Questions for an interface design critique

In any interface there might be hundreds of things to improve. With enough experience you will notice many of them immediately. If you’re not there yet, hopefully these questions can help you.

Not every question applies to every project.

General

• Is it rigorous? That is, is every element and decision intentional?
• Are there any small “paper cut” issues?
• Is it easy for me to understand the design?
• Will the interface scale well, if more/longer content is suddenly introduced?

Visual style

• Are the style and visual techniques well-suited to the concept behind the design?
• Is the style uncommon/novel enough to get attention?
• Are any of the visual techniques used uncommon/novel enough to get attention?
• If the interface uses excellent content, does the style allow it to shine?
• Do the colours used work well together?
• Does all elements look like they belong together, even when they’re of different types?
• Have you used any style or technique trends that are so popular that they’ll put people off?

Layout

• Does the layout work well across all possible viewport sizes?
• Does the layout take unique advantage of all possible viewport sizes?
• Do I always know whether there is more content I can scroll/move to?
• Is it easy to understand the structure of the layout, even when the structure is not visible?
• Are related elements visually related through alignment, grouping, hierarchy, etc.?
• Are the visual relationships between elements consistent throughout the interface?
• Are there elements which need to be optically aligned instead?

Composition

• Is my attention drawn to the important elements the most?
• Are there areas of visual interest, and areas of visual rest?
• Does the composition help to guide my eyes through the design correctly?
• Is the composition too visually dense?

Interaction

• If it is a website, can I scroll through it at any speed and still understand enough of the design?
• Does the typography support readability?
• Is it clear which elements are interactive?
• Does the interface communicate its current state well?
• Do I get clear feedback in response to my actions?
• Do the interaction patterns used suit the concept behind the design?
• Are animations appropriate to the concept?
• Do I feel like I need to wait for animations to finish?
• Does the interface support touch-screens well?

Performance

• Is the interface fast on all possible devices?