Every designer has heard it. You look at the screen, something feels off, and the only word that arrives is pop. It is not your fault. Nobody teaches clients how to talk about design, and most of us were never taught how to listen to clients either. So here is a small vocabulary that works better, from people who have heard “make it pop” more times than they have had chai. Which is a lot.
Seven words that help
Because. The single most useful word in feedback. “Make the price bigger” is an instruction. “Make the price bigger, because people see this on a phone at arm’s length” is a problem, and designers are very good at problems. Sometimes the answer is a bigger price. Sometimes it is a shorter headline, so the price has room.
Who. Say who the thing is for, every time. Not “everyone”. A specific person: the uncle who orders on WhatsApp, the student comparing three tabs. Design for everyone and you get a design nobody remembers.
Feels. You don’t need the technical words. “It feels like a bank” is precise feedback. So is “it feels like it’s shouting”. Describe the feeling and leave the fix to us. That is, after all, the invoice.
Instead. If you dislike something, say what you would rather have. “Not this blue” leaves us guessing across ten thousand blues. “Something warmer instead, like the old shop sign” gives us a direction.
First. Tell us what someone should notice first, second and third. Most “it looks busy” problems are really “everything is shouting at once” problems. Ranking fixes them faster than any colour change.
Remove. Taking something away is feedback too, and often the best kind. If a line, a badge or a starburst could go without anyone missing it, say so. Designers rarely get asked to remove things. We will thank you.
Example. Show us one thing you like, and say what you like about it. A screenshot with one sentence (“the way the photo fills the screen”) is worth a meeting.
Three words that don’t
Pop. It means something different to every person in the room. To one it means brighter, to another bigger, to a third “I’m bored”. If you catch yourself saying it, finish the sentence: pop how, and because?
Just. “Can you just move the logo?” The word makes the change sound small, which makes it awkward to explain that moving the logo moves everything else. Drop it, and you will get honest estimates instead of polite sighs.
Modern. Every decade has thought it was modern. Ask for the quality you mean instead: simpler, quieter, faster, younger. Those we can design. “Modern” we can only guess.
Design feedback is not a test you can fail. It is a conversation that gets better with better words.
About “I’ll know it when I see it”
This one has a bad reputation, but it is honest. It means you haven’t seen it yet, which is true of every new thing. So treat it as a process, not a brief. Ask for two or three directions that are properly different from each other. React to each with “because”. The one you know when you see it is usually hiding in the reasons.
And if, after all of that, the honest feedback really is “make it pop”, we will. Politely.