In this presentation I discuss 10 bad habits that we've found in teams and organizations that inhibit their ability to critique and hold productive, meaningful design discussions.

1. STOP IT
Taking On The Bad Habits That Hurt
ADAM CONNOR @ADAMCONNOR
Design Discussions

2. Conversations can hurt

3. It’s laid out too much like [popular service]. We should be different.
The new Spotify design is perhaps even worse than the old Spotify design. The
visual hierarchy and underlying IA are terrible.
If you wanted to make it less obviously
wrong, next time…
It needs more flululululuh!!
The wireframes are still not answering our problem and are not
providing enough an easier solution for the page.
Change the order of the screens so that the 3rd and
first one are switched.
It doesn't have enough spunk.
What kind of company shuts down a much-loved service like
Google Reader but keeps the vegetative Google Plus?
We're disappointed in this solution. We're going to have our own designers come up with
one.
Looks ugly. Make it pretty.
What. The hell. Is this?
I would never use this. I don’t like the
layout.
We should make that a dropdown instead of
radio buttons.
None of this is what I asked for.
This is terrible. I have no idea what the lines
mean.
I like the paper form better.
I'm just not feeling it. I don't know what, but it isn't right yet.
Just needs to be more innovative.
Make it look more like
SharePoint.
Here is a rewrite. My intention is to
sharpen the language, make it more
precise.

4. criticalthinking

5. critique

6. We react

7. We get selfish

8. We don’t start from a
common foundation

9. We don’t discuss

10. We don’t talk about strengths

11. We don’t focus

12. Artist Unknown
We defend

13. Artist Unknown
We don’t participate

14. We problem solve

15. We confuse critique with review

16. THANK
YOU!For more thoughts on critique, communication and collaboration,
check out discussingdesign.com
Adam Connor
Experience Designer
VP Organizational Design & Training
!
@adamconnor
aconnor@madpow.com
And look for
Discussing Design: Improving Communication & Collaboration Through Critique
Available June 2015 from O’Reilly Media