Shmood Feedback Forms
Created 0 to 1 feedback templates for asynchronous client collaboration, bridging communication gaps and boosting designer–client vision alignment by 21%
ROLE
Product Designer
LOGISTICS
Cross-functional team of 6, 4 month timeline from Sep 2024 – Dec 2024
DOMAIN
Tech, Productivity, Collaboration
TOOLS
Figma, FigJam, Notion
THE PROBLEM
Feedback on creative work involves a lot of misalignment
For most freelance graphic designers, feedback is a mess — long email threads, vague “make it pop” comments, and endless revisions. Shmood's founder, Malvika Jain, recognized that the process was time-consuming and scattered across tools, making it hard for graphic designers and clients to reach alignment.
She built Shmood to fix this. Shmood is a feedback aggregator that addresses the problem of feedback being in different places (E-mail, Google Docs, Figma, Slack).
Shmood wanted to add to the platform to further increase vision alignment between designers and clients.
Shmood wanted designers to use their platform not just to aggregate feedback but also to ask for feedback
DEFINING SUCCESS METRICS
01
Rounds of feedback and revision
Measured by: Number Count
Success Indicated by: Fewer rounds
02
Rating of clarity of client feedback
Measured by: Scale of 1 (low) to 10 (high)
Success Indicated by: More 10 ratings
USER RESEARCH
I conducted 25 interviews with graphic designers and creative directors
I learned about what their design process looks like:
I learned that a lot of them struggle to get good feedback from clients. Clients often provide feedback without a full understanding of the design rationale, leading to misaligned vision and surface-level or unhelpful feedback.
A lot of getting good feedback being about asking the right questions. However, even then, clients often “just react to what they see", giving feedback that is not necessarily what the designer asked for.
DESIGN DECISIONS
Designing a framework for effective transfer of information
I read several academic journals to learn about effective knowledge transfer and found that key information in terms of decisions made hinges on context and rationale. From my interviews, I learned that designers received more valuable feedback when they clarified what feedback they wanted. Based on this, my logical framework for designers to effectively share their work included context, rationale and feedback wanted.
Making the input fields NOT required
From the user insights I knew that designers might want feedback on entire creative works or small changes made. In order to account for both, I decided to make the input fields optional.
Creating 0 to 1 visual templates
I revisited the user journey and found patterns among the types of work that graphic designers would typically share with or request feedback on from clients.
I translated these patterns into 5 layout templates for organization of design work. By arranging work for a certain purpose using the related template, for example, by arranging work that clients were meant to compare and select between using the 'This or That' template, clients will immediately be able to get a better understanding of what the designer has worked on.
FINAL SOLUTION
Selecting work to get feedback on
From their dashboard, designers can request feedback via a feedback form. The process of creating a feedback form starts off with selecting their relevant 'cards' of work.
Defaulting to 'Grid' template
The feedback form features the selected cards on the left, a logical template structure in the middle and options for visual layout templates on the right. As users select cards, they arrange themselves as per the 'Grid' template by default, to allow for easy viewing. This is also how designers most frequently arrange their work when asking clients for feedback.
Choosing the template that most effectively organizes work
Users can select between 5 visual templates, i.e., the 'Grid' for easy viewing, 'This or That' for comparing the selected work, 'Hierarchy' for prioritizing, 'Flow' for showcasing progress or process and lastly, 'Highlight' to draw attention to smaller details.
Filling out and sending the feedback form
After selecting the template that helps them best represent their work and the feedback they want, designers can fill out the input fields of context, rationale and feedback wanted and send their work to the selected client.
IMPACT
We successfully increased client-designer vision alignment by 21%
Average rounds of feedback decreased from 4.6 to 3.5 and average rating of clarity of feedback increased from 6.8 to 8.1.
By shifting the conversation from “What do you think?” to “Here’s what I’d like your thoughts on,” we reframed feedback as a dialogue rather than a critique. This change reduced miscommunication, shortened review cycles, and created more transparent, trust-based collaborations.
Our structure for clarifying intent and framing discussions showed how the right communication scaffolds can improve engagement. Shmood ultimately became more than a feedback tool – it was a framework for alignment, empathy, and shared understanding.
TAKEAWAYS
Communication tools work best when they create context, not noise
The real value of collaboration platforms lies in helping people understand each other’s intent and not just exchange messages. Clarity drives connection.
Alignment is the foundation of engagement
When people see the “why” behind decisions or designs, they feel more invested. Tools that make reasoning visible, like Shmood did for creative rationale, help teams stay aligned and confident in their shared goals.
Empowering connection means guiding participation
We learned that users did not just need a space to share, they needed cues on how to share meaningfully. Structured templates and guided prompts can make feedback, ideas, or stories more actionable and inclusive.
Thanks for stopping by!
Feel free to reach out to me at ssh96@cornell.edu