There are parts of our design work that are more driven by intuition than others, and this is one of those blanket explanations that I find seems to explain a lot of my own choices in ways that I otherwise could not communicate. 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. Another tactic is to remove distractions in your presentation that may cause the discussion to go off course. This was an early version of Axure that did not provide the option to turn off the display of this panel. The idea of holding a mock meeting might seem silly, but it’s actually a critical part of preparing to be articulate.

As designers and communicators, our jobs are made easier when we have this short list of common messages to pull from, using them as the foundation for our response. So go through each of your designs, look at the agenda for the meeting, and decide the best flow for presenting your ideas. The client spent an inordinate amount of time talking about how that particular engine part was not their best seller and, in fact, was being discontinued because of engineering flaws.Your teammates can be there with the same list and interject when they see an important part of the logic is missing from the discussion. Often, we have experience watching people use our designs, and those insights inform our decision making. It’s not always the right decision to “roll your own,” so it’s better to explain why using a standard control is better for both the user and the bottom line. Had I used a better icon to begin with, I could have saved myself from explaining the limitations of my installed icon set each time. Every designer has to explain (and justify) their design decisions to non-designers but what are the skills, tactics, and methods that are needed to pull this off in a way that opens the door for your project to create or improve the user experience?

However, I’d still recommend having a separate printed version of your agenda for your own reference.What’s available to us will naturally force us to make design decisions that need to be explained to our stakeholders. During the course of a redesign, I tried several times (unsuccessfully) to convince my client to abandon the use of this icon as a catch-all for everything in the menu. 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. Here is a quick description and cover image of book Articulating Design Decisions: Communicate with Stakeholders, Keep Your Sanity, and Deliver the Best User Experience written by Tom Greever which was published in 2015-8-25.