We’ve all been there: creating great work but failing to display it the right way. The way you present your designs can make or break all your hard work. All those long hours of work and research won’t matter if your client couldn’t get a grab of the outcome.
Here are 3 tips that helped me in presenting and supporting my design and can step up your presenting-game too.
Don’t lose focus on the main core
First and foremost important is to always keep the problem in mind. Recognize the dilemma that you were supposed to figure out through better design. This dilemma doesn’t only contain the problem statement but also the target audience, stakeholders and shareholders. Know their interests, possibilities, and knowledge.
While presenting your design it can help to address these points and explain why certain design choices were made in interest for your target group. This makes your design process much more credible and solid.
Add some interaction to your design
Placing some interaction into your designs will lift your presentation to an high-fidelity representation of the actual appearance. Including interactions will catch your client’s attention and make it more interesting to look at. It also creates a feeling of realness to the designs, which will result in a higher grip on the end result.
Furthermore, adding interaction also shows more of the functionality and UX-work of your design. Showing micro-interactions on buttons, checkboxes or even navigation will enhance the experience of your site/app/… and let your design feel more user friendly. The flow will become clearer and easier to understand for your client or target audience.
Use great mock-ups
Mock-ups provide a visual representation of a logo, app, website or branding in the most realistic conditions possible. Communicating the essence of your design quick and easy, and providing space to costless adjustments are just a few of the advantages of these design creatures.
In my own experience, I’ve noticed that clients respond well to placing designs in a more natural context. Great use of mock-ups helps non-design people effortlessly recognize the main functions and actions in a design. It takes away the abstract space from a design or idea and gives it more tangibility. Especially when you add a real-life background setting to your mock-up. A setting where the design is used like it would be once it would be released.
Finding the right mock-up can sometimes take up a lot of time. So this is me giving back to the community: a site I can strongly recommend is Malli Graphics. It’s made by and for designers and lets you easily find and download totally free all kinds of mock-ups. Not only is it totally free but it also leads you straight to the download button, without the struggle of surpassing 23 different sites. All the mock-ups are handpicked and show great quality. I can only recommend!
Putting these tips into practice will help you to improve your design presentation skills and will give you a better and more positive outcome with your client. Do you have other tips and tricks? Let me know in the comments!
