: What tools should I use to make design review process easier? I'm using Illustrator at the moment. Right now I'm exporting images and uploading them to Google drive and my colleagues give me

@Si6392903

As previous posters have mentioned, PDF is very nice when annotation features are fully used (sticky notes and other drawing tools).

You also might want to consider a screen capture tool. I sometimes give feedback on my students project using Camtasia Studio. I open their file in whatever software it's been created, start the recorder and simply speak and draw my feedback as I go.

I've heard from colleagues and students that this is really appreciated, though it is tedious for the one giving feedback.

Pro:


Easy to say feedback orally, more transparent in terms of verbal vs.
written language
Drawing tools that annotate synchronously with the voice makes feedback much clearer
Can be referred to again in the future
Ability to show using the same software the file was created in (e.g.
you want to demonstrate how to fix a path, etc.), so ability to zoom in on details, etc.


Cons:


Need to assess what feedback you want to give before starting the
recording
Can't really get hung up on pronounciation mistakes and such
Tedious in terms of getting set up, uploading the file to YouTube for
private viewing.
When you open the file, fonts are often missing and may need to be
installed.


Camtasia is paid-for software but you may be able to find smaller software that does similar. Any free screen recorder (e.g. Jing) could be used and, if lacking in annotation tools, the software tools could directly be used on a separate layer.

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@Shanna688

Export to PDF. Request feedback as comments on the PDF which your colleagues can easily do with the free Acrobat Reader. It has tools to highlight text, make comments, add replies, etc. They will resave the same PDF with these comments included and email it back to you. You can see the comments and make replies where needed with the same free Acrobat Reader.

I have been using this workflow back and forth for many years on thousands on PDF's with large corporate clients, one of which is working in 20 languages with 20 different translators and everybody is using the same workflow. There is an ftp account with numbered folders for each stage of the process and there is no emailing involved, everybody is just copying files to these folders until the latest version gets approved.

Or use something like Slack or Figma where everybody creates an account, you then make a team and it works like a more complex chat system where you attach files and your team members make comments, attach their own files, etc. These are more modern cloud-based tools and work better for UX/web interface/non-PDF work.

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