Book Club: Articulating Design Decisions

Chapter One: Great Designers are Great Communicators

"Communicating about the designs was more important than the designs themselves"

I would love to better pitch ideas to stakeholders (part of why I'm reading this book). I've already seen the importance of having someone in your corner when there are discussions about feasibility, desirability, and viability when watching senior designers.

"Stakeholders have to be part of our process, but we struggle with including them in a way that's helpful and doesn't derail our objectives" (p. 4)

I love the validation from the author here! Design is supposed to be collaborative, and stakeholders bring a wealth of external knowledge that can help or hinder a project. The best way I've found to handle it is to determine whether the feedback is actionable, and if it is, if it is relevant to the project's original goal.

"The CEO button is an unusual or otherwise unexpected request from an executive to add a feature that completely destroys the balance of a project and undermines the very purpose of a designer's existence" (p. 6)

LOL

"I've found that the majority of issues or concerns that our stakeholders bring to our attention are often just a matter of misunderstanding or miscommunication" (p. 7)

Great point. I have to remember sometimes that people can't read my mind, and I need to take extra care to look at my work from an outsider's perspective.

"The way to be articulate about design is to offer a message that communicates why we did what we did in order to help stakeholders understand our rationale . . . we can present our work in such a way that it appeals to their needs and expectations too" (p. 10)

Yes - appealing to their goals and interests can help create buy-in. Learned this from Alexis during my internship!

"Three things that every design needs to be successful: (1) It solves a problem. (2) It's easy for users. (3) It's supported by everyone" (p. 11)

Bam bam bam.