One of the most important skills you can learn is how to give and receive constructive criticism. Whether you’re an artist, a designer, or a programmer, at some point you’ll be asked to participate in a critique, or at least offer feedback. It’s easy for a critique session to turn into a tear down, even with the best intentions, but it doesn’t have to be that way. The whole point of a critique is to be helpful! Following a standardized method for giving feedback can make the critique process more productive and less painful for everyone involved.

The Compliment Sandwich Is Dead

A lot of people think if you surround, or “sandwich”, tough feedback between positive comments you’re feedback will be better received. Unfortunately, a study by the University of Western Ontario shows the sandwich method doesn’t work. People are so focused on waiting for the critical feedback that they disregard the initial compliment. They also generally don’t appreciate negative feedback when the person giving the feedback doesn’t have a clearly state goal for the purpose of the feedback.

We prefer to use IDEO’s method, “I like, I wish, What if?”. IDEO is a design firm based in California that has about 40 years of experience in developing ideas and working with external clients. Their format is not only good at providing feedback; it requires the person giving the feedback to think through a possible solution to address the issues they see.

“I Like”

Always start the critique with something you genuinely like about the project. There’s always something you can point to that’s good, even if you don’t like it as a whole. Don’t treat the “I Like” section as a way to boost their ego or soften the blow for what’s about to come. If you can’t think of something you like about the project, it’s better to stop here. Negative feedback by itself is not good enough. If you really want to help, put in the work.

When you say “I like” be specific. Saying “it was fun” is nice to hear, but not helpful. Genuinely communicate the most engaging or promising features. Compliment the art style, the way it made you feel. Tell them it felt great to slap a card down on the table. Say that you’ve been looking for something to share with your friends that has this mechanic. Your “I Like” doesn’t have to come from a place of expertise, it just has to be thoughtful.

Focusing solely on the things that should be changed can make you lose sight of the project’s goals and can give the impression that there isn’t anything worth building on. All the best parts of a project can be accidentally overwritten in an attempt to “fix” the worst parts. So make sure to tell them what the best parts are! Tell them what you would hate to lose, what they should never change.

“I Wish”

This is where you express what you feel can be changed or improved about the project, without giving specific advice. Try to make these statements more broad, almost like a prompt for them to consider. The more emotions you can put into your statement the better. For example “I wish I could have bought more cards, it would have felt really satisfying, I was starting to feel frustrated and stuck.” is worth a lot more than “I wish that card cost 1 instead of 3”. We’ll get to specific advice later.

Keeping your “I Wish” statement broad before focusing on specifics might feel strange at first, but it’s extremely helpful for the receiver. It allows you to come up with goals together. In the previous example, a new shared goal you could have is “Reduce frustration with buying cards”, or “Make buying cards feel more satisfying sooner” instead of arguing about the specifics. Those goals can then be extrapolated out farther, and they can be compared with other people’s feedback. Maybe someone else didn’t have the exact same experience as you, but they felt a similar emotion. The receiver can start to notice themes and find ways to address them throughout rather than just in one place.

“What If”

Now it’s finally time to offer up your ideas. You’ll need to use your best judgment for how large of a change to suggest here. Make the suggestion realistically achievable and phrase it as one of many solutions. If you’re playing a cutesy cooperative game, saying “What if you changed the theme to War II and got rid of the cooperative part?” probably isn’t very helpful. Try to understand the designer’s goals and keep your suggestion in-line with them. If you find you’ve made some assumptions about the end goal it’s ok to ask some clarifying questions. Try to tie your statement back to the “I Like” or “I Wish” statements if you can so they know where you’re coming from.

Any advice you offer is already personal, so try to speak from your own experience rather than trying to fix an issue you think other people might have. I’ve received a large amount of well-meaning advice from people who aren’t color-blind on how I should make one of my games color-blind accessible… without them realizing it already was accessible and had been tested by many color-blind players for that exact purpose.

Keep in mind that not all of your suggestions will be helpful, and that’s okay! Sometimes you won’t know if your “What if” is crazy out of scope, something they already tried, or something they simply aren’t interested in. That’s why it’s important to offer your suggestion, explain it a little if needed, and then let it go. You don’t need to convince them, because it’s not your project!

Giving critique can be fun! There’s a freedom to analyzing a project you don’t have a stake in, and trying to make it better without any pressure. Looking at projects different from your own can help boost your creativity, and can make it easier to recognize your own personal tastes and talents. Following a method like this can insure both you and the other person get something meaningful out of it without any hard feelings.