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That’s where we find ourselves today. In a meeting with people who have no idea how to do our jobs, yet consistently find it their place to tell us how to do it. It’s enough to drive any designer insane. Digital Experiences Are Real Life 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.
Based on what you know about the people you’re working with, you should be able to anticipate how they will react to your designs. In the previous chapter, we identified the influencers on our projects and called out some of their values and motivations. When we combine what we know about their perspective with the values they carry in their role, we can make some pretty good guesses about how they’ll respond to our designs. The good news is that most people are fairly predictable. That is, they tend to obsess over and react to the same kinds of things every single time. If you’ve met with them before, anticipating their reaction becomes much easier. It will take a few meetings to really hone in on how people are wired, but I’ve found that anticipating reactions is much more formulaic and predictable than you might expect. 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 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.There is an entire ecosystem of custom-built applications with terrible interfaces that companies must support with an army of developers and training staff. Designers are now being asked to redesign these applications, work with the developers entrenched in legacy systems, and create a better product. Everyone wants it, but getting there isn’t easy. IT’S A NEW CHALLENGE Likes” are too subjective. Instead, get them to talk about the function and usability of requests. “What I hear you saying is that you don’t like the color of this button, but why doesn’t it work to have the button be this color?” Articulating design decisions tactics
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 We want to make changes to evolve our design, but being asked to make changes we disagree with is exactly what we’re trying to avoid." 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. UX artifacts that describe users’ stories are excellent for getting stakeholders to understand problems and empathize. User personas help humanize users, while journey maps and storyboards illustrate their challenges.Focus on the user. You must keep the user in mind to effectively explain your design decisions. How will your design solve a problem for the user? How will it make their life easier? Experience decision-making comes from a UX designer’s knowledge and past work. Over time, designers make these decisions unconsciously, like creating layouts, alignment, and spacing. Your designs are not the best solution: it is hard to accept but it is possible that our design is not the best option. We need to remember that our stakeholders and leaders were placed in positions of authority for a reason and they are often ultimately responsible for our successes and failures. It is also important to remember that sometimes when a stakeholder is very insistent on a specific change you can start to evolve the design in a way that is inconsistent with the problem."
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