The Visual Enlightenment

Help Your Audience Understand the Possibilities

2010-05-06T17:49:00.003-05:00

Many organizations leverage financial analysis for return on investment of their investments. Many of the customers I commonly work with rely on this type of analysis to help determine whether they should or shouldn't make large investments in specific technologies and processes. The problem with most models created by organizations is that they tend to become static and unchangeable by the time they are presented to the audience that needs the information to make the go, no-go decision. Using a more flexible and interactive approach we call Visual Analysis we were able to create powerful business cases that allow for real-time "what-if" analysis at the point of consumption.
The best way to understand the concept is to see it in action. The video below is just one of the many tools we have created to help our customers understand the financial impact of investments and decisions.

Using PowerPoint: Turning a Crutch into a Powerful Ally (Part 2)

2010-02-24T22:59:00.004-06:00

As we continue our look at the "PowerPoint problem" we'll start getting into some of the tactics that we can use to improve our presentations. Today we will look at how to reduce visual clutter in our slides and how to engage the audience more effectively by eliminating the burden of knowledge transfer.

Start with a Clean Slate
One of the best ways to make your presentations more effective is to eliminate the use of extensive headers, footers, large logos, and 72 point titles as much as possible. Some of the templates used by our customers (which we are often forced to work within the constraints of) leave less than sixty percent of the page free for content, this is a poor use of real estate. One reason people give for including large logos and distracting backgrounds is if the slides are printed and circulate you are protecting intellectual property. That's a valid argument until you consider that slides may not be the best way to communicate information in a non-interactive forum. Being visual aids, slides may not have enough context to stand on their own without a robust "talk track" (we'll explore how you can leave something of value with your audience in the next section below). In all other situations when you are just presenting the information, there is a very low likelihood that people forget who you are and who you work for form one slide to the next, so why waste the space?

Still not convinced? Consider this, Steve Jobs is often used an example of a model presenter, regardless of whether you agree with that statement, there is no mistaking that he gets his point across in amazing clarity and power. Watch a little bit of this YouTube video of Steve Jobs introducing the MacBook Air at MacWorld 2008. What do you notice, or rather not notice? No logos, banners, copyright dates, nothing. Sure this is Steve Jobs and everyone knows him and who he works for, but the same is true no matter who you are as long as you do a good introduction at the start of your presentation and close with the same information.

Don't Make Your Audience Take Notes
An attentive and engaged audience is critical to a successful presentation. Next time you present take a look at the audience and you may notice some people writing furiously. When people are writing they aren't listening effectively. Avoid this by providing printed notes that capture the key topics you are going to cover, or better yet, make them available online and provide the URL right at the start of your presentation. This approach does a few things:

It allows the audience to focus on the presentation
It creates a deeper connection between the presenter and the audience by showing you value their participation by providing them the key points
It eliminates the need of providing the slides which may not be the best way to communicate information outside of the presentation itself

At Doculabs, we have gradually been moving towards leaving behind topical whitepapers that delve more deeply into the content in our presentations. This allows the audience to get a good overview of the content and also provides a lasting experience that can even be shared with those that have not attended the presentation. You'll be surprised how much more follow-up and mind-share is created when using this approach.

In the next part of this article we will explore the next two topics:

A Straight Line is Not Always the Shortest Path from One Point to Another - Use hyperlinks in the presentation to provide a tight overall presentation flow and put details in the appendix where they can be accessed as needed throughout the presentation with embedded hyperlinks (something PowerPoint does very well)
Go Graphical - Eliminate as much text as possible, leave the text in the handouts or leave behind material, use high resolution graphics to tell the story

Using PowerPoint: Turning a Crutch into a Powerful Ally (Part 1)

2010-02-22T20:21:00.115-06:00

PowerPoint, which actually was originally called "Presenter," started with a noble enough purpose. The tool was designed to provide users an easy way to create visual aids to communicate information more easily, quickly, and effectively than possible before.

Some of you may remember a time when it was a serious chore to put together a presentation. Ultimately you had to rely on transparencies displayed on an overhead projector. You had the choice of drawing them freehand, ahead of time, or live; if you wanted to get really fancy you could type them or print a diagram which could be transferred to transparencies using special transfer paper and special equipment. This process took a lot of time, was messy, and provided mixed results based on the skills, artistic prowess, penmanship, and organization of the presenter. PowerPoint provided a powerful new metaphor to make the process easier.
Over time feature creep introduced both great and despicable features. Some of the great things that went beyond the basic presentation capabilities include:

The ability to hyperlink slides to allow for the creation of non-linear presentations (a tool not used often enough in my opinion)
Easy import of external data whether it is an image, chart, photo, audio, or a multitude of other content types
Powerful animation features that, given the right conditions, can help tell a powerful and engaging story

On the other hand, there are a number of features best avoided, here are some features on my "do not use" list:

Bullet by bullet, word by word, and worse of all, letter by letter reveals
The now defunct AutoContent Wizard that helped you outline your presentation, an act that seldom resulted in success
SmartArt graphics which help you quickly create "amazing graphics" with little or no effort; well, in my opinion, most are horrendous abominations that force the user to put a square idea in a round SmartArt peg; the result is a watered down representation of the original idea (and that's in the best case)

So how do you avoid the creating a typical modern presentation that is often nothing more than a linear outline that eventually is jammed full of broken thoughts and compartmentalized thinking? The first step is not thinking of a presentation as a series of atomic ideas, instead think of it as an interactive storyboard and you'll be halfway there.

I plan on going into the details of what my experience over the past 20 years has taught me about presentation success. One of my first realizations is that the process of building a presentation for yourself is quite different than building one that has to be delivered by a few (e.g. final presentation for consultants on a project) or many (e.g. marketing deck for a large sales team).

I've also tried to learn from both good and bad examples that are available all over if you look in the right places (e.g. sites like slideshare are great resources). Keynote presentations are also surprisingly eye-opening; try something from the likes of Steve Jobs, Michael Dell, Ray Ozzie, or Jeff Bezos, each with their own style and approach. Based on my experience I will go into a number of tactics for building a better presentation and telling a better story. Some of the topics I plan on covering include:

Start with a Clean Slate -Maximize the limited space you have on a slide by eliminating noise in the form or garish headers, footers, and logos
Don't Make Your Audience Takes Notes - This is one of the most valuable and lasting lessons I learned from Edward Tufte. Rather than forcing the audience to copy your presentation or talk track, provide them the key points in the form of notes. In my work we usually provide a whitepaper on the topic, but the idea is the same, focus the audience on interacting with you rather than lecturing them
A Straight Line is Not Always the Shortest Path from One Point to Another - Use hyperlinks in the presentation to provide a tight overall presentation flow and put details in the appendix where they can be accessed as needed throughout the presentation with embedded hyperlinks (something PowerPoint does very well)
Go Graphical - Eliminate as much text as possible, leave the text in the handouts or leave behind material, use high resolution graphics to tell the story
Get Agreement Before You Start - Let the audience know the purpose of the presentation and what you expect to be the outcome of presenting, including your expectations of the audience; this helps sets things up and avoids any nasty surprises during or at the end of the presentation
Practice, Practice, Practice - You can't be an effective presenter until you work out the rough spots in a presentation through practice; practice allows you to build a talk track and helps prepare you for the questions you will likely be asked

Look for more on the topic soon...

Introducing The Visual Enlightenment

2010-02-20T08:29:00.033-06:00

What separates great design from merely good design? Why does one presentation bore while another wows? How do you stimulate a mind preparing it for learning and contemplation without bludgeoning it with the hammer of informational noise? Today, commonly available tools and resources make it easy for anyone to quickly create and communicate concepts, ideas, and facts. It can be a powerful tool and ally for some, and a disaster waiting to happen, for others.

Using visual methods to communicate is a quintessential part of the human psyche. Some use visualization knowingly and deliberately while others do it instinctively or unconsciously. Deliberate uses of visual techniques can range from playing Pictionary to designing a bridge. Instinctual visualization can range from unconscious doodling to putting a simple off-the-cuff map on the back of a napkin at a restaurant when asked for directions. This blog will explore topics related to visualization and it's practical application in daily life.

A few years ago I had a epiphany after attending a seminar by the illustrious Edward Tufte. I had read his books and loved his work furthering the cause of visualization for several years before the conference, but never really translated the words into action. The seminar jump started my mind on the power of visualization for use in the business world, particularly in the consulting work I did and still do. With some like minds at our company, Doculabs, we decided to see what would happen if we eliminated the one hundred page paper reports we were used to producing and replaced them with a few succinct infographics that provided our analysis and reasoning in visual form. Within the course of a few months we were done with large text-based reports and haven't looked back since. These visual approaches allow us to focus on the analysis and communication of the analysis and frees the client from slogging through page after page of repetitive prose. This technique has improved the depth and breadth of socialization of our work throughout the organization. Not satisfied to stop there, I started exploring the use of interactive tools and techniques to provide even more high value analysis and this approach has shown great promise in the few cases we've employed it with customers and prospects.

This blog is being designed to communicate some of what I learned during the process of developing these consulting approaches. The blog will cover a variety of topics, some formal, others off-the-cuff based on things I commonly come across during the course of day-to-day life at work and at home. Here are some topics I plan to explore formally:

Using PowerPoint: Turning a Crutch into a Powerful Ally
Getting Your Point Across: Use of Infographics in Business
Interactivity: The Next Generation of Visualization
Mashups: Creating Value that is Greater than the Sum of the Parts

It's sure to be an interesting journey and I'd love to hear from others on how they leverage visual techniques to bring on The Visual Enlightenment.