Presenting design ideas is an experience in itself. It is the designer’s experience of sharing possible ways to create user experiences. The word ‘sharing’ infers an interaction, an exchange, and one based on integrity and respect ... professional integrity and respectful communication. This interaction happens in many forms with many people, and requires effective skills both in delivering information and in receiving feedback. Its intention is to forward the product development process, and so then also involves active participation of the designer in defining results and future objectives.

Communication is an essential part of being human, and especially of being a designer. Since the development process includes so many disciplines, a designer must master the language of each discipline. Ideas must be discussed not only with other product designers, but also with interface designers, clients, marketing departments, research personnel, mechanical, electrical and software engineers, production managers, distribution directors, regulatory officials, CEOs, ergonomic experts, fabrication vendors, component suppliers, patent attorneys ... and others.

This multitude of people all have individual and professional standards and expectations for interacting with designers. Communication is then handled in a variety of ways relative to whom it is intended for. The clients may want multimedia slide show presentations and realistic solid models or prototypes; the marketing department and research personnel may ask for written reports and color sketches; the mechanical and electrical engineers may require 3D computer model data bases; software engineers, production managers and distribution directors may look for diagrammatic flow charts; regulatory officials, ergonomic experts may want written documentation with statistical charts and prototype photographs; fabrication vendors may need detailed dimensioned CAD drawings; component suppliers may work with inventory listings, and patent attorneys may ask for rough dimensioned line sketches and written concept descriptions ... and all of these people may be dealt with through phone calls, business letters, faxes and emails throughout the process. And then just imagine when you are working overseas and the client’s native spoken language differs from yours as the designer!

All of these people and presentation formats must be acknowledged and respected by the designer, for it is primarily the presenter’s responsibility to ensure that their information is received accurately. The most effective communication happens when the presenter is able to blend with the receiver, able to immediately create, and maintain, a sense of respect in their relationship. For the sake of brevity here, the focus will relate to professional level client interactions, which involves the designer presenting themselves and their ideas on an equal level of professionalism with the client.

This level of professionalism involves a range of aspects, from the obvious to the oblivious, which naturally shift from person to person and culture to culture. A designer is not always an understood or respected member of the process and is therefore typically required to constantly earn the respect of the team and the client. This is why it is vital for a designer to be observant and adapt quickly to new people and situations. People are continually evaluating each other based in highly subliminal nuances ... and so the more one is aware of these and controls those factors, the more confident and successful they will be.

This level of confidence is demonstrated in many ways, for better or for worse. The first impression that can be made is by simply being punctual ... not just walking in the door at the specified time, but having the entire room prepared and being ready to begin speaking at the specified time. From there, one’s appearance and body language begin to speak louder. Form of dress tells a great deal about one’s personality and level of confidence, and women need to be especially aware of this due to widespread gender stereotypes. How one enters a room with their stride and facial expression, is an equal display of preparedness.

It is during the presentation itself however, where the most critical evaluations are made ... both of the designer and their ideas. Many inexperienced designers become stricken with fear when asked present their ideas in font of a group, because they feel they are ‘on trial’ to defend their ideas. Gaining the courage to do this might be defined as ‘having fear, but doing it anyway’. The foundation for generating this courage comes from one's confidence in the preparedness and quality of the materials and ideas they will present.

Most often the materials will include a combination of notes, sketches, models and CAD drawings ... all of which need to be at the highest level of excellence, as they are a reflection of the one who created them. One should give the audience no room to criticize the quality of the work, but instead have them focus on the concepts expressed by it. This is done through use of color, contrast, consistency, line weight, simple drawing backgrounds, appropriately sized materials, showing details with perspective views, having a series of evaluation models all the same color, the durability of the models and precision of their details ... etc.

When then delivering these materials in front of a group, the key element is to maintain the group’s attention. A fundamental aspect of doing this is in how the materials are organized to create a flow of understanding, a logical and sequential build up of information that each person can quickly and clearly relate to. Providing an outline of the issues to be covered and objectives to be reached is good way to begin, and stay focused on the important issues. The timing of the information’s flow is quite important in its relationship to people’s natural spans of attention. Although ideally the materials being presented would be fascinating enough to maintain their interest, they usually need to be augmented by creating physical interactions. This requires sensitivity on the designer’s part in order to ‘read’ the audience’s body language and react accordingly. There are several ways of interactively regaining and maintaining an audience’s attention: moving from one side of the speaking area to the other, making direct eye contact with people, using one’s hands expressively, altering one’s tone of voice by punctuating important points, using dramatic pauses, using a confident vocabulary (eliminate the word ‘try’), describing examples the audience can relate to, occasionally interjecting some humor, and asking the group periodically if the information is clear and what their feedback may be.

This last suggestion is particularly important. Interaction means you speak and they speak. It means respecting other’s views and ideas enough to ask for feedback on one’s own ideas, and showing this respect by taking notes on their feedback. It is the better designer who can even anticipate those questions before the presentation and come prepared with answers. Honesty is an essential factor in one’s answers, because the entire credibility of one’s presentation is based on it. It is far more impressive to listen to someone with integrity say ‘I am not sure about that, but it sounds like a good possibility. I will look into it further.’ than it is to hear someone attempt to bluff their way through an answer or offer a lame excuse.

It is a powerfully natural tendency to immediately become defensive when faced with a difficult or unanswerable question. One’s ego feels it is being attacked (due largely to behavioral programming as a two year old) and responds instinctively by wanting to defend and attack in return. What this does though is simply shut off one’s listening and disable them from being able to resolve the issue in question. The ability to listen to, not just to hear, someone’s questions and criticisms is one of the most valuable skills a designer can master. This skill is based on realizing that the other person has a different view that can be of some benefit, and with that, then looking for how their information can be beneficial instead of first looking for ways to defend one’s own view and attack the others’. It is taking responsibility for the larger goal, for the success of the product, and evaluating criticisms relative to that ... and not relative to one’s own ego.

Another part of this responsibility is for the designer to clearly understand their own objectives for the next meeting, and to define any objectives they require from the other team members. This is usually done at the end of the presentation verbally, and then followed up through ongoing daily or weekly communications.

Communication skills are the keys to a successful life and a successful designer. There are many languages to learn, but they all require the same fundamentals of interaction: delivering information in an attentive atmosphere and listening to feedback with one’s own attentive attitude. Creating attention and stimulating interaction is not a superficial game, it is for the success of the product, and also to create a more enjoyable experience for both the presenter and the audience.