I don’t know if it’s a world wide phrase, but one that is used in the UK is to label a really useless thing as "useful as a chocolate teapot". When you show someone a design the response often is a dead end critique. I would label such responses – yes, no, good, bad, wonderful, wrong and many other solo or dual words – as dead end critiques. These are a pointless response and gives the designer nothing to build on or work with. The main place where dead end critiques are worthless is during the design process. A designer always benefits from another eye seeing their work. There are times when you need a good poke in the right direction to put your design on track. I can think of more than one occasion where one of my designs has been saved by this input.
What does not save design is a dead end critique. There is nothing the designer can build on with such a critique. Many would say that positive and negative dead end critiques could be seen as differently. I think of positive ones as just as bad though, simply saying good or yes really doesn’t provide a basis for analysis. When I do a design I want to know what is good and what is bad about it. Just giving me a dead end response does nothing apart from boost or downer an ego. The next time you are asked to look at a design or what you think about it, just take a minute to saw more than a dead end critique.The designer is asking your opinion because you count, so return the favour with something beyond a chocolate teapot.
Awesome post, Tammie! I had a boss a few years back that would say, "This is the best thing I have ever seen" every time I showed him something. Obviously, he thoughts this would be flattering. Instead, it was merely irritating. First of all, I was coming to him for constructive criticism. Second, I already knew it wasn’t "the best thing ever designed – that it could be better" so the compliment kept falling on deaf ears. Long story short, I completely agree with you. Dead end positive feedback is just as pointless as dead end negative feedback. It doesn’t matter whether it is positive or negative. What matters is whether or not we, as designers, get feedback that keeps the design process going.
Yes, I have had both the positive and negative boss in hte deadend critiques. The negative one was doing so to apparently push his staff – possibly out of the window. "Designers together should feedback to keep the design process going" That’s a great summary and ethos all should ahere to I reckon.
Cheers!
I was considering responding here with perhaps just a "great article". No explination, no reason ;). But I figured you’d think be a bit of a butt head :P so… You’re exactly right with this article. It is a subject that is rarely touched upon in conversation, but something that affects every creative person. How can we expect to improve ourselves if we cannot identify what it is we are doing right or wrong? Btw, I like the position of the comment form before the comments… refreshingly different and prompts readers to make a contribution to the article.