“Design is so simple. That is why it is so complicated.” — Paul Rand
As designers, we spend countless hours curating masterpieces. We take the opinions of our colleagues, our fellow designers, and people who understand the principles of design thoroughly. We sometimes forget that not all people tend to share the same design knowledge as us. At times, you may find yourself frustrated as to why people are not interpreting your design the same way as you are. Presenting in a more detailed way can completely eradicate that confusion and can help the viewer get better insights into what you are trying to convey. Over the years, our team at Apric has deployed a few habits so the presentation of the design goes seamlessly, even if it is presented to someone who is not a designer. There are little tweaks you can do to your existing design as well; it just requires a more complex setup and some room for explaining.
It is of paramount importance that along with conveying your design, you can take away actionable feedback. That is why we are here to present our share of experiences that helped us ace our designs with regard to presenting to non-designers.
- Know your Audience
Everyone in the world is different. Individuals have unique characteristics that set them apart from one another. It is vital to first and foremost know who you will be presenting to. You can customize it as per their relevance. Example: If you are presenting to someone well versed in the field of marketing then you can use jargon specific to marketing, however, that same jargon cannot be used to present to say, a translator, oblivious to the marketing terms. Simplification is the key! We recommend explaining every little detail to the one you’re presenting to, even if the detailing is very obvious to you.
2. Prepare a Prototype or a Mock-Up
A Prototype, Mock-Up, Sample, Archetype of your Design will come in handy while presenting to someone who is not a designer. This allows the audience to get a real-world example of how the end product is going to look like. Trust us on this, the effect a prototype or a mockup has on the audience is remarkable! It also gives you brownie points and assures the audience that you are working exceptionally hard to fulfill their expectations of the project.
3. Communicate the Limitations
The need for transparent and efficient communication is vital between you and your audience. Sometimes designers do more than harm by not communicating well just to be in the good books of the audience. Although we do understand that it is important to look at the bright side of things, it is also very essential to communicate the constraints and limitations freely. Non-Designers have a hard time understanding design concepts which will often end in them giving substitutes in the forms of solutions. In this kind of situation, you need to be clear and map out the technicalities in a simpler way for them to understand. This way it’s a win-win situation for you as well as your audience.
4. Adopt a Storytelling Approach
This works wonders every time! Integrating your design into a story will help your audience relate to it 10 times better. It aids in giving them a bigger picture as to what is yet to come. However, one tricky thing about the storytelling approach is that in some cases, it can get to a point where there’s a chance of the audience getting lost, losing focus and interest. In such cases, you should have a short and crisp story that has lots of entertaining elements as well.
5. Foster Feedback
After you have followed all the steps above, have an open room for discussion. Since we are catering to our audience, it is imperative to incorporate their feedback in our designs. One approach we like to follow at Apric is that we give out quick short forms to fill to our audience with 3 options — Good, Improve, Reject. This helps us get a lot of actionable insights! We would advise you to try the same.
Incredible designs are made by combining various facets like inspiration, collaboration, creativity, etc. It is, however, during the presentation where you really have to break a leg! Using the pointers mentioned above, you will be able to ace your next presentation with a non-designer. Let us know in the comments below if you have any tips on how to present UX/UI Designs to Non- Designers. We would love to hear your opinion!
