These 10 Familiar Tools will Help You Give Feedback to Designers

Some people say designers live in a parallel reality. Creative creatures, they flock from one project to another without immersing in the real-life problems.

To me, designers are those who seek solutions and suggest options. They investigate, create and iterate, closely listening to their clients’ needs and wants.

Luckily, sometimes this process goes smoothly. However, quite often, there could be a miscommunication between you and the hired designers. Especially, if you’re located in different places and communicate only online.

In this article, I gathered 10 tools you already have and indicated how to use them for giving feedback. Mostly, this material is focused on visual work feedback, yet some methods could be adjusted to other types of projects.

Known and Proven Over Time

1. Simple text [Email, Slack, Teamwork, other project team tools]

Good old methods that never go out of fashion. Create a numerated list of comments and questions, listing every item you’d like to be changed. Try to group the points into ‘content’, ‘design’, ‘layout’ or other sections.

2. Screenshots [with boxes, numbers, and arrows]

Don’t just make screenshots, add boxes, numbers, and arrows to illustrate your point. You can use a built-in tool (such as a combination Shift-Command-4 on Mac) or a separate free tool. I use Lightshot Screenshot that provides an option to upload the screenshots online, copy them and google by the image.

3. Print the graphics, write over with a marker and send a scan/photo

Sometimes it’s easier to omit digital tools. Pen and paper could come in handy. Of course, handwriting may be hard to read. It’s better to write in sentence case (no CAPS) and ensure the printed image has high contrast.

Software Comment Functions

4. PowerPoint / Google Slides comments

If you give feedback on the presentation in .pptx format, it makes sense to use Microsoft PowerPoint features to comment on the things you’d like to be changed. You can also drag any image in PowerPoint and do similar actions. The same goes for Google Slides.

5. Sticker comments in Adobe Reader

Adobe Reader is a free tool, very common and easy to use. It gives you an option to precisely mark the places where you’d like to see changes. Edit your name in the properties to automatically mark the comments you left for the designer.

6. Dropbox comments

If you prefer online tools, Dropbox will be the solution for you. Upload a file to the cloud, open it in Dropbox and leave the comments in the respective field. You’ll always have up to date comments to the recent file version.

Audio and Video Options

7. Audio message via messengers [WhatsApp, Telegram, etc]

We’re all busy people. It’s obvious that 1-minute audio record can fit more information than a message written in 1 minute. When you feel it’s important to give more context to the feedback or explain something specific, go for audio.

8. Screen & audio recording

Another option would be recording both screen and audio. For example, using QuickTime on Mac. It will let you walk through the process and use the cursor to point out something on the screen. Keep in mind that a longer video of better quality will also be bigger and take longer to upload/download.

9. Call: Skype / Hangouts / Zoom / other tools call [with screen sharing]

Whatever tool you prefer, a simple dialogue may work miracles. Before the call, write down the questions you’d like to ask and issues to discuss. Go for screen sharing to illustrate your point or make the real-time changes in the visual materials.

One More Thing

10. Combination of the options

If no option feels particularly right for your needs, you can always combine them. For example:

• Give text feedback with a couple of screenshots in the email body.
• Sketch some ideas on paper and upload them in Dropbox or Google Drive.
• Write in the notes section in PowerPoint and add colorful shapes on the slides to indicate slides with comments.

Finally, ask the designer what would be the preferable way to provide the feedback. Together you’ll work out the way that will fit.

Common Sense Rules

No matter what tools you decide to use, remember three important points:

1. Make sure you use the same language and all terms are clear. From my recent experience: I was confused when a client used ‘tombstones’ for ‘client logos placeholders’. Yet, for the client, it was a regular word.
2. Give both general and specific feedback. The more details you give, the shorter will be the way to understanding your point of view.
3. It helps to have every detail in written form. After a call, ask the designer to write a follow-up email with the important notes. Keep the updated files in the shared folder for easy access and keep track of the file versions.

I’m always up for discovering new methods to enhance and simplify the work process.

What tools do you use to give or receive feedback? Let me know in the comments!

If you would like me to help with the presentation design for your business, write at [email protected]. Let’s schedule a time to chat about your goals and discover how I can help you achieve them.