What is design critique in UX?
Design critique is a structured process in which a designer presents work in progress to colleagues, who then provide specific, constructive feedback intended to improve the design. Critique differs from approval or review processes: its purpose is to identify problems and opportunities while the design is still being developed, not to judge whether the work is good enough to ship. Effective critique treats the design as separate from the designer and grounds feedback in design principles, user needs, and evidence rather than personal preference.
What makes design critique effective?
Effective critique begins with the presenter framing what kind of feedback they need, what decisions are still open, and what constraints they are working within. This prevents reviewers from spending time on solved problems. Feedback should reference specific elements of the design and be grounded in principles or user needs rather than personal preference. Questions are often more valuable than statements: "What happens if the user enters more text than fits here?" is more useful than "This won't work for long text."
How does design critique differ from design review?
Design critique is a developmental process that happens during design work, aimed at improving the design through feedback. Design review is a gatekeeping process that happens before work ships, aimed at ensuring quality and completeness before handoff. Critique is most valuable in the middle of the design process when there is still flexibility to make changes. Review is most valuable at the end when a checklist of quality criteria needs to be verified.