What are the best ways to demonstrate the value of interaction design to stakeholders?

Have you ever been part of those meetings with hard, structured data? They can be a little difficult to endure if you're not able to make it dynamic and actionable. Working in design you must be able to empathize with users, the best way to do that is to understand the user by putting yourself in their shoes. Storytelling is an art. Being able to turn that data into an actionable story will make your presentations much more effective. As human beings, we have the ability to empathize and feel part of something shared. Being a good presenter is not a talent, it is a skill that can be worked on and improved. The more you work on this skill the better you will be at presenting your proposals to stakeholders.

A storyboard, for instance, can effectively illustrate the user journey, while an animation might better convey the interaction dynamics of the design.

Ein nachhaltiges Argumente ist auch die Auswertung von Bug-Ticket-Systemen: gehen die Fragen und Meldungen zu einem Programm-Modul nach dem Re-Design zurück, ist das nicht nur ein numerischer Wert. Er kann vielmehr in (durchschnittliche) Bearbeitungszeit für die L?sung von Bug-Tickets umgerechnet und als Budget den Stakeholder visualisiert werden.

Another important point is to back up your solution with data to support your proposal. It is not only essential that you know how to present your design solution but also to be able to back it up with data that demonstrates that the path you have chosen is the one that comes closest to meeting the user's needs and the one that is the most feasible to achieve with the resources at your disposal. To do this, you must collect the data, keep it in order and be able to present it along with your solution to show stakeholders that your design solution is the best and you can prove it. If you simply try to propose something just because you think it is the best, you are going wrong. Remember that we design for the user, not for us.

It's essential to have buy-in from stakeholders for a project to be successful. One of the things I feel is important is agreeing on KPI's to measure the success of a project. That's something stakeholders can relate to. They know their business best and usually have a mental picture of how they want a project to "look and feel". This is where customer journeys can be very helpful. When stakeholders are able to buy-in to a customer journey, you know you're in sync with them on how the application should work to satisfy what they want their customers to see and their users to do to satisfy customers. Being able to provide short, declarative demos is always helpful when working with stakeholders to show what's possible.

Doing a buy in workshop of one's processes to get people to know what you do and what value you give as well as how they can help is a very powerful tool not only to get buy in but also to build proper relationships. Caveat most people rarely have the time at the same time to do something useful or meaningful.

What can be more powerful than your storyline? The story of a user who actually used the product and gained immense value from the product.

When we talk about design, everyone may have a different view of what it means. This can happen with stakeholders, sometimes they don't know what our exact task is or they have the wrong idea. But you, as a designer, should be able to consider a way to educate stakeholders, to demonstrate that your knowledge and experience support your design decisions. Demonstrating that you are competent and know what you are doing by educating and inserting non-designers into your field can help them have a clearer idea of the proposals you implement for the product. In turn, this allows you to improve your communication skills.

Ask the stakeholders what their feelings are about a specific interaction. Which emotions do they feel? Do they think that positive emotions will be nice if felt by the user? They are likely to say yes; they want the user to be satisfied with a product or excited, and that can happen through a proper interaction. Make the stakeholder feel what you want the user to feel.