When biases get in the way, having a narrative to discuss strategic choices can help move projects forward. Creative Director Nate Denton explains how to have productive conversation about design decisions in digital strategy.

1. NOV 2-4, 2016
Overcoming Creative Hurdles
“I Hate Yellow” and Other Lane Violations

2. NOV 2-4, 2016
Nathan Denton
@NateOneNorth

3. NOV 2-4, 2016
“I hate yellow.”

4. NOV 2-4, 2016
“I hate yellow.”
“Make it pop!”
“I’ll know it
when I see it.”
“Make the
logo bigger.”
“Let’s fill in that white
space with something.”
“It’s really liney.”
“That image
isn’t speaking
to me.”
“This is a really
dark black.”

5. NOV 2-4, 2016
“I hate yellow”

6. NOV 2-4, 2016
“I hate yellow,
but I understand
why you chose it.”

7. NOV 2-4, 2016
5 Ways To Improve Your
Chances of Design Success

8. NOV 2-4, 2016

9. NOV 2-4, 2016
Identify
Stakeholders
Tell the
Story
Iterate
Know When to
Step Away
Do Your
Research/
Use Your
Research

10. NOV 2-4, 2016
Identify Stakeholders
1

11. NOV 2-4, 2016
Do this at the very beginning
- Usain Bolt
9-time Jamaican gold medal
track athlete
Identify Stakeholders

12. NOV 2-4, 2016
Do this at the very beginning
- Usain Bolt
9-time Jamaican gold medal
track athlete
Identify Stakeholders
Early involvement benefits:
• Less complicated in the
long run
• Accurate planning
• Avoid bringing latecomers
up-to-speed
• Lessens the risk of
derailment

13. NOV 2-4, 2016
Identify what you need from individual
stakeholders, then inform them of that
- Phil Jackson
11-time NBA Championship
coach
Identify Stakeholders

14. NOV 2-4, 2016
Identify what you need from individual
stakeholders, then inform them of that
- Phil Jackson
11-time NBA Championship
coach
Identify Stakeholders
Example stakeholder
involvement:
• Overarching approach
sign-off
• Design feedback
• Specific insights
• Progress check-in

15. NOV 2-4, 2016
Different stakeholders
require different setups
Identify Stakeholders

16. NOV 2-4, 2016
Don’t include anyone
that isn’t necessary
Identify Stakeholders

17. NOV 2-4, 2016
Identify the most important voices
and use them as champions
- Vince Lombardi
Hall of Fame NFL coach
Identify Stakeholders

18. NOV 2-4, 2016
Identify the most important voices
and use them as champions
- Vince Lombardi
Hall of Fame NFL coach
Identify Stakeholders
Your dream team:
• Leader(s) of marketing
• Leader(s) of practices
• Leader(s) of organization
• Your experts (us)

19. NOV 2-4, 2016
Do Your Research /
Use Your Research
2

20. NOV 2-4, 2016
Identify and understand
your users and their needs
Do Your Research / Use Your Research

21. NOV 2-4, 2016
Identify and understand
your users and their needs
Do Your Research / Use Your Research
Understand user priority:
1. Clients
2. Recruits
3. Media
4. Internal
Often times when it comes
to design approval we see
this order can change into:
1. Internal
2. Clients
3. Recruits
4. Media

22. NOV 2-4, 2016
Identify the design goals
- Ed Hochuli
Strongest NFL official of all time
Do Your Research / Use Your Research

23. NOV 2-4, 2016
Identify the design goals
- Ed Hochuli
Strongest NFL official of all time
Do Your Research / Use Your Research
Example goals could include:
• Unify the brand
• Create a minimalist and
modern interface
• Develop image-driven
content
• Differentiate us from all of
our competitors

24. NOV 2-4, 2016
Test your designs
- Barry Bonds
After steroids
- Barry Bonds
Before steroids
Do Your Research / Use Your Research

25. NOV 2-4, 2016
Test your designs
- Barry Bonds
After steroids
- Barry Bonds
Before steroids
Do Your Research / Use Your Research
Ways to test:
• Client testing
• Agency testing
• Unknown testing
• Guerilla testing
• Internal testing
This gives you qualitative
and quantitative data you
can leverage to sell your
design decisions.

26. NOV 2-4, 2016
Otherwise it becomes a fruitless
exercise in subjectivity
- John McEnroe
Tennis great and world
class complainer
Do Your Research / Use Your Research

27. NOV 2-4, 2016
Otherwise it becomes a fruitless
exercise in subjectivity
- John McEnroe
Tennis great and world
class complainer
Do Your Research / Use Your Research
Wants
• Needs more blue
• Too dark
• I don’t like that picture
• Needs more pop
Needs
• Illegible
• I can’t find what I’m looking for
• Doesn’t work
• Loads too slow
VS

28. NOV 2-4, 2016
Iterate
3

29. NOV 2-4, 2016
Removes pressure
- Tatiana Kashirina
Russian weightlifting champion
Iterate

30. NOV 2-4, 2016
Avoids overconsumption
Iterate
- Joey Chestnut
Competitive eating champion

31. NOV 2-4, 2016
Provides continued momentum
- U.S. Olympic
Relay Team
Iterate

32. NOV 2-4, 2016
Provides continued momentum
- U.S. Olympic
Relay Team
Iterate
Momentum flow:
• Ideate
• Low-fidelity sketch
• Wireframe
• Style tile / mood board
• Hi-fidelity Concept
• Prototype
• Test
*Not all are necessary for every project

33. NOV 2-4, 2016
Brings decision makers along for the
journey which ends in more efficiencies
- U.S. Olympic
Bobsled Team
Iterate

34. NOV 2-4, 2016
Brings decision makers along for the
journey which ends in more efficiencies
- U.S. Olympic
Bobsled Team
Iterate
You – “We think we
can come up with
some really
compelling case
studies for the site.
Plus, we want to
make this page more
about what we’ve
done for our clients
as opposed to
focusing on internal
members of the
organization.”
Agency – “That’s a
great insight. We can
easily make that work.
Give me just a sec...”
Sample Iterative Scenario Between You and
Your Agency

35. NOV 2-4, 2016
Brings decision makers along for the
journey which ends in more efficiencies
- U.S. Olympic
Bobsled Team
Iterate
Sample Iterative Scenario Between You and
Your Agency
You – “This is
exactly what we
need. Great job!”
Agency – “Thanks!
Wanna grab a beer?”
You – “Absolutely.
First round’s on me.”
Agency – “You mean
something like this?”

36. NOV 2-4, 2016
Tell the Story
4

37. NOV 2-4, 2016
Sets up the research
Tell the Story
- U.S. Volleyball Team

38. NOV 2-4, 2016
Sets up the research
Tell the Story
- U.S. Volleyball Team
We want users to explore
important thought leadership
on the homepage.
Need
Example of telling a story to frame the solution

39. NOV 2-4, 2016
Sets up the research
Tell the Story
- U.S. Volleyball Team
We want users to explore
important thought leadership
on the homepage. In our
research and testing we
discovered that less than 5%
of users clicked beyond the
first item in a homepage
highlight carousel.
Need
Insight
Example of telling a story to frame the solution

40. NOV 2-4, 2016
Sets up the research
Tell the Story
- U.S. Volleyball Team
We want users to explore
important thought leadership
on the homepage. In our
research and testing we
discovered that less than 5%
of users clicked beyond the
first item in a homepage
highlight carousel. Therefore,
we avoided a carousel and
instead designed a longer
page scroll that exposes all of
the thought leadership we
want users to engage with.
Avoid:
Our page is long because carousels don’t work.
Need
Insight
Solution
Example of telling a story to frame the solution

41. NOV 2-4, 2016
Mitigates subjective knee-jerk
- Anderson Silva
MMA Champion
Tell the Story

42. NOV 2-4, 2016
Makes the stakeholders
feel more involved
- Canadian Synchronized
Swim Team
Tell the Story

43. NOV 2-4, 2016
Makes the stakeholders
feel more involved
- Canadian Synchronized
Swim Team
Tell the Story
Perceived involvement
leads to:
• Feeling part of something
greater
• More empathy
• Better understanding
• Higher investment
• Design evangelism

44. NOV 2-4, 2016
Validates decisions
- Chuck Norris
6-time Middleweight Karate Champion
Tell the Story

45. NOV 2-4, 2016
Know When to Step Away
5

46. NOV 2-4, 2016
Avoid concept fatigue
- Mo Farah
Most successful British track athlete
in modern Olympic history
Know When to Step Away

47. NOV 2-4, 2016
Stay focused on your goals
- Ki Bo Bae
Korean Olympic archery gold medalist
Know When to Step Away

48. NOV 2-4, 2016
Stay focused on your goals
- Ki Bo Bae
Korean Olympic archery gold medalist
Know When to Step Away
Sally – “I was just checking out McFly & Tannen’s website
and noticed they’re using a lot more color. It feels warm
and makes me happy inside.”
You – “Thanks for sharing. Our new visual identity system
focuses on using sparse splashes of color to draw the
users attention to key content and keep a fair amount of
white space as an essential composition component.”
Sally – “But it looks drab.”
You – “Through our discovery phase a key goal was to
incorporate a sophisticated and reserved use of color
that reinforces interactivity and drives the users to more
content. We tested the design and found that using color
in this fashion increased the click rates by over 25%.”
Sally – “I never would have guessed that. I like what McFly
& Tannen are doing but it doesn’t sound like it aligns with
our brand and goals. Thanks for helping me understand
your decision.”
You – “Anytime Sally. Quesadillas tomorrow?”
Sally – “For sure. My treat.”
Conversation Between You and Practitioner (Sally)

49. NOV 2-4, 2016
Go with your gut
- William “Refrigerator” Perry
1985 Super Bowl Champion
Know When to Step Away

50. NOV 2-4, 2016
What Can Happen If You
Let a Committee Run Awry

51. NOV 2-4, 2016

52. COMMITTEE FEEDBACK ON
THE CREATION OF EARTH.

53. Hi God,
Thanks so much for the latest round of work. Really coming together. Few
points of feedback:

54. 1 – Really liking the whole light thing but not totally sure about the naming
system. “Day” and “night” are OK but we feel like there’s more we can do
here. Thoughts? Definitely need to nail this down ASAP.

55. 2 – Re: the “sky”… not really feeling the color here. Would like something
that pops more. Please send additional options.

56. 3 – Appreciate the work on the sea and ground, but right now there’s way
too much sea. The ground is getting lost in it. In general, sea does not
resonate well with our users. Was talking with the team and the idea of
having no sea at all came up. Thoughts?

57. 4 – Are the winged birds final, or placeholder? Some kind of weird stuff
going on with those. Just want to get some clarification before giving
more feedback.

58. 5 – Seas teeming with life is fine, but again, we need to reduce the sea.
This is a showstopper for us.

59. Realize it’s Saturday and you were planning to be OOO tomorrow to
admire your creation and everything, but I’m hoping you can keep rolling
on this through the weekend. Looking to you and your team for a big win
here.
Thanks!

60. NOV 2-4, 2016
So In Summary…

61. NOV 2-4, 2016
“I hate yellow”

62. NOV 2-4, 2016
“I hate yellow,
but I understand
why you chose it.”

63. NOV 2-4, 2016
Identify
Stakeholders
Tell the
Story
Iterate
Know When
to Step Away
Do Your
Research/
Use Your
Research

64. NOV 2-4, 2016
Overcoming Creative Hurdles
“I Hate Yellow” and Other Lane Violations