Articulating Design Decisions, 2nd Edition

[ Preface ]

In 2014, I was asked to submit some talk ideas for a regional UX conference in the United States. At the time, I had been working as a design consultant for some pretty large brands and was anxious to share some of the cool work we had done together. I submitted three abstracts. The first two were about design techniques and approaches that I thought were interesting, methods we had used on projects to achieve effective design results. I was excited about those. The other one was on articulating design decisions. That one seemed mundane. Sure, it was important, but it was something I’d done every day of my career. I knew other designers had to deal with this problem too. It’s just part of the job, right? It seemed like the most obvious and boring topic, something I did automatically, almost without thinking. Naturally, that’s the one they chose.

While I was disappointed that I wouldn’t be able to share about the other topics, I put my best effort into trying to come up with a few ideas and principles that might help designers in this area. I spent several weeks thinking about how I communicate to people about design, what sort of approaches I take, and how I could help others improve with practical tips. I never anticipated that this one conference talk would kick off a series of opportunities that has completely changed my career.

That process allowed me to see how my own work was filled with examples where better communication yielded better design. I realized ...