As a client, I understand that providing feedback to your designer can be awkward and maybe even a little nerve-racking. You don’t want to cause issues or hurt feelings, right? I get it. But it’s important to remember that your designer wants you to be happy with your finished product while also providing a beautiful design solution. And feedback is a critical component for allowing this to happen.

Providing feedback is not only a productive way of swapping ideas, but it also moves a design project that much closer to your dream outcome. To make sure your communication with your designer doesn’t get misinterpreted, I want to give you some of the best tips on how to provide feedback to your designer.

 

Establish trust with your designer

In order to provide website design feedback (or any design feedback for that matter), there needs to be a solid foundation of trust. Trust in that your designer wants you to have the best design outcome for your project while simultaneously giving you ownership of the design process. Establishing this trust will prevent any competing agendas because you know that your designer wants whats best for you and your business.

Establish your goals first and provide feedback in this context

At the beginning of any design project, you and your designer should have a clear understanding and agreement on your overall design goals. What are you trying to achieve through your design? This helps to ensure that any feedback you provide your designer is motivated and aligned with the agreed-upon project goals.

For example, you want to stay objective and recognize that your website design is being created for your potential customers, not yourself. Unless you are the sole-user of the design (which you likely are not), you want to provide your audience with a design that will incite trust, likeability, ease of use, and make an impression on your customers. Your designer should know this from the onset, so it’s important that you, the client, keep this in mind when it comes time for you to provide feedback.

This includes using phrases that keep your customers in mind. So, instead of saying “I don’t like ____”, frame your words in terms of “my customers may not understand and prefer ____”. Remember your overall project goals and evaluate the design based on these.

Avoid making your feedback personal

I would also suggest that you keep your feedback to your designer strictly about the work and never make it personal. This sounds easier said than done, truly. For example, you don’t want to say, “I don’t like how you’ve used these colors on the design.” Instead say something like, “The screen makes these colors look a little bright in comparison to the other content on the page”. Reframing your words in this way helps to separate the work from the designer making it a professional critique rather than a personal attack.

Be as clear and specific as possible

Make sure your feedback is precise and obvious for your designer. Providing vague feedback like, “This isn’t what I imagined,” isn’t exactly helpful for designers to know and understand what you were imagining and to ultimately fix the problem. When you give your designer feedback, tell them exactly what your critique is about – whether it’s the color, content design, layout, etc. Just be clear and straightforward! We want to make you happy and deliver a finished product that your audience will love.

By keeping these points in mind, you as the client, are setting up the design process to have a better design outcome by reducing any potential frustrations and miscommunications. Don’t feel afraid to provide feedback because, if anything, the critique can help your designer find areas that could use improvement. Your designer want’s you to have a great end-product, just be mindful of how you execute your feedback!

And don’t forget that a well-designed website is great for your business, so making sure the outcome is a great experience for your audience is key. If you are interested in reading other more about the important aspects of web design and working with web designers, I highly recommend you check out my other posts on web design & designers here. There are some great insights into what it’s like to work with designers and what to expect as the client.

Now, are you ready or interested in your next design project? I’d love to chat more with you about your design visions and goals. Click here to book a Discovery Call! I would love to connect.