How To Deal With Bad Design Suggestions

How To Deal With Bad Design Suggestions

An executive sketches a new homepage on a napkin to mimic a site she used and liked. A developer stays late one night and adds a new feature he thinks would be cool. Or a product manager insists on adopting the same design pattern that a competitor uses. If these scenarios sound familiar, you鈥檙e not alone. Most designers receive this kind of 鈥渉elp鈥?at least occasionally. Your first instinct may be to respond with a flat and final "no." But whether a UX suggestion comes from a key stakeholder or someone on the periphery to the project, it should be thoughtfully dealt with. The first step is to take your own ego out of the equation; you may have the most design experience, but you don鈥檛 have a monopoly on good ideas. Don鈥檛 assume an idea is bad just because it鈥檚 presented in a PowerPoint file instead of a Photoshop mockup.

Ruthlessly quashing ideas without even considering them will deter people from contributing other (valuable) ideas in the future. Even if an idea seems obviously wrong to you, remember that this person is also trying to make the design better, although she might have a different vision of what 鈥渂etter鈥?means. You may find that, while the solution being proposed isn鈥檛 a good fit, the problem addressed is important. Ask the person what he is trying to achieve with his design idea. Is he thinking of a different user group or business need? 鈥?(maybe in different ways) until you understand what that problem is. Identify both the problems and the benefits of the suggestion. Even a bad idea has some benefit 鈥?for example, using a hamburger menu for the large-screen version of a website impairs users鈥?ability to navigate easily. That鈥檚 a very important reason not to use it. However, a hamburger on desktop also presents a visually appealing, uncluttered header.

Acknowledge both the costs and benefits to more accurately assess the trade-offs, and decide which goals can be sacrificed or accomplished through a different method. Consider holding a collaborative sketching session, watching user-research videos together, or holding another type of UX workshop so the proponent of the idea can remain a champion for the cause. Explain that making a design decision in the moment means skipping ideation, research, and user feedback. Ideally, move toward a design-thinking process to derive the right solution for the problem addressed by the suggestion. Costs of accepting the idea should include both UX problems due to potential user confusion and logistical issues such as disruptions in the development schedule that could delay the release of other more important features. To evaluate a large group of ideas, use a structured prioritization system to understand the relative value of different options. If your assessment determines the idea should not be implemented, you can say no in a positive way. You don鈥檛 have to start handing out participation trophies, but don鈥檛 make people feel stupid for trying. Find something that you sincerely believe is true or valid about their suggestion and call it out.

Since these phrases will be followed by a 鈥渂ut鈥? make sure you are genuine in the points you make. Otherwise, it鈥檚 not worth it to say them at all. The moment people are engaged enough to make a suggestion is the ideal time to help them learn more about UX and spread more UX knowledge throughout your team. Prioritizing the information could be helpful, but making it larger and a different color might cause banner blindness. Consider providing a sketch, example, design principle, pattern, or research finding to help them understand why a design might cause issues and why a different design would work better. Treat each interaction as an opportunity to educate contributors about design 鈥?which is an investment in the future. When clients or powerful colleagues make a specific request (or demand), it can be difficult to say 鈥渘o鈥?even if you do provide an explanation. But that doesn鈥檛 mean you should give up and go along with harmful suggestions. Instead, talk with them about ways to incorporate the motivations and energy behind the idea, without necessarily directly implementing it.

Aikido, a martial art which attempts to resolve conflicts peacefully, relies on movements such as turns and pivots to blend opposing energies. The same principles can be applied to handling conflicts around design: rather than rejecting an idea directly, agree to move forward exploring the suggestion, without explicitly committing to implementing it. Suggest a working meeting at which you can present options that achieve the same benefits while avoiding the costs. 鈥淚 see what you are looking for. Even better than gracefully deflecting bad ideas is guiding collaboration into more productive channels. You can make the most of everyone鈥檚 contributions by seeking input at structured, strategic times, such as scheduled workshops. This proactive approach lessens the likelihood of being surprised by unexpected change requests when it鈥檚 too late to effectively assess or incorporate them. Everyone has an opinion about design, which makes a UX designer's job challenging. But this diversity of 鈥渄esign help鈥?will be a valuable asset if you communicate with your collaborators in order to educate them and channel their strengths. The most effective UX designers include many people in their design process. They discuss business goals, development opportunities and constraints, priorities, requirements, and design ideas with a wide variety of team members and key stakeholders. These people are from many functional groups; with varying levels of UX expertise, commitment, and maturity. Developing the communication skills necessary to take advantage of these many sources of information and input is essential to becoming a great UX designer and producing just as great designs.