How do you implement regular design critiques with your team?

Question

While researching design critiques, one suggestion I've seen is to have a schedule of regular--possibly weekly--critiques with a cross-disciplined group from a product team. While I like the idea in theory since it supports a culture we'd like to foster, I'm having a difficult time imagining how to make that work.

Does anyone have experience implementing regular design critiques as part of your team norm?

What changes did you have to make in how you worked? What roadblocks did you have to overcome? Were you able to regularly have designs to critique?

Answer 1

The team that I am a part of does something along these lines. What we do is one person presents a current design, does not matter if it is completed or not, and then the group as a whole points out what is done right and what could be done better. Along the way the presenter has to defend the design decisions that were made.

We do this with the following goals in mind:

• Practice presenting designs to clients that like to pick apart anything they see.
• Reinforce good design choices
• Learn what can be improved in future versions/similar interaction patterns.

We cycle through the whole team one person a week.