name because it just isn’t true), but it is to say that there’s a lot of bad design and development out there right now, and we need to resolve that issue, and I’ve presented a way of doing that. It’s all about final objectivity.

And if you’re like my friend Louie Mantia and haven’t released a single imperfect thing since your birth, I guess you’re just better than the rest of us.  

EDIT: Yes, that’s meant as a compliment.
EDIT 2: I don’t have a live feedback system set up right now. Email your comments to carson@carsonkahn.com or tweet me.

I’ve noticed a lot of bad graphic design circulating lately. And thus, I present to you my favourite theorem:

Graphic design is a creative process with a few tools, a few rules, and lots of freedom.

In essence, graphic design is a visual representation of organized thoughts and a form of communication through layout, colour and organized elements such as images and words.

Basic graphic design consists simply of layout – putting existing text and images into an attractive setup within the page. Truthfully, that accounts for 90% of what most of the graphic designer do! More advanced work involves image editing – manipulating and blending pictures and type so that the images themselves communicate part of the design. Another major factor in good design is fonts. You’ll need a variety of font choices, and very few of the ones pre-installed on your computer will give your documents a professional touch. 

Here are a few basic principals that will help you become a better graphic designer:

1. Comprehend Typography – We’ve all seen designers do amazing things with type. Pulling words apart and manipulating individual letters to reflect the context and meaning is one of fun things about designing. Before you get that far, however, one simple prerequisite: read the copy and understand it! For people whose job it is to work with type, many designers have an aversion to reading. Before you can go and play with the text, you must understand exactly what you’re being asked to present.
2. Rules of Grouping – Organize perceptual objects to be as good as the conditions allow. Learn about closure – consider forming gaps between elements to form a closed figure. Be simple; objects should be group in the simplest form.
3. Limit Your fonts – A big part of putting together a good design, as you’ll see, is making sure the over-all look is consistent. The best way to accomplish a consistent look to your design is limiting the number of artistic motifs. I typically like to pick just 2 fonts per design.
4. Colour combination - You’ll either have a feel for colour or you won’t. Mostly true, however, a beginner can’t be expected to have the same balanced sense of colour as an industry veteran. So where to begin? Obviously, you’ll need to consider what kind of design you’re doing, and who it’s aimed at. But whether you’re working with vibrant primaries or a stylish earthy palette, there are ways to ensure you’re combining colours that don’t jar or vibrate against each other. There are numbers of online tools and lots of books to help with this. And don’t forget to make sure your monitor and printer are calibrated to display accurately.

Graphic design is of course subjective, and there are a hundred different roads leading to the solution. You need to find the best. Once you’ve finished your work, ask yourself this: is this the best possible outcome?

Don’t settle on something if you’re not 100% convinced it’s the best-possible design outcome. If there’s even a sliver of a doubt in your mind, change it or try something new. Your client wants to see the best you can do. That’s exactly what you and I should be delivering every time. Awesome. 