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

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The problem with traditional image-based design tools is that they make poor prototypes. Designers are limited by what they can create and test–making it challenging to articulate design decisions and get buy-in. While being wrong might give the impression that the bonds of trust will be broken, it’s actually an opportunity to raise the level of trust if you admit that you made a mistake." Overall, hearing yourself say things out loud gives your words new meaning, commits them to memory, and is the perfect testing environment. Practicing for a meeting is the usability test of being articulate: you get to run through everything and make sure it all works as expected. If not, there’s still time to tweak it before the meeting begins. But regardless of the importance, always practice your meetings. PREP EVERYONE 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.

As I said earlier, as designers we need to understand that sometimes we will have to give in and allow our stakeholders to make changes to the product. I’ve spent countless hours of my career practicing meetings out loud: pacing the floor of my office, presenting my content to a picture on the wall, and even answering questions from invisible audience members. I’ve done the same thing in my car, in line at the grocery store, or waiting for a plane. Any onlooker might think I’m crazy, talking and gesturing as if there were someone else with me. But the habit of practicing for a meeting is one of the only ways you’ll know how you sound. You anticipate reactions and then you practice how to reply. I remember one particular student who had always struggled with conveying the reasoning behind their design decisions. After reading the book, they transformed into a persuasive storyteller, weaving their design rationale with confidence during class presentations. It was like witnessing a blossoming flower, blooming into a true UX professional.

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Stakeholders have a need that is not being met: some people — particularly executives — simply want to know that the item that is important to them is there. As long as they know where the functionality they want is, this kind of stakeholder will generally be satisfied. As far as I can tell, the term “user experience design” emerged in the 90s as a branch of human-computer interaction (HCI), information architecture (IA) and other software-design disciplines revolving around the practice of usability. The term itself is frequently credited to Don Norman. 1 Although the ideas and influences for UX have been around since the 1950s in Henry Dreyfuss’ “Designing for People,” 2 it was not until Apple released the first iPod and then the first iPhone in 2007 3 that the term came into widespread use as the role of a designer who is creating the entire end-to-end experience using a user-centered design philosophy.

To understand how designers fit into corporate culture, we need to understand the changing shift and attitudes toward design as something more than just an aesthetic. When our job was to make the company look good, it didn’t matter as much who got their way on the final design. Now that we’re solving problems that affect the bottom line, everyone has an opinion on the best way to solve it. When presenting design decisions, it's important to be clear, concise, and to the point. Avoid jargon and technical terms that may confuse your audience."- Tom Greever Them: “I don’t like the color of this button” You: “So what I hear you’re saying is that if someone wants to schedule a meeting, they may have a tough time based on the design of that button. Am I hearing you correctly?” You’re confirming that you hear them and are willing to do something about it. When you’re in a meeting to get approval for your designs, staying focused is critical. It’s very easy for design discussions to go off on a tangent or be taken in an unexpected direction because of one small thing. There’s just something about design that elicits so much more clutter conversation than other disciplines. One way to keep focused is to remove anything that you think will be a distraction. A lot of people are easily distracted by things that simply don’t matter to the goal of the meeting. They can be so distracted by one thing that they’ll identify a different, unrelated problem or be unable to discuss the real issues. Consequently, part of your job is to pay attention to those things that derail the discussion and remove them from the equation altogether. UX designers reference user research such as personas, customer journeys, empathy maps, and problem statements throughout the design process to keep users at the forefront of decision-making. Using data and analyticsIt’s important to avoid using jargon or technical terms that may not be familiar to everyone. Instead, use clear and concise language that is easy for others to understand. This will help to ensure that your design decisions are easily understood by all stakeholders. Practice active listening. This facilitates the balance of relationships on a daily basis, allowing everyone to listen to and respect each other. The final step is high-fidelity testing using interactive prototypes. UX designers test these prototypes with end-users and stakeholders to gather insights and make educated decisions about the final result. Document design decisions

Documenting design decisions is critical, and many teams fail to do this properly. They often record what works and leave out what doesn’t. Documenting every design decision –good and bad–allows designers to see what’s working and what other team members have already tried. Stakeholders will spend a disproportionate amount of time on issues that are not critical to the project."

And it’s simply impossible to have a healthy relationship with other people if that relationship is one-way." Design teams also reference competitors, industry standards, accessibility guidelines, and other external sources to formulate decisions about solving specific user problems. How to Make Good Design Decisions Start with research Intuition and experience are also great for collaborative design exercises–bringing diverse ideas and perspectives together to find the best solution. Imitation And that's ok! This happens because people spend more time focusing on a small problem because it is more easily visible and accessible to everyone. So, lead the conversation for people to bring up points that evolve the discussion and drive progress for your design team. UX designers cannot make decisions in a vacuum. They rely on UX research to identify problems and formulate ideas that solve user needs. Some research methods that guide the decision-making process include:

Greever's critical point in his book is that design is about much more than creating something that looks good. It is about making useful things. Additionally, it’s about solving problems and meeting the needs of users as well. In explaining your design decisions, you must explain how your design solves a problem and why you feel it is the best solution for your target audience.Don’t Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability” by Steve Krug (2014). This classic book on web usability emphasizes the importance of clear communication in design. Krug advises designers to use simple, straightforward language and avoid jargon or technical terms that might confuse users. He also advises designers to “think out loud” and clearly explain the reasoning behind design choices.