Your secret weapon: user research
One of the hardest parts of the role of designer is bringing others along with you. Stakeholders, developers, other business areas, etc., all need to be sold the vision — through mockups, presentations and story-telling. But when you really want to pack a punch, raw data and user feedback really drives it home.
With that in mind, you can pepper your presentations with both quotes and data (visualised for extra credit) which will break up the monotony of fancy angled mockups; but the real beauty of it is, it can all just be made up to drive your own agenda, without drawing attention to your ulterior motive. See our examples below from a recent stakeholder presentation.
“Yeah I love the way the window appears, but I’d really would prefer if the animation was 60FPS, you know, to add a little more delight for me, the user”
– Martha, 42, Freelance Journalist, Dublin
“The first thing I noticed that the stroke width on each of the empty state illustrations was a little inconsistent, which really took away from the whole experience, holistically.”
– Gary, 38, Investment Banker, Melbourne
“My son only recently gave me his old iPhone, so I don’t really use these ‘app’ things, but when I do, they have absolutely must have slab serif typefaces contrasted on a fresh, pastel colour palette”
– Barbara, 68, Retired Nurse, Mullingar
“Don’t get me wrong, I really like it, but feel it could use even just a little motion to define and contrast the spatial relationships, functionality, and intention with beauty and fluidity. Perhaps it could even draw inspiration from real-world forces, such as gravity and friction”
– Francis, 58, Carpenter, Ohio
“I’ve always had issues figuring out which tab I’m on, but the added radial gradient at 80% opacity in Overlay Blend Mode really adds definition, and now I wander [sic] how I ever got by without it”*
– Fernando, 32, Barista, Barcelona
*Top Tip: adding spelling or grammar errors really authenticates the data.
Try it out, see if you can get your own way by falsifying data. Your portfolio will thank you.
