Two kinds of review
I separate two review types that are often blurred together:
| Critique | Approval review |
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| Purpose | Improve work in progress | Decide whether work is ready to ship |
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| When | Early and often, while work is changeable | At defined checkpoints |
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| Who | Designers and close collaborators | Decision-makers named in the brief |
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| Tone | Exploratory, questioning | Decisive |
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| Output | Specific suggestions and open questions | Approve, approve with changes, or rework |
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Mixing them causes most review problems: critique becomes a verdict, and approvals turn into brainstorming.
Reviewing against criteria, not taste
Every review starts by restating what the work is for: the goals and success criteria from the brief, the users and their tasks, and the design principles. Feedback is then framed against those. This is why stakeholder alignment comes first - without agreed criteria, reviews default to opinion.
A practical review checklist, adapted per project:
| Area | Questions |
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| Goal | Does this solve the problem in the brief? For which users? |
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| Usability | Can users complete the task? Are status, errors and next steps clear? See Nielsen's heuristics. |
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| Consistency | Does it use the design system correctly? Any new patterns - and are they justified? |
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| Accessibility | Does text meet 4.5:1 contrast? Is meaning conveyed without colour alone? Is focus visible? |
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| Content | Is the language clear, consistent and in the brand voice? |
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| Brand | Does it express the creative direction and principles? |
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| Feasibility | Has engineering seen it? Any performance or technical risks? |
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Giving feedback people can use
I coach teams on a simple format for feedback: observation, impact, suggestion. "The status label uses only colour (observation), so colour-blind users and anyone printing this can't tell states apart (impact); add the status text and an icon (suggestion)." Specific, tied to users, and actionable - and much easier to hear than "the status feels off".
Keeping reviews fast
- Timebox - a clear agenda and time per item.
- Pre-read - share work and context before the session.
- One question - the presenter states the specific decision or feedback they need.
- Decide in the room - or name who will decide and by when.
- Log it - decisions and reasons recorded, so they aren't reopened.
