Why my design presentations weren’t landing
Your screens won’t sell your design.
Your rationale will.
I was running late for the design offsite.
My train had been delayed.
The offsite was at 9 am.
At 11:43 pm the night before, I got an email from my manager:
"Hey, can you take the design slot tomorrow? I've got nothing on my end."
Classic. Thanks for the notice. Who needs prep time anyway right?
So I spent the entire journey trying to throw together a half-decent presentation.
Usually, I dress up my wireframes for big presentations, add UI, transitions, and tweak the visuals to make them shine. This time?
This time, I had to rely on something else to make this presentation engaging and semi-impressive… my words!
I was screwed.
I threw together five slides. Jotted some bullet points. And hoped for the best.
Two hours into the offsite, my name was called.
I walked to the front of the room.
And started talking through my basic presentation.
Five minutes in, the Head of Marketing, my main stakeholder on this project (basically the person I had to impress), was smiling.
He'd never smiled at me, let alone at my work.
The next morning, I had a Slack message from him.
Great, here it comes. He's going to tear it apart.
Instead, he says:
"Would you be open to repeating that presentation at the company-wide meeting next week? I think the thinking and ideas were great. It'll help everyone get excited about this project."
My first thought: Well done, Ari. We're getting punished for your good work (I hate presenting).
My second thought: He thought my thinking and ideas were great?!..
Wait, what was my thinking?"
I went back through my slides and bullet points to review what I had said that impressed him.
That's when I realized 👇🏽
Because I didn't have glossy UI to lean on, I had to talk about something else.
I had to talk about the why.
The logic and rationale behind the design.
I didn't describe the screens I created because I didn't want to bring attention to them.
Instead, I described how I got there..
I talked through:
why things looked the way they did
what problems they were solving
and what trade-offs I'd made.
All the reasons behind my decisions.
I wasn't showing off screens. I was showing my thinking.
Here's some of what I said:
I broke down the big task into milestones so that users wouldn't feel so overwhelmed. They would be more likely to make progress with smaller milestones.
I displayed one question at a time on the screen so they could focus on one answer at a time and avoid distractions.
I added small prompts to help them understand technical jargon with each question.
I kept the initial form short as data showed conversion rates dropped after three fields.
I removed the drop-down option because in usability testing, people missed key actions buried inside it
I used standard components for Phase 1, as engineering had limited bandwidth; we needed to move fast.
I moved the primary CTA to the top because heatmaps showed returning users weren't scrolling.
That was six years ago.
And I've presented this way ever since.
Stop describing the UI.
This was my biggest lesson.
Instead, describe the thinking behind the UI.
That's what they'll remember.
Nobody really cares about your UI.
They care about the rationale that led you there.
Let me show you what I mean.
Say I designed the home screen for Netflix (i wish)
Here's how the old me would walk through it:
There are three carousels stacked on top of each other
You can scroll through them, and here's the animation
We've picked visually appealing covers for each of the shows.
We've grouped shows into categories: "New on Netflix," "Upcoming," "Reality TV," etc.
Cool.
I just described the UI.
Now here's the rationale version:
We added an "Upcoming" section: even though users can't watch those items, seeing what's coming reduces churn. People are less likely to cancel if they see something they want to watch later.
We used carousels to help users browse more on a small screen without needing to scroll endlessly.
We picked movie covers with emotional facial expressions because users are more likely to click on these types of covers.
P.S. That last one isn't even true. I just made it up.
Unfortunately, I'm not on the Netflix design team, so I have no idea how they select the covers.
But you believed it, didn't you?
When I explain the rationale, it feels real.
It feels intentional.
It earns trust.
Regardless of whether it's true or not. That's the power of explanation over description.
What exactly is rationale?
When I say "rationale," I mean the logic and thinking behind your decisions, the "why" that led to the "what."
This could be driven by:
👉🏽 Technical constraints
👉🏽 Usability principles
👉🏽 Data or research insights
👉🏽 Business goals
👉🏽 Accessibility best practices
👉🏽 User needs or context
👉🏽 Competitive benchmarking
👉🏽 Product strategy
Anything except 'because I liked it' or because 'my manager told me to do this'.
Why is ‘rational’ so important?
People's brains are wired to fill in gaps.
It's a cognitive bias known as closure bias.
When someone isn't given the whole story, they fill in the blanks themselves.
Why is that a problem?
Unfortunately, some stakeholders assume designers simply make things "look nice."
They don't understand the depth of our problem-solving.
So when we don't explain our rationale, they fill in the blanks by assuming our choices are based on:
- Aesthetic preferences
- Subjective opinions
- "What looked good"
This leads to them having little trust in our design decisions and their value.
And when they don't trust the design…
They don't sign off.
How to tell when a stakeholder doesn't trust your design decisions?
👉🏽 They'll ask lots of questions
👉🏽They'll suggest different solutions
👉🏽They'll ask what else you tried
👉🏽They'll say 'something is missing'
That's not feedback.
That's doubt.
💡 ACTION 💡
How to check if you're explaining your design rationale, or just describing the UI:
Before your next presentation, ask yourself:
❓ What problem is this design/element solving?
🧠 What was the thinking behind this specific choice?
🧪 Is this decision based on data, usability principles, user research, or a constraint?
📢 Have I made the rationale clear enough that someone else could confidently explain it without me?
And during the presentation, try to structure your walkthrough like this:
👉 "Here's what we did" (the UI) +
👉 "Here's why we did it" (the rationale) +
👉 "Here's what it solves" (the outcome)
If you get that right, your designs become more than visuals, they become trusted decisions.
Beautiful UI might get a compliment.
But design rationale gets the sign-off.
P.S
This is why some designers get buy-in instantly while others face endless pushback.
It's not the work, it's how they talk about the work.
This is the shift that changed everything for me.
Your screens won’t sell your design.
Your logic will.
