- It's time to present your wireframe

to all stakeholders.

Now make sure you do this

in one meeting with everybody together

as a group.

If you present to one stakeholder at a time,

you're going to find yourself

pulled into many opposing directions.

By presenting and discussing as a group,

it will encourage a collaborative process

while also keeping the conversation productive.

When one stakeholder has a louder voice

than others,

which is inevitable

if you talk to each person individually,

tunnel vision is likely to set in,

and derail the entire project.

Trust me.

It happens all the time.

Once you have all of your stakeholders together,

walk them through each visual decision in detail,

and explain the methods to your madness.

Explain why you chose the illustration style,

and icon styles that you did.

Why you plan to use the fonts

that you're using,

and why you plan to use the colors and how?

Walk them through the infographic

from top to bottom,

discussing each illustration,

and icon to ensure that the approach

sounds right to everybody.

Sometimes better ideas will arise.

Other times you'll learn

that certain imagery is not preferred

by the client.

But most of the time,

you'll find that your stakeholders

are getting more and more excited as you go.

When you confidently walk stakeholders

through each design decision,

they're going to feel more informed,

and in control of the process.

The only way to meet expectations

is to first set and define them after all,

and the wireframe provides

the best opportunity to do exactly that.

Now, be sure to ask your stakeholders

clear questions that engender

more than a yes or no answer.

For example, when you look at this wireframe,

what immediate elements stand out to you?

Listen closely to their answers?

Did the elements that you intended

to stand out resonate with your stakeholders,

or did they get lost in the shuffle

or say,

I suggest that we go with an illustration

style that represents a nineties motif.

This is because the nineties

were such an integral part

of the evolution of e-commerce,

and I want to represent that to our audience.

Do you agree with this approach

or is there something else

you would like me to consider?

By first stating why you did something

before asking a question,

you set your stakeholders up

to review the wireframe with a critical eye

driven by the five W's instead of just

considering their own personal

likes and dislikes.

If a stakeholder is remaining silent,

make sure that they have a chance to weigh in

as well.

Call on them specifically,

noting that they haven't weighed in yet,

and you would value their opinion.

Often, it's the silent stakeholders

that either have great ideas

or are already sold by your ideas.

In either situation you win,

because they're going to benefit

the group with their great ideas

or further solidify your creative approach

by backing up your choices.

Now, if you skip this step,

and you simply send stakeholders a wireframe

to review and compile their own feedback,

you're giving up your power as a designer.

This is because you are asking them

to make sense of everything without any context

behind why you made the decisions that you did.

In a sense,

you're asking them to become art directors

by simply responding to a very low

poly layout without anyone there

to champion the creative vision.

But by explaining the why

behind each design decision,

your stakeholders will trust you even more.

They'll have a better vision

for the first design draft,

and likely request very few edits

once they receive it.

(upbeat instrumental music)