You’ve put in the hours, interviewed the stakeholders, and made change after change to get your design just right. Now, it’s time to present your design to your boss or client, which is an entirely different ball game. Here are the top 5 essentials you need to make sure your design gets the attention it deserves.
1. Do: Rehearse Your Presentation
A little bit of practice can go a long way when it comes to public speaking! Whether you have a full dress rehearsal with your colleagues or your only audience member is your reflection in the mirror, rehearse everything from your stance to your wording. Don’t be afraid to try a few different things as you practice so you can decide what feels right for you. By the time you’re actually presenting your design, most of your presentation should come naturally to you.
2. Don’t: Be Afraid to Go Off Script
Focus on your audience’s cues so you can respond accordingly in the moment. Even if you went into the presentation with a verbatim script and a perfect vision, if your client isn’t responding as you’d hoped, it can be a good idea to mix things up a bit.
Nonverbal feedback, like facial expressions and body language, can give you an idea of how engaged they are and how you might be able to make your presentation a better experience for them. If they seem bored, try throwing in a question or pop culture reference that you think might reengage them. If they seem confused, take a few extra minutes to really break things down into bite-sized pieces of information.
Even if they don’t remember every detail of your presentation, clients will remember how you made them feel, which can either keep them coming back for more or make them hesitate to work with you in the future.
3. Do: Get Feedback
I know this essential may seem cliché, but it’s popular advice for a reason! Feedback can help you fine-tune your best work and save you from delivering your worst drafts. If you work at an agency or in a large marketing department, your coworkers may be able to provide feedback about various aspects of your design presentation, from your slide deck to the wording you use to describe your thought process. If you’re more of a solopreneur, look into coworking spaces or masterminds in your area to connect with other creatives and bounce ideas off one another.
4. Don’t: Overdo the PowerPoint
The right PowerPoint can help your design shine, but cluttered slides can easily overwhelm your audience and distract them from all of your hard work. Make sure you keep each slide to 6 or fewer bullet points and 6 or fewer words per bullet point. In the same vein, while there’s nothing wrong with getting creative and making your presentation unique, it’s easy to go overboard with design elements. Too much of a good thing applies here: it doesn’t matter how awesome your design is if it’s too busy for people to understand easily!
5. Do: Prepare for Technical Difficulties
From power outages to laggy WiFi, there are a lot of things that can go wrong with your tech stack and have a negative impact on your design presentation. Here are some ways you can prepare for technical difficulties and keep things going smoothly:
- Save your slide deck, images, and other files to multiple places, such as the cloud, your device, and a thumb drive.
- Make sure every device you use is fully charged, including your laptop, the clicker for a projector if you’re using one, and even your phone, so you can use that in a pinch. If you can’t keep your devices charged ahead of time, keeping a power bank or two on hand can be a great alternative.
- If possible, have some analog visual aids available. For example, a high-quality print of your design might save the presentation if your tech goes out or be passed around the table as a bonus if your tech works as expected.
There are lots of ways that your technology can misbehave, and you can’t prepare for every worst-case scenario. For example, bringing a megaphone in case your microphone doesn’t work might be a bit excessive. However, if you can easily create a backup of some sort in case your tech is not working on presentation day, it’s a good idea to do so, both so you can recover quickly if something goes wrong and for your own peace of mind.
Make Your Next Design Presentation Your Best Yet
With these top 5 essentials, you’re ready to make sure your next presentation is an opportunity to put your best foot forward. Remember to always keep learning new things so you can continue becoming a better designer and presenter as your career progresses.
