We might believe that the best ideas and great designs speak for themselves, but that’s not how it works in reality. In his book Articulating Design Decisions, Tom Greever says, “Communicating about the designs is more important than the designs themselves.”^[1] As a designer, you need to be prepared for all attendees of a design workshop, including marketing specialists, executives, developers, product managers, and other team members, to tell you how things should work and what your design lacks.

Like all things visual, design is subjective. This is why communication is so crucial. It helps teams talk things out, hear everyone’s opinions, especially those of non-designers, and find common ground.

Communication makes everyone in a room feel satisfied and respected. Conversely, when designers get overly defensive of their designs, they fail to stay objective and forget about the team’s goal — finding the most suitable design solution. In the end, the discussion spirals out of control, resulting in misunderstandings and poor design decisions.