Share your designs and ideas with others verbally.

The benefit of sharing your designs and ideas verbally is that it forces you to analyze your decisions on the spot. Doing so shouldn’t be a difficult task when you’ve spent enough time mapping out the reasoning behind your decisions. However, it’s when it does become difficult that areas requiring additional processing are revealed.

For instance, at the start of our critique session, the team asked me to provide context for my design. This included background on what problem I was trying to solve, who I was solving it for, and how my product would act as a solution. Simple right?

To my surprise, I could sense that my thoughts were scattered as I initially spoke. There were some ideas that I had difficulty expressing eloquently and some questions that I simply did not have a fleshed out answer to. However, as more questions were asked and I heard my own responses, things began to click. Questions I had no clear answer to in the beginning became obvious. I was able to reconcile pieces of information that appeared to be unrelated to form a greater understanding and ultimately fill in missing gaps that would have otherwise gone unnoticed.

Speaking out loud really does make all the difference. It brings forward your conscious and even subconscious thoughts that were stored in the back of your head and places them before for you, making it easier to organize. Things become unclouded, you begin making new connections, and you’re able to reorient yourself towards designing a better product.

Closing Thoughts

Facebook is doing something great here with these open design critiques. It’s not everyday that you see such a renowned group reaching out to the community so openly and honestly.

Having the opportunity to collaborate with some of the best designers in the industry has been an invaluable experience. I was able to gain insight into how critiques are carried out in a professional setting and have been able to transfer what I have learned into leading my own design critiques at my current internship. On top of that, it has helped me improve my design process and has overall made me into a significantly more aware designer.

To my understanding, Facebook plans to continue their open design critiques. Based on my positive experience, I would highly recommend anyone considering this to submit their designs, especially if they are someone just getting into product design as I was. I understand that doing so could be a daunting task, but believe me, it is well beyond worth it. These designers I have had the pleasure connecting with have been some of the most genuine and considerate individuals I have ever met. They want to help the design community, so let them!

I hope my honest reflection on my critique session with Facebook provided helpful advice and encourages everyone to continue sharing and learning from one another. I certainly still have a lot more to learn, but I look forward to using what I have gained from this experience as I move forward in my future growth and development as a designer.