UX designers reference user research such as personas, customer journeys, empathy maps, and problem statements throughout the design process to keep users at the forefront of decision-making. Using data and analytics I’ve spent countless hours of my career practicing meetings out loud: pacing the floor of my office, presenting my content to a picture on the wall, and even answering questions from invisible audience members. I’ve done the same thing in my car, in line at the grocery store, or waiting for a plane. Any onlooker might think I’m crazy, talking and gesturing as if there were someone else with me. But the habit of practicing for a meeting is one of the only ways you’ll know how you sound. You anticipate reactions and then you practice how to reply. 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." Clear communication of design decisions is key to building trust with clients and ensuring team alignment toward a common goal. Here are some practical tips to effectively communicate design decisions and gain client buy-in. 1. Start with the why

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 To effectively articulate design decisions, it's important to be able to explain how your design choices align with the overall goals and strategy of the organization."- Tom Greever It’s not always simple. These can be the most difficult decisions to help other nondesigners (and nondevelopers) understand because the reasons are often highly technical. Stakeholders don’t like (or understand) these limitations and might even be put off by the prospect that you can’t do the same thing their competitor does. I imagine an executive pulling out his phone, showing you the way someone else does it, and then asking “Why can’t we do that?” But these limitations are real, and we have to help our stakeholders see the constraints so they can be part of the decision. “COMPLIES WITH A STANDARD” Perhaps the biggest factor, though, in the explosive growth of UX as a discipline is the personalization and shrinking of the devices we use to interact with the world on a daily basis. Sitting at a computer is not a terribly personal experience. It is a separate device at arm’s length, with physical controls that one must learn to manipulate. The input methods are indirect: what I do down there with the mouse changes what I see up here on the display. And at the end of the day, I have to put my computer away and move on with my life. Something as simple as looking up the weather on a computer must be done purposefully and intentionally.Articulating design decisions is about creating an environment in which stakeholders can see the expertise and thought process of the designers so that they want to agree with them. It’s about creating trust, demonstrating effectiveness, and doing so in a way that’s compelling and convincing. Chapter highlights ⭐️ Chapter 1 — A Maturing Industry Articulating Design Decisions: Communicate with Stakeholders, Keep Your Sanity, and Deliver the Best User Experience Moving ‘Related Items’ above the product description will increase product engagement because users will have more opportunities to see more products.” We need to confess the mistake with the humility we have and speak openly about it, letting people know that when you have a problem in the project, you will say it as soon as possible so that the improvement is made as soon as possible. You’re wrong,” she said. “None of that really matters. The most important thing you could ask me...the very first thing you should always ask is, ‘What are we trying to communicate?’”

Part of anticipating how people will react is preparing in advance the alternatives that you considered or that you think will be suggested. You’ll remember from Chapter 2 that one of the questions we’re trying to answer for our stakeholders is: Why is this better than the alternative? This book sits at the intersection of the growing UX design industry and the digital product business, where designers transitioning from making pretty pictures to creating great user experiences meet with developers, managers, and executives whose agenda and perspective may, at times, be at odds. The growth of the UX designer has changed our role in so many ways, none more so than the need to explain ourselves to other people who don’t share our experience in design. Design Is Subjective...Sort of Because I deal with the financial world, my product has a series of legal requirements and not all of them I agreed to have. Tom Greever has been designing interfaces and leading design teams for 20 years. His experience as a UX designer, executive design leader, and consultant has given him a broad perspective on how better communication yields great design. He has coached and mentored teams on design practices and communication at both large enterprises and small start-ups all over the world. Design teams also reference competitors, industry standards, accessibility guidelines, and other external sources to formulate decisions about solving specific user problems. How to Make Good Design Decisions Start with researchIn television, it’s common to have prearranged ringers on programs. Whether it’s a news broadcast, talk show, or reality TV, there are always people whose answer or reaction the show’s producers have prearranged. They might need help building energy and momentum to make the show feel more interesting. The ringer might be the anchor who asks a good question of a reporter that he didn’t cover in the initial story. Or the ringer could be an audience member asking a question to communicate something that’s more effective coming from an average person than the expert host. Whatever the case, a ringer’s purpose is to bolster support for an idea. So if we need to implement a design decision that we disagree with, it’s important not to give up and just throw it into the interface — however tempting that might be. Proposing to implement this type of decision can easily be a possibility for you to discover the best way to implement something and evolve the design materials that your team has today. The UI/UX design process is a lengthy one, fraught with pivotal decisions at every step. Articulating design decisions acts as a means for cross-examination and validation at each step, contributing to a quality final product. Best practices for articulating design decisions

For example, designers make fewer design decisions for products with a design system. The design system’s style guide, design language, and other guidelines reduce decision-making so designers can focus on solving user needs. Them: “I don’t like the color of this button” You: “So what I hear you’re saying is that if someone wants to schedule a meeting, they may have a tough time based on the design of that button. Am I hearing you correctly?” You’re confirming that you hear them and are willing to do something about it. This facilitates the balance of relationships on a daily basis, allowing everyone to listen to and respect each other. It’s usually enough to simply state with confidence what the data shows without the need for further discussion:Stakeholders will spend a disproportionate amount of time on issues that are not critical to the project." What to say when the CEO is obsessing over a minute detail that isn’t relevant to the meeting’s purpose: When you’re in a meeting to get approval for your designs, staying focused is critical. It’s very easy for design discussions to go off on a tangent or be taken in an unexpected direction because of one small thing. There’s just something about design that elicits so much more clutter conversation than other disciplines. One way to keep focused is to remove anything that you think will be a distraction. A lot of people are easily distracted by things that simply don’t matter to the goal of the meeting. They can be so distracted by one thing that they’ll identify a different, unrelated problem or be unable to discuss the real issues. Consequently, part of your job is to pay attention to those things that derail the discussion and remove them from the equation altogether. Of these three categories, user research is the most critical for decision-making. Designers must pinpoint a specific problem, understand why it’s happening, and design a solution for that user persona. The final step is high-fidelity testing using interactive prototypes. UX designers test these prototypes with end-users and stakeholders to gather insights and make educated decisions about the final result. Document design decisions