Community Design Crits (Critiques)

What are Community Design Critiques?

A critique (or more informally a "crit") is an opportunity for us to come together as a small group and examine and discuss a creative artifact - a design wireframe, a persona, a newly-implemented UI or software component, etc.

These design crits are informal, constructive, specific, and respectful. It's a forum where anyone from the community can bring their designs and receive feedback.

The idea is to focus on tangibles, not on abstract plans:

• What have we designed or built?

• why is it like this, what are its strengths, and how can we make it better?

Since these meetings are participant driven, there will be occasions when the crit will not meet. Meetings will be announced in the schedule below, and to the relevant mailing lists (i.e. inclusive design community list, and fluid-work).

Table of Contents

Past Community Design Crits

Note: Meeting Time Change in 2019

The Community Design Crit will be changing meeting times to Tuesday 2pm to 3pm Eastern Time. All other meeting details remain the same (i.e. same location and web conferencing).

To Join

To join the conversation please come to the IDRC office in Toronto or remotely through Zoom.

Schedule

Past Design Crits - 2018

Why do Critiques?

Techniques like UX Walkthroughs, Inclusive Design Mapping Tool ("Petals & Flowers"), or User States and Contexts will help us concretely assess and discuss an artifact from different perspectives. It's based on the idea that creative work gets stronger when it is discussed amongst peers and diverse ideas are considered.

Crits help us to: 

• amplify the strengths of a design

• suggest alternative trajectories

• reflect on our work through the lenses of different users

• identify areas of confusion

• focus on tangible artifacts, not just abstract ideas or goals

Sharing at a Design Crit

If you plan on sharing a design at a design crit, here are some details which may help you prepare for the discussion.

Design crits are intentionally informal and casual

We try to keep design crits very informal and casual on purpose. This makes it easier for participants to share designs (requiring less time preparing formal presentations), and opens up more time for organic conversations. A formal presentation of your project or design is not required, and we encourage a more conversational approach.

Come prepared with specific questions or ideas to share

Design crits are a great opportunity to discuss designs, refine ideas, ask questions, and get feedback. To get the most out of a design crit, come prepared with specific design issues to share - this will help focus the discussion on the topics that will help you.

Making use of available time

Design crits are intended to be 1 hour in length to help keep the discussion productive and specific. Come prepared with something to show and with questions to ask. If needed, another design crit can be scheduled to continue the discussion, or you can take advantage of the Inclusive Design Community mailing list to reach a broader audience.

Pre-Meeting Information

One to four days before each Design Crit, an email is sent to both the fluid-work and Inclusive Design Community mailing lists. These emails describe the topic of the design crit and provide instructions on how to participate. These weekly emails is a good opportunity to share any designs, presentation material, and resources in advance.