Design reviews are a crucial and more formal part of the design process. Reviews are used to ensure the necessary stakeholders are in the loop and feedback is continuous. It’s the responsibility of the designer to make sure that reviews happen on all features. The format and cadence of the reviews depends on the feature and the team. Below are a few types of reviews we follow.
Design reviews with feature teams
These can happen either synchronously in an ad-hoc meeting or asynchronously through messaging on Mattermost.
Design reviews in the Spec Reviews Channel (asynchronous)
Sharing work in the Spec Reviews Channel is a great way to gather feedback asynchronously from relevant team members while also giving visibility to the broader organization and open-source community. It also gives insight into our design process and the new features the team is working on.
What to share in Spec Reviews Channel
Work in progress that is 70% complete or more. If you’re looking for feedback on work that is in an earlier conceptual state, It’s best to keep earlier drafts for the immediate team working on the project or the internal design team.
What not to share in Spec Reviews
Sensitive information or client data. Remember this is a public channel open to the broader community. Ensure designs do not include client names or other sensitive details.
Early, rough draft concepts. This type of work is usually best shared in other venues with more internal teams.
Long-term vision design work
Sample template for sharing design work for review
Mobile v2: Channel Files view
Summary: In the webapp, we have a way to view files posted in a channel. However, the mobile app does not currently have any way to do this. Users expect to see parity between webapp and mobile with features like this, so we need to add this to the channel experience on mobile. The proposed solution is to:
Add a ‘Files’ option to the channel info modal
Tapping this new ‘Files’ option would take users to a child view of the channel info that shows files in the channel.
Leverage the patterns used currently in the global search view with files
Show files by recency (most recent files posted in the channel)
Infinitely load more files on scroll
Stage: 80% draft
Reviewers: @Eric Sethna @Asaad Mahmood @Elias Nahum @Jason Frerich
Links:
Design Peer Reviews
Why peer reviews?
The concept of peer reviews is not new—developers have been doing it for ages. The reasons we want to experiment with including peer reviews in our process are as follows:
To ensure cohesive design across our platform
To provide support to backup other designer’s decisions so it doesn’t all fall on one designer’s shoulders.
To encourge collaboration and knowledge sharing
To enhance the overall quality of the design outcomes
How does it work?
When a design solution is close to complete (> 80% draft), we can request a review by another design team member by following these steps:
Record a loom walkthrough of your solution or prototype and share for asynchronous feedback in the Design Team channel tagging the peer you wish to review your work. Include the following in your message:
Summary of the project and solution
Any specifics you particularly want feedback on
Link to Figma file
Link to prototype (if applicable)
The reviewer should provide feedback within a 48hr window.
The intent of the peer review is to have another trained designer do a detailed review of their peer’s work to identify:
UI inconsistencies
Correct component usage
File hygiene issues
Who can I ask for a peer review?
The following designers are well-established in our design system and our product and can provide support in peer reviews:
Matt Birtch
Asaad Mahmood
Abhijit Singh
Anneliese Klein
Michael Gamble
Be careful not to ask the same peer every time to prevent bottlenecks with one of the peers.
What a peer review is not
This is not the right time to derail a solution. When a design solution gets this close to completion, we don’t introduce the peer review process to stall it. This stil
Sharing work in Design Critiques
Design critiques, are an informal time to give/get feedback on any work in progress. Crits are meant for designers only, this is not meant to exclude other disciplines, we’ll hold Design Reviews for the broader audience. Crits are a great way for designers to share ideas, no matter what stage you are in in the design process, in a safe and judgment-free space. You don’t need to prepare ahead of time or have a formal agenda, the crit is meant to be short and sweet.
For more details on how Design Critiques work, visit the Design Critiques page.