Tom Greever

Annotation Every designer has had to justify designs to non-designers, yet most lack the ability to explain themselves in a way that is compelling and fosters agreement. The ability to effectively articulate design decisions is critical to the success of a project, because the most articulate person often wins. This practical book provides principles, tactics and actionable methods for talking about designs with executives, managers, developers, marketers and other stakeholders who have influence over the project with the goal of winning them over and creating the best user experience.

Communicate with Stakeholders, Keep Your Sanity, and Deliver the Best User Experience

Articulating Design Decisions

PG Gonni

So, I would say there are three things that every design needs to be successful: 

Because our end goal is to tell other people about it, why not attempt to describe every detail in sentence form and assume that the reader doesn't have the ability to see it? How would you describe your designs to someone on the phone? Or by email? Writing down how you see your work will reveal many of your motivations, some of which you never realized were there.

This is where common sense comes to play. There really is no reason to overthink it. Create the easiest solution you can think of. Do what makes sense and move on.

That's what getting support is all about: convincing people to trust us with the solution. You need to create an environment where everyone understands what you're doing, believes in your expertise, and supports your choices, so that you can move on to the next thing.

The single most important thing you can do to improve communication between you and your stakeholders is to improve those relationships, earn trust, and establish a rapport that will speak more for you than the words that come out of your mouth in a meeting.

[Developers] tend to be more analytical, so they don't even "see" some of the UI details you've designed. They may even be concerned with "overdesigning" something that they think is not worth the extra effort. Your job is to help them see the value in everything you've done so that they're excited about the end result, while also demonstrating that you understand the effort involved.

Yet, the more we can show them that we're people, too, the more value and stock they'll put into our ideas, suggestions, and proposals. We're not robots churning out stuff just to get a paycheck; we're smart people with great ideas working together to create great products

Friedrich Schuler

(...) When we disagree, we tend to become defensive. When we become defensive, we fail to focus on the real issues. The meeting ends, not with collaboration (...)

The thing we came together to accomplish has been muddied by groupthink and mob mentality. Remember, teamwork always ends with work.

(...) Your team has poured in all the best practices. You've done usability testing to prove it works. And yet, one executive can come in and blow up the whole thing.

Everyone wants their business unit represented on the home page. It's as if something doesn't exist if it isn't on the home page.

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