“How We Run Design Critiques At Figma” (https://lnkd.in/eERQmRnY), an honest case study by Noah Levin with helpful techniques and templates to run more effective and friendly design critiques.
Most critiques are an avalanche of unstructured opinions.
Run successful design critiques
✅ Good critiques are inspiring, and give you a plan of action.
✅ Critiques work best with 2–6 people in the room.
✅ Explain the problem before showing any work.
✅ Reiterate previous findings, decisions and research.
✅ Explain how far you are: 30%, 60% or 90% done.
✅ Explain what kind of feedback you are looking for.
✅ No Keynote/Powerpoint: Figma link + Observation mode.
✅ Assign a note-taker to capture key points (Google Doc).
✅ Show what you want to show: feedback is shaped by that.
Critique formats
🎡 Round-the-room: everyone voices their feedback (2min / person).
🍿 Popcorn: freeform comments for flowing conversation.
🥁 Jams: for early explorations with brainstorms, group sketching.
🫱🏻🫲🏾 Pair design: for deep collaboration on a problem (small groups).
🤫 Silent critiques: for a large volume of written, structured feedback.
📋 Paper print-out: for complex flows and reviewing more at once.
📣 FYI critiques: for sharing context and invite feedback later.
Design critiques are about applying critical thinking. It’s about how well a current iteration of design does what it’s trying to do. However, designers alone often don’t have the full picture. Don’t necessarily reserve critiques to design teams only: invite developers and stakeholders and PMs for early feedback.
Don’t ask what people think — ask how well the design tackles a specific problem. And probably the most important thing is to enable a flowing conversations. Invite everyone to ask, to doubt, to scrutinize, but stay on point and gather structured feedback: that’s when good critiques emerge.
Useful resources
Practical Design Critique Guide, by Darrin Henein
https://lnkd.in/ey_cGKuc
Mastering Design Critiques, by Jonny Czar
https://lnkd.in/e_BYwNwf
Anti-Behavior in Design Critiques, and How To Handle Them, by Ben Crothers
https://lnkd.in/e4UrpsPs
Figma and Miro Templates
Design Critique Meetings Guide (Figma), by Overflow
https://lnkd.in/eS6_Vqc8
Design Critique Template (Figma), by Janus Tiu
https://lnkd.in/edzhC4Mw
Design Critique Meeting (Figma), by Rodrigo Alas
https://lnkd.in/eppC4TFk
Design Critique Meeting Agenda (Figma), by Tony Murphy
https://lnkd.in/e8bMqqcq
Design Critique Playground Template (Miro), by Miroslava Jovicic
https://lnkd.in/eryJShRd
from Vitaly Friedman on LinkedIn
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