Simple Rules for Better UX Presentations

Every business strives toward solving its customers’ issues, right? Be it a start-up or a well-established business, the focal point for any business are its customers. Understanding the problems of a user and coming up with a solution is the technical part. However, the way you present this solution to the audience or stakeholders is where UX comes into the picture. 

The importance of UX to market any Saas product is ineffable. So, no matter how technically sound your solution might be, if a user cannot navigate easily through your design then it won’t’ serve their purpose. 

Let’s assume you are already with a feasible solution to the user problem statements. Now, the real challenge of UX designers might not be coming up with a stellar design that solves the users’ issues but rather convincing their peers about the same. You want your presentation to be clear, concise and interesting enough for the audience. 

When it comes to creating a fancy presentation, you have ample options. You can easily create a presentation using custom templates that visually appeal to you within minutes. However, a great presentation is not just about visuals. Along with the visuals goes the quality of content and the way you present it.  

In this article, we will look at seven rules to present your UX presentations in a better way. So if you have a pitch meeting coming in the near future where you are to present your UX design, then read on. 

7 Simple ways to enhance your UX presentations 

A poorly designed and presented video may leave the audience feeling irritated, frustrated and confused. We don’t want that. Let us jump straight to the tips that will help you design better presentations and eventually leave your audience content. 

1. Keep the slides simple 

In today’s day and age, people prefer to consume content that doesn’t ask for much of their attention and looks decent. Keeping minimal and simplistic slides is key to presenting better. The term simple includes everything from how much text you use in each slide to which font colors or background colors you choose. 

You should check the following points in mind while designing the presentation:

– More number of slides 

Spread all the information you want to convey across multiple numbers of slides. This will keep the audience’s attention captured throughout the presentation. 

– Less text on each slide 

Once you follow the previous rule, this one will automatically be applied. If you have more slides, each slide will have less text. Less text means making the slide less clumsy as there would be more white space.  

– Add bullet points 

You may have encountered presenters who simply read the text written on the slides. This defies the whole purpose of the presentation. Adding bullet points will make your slides look clean and the content will be easy to read. Plus, they help in highlighting information. 

2. Give context before presenting 

As a UX designer, you would be aware of the domain but not the stakeholders. So, in order to ensure that both parties are on the same page, you need to follow the following rules:

– Dictate the goal 

Before presenting your solution, you should make it a point to first state the problem statement, and business outcome and then present your solution. Doing so will let the stakeholders also know about users’ pain points and would be able to grasp the solution better. 

– Highlight a timeline

This metric can vary depending on the project. However, you should highlight the phase of the project that you’re currently in. This will help stakeholders to form a clear picture of what exactly you’re currently working upon and how long it will take to complete the project. 

– Revise the last meeting 

Most people in the meeting wouldn’t remember the content of the previous meeting. Hence, it would be wise to recall the highlights of the previous meeting. This will let the audience connect better with what you are about to present. 

– Mention the feedback you seek 

To not get interrupted during the presentation, you could let the stakeholders know when and how you prefer to have feedback on the presentation. 

3. Always include a story 

Designing is a creative process. This is the time for you to show your thought process boldly and fortunately, stories are the best way to convey your thoughts creatively. However, telling a story is not enough. Telling a good story makes it memorable for the audience. 

You can include things like where you started your journey, customer journeys, user flowcharts, or anything that would make leading to a solution interesting enough. You can add some visuals to make the story more engaging, however, make sure to explain them with each slide. 

4. Include visuals and videos 

Videos are an important aspect of any presentation. If your presentation is all text, it is good to add a video or two in the middle to keep the audience engaged. However, some carry them in folders instead of embedding them in the presentation itself. This breaks the flow since you then have to keep switching between the slides and video folders. 

The main advantage of adding a video to the presentation is you won’t have to worry about connectivity issues while playing an online video. Plus, you won’t have to verify if the video is still stored in the folder or not. 

5. Keep the presentation short 

How long should a presentation be? 

Well, ideally your presentation should be aptly timed. Meaning–it should not be so long that the audience gets bored and not too short that the audience fails to even gauge your solution. Ideally, it should last for about 15-20 minutes. 

If your presentation exceeds 20 minutes, it is an indicator that it could get boring for the audience. However, if your solution to the problem demands more time, it is good to take a pause or take a short break after 20 minutes. This will give you breathing time and not bore the audience as well. You can then resume after the break and catch up from where you left. 

6. Present confidently 

As stated earlier, a presentation is more than just good visuals and engaging content. You need to be confident while presenting. To do so, you can follow any of the following ways:

7. Do a dry run 

You can do a dry run the day before the presentation with a friend. Time yourself to know the duration of the presentation. Ask your friend for their feedback once you are done. 

8. Prepare the questions beforehand 

As a designer, you should be all for questions. Anticipate what questions you will get from the audience and prepare for them before the presentation so that when they do come up, you will be prepared. Most probably these questions would be the ones you’ve already thought of during the process. 

9. Record yourself 

Confidence might come easy to those who are born presenters. While for others, it needs practice. Recording the dry run of your presentation is the best way to see the areas that need improvement and work upon them. 

Doing the above-mentioned things will enhance your presentation and also improve it in the long run. 

10. Offer a feedback format 

It’s feedback time! 

Once you are done with the presentation, you can briefly recap the whole discussion and go through the areas that need improvement. This is also a good time to mention the constraints of your solution and how you intend to make it better. You can cover the following things while concluding the presentation: 

– Are there any repeated patterns in your design?

– Is your design scalable? 

– What changes do you intend to incorporate going further? 

– How can your design adapt to new changes?

Often you will receive a different solution from the audience as feedback. In such scenarios, ask them and try to understand which specific problem would their solution solve. It is easy to come up with a solution if we do not get to the crux of the issue. So, it is always better to learn the motivation behind any new solution that comes up during the presentation.

Wrapping up 7 rules for better UX presentations 

Hopefully, you now know ways to make your UX presentations better. Well, a good presentation is one that is easy and interesting for the audience. So, if your solution has some UX jargon used, make sure to explain those to your audience since they don’t belong to your domain. 

Remember–it is your solution to a problem statement so the presentation should reflect your thought process clearly. Come prepared, be confident, do your research, tell a story, add visuals and take feedback and you are good to go! Try these tips the next time you are asked to present your design solution and see how it helps you!