How to critique a website design, and accept criticism

Giving and receiving criticism is an art. Luckily for us our websites are always perfect. Oh, OK, a small amount of critiquing can be very useful.

Website building is about combining the business goals of an organisation with the user goals – these two things aren’t the same.

They complement one another, sure. But ultimately we need to work out what an organisation wants a user to do as a result of visiting their site, and build from there.

 

Then the client tells us they don’t like it and we cry ourselves to sleep.

In this blog we’re going to cover the basics of critiquing a website and also look at ways we designers can be good recipients of criticism.

Like with all good stories, we should start at the beginning. And in this case that would be good research.

User goalsIt’s important to keep in mind why the user is there in the first place, figure it out and write it down, for example:

1. Buying a product
2. Change a behaviour pattern
3. Looking for information
4. Registering for an event
5. Wanting to participate in conversation, repeat visits etc

Once you know this, put it next to your business goal. These two will complement each other and need to work together. Now you can start to look at methods for critiquing.

What tools to use? Usability.gov has a matrix outlining all the methods you can use to critique a web site, from card sorting to focus groups, and breaks them down into analyse, design and test categories.

At minimum you should be prepared to:

1. Put yourself in the users’ shoes: walk through the site profiling as various users.
2. Review the statistics:  where is the user journey taking people, and where should they be going.
3. Ask someone else: you can use social media to get feedback, pass it around to colleagues or there are forums and websites of web designers who will critique your site for you, sometimes for free.

Break it downNo matter which critiquing tools you are using, the following is going to come under consideration:

1.    First impressions and gut instinct
Don’t ignore your first impression, however also don’t just go straight into ‘it’s not right’ or ‘it’s too blue’. Here are a few things to get you started:

• Can you tell at a first glance what the website is for?
• Can you find where you need to go easily from the homepage?
• At first glance do the colours work?
• Does the homepage all fit on the screen?

2.    Look and feel
If you can’t tell what the objective of the website is within a few moments, rethink the design. There are some great articles already around about the principals of design (balance, rhythm, proportion, dominance and unity) and how they fit in to web design – like this one by Digital Web Magazine. Consider:

• Does the branding fit with your businesses’ branding? (We’d hope so!)
• What images have been used, and do they fit your target user?
• Is it busy, flashing, how much white space does it have?
• Does the design style flow throughout the site?

3.    Function and usability
Think about your various users and what they will be looking for. Remember the two-click rule – users should be able to find what they are looking for in two clicks.

• Can you return to the homepage from all areas of the site?
• Does it have internal search functions?
• Are the navigation links visible?
• Are you complying with accessibility standards (translation tools, text size)?

4.    Content
Your content needs to be relevant, changing, up to date and interactive. You can use a content inventory to conduct an audit, handy for smaller websites, here is one already set up for you.  

5.    Check your defensive and persuasive elements of web design
We’ve written blogs before on defensive and persuasive web design, which are good references. Look at:

• Error pages and help functions
• Authority: testimonials, security and safety badges
• Social media integration
• Contact us points
• Internal search capability

6.    SEO
No point having a website if people can’t find you. If you haven’t already, it’s time to start looking at your analytics and webmaster tools:

• Check you are using appropriate Metatags.
• Have you got a friendly/obvious URL?
• Relevant keywords, how are people finding your site?
• Look at your competitors, how is their site ranking compared to yours?

Things which are just bang out of orderSometimes the best way to figure out what you need is to see what you don’t want. The following is our list of things you should NEVER do:

1. No browser compatibility: your site needs to work across the majority if not all browsers.
2. Bad contrasting colours: not only does this affect the accessibility of the site, but is bad design. Go Mediazine has a nice article showing examples of good and bad contrast.
3. Text or images going over the design of the page: this just looks sloppy. The below example says this better than I can.

I wasn’t sure if the below website on critiquing web design was being ironic by having their text go over the template:

 

Unfortunately I don’t think they were. The whole site was like this. Not a great look.

The criticism burgerOne theory of giving criticism is by complimenting something, criticising something, and then complimenting again. The criticism is the meat, sandwiched in a burger or niceness.



Above: Bad burger - not quite the point of constructive criticism.

Although simplistic, the real reason for this is by telling someone what you do like helps them understand what you don’t.

Here are our top tips on sending through a critique, or evaluating an old site when building a new one:

• As covered above good critiquing should be based on the goals of the business, thinking about how the user goals are complementing the business goals.
• Good critiquing should be articulated clearly, not just ‘it needs a face lift’. What seems old, and what do you still like? Help us help you.
• Try and back up any gut reactions with examples.
• Avoid ‘I like’ and talk about if something works.

In return web designers should be able to steer critiquing in to useful grounds where we can use the information to improve the site, for example:

• Educate clients on why we do things.
• Figure out what the criticism is really about.
• Don’t be defensive.
• Know the business goals and user goals of the website.
• Dig for real thought.

Last thoughts You can’t set and forget a website. They are by nature ever changing and developing. It is also a relatively young field, providing even more reason why constant critiques are needed.
 
If we remember the goals of the websites, research who our users are and create a good fit for the brand, we’re on the right path. But it’s easy to miss things, and this is where good, constructive critiquing can make a good website, brilliant.


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References:
Usability methods, Usability.gov
Become a Master Designer: Rule Three: Contrast, Contrast, Contrast, Go mediazine
The Principals of Design, Web design magazine
Content Inventory, Relly Annett-Baker
10 Criteria to evaluate a website, MCIL

Further reading:
Some straight forward advice from the Wilmington Design Group
Jason Santa Maria on giving and receiving criticism
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