Be critical or be nice?

**Cloud** · 17 February 2013, 11:02 PM

I was just looking at a site and it reminded me of some of the stuff I used to do a couple of years ago in terms of the design and it got me thinking that it took a couple of years and lots of practice (100 odd sites) to realise that I have made some basic errors along the way.

Wouldn't it be right to give the right critic of a person's website, after all people post on the web gallery not just for a good seo backlink but to showcase their site. I feel now that if someone is designing websites for a living or for their business we should be a little bit more critical; obviously not to the point of being pedantic or personal but just making the poster aware of some of the best practices in the industry, there are members here with many years of design and web design experience and we should be helping people using xara to create sites to make sure that the end product looks professional, even if it is from our love of xara and to make sure it is shown in a good light.

I have been guilty in the past of holding back and not saying something and I think in their heart of hearts the poster wants to make sure that the site is the best it can be. There will of course be a critic which rubs someone up the wrong way and design can be a very personal thing; my favourite colour is not always someone else's favourite colour so on those points we should be quite but if a colour jars too much or clashes with another colour, or when text is difficult to read or the quality of an image is really bad, or something is not aligned correctly etc etc. we should speak up. Let's not play at the emperor's new clothes, let's be honest.

**pauland** · 17 February 2013, 11:48 PM

Good post.

I try not to upset people these days as much as I have done on occasion. I think I have a bad reputation as a critic on TG!

I think your differentiation of hobby and business sites is important. I rarely criticise hobby sites these days.

**gwpriester** · 18 February 2013, 12:41 AM

If you can be honest in a positive way then you can be helpful. It is much harder to say, your site is really terrific, but please consider using fewer colors and fewer fonts, than it is to say, your site really shows how pathetic you are as a designer and how appallingly little you know about website design.

If you look at early examples of a cartoonist's work and then look at their later work, you can see exactly the learning process you are describing sketch.

Many of the members of TG who post links to their websites have had no formal training and are learning as they go. Others have had some training and are developing quicker.

My basic rule of thumb, is if I can't find something positive to say about a person's work, is I generally don't say anything at all.

And that is probably not right either.

**angelize** · 18 February 2013, 01:22 AM

When giving a critique of someone's work whether a website, or DTP design I will try to start on a positive note. For example I might say the colours in the layout look nice and the basic design is good however there are two many fonts in your design... Then I might go on and explain why too many fonts isn't good.

I agree it is important to help others by offering a good critique and be honest, but it is also important to be supportive and encouraging.

**webdesignlondon** · 18 February 2013, 10:51 AM

Yes, giving good criticism with honesty will drive a person to improve more and encourage people to be better in their work.

**Cloud** · 18 February 2013, 12:28 PM

Thank you for your replies, the general consensus seems to be that critique is good as long as it is positive, I would like to add that we should be be able to be critical without having to be positive first. As I said if it is a personal site that all encouragement should be given, on the other hand I have seen sites from people who wish to do this for a living which are frankly terrible and if we are not critical to them then they will at best be deluded into thinking they can do this for a living and at worse will invest much time and money into their new business without having any real talent for it, if we can let them know that then we are doing them a much needed service. As the above poster says it will encourage people to better their work without having to go through the many years of mistakes we made.

**pauland** · 18 February 2013, 01:15 PM

I don't think it's up to us to decide whether someone can make it as a web designer, but I know what you mean.

There are several people on TG whose journey has been quite amazing with Xara software.

The important thing about this community is that people needn't fear asking for help and that what makes the TG forums rather special. Nobody gets laughed at and everyone gets help, encouragement and constructive criticism to varying degrees.

In general, it works.

**Cloud** · 18 February 2013, 02:02 PM

I understand that paul, I am not saying that we act as some sort of judging panel, but the right push in a certain direction can do a world of good. As can be seen on all these terrible talent shows on tv; our friends and family telling us we are good at something can be our worst enemies. Any critique I give will be constructive and from the point of view mainly as a visitor to a site.

**gwpriester** · 18 February 2013, 04:46 PM

Originally Posted by angelize

...Then I might go on and explain why too many fonts isn't good.

I would be curious to know why this is?

**pauland** · 18 February 2013, 05:04 PM

I think the more fonts you have then there is a danger of the page just looking messy. I think the perceived wisdom is that after three fonts on a page, things go downhill.

I've seen quite a few awful pages with mixed fonts, sizes and weights and it makes the page look like a jumble.

Naturally, people who know what they're doing can be the exception to the rule!