The course I teach on the design of data visualizations often includes students critiquing each others work, and revising their work in response to those critiques. There are a few reasons why I do this:
- Providing critiques to others requires critical thinking about data visualizations. Thinking through a design and analyzing it is a great way to practice thinking about design.
- The outcome is useful. Rather than just critiquing a static piece, critiquing a design that will change in the future means that the critiques provided have real impact.
- It is useful to practice the (admittedly painful) practice of receiving critiques. When you put effort into a creation, and then have someone else respond to it, it is often hard to hear. But the more you practice this, the better you will be at parsing critiques and pulling out useful information. Thus, your own work will improve.
However, I also find that many students have not yet been expected to provide meaningful critiques to their peers, and so I have two write-ups that I provide. One on giving useful critiques and the other on receiving critiques. These are short pieces, but I hope they cover a bit of how to approach these aspects and how to avoid some common pitfalls.