Tools to test your design and get feedback

These days people have high expectations of digital products, so testing has never been more critical.

Feedback is essential for improving the quality of design in any project. To avoid miscommunication and meet clients' expectations and users' needs, designers must use precise and in-context comments and annotations.

This is where feedback tools come in handy, making it simple for reviewers to provide feedback on design files.

You may wonder why feedback is needed. Design is a process, not a solitary action. Only with multiple people's input can you ensure that a design serves its purpose and evolves into the best version. To achieve this high-quality standard, each design should go through at least one round of feedback and testing.

Feedback is a key tool that helps designers do their best job. But before diving into the tools, let's go over some of the core principles to keep in mind about design feedback.

Core principles of design feedback

1. Good design feedback points out how to fix the issue, improve the result, and avoid making the same mistake in future iterations.

2. Dig into the core of the problems in your decisions. If you don't get what the reviewer had in mind – ask more supporting questions until you understand why he gave such feedback and how you can apply it to your work.

3. Ask for the feedback yourself: in group chats, and design communities. Write a message or tweet to more experienced designers and genuinely ask them to comment on your work.

4. Feedback helps to shape reasonable expectations with the client. Before seeking the solution to the problem, dive into the client's business, ask a lot and clarify the details.

5. Before asking for feedback, give the reviewer more context. Ask to not only "look at the designs" but clarify what needs the most attention: typography, layout, colors, and interactions. This will make the feedback more direct.

6. Don't be afraid of feedback and criticism. Remember that the number of mistakes only tells about the effort you put in to find a solution to the problem and is not a characteristic of you as a person.

Tools to test your design and get feedback

Tools for design feedback make it easy for designers to share their work with reviewers and collect their inputs in one centralized place.