Thanks to Spotify, I get to listen to some nuggets of wisdom from the book “Articulating Design Decisions”, a book by Tom Greever. One of my takeaways so far is that a good designer is a good communicator.
Being able to talk eloquently about what you’re putting down is the key to getting people to understand why you did something or why it should be done. Having the right words helps an organization defend their decisions and overall gets everyone on the same page more or less. It makes random bits of code, pixels, or colors make sense.
Take 1: Give your peers and superiors (anyone, really) the language to confidently say good things about you and your work. It’s not enough for us designers to be the smartest in the room and know what the user needs or what something should look like. Our stakeholders need to be able to confidently represent our designs. They need to look good to to their superiors. We need to give our stakeholders the tools and vocabulary to represent our work to someone else, in turn we are more supported. This adds to our value as designers.
Take 2: We’re not the only ones with good ideas. We are brought in as experts in our fields, but we need to check our ego. “There is a balance between believing that we have the best ideas recognizing that they aren’t the only ideas”. Making recommendations while taking suggestions leads to an actually collaborative environment. Other ideas can be valuable, and immediately coming up with excuses as to why someone else’s idea is not of value is a detriment to our own growth, as designers and people.
Overall this book isn’t about just being able to talk about our designs in a more design-y way, although I was kind of expecting that. It’s about being a better communicator overall but is aimed at us designers who may not have the words or the confidence to talk about how or why we do.