T Incorporated

Unfounded Anger

Let’s raise the level of debate and critique across the web.

In the design community there often seems to be this need, or this want to immediately critique a design. Critique might be too kind of a word, it’s more of a hate on a design. To immediately call something out as terrible, wrong, ridiculous, stupid or just plain dumb. In offices I’ve worked in I often hear people immediately yell out that something is “clowntown” or laugh about how terrible a design is or how horrendous a drop shadow might be.

It’s not just limited to the office, online people are abhorring some new redesign, or how some small design tweak on a site is ruining everything.

This makes me sad.

It’s also not helpful to the community or design in general. I’ve been trying to figure out why web designers as group do this so often. My hypotheses so far:

  1. Immaturity. Our profession is still very, very young and people in it our often very young. Few have had formal design training, and even fewer in a university setting and the ones that have often aren’t the really talented web designers out there. Our profession is so new that the pioneers didn’t have classes to take, and so haven’t had any formal training. Which, in turn, means they haven’t spent much time in any formal critique settings. Critiquing when the end result is positive is fantastic and a critical piece of the design process, but calling something out as stupid just because you’re angry isn’t.

  2. Speed of delivery. Twitter, Facebook and blogging all give us the tools to immediately call someone out and blast it to 100, 1,000 or even 10,000+ people in just a few seconds. The speed at which you can say something is shocking so take a little more time to be clear.

  3. A desire to seem intelligent or thoughtful about design. It’s the thinking that if you talk louder than the person next to you you’re going to come off smarter than the next guy. I don’t think most people do this consciously, but designers want their voices heard and they want to prove that they know what they’re talking about. It’s quicker to hate on a design picking out all the little things that should have been done than to just do something great yourself.

To be clear, it’s not actual design critique that’s a problem, it’s the quick comments and tweets that do more harm than good. I just don’t see how sending out hasty rants and complaints help us as a community create better designs. We’re just coming off as whiny and not solving any problems.

Instead we should be raising the level of debate in our community to produce and talk about designs at a higher level.

How can we do this?

  1. Tweak before you speak. Just a small rephrasing of a remark about some new redesign can make a huge difference. Turn “OMG what the hell were they thinking with this site. Total fucking clowntown!” into something like “Looks like they missed their audience completely site feels bland a bit undersaturated and the type just doesn’t quite fit.”

  2. Know your radius. You’ve got 20,000 followers, know that you’re going to blast a huge amount of people who respect your point of view. Be sure you’re clear and aren’t firing off without considering the impact it’ll have to the community.

  3. Stop loving the sensational. Our community loves to jump on the bandwagon of something sensational. When Jason Fried publicly rails on Get Satisfaction or Merlin Mann’s enraged about Twit Shirt or John Gruber writes about the Apple’s app store people love to pile on. We place too much emphasis on the negative, the sensational, the bad, and not on conversations that help everyone get better. Imagine what great work people would be doing if they weren’t a bit afraid of the community jumping out and hating on them for something. Imagine if all of these “followers” were creators. Instead of getting caught up in the next mob lynching, they were busy creating something they truly love for us all to use.

I’m not looking to be a hall monitor, or suggesting that people shouldn’t be angry from time to time, but right now, at this stage in web design’s evolution, we’ve swung too far away from a positive discussion.

Let’s raise the level of debate and critique across the web, not just to be nice or to feel good about design, but because in the end it’ll produce better design by everyone.

← →
November 4th, 2009

Tags

anger, community, critique, design, webdesign

Comments

01 November 4th, 2009

Kevin Stewart

A very thoughtful essay. However, I do not think it is limited to Web design. Software development (which I take to include Web development as well) exhibits a lot of the same characteristics and I think the hypotheses (and suggestions!) you formulated apply there as well. I hope people will take this piece to heart.

02 November 4th, 2009

Keith

As you know first hand, I try really hard to be thoughtful and even-handed when critiquing design. Even when I really don’t like what I’m seeing.

I’ve been a part of some pretty brutal design reviews in my life and I feel much as you do. You should be honest about what’s not working, but being mean/nasty/etc. can really demoralize a designer and that doesn’t help get to better work.

I think another thing I’d add to your list to to learn how to give better criticism. It’s not easy and often times when we don’t like something we don’t have the words to express why that is, let alone what could be improved. So, we take the easy route and say (usually in less than 140) something like “That’s fucking clowntown!”

It gets even harder to give good, constructive critisism when something in a design we have to USE isn’t working.

I suggest all designers try their hand a real customer support. To get a bit of perspective.

I’ve learned a lot recently about designing, building, managing and supporting a product. I know how hard it is to have users, especially when some of those users are know-it-all designers (heh) but it’s very easy to forget that when you’re on the others side trying to get something to work. I highly suggest designers who are quick to get angry try their hand at customer service for the products they design. It’s a real eye opener and will help develop some empathy that might lead to more rational and constructive critique.

03 November 4th, 2009

Jeff Croft

This post is total fucking clowntown.

04 November 4th, 2009

Grant

Great call for us all to fall back on, well, common sense. Our community often seems to lose perspective.

05 November 4th, 2009

Josh Bryant

I wanted to like this post but your blog doesn’t have that feature. You’ve completely missed your audience.

Also the color scheme here is undersaturated.

And what was that about us being immature? To suggest such a thing! Pssh.

06 November 4th, 2009

Trent Walton

One of the best parts about being in the design industry is the camaraderie. Sadly, I’m not sure everyone gets that.

07 November 4th, 2009

Shawn Grimes

Pfft, no rainbows or unicorns on this site? WTF. How lame could one site possibly be? Fucking clownshoes.

But seriously, great post Tom.

08 November 4th, 2009

Kevin Brennan

While I agree with everything you touched on, I don’t think it is limited to the design industry.

It’s become the nature of the Internet to job on something and beat it into the ground. There are very view communities that embrace the camaraderie Trent commented on.

09 November 4th, 2009

Tom Watson

@Kevin Stewart, @Kevin Brennan Agreed, although I could really only speak to Web Design.

@Keith Yeah, I think my point about immaturity really speaks to what you’re talking about. It’s a lot more work to critique well.

@Jeff Croft, @Shawn Grimes :)

@Grant Indeed. This post is meant to help remind us.

10 November 4th, 2009

Ticjobro

Word. :)

11 November 4th, 2009

Kenny Meyers

WTF is wrong with rainbows and unicorns!

You’re right Tom! These harsh critiques have got to stop!

Also, srsly, great post man. One of the best yet. Keep ‘em coming.

12 November 4th, 2009

Kenny Meyers

Also, your comments look really really nice.

13 November 4th, 2009

Noah Stokes

Well said. My favorite part:

It’s quicker to hate on a design picking out all the little things that should have done than to just do something great yourself.

14 November 5th, 2009

James Nash

Exactly right. Often it’s those who can’t design that have the loudest (and the most incorrect) criticisms. “Can you do better? Didn’t think so.”

15 November 5th, 2009

Neztra

I completely agree! The worst part about the knee-jerk negativity is that we are cultivating the same cynicism in those new designers just entering the work force.

I know I often second guess even some of my best designs because of scathing critiques I have received in the past. The result? Bland, safe designs with no edge; designs that no longer push the envelope and make us rethink our design ideals.

I appreciate even negative critiques if there is a true takeaway from the critique. When critiquing other’s work, I always ask myself, “how am I going to help this person be a better designer?” before adding my two cents.

16 November 6th, 2009

whalt

Anonymity plays a a big part in this kind of behavior too. Which I realize is not a very original observation but I bring it up because I’m often struck by how the cool kid clique endlessly log roll each other’s every emanation no matter how mundane with effusive praise while reserving the sort of acidic harshness you speak of only for those outside the club who are just faceless targets to be pointed and laughed at. For such a bunch of self-proclaimed nerds they often act more like stereotypical teenage mean-girls.

17 December 30th, 2009

tacosforbreakfast

Perhaps you just suck?

18 January 28th, 2010

Lance

Great piece here Tim. Love the clowntown comments.

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