Never Ask “Why”: Running Design Critiques in an Agile World

Asking “why” in design critiques invariably puts the designer into a defensive position: “Why did you do it this way?” or worse “Why _didn’t_ you do it that way?”. Rather than explaining their design, “why” questions force a designer to justify them. This can lead to tension and bruised egos, but rarely to better design.

If designers are working closely with developers in an iterative Agile environment, hostile design reviews just create friction. Rather than finding the best solutions, daily scrum and/or design review sessions turn into a turf war over ideas.

This workshop is a hands-on tutorial for designers and project managers who want to learn how to run productive design reviews with a variety of different audiences (designers, managers, developers, users). The workshop teaches them how to guide discussion and questions through team-based exercises, define critique roles and rules, and a critique walk through exercise.

Your Speaker

Jason Cranford Teague is a creative strategist, writer, and speaker who has written numerous books and articles about digital design and creative development. His books include the best selling CSS Visual Quickstart Guide and Final Cut Pro and the Art of Filmmaking. He is a regular speaker at leading conferences including SXSW, WebVisions, and The Internet Summit and teaches classes in experience design at Drexel University.

As an internet industry leader for over twenty years, Jason has worked with clients like Virgin Group, The Aspen Institute, The XPrize Foundation, The EPA, Capital One, and Marriott International to find innovative solutions for their experience design products. Jason is currently the UX Lead at Rivet Logic.