Design is a subjective and intricate process that requires a delicate balance of creativity, strategy, and client collaboration. As design professionals, we strive to create visually captivating and impactful designs that effectively communicate our clients’ brand messages. However, obtaining actionable feedback from clients can often be challenging. Clients struggle to articulate their preferences or provide constructive criticism, leading to a lack of clarity and potential misalignment between expectations and outcomes.
The key to overcoming these hurdles lies in the art of asking the right questions. By crafting thoughtful and strategic feedback questions, your design team can unlock a treasure trove of insights and ensure a more fruitful collaboration with clients.
Not only do well-crafted questions feedback questions reduce scope creep, but they help improve your design team’s morale and productivity (aka not dealing with the worst versions of your clients).
Why Getting Design Feedback from Clients is Hard
Obtaining constructive design feedback from clients is daunting for several reasons:
- First, clients may lack the design vocabulary necessary to articulate their preferences, making it challenging to express their vision accurately.
- Second, personal preferences and subjective opinions can overshadow objective evaluation, hindering effective feedback.
- Finally, most design teams only utilize email or spreadsheets to manage client feedback, leading to endless email loops.
How to Collect Feedback on Designs Better
One key to collecting design feedback better is by asking specific questions that elicit a thoughtful response (more on that below).
Another critical element is using the right tools. When surveying your client on design, remember, they aren’t a designer; they often don’t speak the same language as your design team.
Tools designed for clients to leave visual feedback can elicit a higher customer satisfaction in the design feedback process. A few tools can do this effectively:
- Motion.io — Motion.io’s Creative Feedback Request allows your client to click on any design you send them and leave a sticky note. This helps minimize back and forth email and confusion between you and your client. What’s more, is that you can frame the discussion by pinning questions to the design before sending it to your client. This unique feature in Motion.io enables you to get the best design feedback possible.
- Figma — Figma allows you to send files to a client and get design feedback. However, Figma is often too complex for most clients to figure out and is better used for an internal team.
- Bugherd — We used Bugherd at my old company to get design feedback on over 7,000 websites. It was effective, but was tricky for many clients to learn and challenging to authenticate into. This is one of the many reasons why we built Magic Link authentication at Motion.io.
Getting the Right Feedback by Asking the Right Questions
Now that we’ve established that a design feedback tool helps you collect feedback better, the next step is asking the right questions.
As part of your design process, you have to include guided, open ended questions to your client, explaining your team’s design decisions. Design is a collaborative process between your design team and your client. By asking the right feedback questions, you help improve your customer’s experience and satisfaction with the end result.
To overcome these obstacles and elevate the design feedback process, it is essential to ask targeted and insightful questions when gathering feedback. Questions should be designed to elicit detailed responses from clients. This will help to gain a better understanding of their needs. This, in turn, will enable designers to make more informed decisions on their designs.
By employing a well-crafted set of questions, designers can navigate the intricacies of design feedback effectively. These questions should cover various aspects, such as brand representation, user experience, visual aesthetics, functionality, and alignment with marketing goals. By addressing these crucial elements, designers can create designs that not only capture the essence of the brand but also resonate with the target audience.
20 Website Design Feedback Questions for Clients
1. Look at the website header. Is the logo placement and size appropriate? Does it feel visually balanced?
2. Examine the color scheme used throughout the website. Do the colors align with your brand’s visual identity and aesthetic?
3. Pay attention to the font styles and sizes used for headings and body text. Do they convey the desired tone and readability?
4. Take a closer look at the main navigation menu. Is it easily noticeable and distinguishable from the rest of the website?
5. Focus on the images used on the website. Do they accurately represent your brand and resonate with your target audience?
6. Evaluate the placement and visibility of important call-to-action buttons. Are they clear and enticing to encourage user interaction?
7. Examine the overall layout and spacing of content sections. Does it provide a visually pleasing and well-organized browsing experience?
8. Consider the use of white space or negative space on the website. Does it enhance the overall design and readability of the content?
9. Evaluate the consistency of design elements across different pages of the website. Do they maintain a cohesive visual identity?
10. Look at the footer of the website. Are all the necessary links and contact information easily accessible and well-presented?
11. Focus on any icons or visual elements used throughout the website. Do they convey their intended meaning clearly and effectively?
12. Examine the typography choices for headings and body text. Do they align with your brand’s personality and readability preferences?
13. Pay attention to the overall visual hierarchy of the content. Are important elements appropriately emphasized?
14. Consider the use of animations or transitions on the website. Do you feel that they enhance the user experience or feel distracting?
15. Look at the use of borders, lines, or dividers within the design. Do they help structure the content effectively?
16. Evaluate the imagery or graphics used in the website’s background. Do they complement the overall design or feel intrusive?
17. Focus on the testimonials or client feedback section. Are they presented in a visually appealing and trustworthy manner?
18. Examine the hover or interactive effects applied to buttons or links. Do they provide clear feedback to user actions?
19. Pay attention to the visual consistency between the website and any associated marketing materials or branding assets.
20. Look at any forms present on the website. Do they have a clean and user-friendly design, encouraging form submissions?
10 Logo Design Feedback Questions for Clients
Below are 10 feedback questions designed to help your clients provide helpful feedback on the logos your team designed for them.
1. Take a look at the logo design. Does it visually represent your brand and the message you want to convey?
2. What are your initial impressions of the logo? Does it catch your attention and make you curious about the brand?
3. Consider the color palette used in the logo. Do the colors resonate with the personality and values of your brand?
4. Look at the typography used for the logo. Does it feel appropriate for your brand? Is it legible and easy to read?
5. Pay attention to any visual elements or symbols incorporated into the logo. Do they enhance the meaning and reflect your brand’s identity?
6. Consider the overall simplicity or complexity of the logo design. Does it feel visually balanced and not overly complicated?
7. Imagine the logo in different sizes and contexts (e.g., website, social media, print). Does it remain clear and recognizable?
8. Think about the emotions or associations the logo evokes. Does it align with the feelings and impressions you want your brand to evoke?
9. Consider the logo’s versatility. Can you envision it working well across different marketing materials and platforms?
10. Is there any specific aspect of the logo design that you particularly like or dislike? What about it appeals to you or doesn’t resonate with your brand?
Wrapping Up…
To tie it all together: To ensure your team gets the best feedback possible on your designs, you first need to be using the right tool (we recommend Motion.io’s design feedback tool for that, but other options can work).
And second, you need to use thoughtful questions that help your client understand what to look for when assessing the design your team created for them.
Do you have any favorite feedback questions that we missed? Share them in the comments below!