Link Hoarding: Feedback
“Feedback” (and the discourse around it) can make me feel like the above cat. At time of writing, the #IronViz feeder competition is in full swing, which means a decent portion of my twitter feed includes calls for feedback, how to give feedback, how NOT to give feedback, etc. It feels as good a time as any to share some of my favorite bookmarked posts that I keep going back to when it comes to giving and receiving feedback. Some of these are centered around data visualization, others are more general.
Click the link below for my collection of links:
These have all helped me feel less like the grumpy cat, and get more out of both giving and receiving feedback from others.
Some personal thoughts
Based on the above links and my own experience, here’s some points I try to follow:
- Giving Unsolicited feedback — I do my best to not do this. If they didn’t ask, how is this benefiting either of us? There are plenty of folks out there who are asking for feedback, so it doesn’t make sense for me to spend my energy here. Exception: if no feedback will lead to misinformation with real world consequences. But even then, that’s a stretch. Best to just keep scrolling.
- Giving Solicited feedback — if they haven’t specified what feedback they’re looking for, I try and ask so that I can better meet them where they’re at, and give them something useful. I try to also stick to my areas of expertise, and link out to a real world example or article to back up my ‘why’. I also call out when a piece of feedback is more a matter of personal preference, vs whether it has a direct impact on usability/readability.
- Asking for feedback — this is going to sound like a bit of a repeat of the last bullet, but being specific with what you’re looking for leads to better feedback. Especially when asking for data viz feedback on twitter, asking a specific question like “do the colors help get my point across” will give me more actionable feedback than a general “feedback appreciated” statement. When you do get feedback in a public forum — vet who it’s coming from. What does their body of work look like? Is their experience relevant to the help you’re seeking? Do they stay current on common practices, or have they actually not published anything in a long time? It’s okay to be choosy when you are soliciting help.
- Not asking for feedback — hot take: it’s okay to not ask for public feedback all the time. And it’s okay to not implement unsolicited feedback. Sometimes I make a viz for fun, knowing it doesn’t follow “best practices” and I hit publish anyways. I haven’t found a ton of value shouting into the void on twitter for feedback, so I tend to stay away from that and turn to people I trust/respect for their feedback instead.
Closing Remarks — current feedback projects I’ve gotten value from
Here are a few initiatives that I’ve gotten great value out of, and have my full recommendation:
- Iron Viz Feedback Initiative: Last year I really hit a wall with my entry, but signed up for this and it was one of my best experiences in the Iron Viz process. I was hesitant to sign up — a lot of folks I knew were giving feedback I was nervous about meeting online and I didn’t feel like what I had prepared was “good enough”. If you’re feeling the same, I’d say just go for it. The session is short enough so that you don’t really have time for small talk (which I get nervous about) and you can get some candid feedback on what’s working or not working with your viz. My group helped me narrow my focus, suggested some layout options that could help, and I felt infinitely better afterwards than I did going in. I’ll be signing up again this year.
- #VizOfficeHours — run by Michelle Frayman and Nicole Klassen, this is a tool agnostic opportunity for viz feedback at any stage of your development process. Once again, I had a viz I was pretty stuck on and it was great to bounce ideas around with folks that I respect their own work and care about others doing their best as well.
- Last but not least, the one that started it all for me — #MakeoverMonday Viz Review. Makeover Monday is a weekly data project, and Eva Murray reviews some of the visualizations submitted on YouTube. I really enjoy tuning into these reviews (even when I haven’t submitted anything!) because I enjoy listening to and learning from the feedback from these sessions. The feedback is direct, actionable, and can be applied to hobby vizzes as well as business settings. I’m always learning something from these videos.
If none of the above sounds appealing to you — that’s okay! Don’t hesitate to go the good ole route of sending someone a message privately — whether that’s dm, email, or whatever your preferred method of contact. You’ll likely get more comprehensive/actionable feedback in a ‘longer’ format medium like email or video chat than you’ll ever be able to get out of the limited characters and context of public tweets.
That’s all for this round of links — see you on the internet!
P.S: if you like links, check out my other link hoarding posts:
