Articulating Design Decisions: Communicate with Stakeholders, Keep Your Sanity, and Deliver the Best User Experience

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For example, you might create two prototypes. One using their proposal and a second based on user insights and data. They’ll understand why your design works better when they experience the prototypes from a user’s perspective. Making Better Design Decisions With UXPin Merge Be clear and concise. To make your design decisions clear and concise, you need to communicate them clearly and concisely. Your audience will be able to understand your message if you use simple language. Yes, you don't have to lie to me, everyone already did this sometime before! But let’s face the main fact of this topic: every design has limitations.

During the early stages of the design process, designers use sketches and paper prototypes to iterate on many ideas fast. During this phase, UX designers and collaborators use experience and intuition to drive decision-making based on the problems they’ve identified during user research. Bringing alternatives—especially those that aren’t the right solution—complicates the conversation because it forces us to have a well-articulated explanation for our choices. Many designers avoid this by not presenting alternatives that aren’t recommended. The fear is that the client will prefer the wrong concept and insist it be used. Even though this is always a risk, approaching our meetings with this fear actually undermines the purpose of articulating design decisions. If we aren’t able to convince stakeholders that our solution is better, either we aren’t doing a good job of communicating to them or we don’t understand their needs enough to create a design that solves the problem. What we really need is for them to agree with our solution, even after considering all of the alternatives. We can’t protect them from all the bad ideas that might be suggested. Instead, we arm them with the knowledge and language for why our decisions are best. That’s the only way we’re truly going to earn their long-term support and get them on board with our solution. As with agendas, the degree to which you need to practice will vary depending on the importance of the meeting. A big presentation with the CEO should be practiced a lot. A daily meeting with your boss will require less, but it’s still a good idea if there are issues that might be difficult to discuss or if you’re unsure how you might say it. For a big meeting, I might book the meeting room the day before so that I can practice in the same environment as much as I need to. For a simple phone call with my boss, I might stand at my desk and talk through the agenda once or twice to build my confidence. You have to decide how much practice is necessary to ensure you have the mental capacity to be articulate in the moment. In his book “Articulating Design Decisions”, Tom Greever, design leader, author, and speaker, talks about the importance of clearly communicating and justifying design decisions to clients and team members. Here are some key insights from the book on why articulating design decisions is beneficial for both designers and clients. 1. Clarifies design objectives I was stumped. Silent. Not only did I know that she was right, but she had exposed my superficial design ego in a way that made me feel small and completely clueless about the thing that I was most confident in—my ability to talk about design.

Starting with why" means that you begin any project or decision by questioning its purpose, its reason for being. Without a clear understanding of why you are making something or solving a problem, it's difficult to make informed design decisions. “- Tom Greever When working on a design project, it’s crucial to get buy-in from all stakeholders, including team members, clients, and end users. By being able to clearly explain the reasoning behind design choices, UX designers can help to build consensus and ensure that everyone is working towards the same goals. It helps to defend design decisions and get approval from clients.

Starting with the "why" before delving into the "what" and "how" ensures that you begin from the base, which is the root problem. When you clearly articulate the problems that you are seeking to solve, you build context around why certain design decisions were taken. This helps clients understand the reasoning behind your choices and how it aligns with their business goals. It establishes trust and credibility and paves way for a successful partnership. 2. Use simple language When you zoom out, design decision-making is a complex process involving multiple factors and considerations. 4 Ways Designers Make DecisionsDesigners must balance user needs with an organization’s business goals when making decisions. Meeting with stakeholders is key to prioritizing and incorporating these business needs. Bringing alternatives (especially those that aren’t the right solution) complicates the conversation because it forces us to have a well-articulated explanation for our choices. Many designers avoid this by not presenting alternatives that aren’t recommended. The fear is that the client will prefer the “wrong” concept and insist it be used. Even though this is always a risk, approaching our meetings with this fear actually undermines the purpose of articulating design decisions. If we aren’t able to convince stakeholders that our solution is better, either we aren’t doing a good job of communicating to them or we don’t understand their needs enough to create a design that solves the problem. What we really need is for them to agree with our solution, even after considering all of the alternatives. We can’t protect them from all the bad ideas that might be suggested. Instead, we arm them with the knowledge and language for why our decisions are best. That’s the only way we’re truly going to earn their long-term support and get them on board with our solution.

If I had paid attention to this last detail, we would have saved some creation time, providing a few weeks to test the new and innovative flow. And finally, you need to create an environment of trustThe organizational transition to understanding and valuing the UX of digital products is maturing. From these original attitudes and approaches to design comes a mutual understanding that a great user experience will create a great product. A great product will sell, be easier to support and maintain, and be good for the bottom line. These historical attitudes—the stereotypical personality types that create these roles in the organization—all come together for a single purpose: to create the best possible products. The way that we now realize we can create the best possible products is through design. The problem is that only one of these players is a designer. Articulating Design Decisions can be a valuable tool for designers who want to improve their communication skills. You will find that this book is filled with practical advice and examples that will help you become a better communicator as a result. Here are some of the key takeaways from the book: