Design Advocacy 101: Championing Design Decisions
Have you ever wondered how to champion your design choices effectively? When you are starting your design career learning to advocate for your design decisions is a crucial soft skill to master . In this playbook, we'll dive into Design Advocacy 101 and explore valuable tips and strategies that will help you become a true champion for your designs.
Understanding your design choices
Understanding your design choices is a crucial aspect of being a successful design advocate. As a design advocate, it is your responsibility to not only make informed and well-thought-out decisions, but also to be able to defend and justify those decisions effectively.
Here’s how to do it…
Understand the project goals and objectives before making any design decisions. Having an understanding of the overall purpose of the project will help you justify your design choices.
Get to know the business and users. Make design choices considering both user preferences and business preferences. It's your job to bridge these two worlds. By doing so, you can build a well-rounded solution.
Get evidence. Design advocacy is not merely personal opinion; it needs solid evidence. Make major design decisions based on research, data, and market trends. When challenged, you'll have concrete data to support your decisions.
Know the goals of your design
When it comes to design, it is essential to have a clear understanding of the purpose and goals behind your choices. Whether you are designing a product, website, or space, knowing the why behind your design decisions will not only help you create a successful end result but also be able to effectively advocate for your choices.
Here’s how to do it…
Understanding the target audience is crucial. Discover what your audience expects from the design by understanding their demographics, behaviors, interests, and needs. It will guide your design decisions and ensure that it resonates.
Make sure you define the problem you want to solve for your design. Keeping this in mind will help you create solutions that meet your objectives.
Decide how to measure success. Identifying the problem or need is the first step to setting clear goals. It could be functional (e.g., improve user experience) or emotional (e.g., increase trust). A clear set of objectives should guide all future decisions.
Mastering communication
One of the key elements of successful design advocacy is effective communication with stakeholders. In order to champion your design choices, it is crucial to engage and collaborate with those who have a stake in the work. This includes not only business partners and peers, but also engineers, product owners and other designers that have interest in the success of the work.
Here’s how to do it…
Communication starts with knowing who your audience is and what their interests are. You can tailor your messaging and approach to resonate with them. Take into account their background, level of knowledge about design, objections or concerns they may have, and motivations.
Before engaging with stakeholders, it is important to define clear objectives for your conversation. What do you hope to achieve? Is your review for awareness, buy-in or to unblock a decision? A clear goal will guide your messaging and keep you focused.
Visual aids make everything easier to understand. When discussing design decisions with it can be helpful to use a presentation including diagrams, sketches or prototypes. These can make abstract concepts more tangible and easier for non-designers to understand.
Don't forget to actively listen. Communicating effectively is a two-way street.
By following this playbook you will acquire the skills and confidence to effectively advocate for your designs. You will learn how to communicate the value of your ideas effectively and how to ensure that decision makers understand the value of your work. I hope this helps you to develop an effective strategy for advocating for your designs.
