You are all set to present your design, you have faith in your design work, and you spent hours on giving a final touch to the design presentation, and your client loved it. So, what happens after that?
Did you get that design project?
Maybe someone else presented the same idea, thought, or design but in a better way. Someone else had a better presentation than you, quality mockup, and other stuff and impressed the client.
Maybe, your work is good, but your idea of selling was not that great. The client is a human-being, impresses with good words and works, and convinces if something tangible and believable comes across. So, with the little guide, we would try to explain how to present your design to get more leads greatly.
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Present your design to colleagues
It is a good practice before presenting your design to a client, present the same design to your colleagues who are unaware of your project. Present your whole product design work to them and try to explain the benefits or solutions. Try to explain as you would do to your client and pen down different types of questions that come up.
- Write questions that come up
- Try to answer ones you can, and check the number of question what you can answer and what you cannot
- Redesign your work or try to solve unanswered questions.
By following this method, you would be able to know the opinions from the other sides. The same way is followed by show business guys. When they make a movie, they show it to the people who are not linked to the movie. And answer the question of what did you like in that movie and what did not. They note all questions, and if something negative is coming about a particular scene or character, they try to recreate that scene.
Show your story
When a designer presents a design work, most of the time, a non-designer or a person who does not know how hard it is to come up with a final design, do not appreciate. They think it the easiest job of this project, just putting some good lines is not that difficult compare to laying foundation or putting bricks.
For example, if a client hires someone for building a house. He knows the entire process takes time; it is not an easy task to do. But the designer works goes sideline, and no one knows how hard it was to come up with that good solution with all features the client mentioned.
You spent some time days or weeks in isolation, but unfortunately, unlike building a house, car, laptop, mobile phone, your product fits on one sheet paper.
It would be ideal for showing your story, present your effort on different stages. It is recommended to take a snapshot with some lines on the stage of the project and difficulties you were facing at that time. From your first idea to the final design, show the hard work you have to go through to come up with the final stage of work.
By telling this story, the client will understand and appreciate the amount of hard work put into doing a project.
Create realistic mockups
The most important step, a crucial one is to display your design in the best light possible. Create realistic mockups; mockups will make your presentation more appealing.
If you are designing a website or working on an application, present it realistically. For a website, create a mockup of the website on a still image on your computer. Close all irreverent windows opened in your computer, and to avoid distraction, activate the full-screen mode.
The closer you get showing how the design will look in the real world, the higher your chances of getting the project accepted.
There are really no more excuses not to do it – all you need is Photoshop and some image manipulation skills. If you are designing a project and want to view your design for iPad, iPad Mockup can do the best for you.
The best thing about mockups is a smart object layer feature – all you need is to add your own design to the smart object and impress your customers with a professionally-looking, eye-catching mockup.
There are many great resources where you can find ready-made iPad and many other mockups. Be sure to find and use good design mockups in a conversation with the client, because they help not only present your work in your own unique style but also save a lot of time.
Show Read world examples
While displaying your design work, you should use real-world examples. You are a designer, many technical terms or words that seem so easy and understanding for you might not be easy to grasp for a non-technical or non-designer client. Your client might be clueless about what you are talking about.
So, rather using technical terms, make it easy for your client and use some real-world examples that are relatable and graspable. For instance, if the project is related to micro-interaction, you can give an example of Facebook. It will give the client a feeling of acceptance, and he will engage in your presentation more than before.
Follow User Experience:
User experience is one of the things that matter in every design. It sometimes even reshift the entire industry like the way Apple iPhone did in the previous decade. Their touchpad idea transitioned the smartphone world altogether.
You must add value to the user’s lives and think about it as its own project. Think that what would you like to have in that particular project or what can make this project stand out.
I want to narrate a simple story; I was working with an organization and given application development tasks. The task was simple, but I felt major loopholes in the previous design. The previous design was simple to develop, but I took it as my own project and mentioned those loopholes in the user experience. The company was more than happy with the design change, that simple user-experience change helped the company to deal with less workload than before.
And a few more words..
In my view, a good idea is all about presenting it in the best possible way. As per my experience, a good presentation can make you sell a bad product, not the other way round. Be confident and have faith in your idea; if you are losing faith in your idea, you might not be able to convince the client. If doubts are coming there in mind, clear them first, before going to meet the client.
No matter how you present your work, don’t use too much text, no one in this age reads too much text, at least clients would not be happy with reading too much content, other than that, this takes time to read too much content.
In the end, do not forget to ask the client to give true feedback. If a client needs some redesigning or something else, do it happily.