As an ad-agency refugee, I’ve struggled with my fair share of design debates with copywriters, project managers, clients, and everyone in between.

Maybe you’ve been there, too. The copywriter you’re paired with doesn’t think the marketing page you’re working on “feels right yet.” (As it turns out, the tone of voice is just off.)
In dramatic fashion, your client thinks the design you just presented is “way off base.” (You just happened to use a color they absolutely detest.)
It’s been five years since I’ve had a client meeting, yet the road blocks of vague feedback still come back to haunt me within the programmer to designer relationship.
The other day, Nick and I were debating the look and feel of shared code snippets. Or, so I thought…


I needlessly fiddled with new color schemes and different monospaced typefaces because Nick thought our code snippets “looked terrible” and were “not pleasing.”
All he really meant was, “the syntax parser isn’t accurate.”
When everyone’s expertise comes to the table, it’s easy to fall into the trap of worrying too early about the details that matter to them most. Save yourself a few minutes of needless fiddling, ask for clearer feedback sooner than later.
Related: Quick little UI feedback tip