The Art of Presenting Your Designs Effectively

Design reviews aren’t just about showcasing your work; it’s about selling a vision. In many ways, a designer’s role in a presentation setting is similar to being a salesperson. You’re pitching a solution, and your teammates, stakeholders, or clients are your customers.

This process can feel vulnerable. You’ve likely spent hours ideating, iterating, and perfecting, only to open your work to feedback, questions, and potential criticism from your audience. Yet, with the right approach, a design review can become one of the most valuable steps in finding the ultimate solution.

Early in my career, I struggled to communicate my ideas clearly and felt immense anxiety when articulating design decisions. Even when I was confident in those choices, I would struggle to properly convey them, leaving the audience with questions and a lack of confidence in my work. Over time, and with plenty of practice, I learned that great presentations aren’t just about the work itself but also about the way you communicate to and collaborate with your audience. Here are some of the tips and tricks I’ve learned on my journey to becoming a more confident and articulate designer.

Structuring Your Presentation for Success

Selecting the right audience is a crucial step in a design review. Although it’s hard to find a time that works for all people, if you can gather the right group, you can limit the number of one-off meetings or telephone conversations needed outside the design review. Additionally, too many voices can dilute the focus of a discussion, and dominant voices may overshadow those who are quieter, potentially preventing valuable input from being heard. Involve only relevant stakeholders and participants to streamline feedback and keep the conversation productive.

Start by outlining the scope and goals of your presentation. Let your audience know what to focus on and share how they can participate as you go along. Frame the conversation within the context of the broader design challenge by giving a prompt like, “As I present, I’d like us to focus on how this solution addresses our users’ pain points.” This sets the right mindset for your audience and encourages constructive dialogue when it’s time for feedback.

Design reviews often follow two main formats: Continuous Feedback or Deferred Feedback. The right approach depends on the content, the participants, and the time available. Ask yourself, do you want continuous feedback as you present, or would you prefer to cover the entire presentation and then hear the feedback afterward? Personally, I prefer a blend of both. I find it valuable to cover large sections before pausing for a few minutes to discuss high-level feedback, netting out to two or three key moments for feedback. And you may find that you have time at the very end to dive deeper into specific areas of the design. This approach allows you to present the full solution and helps your audience focus on the overall concept, rather than getting fixated on one or two aspects.

In today’s remote work environment, it’s important to recognize that multi-tasking is common. Maintaining your audience’s undivided attention is nearly impossible as they may be following up on takeaways from previous meetings or juggling other tasks while you’re presenting. When you need a certain person’s attention, saying something like “Cueing your ears here [Name]” ensures that you get their eyes and ears on what you specifically need from them. This ensures that you don’t have to run through your presentation again or re-explain something for a single individual. Additionally, asking for people to have their cameras on will make it easier for everyone to stay engaged and provide valuable nonverbal feedback.

The Role of Intentional and Thoughtful Presentations

Design inherently brings in subjectivity. As we all know, everyone has opinions and your audience most likely won’t be too shy to share those opinions. And while sometimes it can be bothersome to hear personal preference, it’s your job to explain the rationale behind the design decisions in an objective way to mitigate personal preferences. Focus on how your design solves the identified problems based on research, testing, analytics, and expertise. By sharing this context, you’ll help your audience understand and embrace your vision.

Although you’ll rarely ever show every exploration, an effective presentation will inherently demonstrate that you’ve considered various scenarios and solutions. Explaining how you arrived at your final decision not only highlights your thoroughness but also builds confidence in your process. Pick an early exploration or a wireframe and then work your way to the final solution(s), and explain your rationale along the way to help bring your audience along on the journey.

Great presentations also anticipate challenges by preparing for tough questions. As you craft your narrative, think about the potential concerns of your audience and develop thoughtful, explanatory points to address them proactively.

Sharing your designs with engineers (or anyone responsible for implementing the solution) before presenting them to stakeholders ensures you’re proposing a practical solution with the support of the team bringing it to life. As designers, it’s essential to balance feasibility with ambition, recognizing that some ideas may not be achievable in the first release. Use this understanding to invite stakeholders and engineers into a collaborative process. Asking questions like, “What steps can we take to get closer to this vision?” can spark productive discussions and pave the way for iterative improvements. And you never know, there may be ideas that you think are out of scope, and stakeholder may latch on to it and help bring it to the forefront!

Additionally, as a designer it’s important to understand the team’s final decisions, be it due to scope, tech or any other limitations, that may result in a poor user experience. It’s at those moments that you should voice your concerns and work with the team to find a way to implement a solution that creates the best possible experience for the users.

Building Confidence and Personality in Presentations

This can be a difficult lesson to learn, especially if you’re new in your career, but feedback is rarely a critique of your skills. It’s important to separate your work from your self-worth. By staying objective and inviting collaboration, you’ll foster an environment where feedback becomes a tool for improvement rather than a personal attack.

Presentations don’t have to be overly formal. Adding a touch of your personality can make the experience more engaging and help put your audience at ease. When stakeholders feel comfortable, they’re more likely to provide honest and constructive feedback. When working with new stakeholders or teammates, I will say something like, “I’ll take any and all feedback. My goal is to collaborate and work together to find the best solution to these challenges.”

Adapt your communication style to suit your audience. Avoid jargon or acronyms unless you’re certain everyone understands them. This is a personal pet peeve of mine. I’ve sat in countless meetings where presenters (across many different roles) use acronyms that I don’t know, and I can’t be the only one who doesn’t know. Speak in terms that resonate with your audience’s expertise. This is important as to not isolate people that may not work with you, or others in your role, on a daily basis and ensures that everyone stays on the same page.

Confidence is key. If you believe in your work, your audience is more likely to trust your decisions. However, confidence shouldn’t cross into arrogance. Be open to feedback and willing to adapt when better ideas emerge. If you consistently dismiss feedback with closed-off responses, your audience may hesitate to share what could be very valuable ideas.

Handling Feedback Effectively

When faced with questions or feedback, take a moment to process, and don’t be afraid to pause for as long as you need to fully understand the feedback. Additionally, repeating a question aloud can clarify the intent and give you time to formulate a thoughtful response. If something doesn’t make sense, don’t be afraid to have the individual ask the question in a different way, provide an example, or elaborate on what they mean. A long time ago, I gave up the idea of being scared of asking questions and I can’t tell you how much this has helped in the long run. If you ask questions in the moment, you can ensure that not only you, but everyone is on the same page of what is being asked.

When dealing with subjective opinions, balance them with objective data. For example, if someone criticizes a color choice, reference user testing results or accessibility guidelines that support your decision. Generic comments like “I don’t like this” aren’t constructive, so encourage stakeholders to elaborate by asking, “What specifically isn’t working for you?” or “How might we improve this?”

Similar to navigating personal opinions from stakeholders, we should avoid using overly personal language like, “I love this solution,” as it can discourage honest feedback and suggest personal attachment, making it harder to separate emotions from the discussion.

While designing by committee can be frustrating at times, especially in a large group setting, I am a firm believer that the best products are built by collaboration. Invite stakeholders and others to build on or challenge your ideas. Expanding on their suggestions or blending them with your own helps everyone feel ownership of the final solution.

As designers, we’re rarely the sole individuals responsible for the final solution. Recognizing the people and teams that have helped you arrive at these solutions by simply saying “we” instead of “I” as you present gives credit where it’s due and showcases that you’ve done your due diligence in bringing the right people in at the right time.

Conclusion

Mastering the art of presenting designs takes practice, but the benefits are worth the effort. By being intentional, empathetic, and collaborative, you can turn presentations from an anxiety-inducing environment into an opportunity for collaboration and innovation. Remember to stay confident and open to feedback, and know that with every presentation you are growing as a communicator, presenter, and overall designer!

• Robin Marquardt

  Product Designer

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