Defend your design decisions

Part of being a good designer is also being able to convince people why you chose a certain approach. Some decisions can take more time than others and even need to be relied upon and reviewed with multiple people before moving forward. Reviewing the opinions of others and getting into an agreement is also part of the job. In this blog, we'll go over some things to take into consideration when defending your designs and understand what's the optimal course of action to take to deliver the best solution possible.

Learning to listen

Usually, when working with designs, there are stakeholders to check with and see how progress is going. From clients to project managers and even people in certain positions of power and influence, they all want to see how things are developing and will offer their input and perspective on things. They can have some ideas that could work and others that probably won't, but it's still important to listen to their ideas and avoid dismissing them in general. People in general just look to be heard and have their opinions valued so any type of sudden dismissal could hurt the relationship and development of the product being built.  Whenever input is being offered by stakeholders, listen to what they say, try to understand the thought process behind their reasoning, and let them know that you appreciate their ideas and will evaluate them. Even if you don't use their feedback in the design, the next time you meet up with them, you can explain to them that you reviewed their ideas and let them know your reasoning behind not moving forward with them. The stakeholders will see that you have valued their opinions and, even if you didn't design based on their approach, will appreciate the transparency and willingness to listen to them.

Anticipate the outcome

Once you learn how your stakeholders think, you can start to anticipate the outcome in design meetings. Every time you're in charge of presenting a design demo of a certain product, you can review the list of people who will have input or questions about the design and think of ideas or bullet points to explain your reasoning behind your decisions. You can also create quick alternate versions of the designs that could resemble something that the stakeholders would propose and explain why that approach would be less beneficial than the one you're proposing. It's important to get to know a bit more about who you're presenting to and anticipate these outcomes to have an easier time defending your proposal. Going through this process could also make you change your mind and see that your proposal could not be the most optimal compared to the one that could be proposed by a stakeholder so don't hesitate to go over this and be open to change as well if applicable.

Research and connect

You can defend your decisions and explain your reasonings, but if you don't have anything to back it up, it could get more complicated to convince your stakeholders to move forward with the approach proposed. It's important to always do research before designing, and also use that research as a way to back up your designs, whether it's in patterns previously used in the industry, in the same product itself, or data that suggests going in a certain direction, these elements are essential not only to build an optimal design for the project, but also to advocate for it as well. Research can also come by reviewing decisions with fellow team members if possible. If you have the possibility, try to gather feedback from your colleagues and review the designs to understand their strengths and weaknesses and, based on the feedback, iterate if necessary until you get an optimal approach that can be presented to the stakeholders. You can present your designs to your colleagues the way you would present them to the stakeholders and view key areas to improve in the presentation. Don't forget to also do the same for your teammates if they come looking for help and feedback as well, having a healthy environment of willingness to help each other helps not only the company but your growth and knowledge as well to build better designs.

Conclusion

Defending your designs is a skill that its developed over time and experience not only by building these designs but also by gathering feedback, listening to opinions, and researching and connecting with team members and colleagues. If you end up making a mistake during your presentation, don't let it get to you, review what you did wrong and what you can improve based on it to keep moving forward and continue learning. Don't forget to check in with your colleagues and even your stakeholders any time that's possible and appropriate to learn more about their thought processes and how they perceive things, you can end up being surprised about how similar you can be to them in some ways. Continue to learn from everyone and this will guide you to be a better designer.