Essay · ~12 min read

How to Do a Product Critique

Julie Zhuo · Julie Zhuo (The Year of the Looking Glass) Free Intermediate

A former Facebook design VP walks through how to look at a screen and judge whether it works, from first impression to first use to weeks in. It gives you the questions to ask so you can critique your own designs before users do. Learning to critique is how you stop shipping screens that make people think.

  • Judge a screen against what the user is actually trying to do, not your intent.
  • Separate first impression, first use, and long term to surface different problems.
  • Good critique is a repeatable habit, not a one off review.
Open on medium.com ↗

The question it answers

  1. I keep hearing "don't make me think" but what does that actually mean when I'm designing a screen?

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