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.