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

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Sessions can be scheduled all in one day, on separate days in the same week, or once a week for three weeks. While you must prepare to defend your design decisions, it's equally important to acknowledge that there may be better solutions that can refine the design. Well-documented design decisions act as a record of information that the design team can leverage for similar projects in the future. Much of the content is the same, but the activities and level of interaction is limited by the online format. Talking to people about your designs might seem like a basic skill, but it can be difficult to do well.

It encourages you to analyze the thought process and reasoning behind your decisions and gives you insights on how to present the information to the client most effectively. Anticipating the questions clients may ask and preparing answers to address their queries will help you explore your decisions further and articulate them better.How do you respond to a suggestion you don’t agree with, or a question you don’t know how to answer?

This book is for designers at any level that wants to learn practical tactics for articulating designs to stakeholders who may be less knowledgeable about design. As such we understand the challenges in getting everyone on the same page and the need for articulating design decisions well. Being flexible and adaptive to change wasn’t something I considered a necessary skill, yet alone a skill itself. Brainstorming is a pivotal part of a design process where different ideas and thoughts from the team members are collected to arrive at the most optimum solution to the design challenges. Talking to people about your designs might seem like a basic skill, but it can be difficult to do efficiently and well.Starting with the "why" before delving into the "what" and "how" ensures that you begin from the base, which is the root problem. Responding to design feedback requires you to form your words in a way that will yield the best response by staying focused on the goal of the meeting: to get support and agreement to move forward. Discussing design decisions creates an open and collaborative environment, unlocking a wealth of insightful ideas. When lead designers communicate this effectively, they steer the design team in the right direction.

Tom suggested we practice the art of pause — introducing a moment of silence in our speech to open up the floor for others to chime in or share their suggestions, then listen with intent.

A prerequisite for a good brainstorming session is that the team be clear about the challenges they need to solve and the objectives they must achieve. It helps them better align their design decisions with business goals and ensure every design decision serves a business purpose. Be prepared to defend your design decisions, but also be open to feedback and willing to make changes if necessary. The meeting ends, not with collaboration, but with grumbling compromise and, often, a crippled user experience. When we bring alternatives to the table, it shows that we have considered several options and gives us the space to explain why the design we are pitching is the best.

These kinds of responses create a safe space for collaboration and critique vital to cultivating a successful team and project. Clear and effective communication of design decisions conveys how well the designers have understood the business requirements and the effort and thought process they used to arrive at the solution. Articulating Design Decisions” has quickly become one of my favorite design books that I’ve read during my career.In many cases, how you communicate with stakeholders, clients, and other nondesigners may be more important than the designs themselves. It is important to listen to your stakeholders in these meetings to establish trust and to actually hear them out.