Feedback is critical, and knowing how to deal with it is a vital skill for any designer—our egos are famously fragile, after all. But whilst all feedback is valuable, not all of it is good. Some of it is actually bad, and some is downright ugly.

Good feedback is when the client or peer (or family member whose opinion you didn’t realise you needed) is right. Whether they’ve found a stumbling block in your user journey, highlighting poor contrast, or revealing that your obscure concept isn’t as straight forward as you think it is, good feedback is always constructive. It’s helpful, insightful, and makes your thing better. 

The challenge is that since good feedback points at actual problems with your work, pride must be swallowed in order to respond gracefully. Invariably I find the best response is to wait. Just listen, take some notes, and come back to it tomorrow. If the feedback is good—i.e. offers genuine improvement—you’ll quickly get over your hurt ego.

Bad feedback is when whomever dishes it out is wrong. Whatever the reason—they may be looking at the wrong thing, unaware of certain requirements, or simply uninformed—bad feedback is not constructive and does not actually make your thing better. Instead it wastes time as you need to explain why it’s wrong (ideally without coming across as an asshole). Good research, a clear grasp of the purpose and goals of the project, and sound reasoning behind your thinking usually does the trick.

A word of warning: bad feedback is rarer than one might think. Not only do most clients have a deeper understanding of their product than we do, but untrained eyes spot different mistakes than conditioned and opinionated ones. So before you start arguing your case, wait. As above, just listen, take notes, and come back to it tomorrow. In many cases, bad feedback turns good overnight.

Ugly feedback is neither here nor there, and therefore the worst kind of feedback. It’s opinionated, subjective, and difficult to reason with. Ugly feedback is wanting to make the logo bigger because it feels too small. It’s wanting to change the colour because someone outside the project didn’t like it, or including some illustration because the CEO wants it on the page.

Dealing with ugly feedback is hard. Left unchallenged, it sullies the process, as well as the integrity and quality of the project. But how do you argue against making the logo just a little bit bigger? How do you reason against a particular shade of purple even if it meets contrast requirements? How do you convince a CEO that their favourite illustration should be binned just because it doesn’t fit the content? In my experience, sometimes you have to accept that you can’t.

Instead (after waiting, listening and taking notes) say yes, and. Make the logo bigger, but actually try to make it work. Change that colour, but improve on your client’s cousin’s suggestion. Offer to redesign that illustration, and charge for it. Failing that, remember that less-than-perfect is totally fine and a good relationship with your client trumps your pride nine times out of ten.

Also—and I can't stress this enough—unless your design is literally saving the world there are more important things than your portfolio.

Illustration by Lulú