Design Review Framework

Overview

From the book Designing Design Conversations by John Ungar, the Design Review Conversation Framework is aimed at conversations about a design to discuss areas of strength and opportunity. It also helps everyone quickly understand what activities have or haven't been performed to feed into the design. It can be used to reflect changes as the design project progresses.

The framework is a visual aid to these discussions and allows the presenter to have holistic conversations about their design that avoid waffle and ensure the most important aspects are covered.

This visual snapshot enables anyone to quickly understand where the design is currently at and any potentual compromises that have been made.

Using the framework

The framework is intended to support showcases and critiques.

The framework offers a snapshot of where the design currently is strong or weak. Using this the designer can gain feedback about areas of focus and any compromises that have been made.

Mark on each subcategory where the design currently stands. E.g. if it has been reviewed by the development team and it is feasible within the project limits then it should score well in that sub-category. If it hasn't had any research yet, it should not score well in that category.

As the design develops over time you will want to update the scoring. This also enables you to show how things have changed over the life of the design project.

More details

John Ungar's book goes into detail about why these are the most important categories to talk about in relation to a designer capabilities, what evidence is required to score at different levels, and tactics to think about when having a designer conversations using this framework and the other 2 frameworks in the book.