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Handling emotions when receiving feedback on your design
Receiving feedback on your design can often be a not-so-pleasant experience, especially when you are just starting as a designer and not yet used to being criticized.
In this article, I’ll tell you about a few ideas that help me get through tough conversations and keep myself cool in my day-to-day work.
There are no bad intentions
This is the first and, in my opinion, the most important idea that I remind myself of when things don’t go as planned.
Sometimes it may feel like someone is saying something about your design intentionally to hurt you or to sabotage your work, or that they would criticize your work out of principle. It’s natural that you may feel that way when being criticized. It’s a natural human reaction to become defensive when there is a threat.
But in most cases the truth is simple — there are no bad intentions behind anyone’s words or actions. Remember that you are all in the same boat and you have the same main goal to keep the boat afloat. You all work hard to make your product or agency succeed.
When things seem to not go as expected in terms of feedback, there could be a lot of reasons for it. Just to name a few:
- some of your stakeholders may have a very different perspective on the problem or a solution — what’s the main problem for you may completely slip out of their focus and vice versa.
- some people may not have enough context to understand your idea fully and they may be confused. They may not even realize that.
- you and your colleagues may have issues at home, lack of sleep, or other things that affect mental performance and communication.
- some people are just naturally not as good at expressing themselves, especially in writing.
After all, it is your job as a designer to be empathetic and ask the right clarifying questions.
Of course, there are exceptions and there are bad people, but I guarantee you that in absolute most cases it is not the case. Most likely, it is just misunderstanding combined with miscommunication.
