How to Use Feedback to Improve Your Landscape Design

We design, but we can’t see our own work. It takes time to create a design. During that time, we make many decisions. The longer we look at the design, the more normal the decisions seem. That’s why we need feedback. Not to judge our work, but to find the things that we’ve become blind to. You want to identify blind spots and use them as a tool to refine your work. Blind spots should be seen as a method to improve, not a critique. So how can we get the most out of feedback?

The first step is to give a quick sketch and ask people to comment on something specific. For example, what do you think about the spacing between elements? Or how do you like the flow through the yard? The more specific your questions, the better. If you ask open ended questions, you won’t get as much useful information. What you are looking for is specific things that you can fix. Here is a classic mistake.

You get a lot of feedback. You try to incorporate every single bit of feedback into your design. Sometimes this works, but many times you end up with a mess. How do you know what to keep? The trick is to compare each comment to your original design intent. If the comment supports your intent, then keep it. If the comment detracts from your intent, then discard it. A good design isn’t about how many ideas you can incorporate.

It’s about what ideas you use. This is how you can get the most out of a critique: Take one comment at a time. Spend 15 minutes implementing the change. Then go look at the overall design. Does the comment improve the overall design? Does it detract? Incorporate another comment. Repeat the process.

I have found that this is the best way to incorporate feedback. What do you do when you get conflicting feedback? Or what if the feedback doesn’t make sense? Go back to your design intent. Go back to the big picture. Take a look at the major forms and shapes. Look at the hardscapes and softscapes. Consider the pathways. Sometimes a design won’t make sense at a micro level because there are problems at a macro level.

If you fix the macro level problems, then the micro problems are easier to solve. With experience, this process will become second nature. You will start designing with feedback in mind. You will learn to critique, edit and revise. Your designs will get better because you will know how to incorporate feedback.