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How to screw up a UX design presentation
And what I’ve learned since then.
“So it’s like a Dungeons and Dragons character?” A kind older gentleman responded, causing the room full of statisticians and doctors to titter. That was the response that kicked off the worst UX presentation I ever gave.
I recently finished putting together an online course about design communication as a side project. I started that project because of my experiences working in organizations with low UX maturity. (I’ll be writing a follow-up post about why one of those fields, healthcare, is a low UX maturity field at a later date).
But when doing my research on the topic, my mind inevitably wandered to my attempts at communicating design, particularly my failures. I’ve had more than a few meetings go badly, but that one stuck out as the worst I’ve ever given.
Why? Because I reacted.
Reacting vs responding
One of the basic keys to communication is to not react. Reacting is instantaneous and emotional, and is driven by beliefs, biases, and prejudices of the unconscious mind.
A response, in comparison, can be measured, neutral, and can be driven by your thought processes.
