On July 08, 2008, Mark wrote
You've Gotta Wow 'Em
Filed under: design strategy, sparks, tactics with 7 Comments
If you're a designer, you're familiar with the concept of "selling your design." We go through the same process much of the time, pitching new or radical ideas to clients as we present our work. Along the way we've picked up on something big: you need to wow 'em.
But who's them? Your clients, your peers, your boss, and your girlfriend. OK, so maybe not your girlfriend, but definitely the others. Also, don't forget that you need to be excited. Excitement is contagious and if you haven't got the itch, you've got nothing to give. To get people jazzed about what you're doing, you need to be jazzed as well. To do that, you need something to wow people with.
Pitching a design can be as complex or simple as you make it, but it doesn't mean squat unless you've wowed your audience. In the early design phases—in our three step phase, those are the Define and Frame phases—it's easy to forget that. Don't. Great wow factors can be as simple as adding a cool new feature or taking a visual design to the next step.
Here's a tip: if you're coming up short on Wows, brainstorm at a whiteboard with someone for 10 minutes on "next steps." To make your brainstorm more interesting, ask yourself what you would like to see in the project. Whatever it is, just remember that your audience needs to be excited about what you're doing for any successful pitch.
It's the wow factor that seals the deal for every project that we've been involved in. Next time you're pitching a new design or idea, make sure you take it to the next step with a few "Wows." Find out how to get everyone involved excited and then carry that excitement through to the very end. Trust us, it'll pay off in the long run.
Comments
Bryan says:
I think it's key to realize that a "wow" in any web project is built into the work- it can't be captured in surface elements alone. Visual design shapes a user's experience, but the key to creating a "wow" moment lies in the interaction. The "wow" is the project.
Another key point: you can create a "wow presentation", but it has nothing to do with a user's pleasure of a product or service. A feature that's great for a user experience may not be conveyed effectively in a presentation.
Here is an equation: wow=project. If you have no "wow", consider if you really need to do the project.
Jeremy says:
The "wow" is that thing that solves a problem for people in a way that makes you slap your head in delight and go, "Why didn't I think of that!?" This comes mostly in the design of an interaction which has technical pieces, words and visual components altogether in one. It might be a quick win or a full fledged project. It's always a spark that you can rally a team around.
tripdragon says:
you have not wowed me with your white page and grey text. You don't even have block-quotes for crying in the mud
Mark says:
tripdragon: The purpose of a blog is to rally around ideas and provoke discussion. A white page with gray text might not be the most visually impacting, but it certainly doesn't mean a wow-factor is here.
What would blockquotes do for us that standard text cannot? Truthfully, I have nothing to quote here. Would blockquotes for the sack of blockquotes add another wow-factor? Our present purpose with the blog isn't to reinvent the wheel. We're here to talk, discuss, ideate, and create.
That said, we're working on a new design that should be live soon. It has a few new wows that we're excited about. Hope you stick around to see, tripdragon.
Krish Mandal says:
Question: How do you handle the bastardization of your ideas ... whether they're changed by one of your partners or by the client ... in terms of not presenting what you had thought up originally. I'm struggling with situations where I would like to present and implement a design, but the final result is much less than what could have been, because the idea was bastardized by ... let's just say someone else ... before it became finalized. Is there a method to the presentation or the process you can suggest to prevent this phenomenon?
Jeremy (ZURB) says:
Krish, seeing your ideas through implementation is tough business. You can't control every aspect of the process. You have to rely on others to see it through.
You've got to want to fight for your ideas and to influence the people you work with. If there's one thing we've learned from years of design consulting, it's that your work won't speak for itself. A big part of design is selling it. And sales is an ongoing, everyday effort.
We'd recommend you try to stay involved throughout the process. Don't isolate yourself in one narrow role and hand off work when you want to drive an idea forward. Stop by your coworker's desk to check in and see how it's going a week later. See how they're translating your concept into action so you can help catch things before they run off course. Help shepherd the end result to meet your original goal.
Bryan recently offered some tips about winning a design argument that could come in handy for you. Check them out.
Krish Mandal says:
The points Bryan talks about are all good ones. But as he himself pointed out, they're easier to list than to actually take action on. Be that as it may, I know you're right about one thing in particular: don't hand off your work and expect that it's going to get to the goals you set for it. The whole business is about nudging, coaxing, stepping back, moving forward ... much like politics, I hate to say.
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