Design critique questions.

71 design critique questions from the bank, ready to practice out loud.

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Accessibility basics: keyboard, contrast, announce Every screen has six states Visual hierarchy: directing the eye A structured design critique

All 71 questions

SaaS pricing with recommended badgeCritique a typical SaaS pricing page that shows three tiers in equally sized cards with the 'recommended' tier marked with a small badge.Visual hierarchyMid–senior

Checkout form with post-submission errorsCritique a checkout flow where every form field is required and errors only show after submission.AccessibilityMid–senior

Settings page with collapsed sectionsCritique a settings page with 8 collapsed sections, each with 5–10 individual toggles, alphabetically ordered.Information architectureMid–senior

Empty state with generic messageCritique an empty state that says 'No items found. Click here to create one.'MicrocopyEntry–mid

Banking app shows carousel firstCritique a banking app that opens to a marketing carousel before showing account balance.Alignment with user intentMid–senior

Dashboard cards equal visual weightCritique a dashboard where every card has the same visual weight but represents different priorities of information.Visual hierarchyMid–senior

Error indication by color aloneCritique a sign-up form that uses color alone to indicate which fields have errors.AccessibilityEntry–mid

Nav bar nine top-level itemsCritique a nav bar with 9 top-level items, three of which open mega menus.Information architectureMid–senior

Generic confirmation modalCritique a confirmation modal that says 'Are you sure?' with two buttons labeled 'OK' and 'Cancel'.MicrocopyEntry–mid

Sponsored results without clear distinctionCritique a search results page that surfaces sponsored results above organic results without clear visual distinction.Alignment with user intentSenior–leadership

Article page with uniform text sizingCritique a long-form article page where the article body, sidebar, and footer all use the same body-text size.Visual hierarchyEntry–mid

Settings flow driven by tooltipsCritique a settings flow built primarily as a tooltip-driven experience over a complex canvas.AccessibilitySenior–leadership

Common task buried in navigationCritique an admin tool where the most common task is buried four clicks deep.Information architectureMid–senior

Onboarding with mission statement firstCritique an onboarding flow that uses 'Welcome aboard!' followed by three paragraphs of mission statement before any user action.MicrocopyMid–senior

Video player rewatch affordance hiddenCritique a video player whose 'rewatch' affordance is harder to find than the 'autoplay next' affordance.Alignment with user intentSenior–leadership

Action color matches promotional bannerCritique a mobile app whose primary action color competes with a recurring promotional banner color.Visual hierarchyMid–senior

Calendar navigation with small arrowsCritique a calendar widget that lets users navigate months only by tapping small left/right arrows.AccessibilityEntry–mid

Admin features in avatar menuCritique a B2B tool that hides admin features behind a 'View as admin' toggle in the user's avatar menu.Information architectureSenior–leadership

Update notification lacking contextCritique a notification that says 'Update available' as a banner with a 'Learn more' link and no other context.MicrocopyEntry–mid

Delete account requiring three confirmationsCritique a delete-account flow that requires three confirmations spread across different screens.Alignment with user intentSenior–leadership

Financial screen with equal feature weightCritique a financial product's main screen showing balance, recent transactions, and a marketing module — equal weight given to each.Visual hierarchyMid–senior

Custom gestures without affordancesCritique an iOS app that uses custom gestures for primary navigation actions without visible affordances.AccessibilityMid–senior

Notes and tasks separate tabsCritique a CRM that puts notes and tasks in separate tabs even though every workflow involves both at once.Information architectureMid–senior

Empty state says 'get startedCritique a SaaS empty-state that says 'You haven't done anything yet. Get started.'MicrocopyEntry–mid

Getting started pushes ambitious featureCritique a 'getting started' page that pushes the most ambitious feature first when most users have basic needs.Alignment with user intentMid–senior

Unexplained data quality scoreCritique a dashboard that prominently displays a 'data quality score' number that most users don't understand.Visual hierarchySenior–staff+

Keyboard shortcuts conflict across languagesCritique a desktop product where keyboard shortcuts conflict with system shortcuts in two languages.AccessibilitySenior–leadership

Docs on separate domainCritique a developer-tool whose docs sit on a separate domain with a different visual language than the product.Information architectureMid–senior

Generic error message without specificsCritique an error message that says 'Something went wrong. Please try again or contact support.'MicrocopyEntry–mid

Leaderboards before personal progressCritique a fitness app whose home screen leads with leaderboards before personal progress.Alignment with user intentSenior–leadership

Flat navigation list without groupingCritique a mobile menu where all navigation items are displayed in a flat list of 15 links with identical styling and no grouping or visual separation.Information architectureEntry–mid

Submit button for portfolio uploadCritique a button labeled 'Submit' at the end of a multi-step form where users are uploading a portfolio and writing a personal statement.MicrocopyEntry–mid

Inconsistent typography in signup formCritique a newsletter signup form where the headline is 24px bold, the input field label is 22px medium, and the submit button text is 20px regular.Visual hierarchyEntry–mid

Filter chips disappearing on scrollCritique a recipe app where users can filter by dietary restrictions, but the filter chips disappear when scrolling down the results list.Alignment with user intentEntry–mid

Critiquing AI-generated design workA junior designer hands you a landing page they generated almost entirely with an AI design tool. It looks polished at a glance. Walk me through how your critique of AI-generated work differs from critiquing hand-built work — what do you inspect first?Critiquing AI Generated workMid–senior

AI assistant always sounds confidentHere's the setup — critique it: an AI assistant renders every answer in the same confident style, whether it's quoting a verified document or generating its own best guess.Alignment with user intentMid–staff+

Dark mode inverts entire paletteCritique a dark-mode implementation that simply inverts the existing palette, leaving brand-colored text and icons at low contrast against the new dark surfaces.AccessibilityMid–senior

Design system lacks error statesCritique a design system whose components are pixel-perfect but whose documentation shows only the happy path — no error, loading, overflow, or right-to-left examples.Design systemsSenior–staff+

Generate button with no contextCritique an AI feature whose only affordance is a button labeled 'Generate' — no hint of what will be produced, how long it takes, what it costs, or whether it can be undone.MicrocopyEntry–senior

Cookie banner with asymmetric effortCritique a cookie-consent banner where 'Accept all' is a large filled button and declining requires opening a settings panel and toggling nine categories individually.Alignment with user intentMid–senior

Dashboard chart uses dual y-axisCritique a quarterly business dashboard chart that uses a dual y-axis to make two unrelated metrics appear to trend together.Data visualizationSenior–leadership

Voice assistant lacks text alternativeCritique a voice-first assistant feature that offers no visible transcript and no text-input alternative for users who can't speak or hear in the moment.AccessibilityMid–senior

AI section gathering unrelated capabilitiesCritique a product that has added an 'AI' item to its main navigation, gathering every AI-powered capability into one section regardless of which task each one belongs to.Information architectureSenior–leadership

Demo requires personal data upfrontCritique a free demo that asks for first name, last name, date of birth, and phone number before the user is allowed to try the product once.Alignment with user intentEntry–mid

Repetitive warning placementCritique an AI writing tool that prints 'Warning: output may contain inaccuracies' beneath every single response, in the same place, in the same gray text.MicrocopyMid–senior

Unpredictable module reorderingCritique a home screen that reorders its modules on every visit based on AI-predicted relevance, so nothing is ever in the same place twice.Information architectureSenior–leadership

Unwieldy financial data tableCritique a data table that displays 15 columns of financial data with no column freezing, horizontal scroll, or ability to customize which columns are visible.Information architectureMid–senior

Unlabeled navigation iconsCritique a mobile app's bottom navigation bar that uses five icons without labels, relying solely on iconography to communicate function.AccessibilityEntry–mid

Unexplained test resultsCritique a healthcare patient portal where test results are displayed with numerical values but no visual indicators, reference ranges, or plain-language explanations of what the numbers mean.Data visualizationMid–senior

Light mode only documentationCritique a design system documentation site where component examples are shown only in light mode, with no dark mode variants or theming guidance provided.Design systemsSenior–staff+

Gatekeeping all features behind demoCritique a B2B SaaS product where every feature is gated behind a 'Book a demo' CTA, with no self-serve trial, product screenshots, or feature documentation available.Alignment with user intentMid–senior

Error message with no contextCritique an error message that reads 'Error code 4028: Operation failed. Contact your administrator.' with no additional context or recovery suggestions.MicrocopyEntry–mid

Color-only stock performance chartCritique a dashboard chart that uses red and green to indicate stock performance without any additional visual encoding like icons, patterns, or labels.AccessibilityMid–senior

Buttons with identical visual weightCritique a product page where the primary CTA button, secondary actions, and tertiary links all use the same button style and visual weight.Visual hierarchyEntry–mid

Generic AI landing pageCritique an AI-generated landing page where the hero section uses generic stock photography, placeholder-style copy with no specific value proposition, and a CTA that says 'Get Started Today'.Critiquing AI Generated workMid–senior

Mobile form keyboard overlapCritique a mobile form where the keyboard covers the active input field and there's no automatic scrolling to keep the field visible above the keyboard.AccessibilityEntry–mid

Destructive actions without distinctionCritique a settings interface where destructive actions like 'Delete Account' and 'Clear Data' are placed at the top of the page with the same visual treatment as non-destructive settings.Visual hierarchyMid–senior

Progress indicator mismatchCritique a multi-step onboarding flow that shows a progress indicator with 5 steps, but the actual experience includes 9 screens before completion.Alignment with user intentMid–senior

Truncated Y-axis time seriesCritique a data visualization that plots time-series data but uses a truncated Y-axis starting at 85 instead of 0, making small variations appear dramatic.Data visualizationSenior–staff+

Button variants without guidanceCritique a component library where button variants include 'primary', 'secondary', 'tertiary', 'ghost', 'outline', 'text', and 'link' with no clear guidance on when to use each.Design systemsSenior–leadership

Notification ordering by ageCritique a notification center that groups notifications by type (Messages, Updates, Alerts) but shows the oldest items first within each group.Information architectureMid–senior

Spinner without progress indicationCritique a loading state that displays an animated spinner for 3+ seconds with no indication of what's loading or how long it might take.MicrocopyEntry–mid

Undefined metrics on profileCritique an AI-generated user profile page that includes fields for 'Synergy Score', 'Engagement Velocity', and other metrics that sound impressive but have no clear definition or user value.Critiquing AI Generated workSenior–staff+

Mobile layout buries primary CTACritique a responsive design where desktop shows a three-column layout but mobile stacks all content in the same order, burying the primary CTA below the fold.Visual hierarchyMid–senior

Video controls disappear quicklyCritique a video player interface where all controls (play, volume, settings, fullscreen) disappear after 2 seconds of inactivity with no keyboard shortcuts documented.AccessibilityMid–senior

Filters trigger immediate reloadCritique a filter panel with 12 different filter types where applying any filter immediately triggers a page reload instead of allowing users to combine multiple filters before searching.Alignment with user intentMid–senior

Success message too briefCritique a success message that appears as a green toast notification in the bottom-right corner for 2 seconds after a user completes a 15-minute form submission.MicrocopyMid–senior

Technical specs without explanationCritique a comparison table where feature names are technical specifications (e.g., 'SSO via SAML 2.0') with no tooltips or plain-language descriptions for non-technical buyers.Information architectureSenior–staff+

Multi-colored line chartCritique a line chart showing patient health metrics over time where the line color changes based on whether values are in a healthy range, creating a multi-colored line that's difficult to trace.Data visualizationSenior–staff+

Redundant cart review pageCritique an AI-generated checkout flow that includes unnecessary steps like 'Review Your Cart' as a separate page even though the cart is visible in the header throughout the experience.Critiquing AI Generated workMid–senior

Hex value color tokensCritique a design system where color tokens are named by their hex values (e.g., 'color-2E7D32') rather than semantic names or their intended use in the interface.Design systemsSenior–leadership