Month: August 2013

PowerPoint is the Devils Underwear p2 The Page Paradigm

Posted by

0

In my last post I talked about the dependence people have on getting information one slide at a time. So accepting that notion let’s go a step further.

Personally I think one of the main problems isn’t necessarily groking information in chunks, but in the limitations tools like PP places on how the information is presented. One of those limitations is that everyone still wants to be able to print a slide deck out. This limitation is probably the biggest problem. What it really limits is interaction with the information. It’s a struggle to get people to break out of the page paradigm, that tools like PowerPoint seem to re-enforce, even if unintentionally. Even tools like Presi are really just a slick UI on the same old slide deck. Like the old saying goes, “If you can’t blind them with brilliance, baffle them with bull.”

Now I’m not really trying to knock Presi. I actually do like it, and feel like it’s a step in the right direction. It opens up the page paradigm and helps get users thinking about larger patterns and new ways to present information. All good, but it still lacks true interaction with the information.

In the coming weeks I’ll be working on putting together some samples using modern web technologies to try and break out of the page paradigm, and sharing what I learn along the way. The main technology I’ll be using is SVG, so you will need a modern browser to view some of the examples.

Thanks, talk at you tomorrow.

PowerPoint is the Devils Underwear

Posted by

0

Those of you familiar with Edward Tufte have probably heard his rants on how PowerPoint brought down the space shuttle, twice. Now I’m certainly not in the camp of thinking that a situation that complex can be boiled down to a simple presentation tool. However; I have to say that I’ve seen a lot of people try to convey some complex knowledge in an 8×6 aspect ratio.

You can’t get people spend 45 minutes actually reading a document, but they’ll sit for an hour in a meeting getting half the information in misleading bullets and pretty pictures designed to be displayed on a condensed screen from 30 feet away. Now I don’t think the problem is PowerPoint itself, but the fact that people use it. Sorry, I’m on a bit of a rant here, but it drives me nuts that smart people would rather take more time to be spoon feed the barest of facts, than to read a well crafted document with details. Do they feel they aren’t being productive if they’re sitting and reading? Are they under the impression that it’s more efficient to focus in on 10% of the information? Is it that they’ve read too many poorly crafter documents? Has modern society destroyed out attentions spans so much that we can only pay attention to information in small bursts, such as a slide with pretty animations? Whatever the reason, I’ve decided to accept this mind set…to a point.

I’ve spent some time pondering this, and thought it would be a good topic explore this month.

Thanks, talk at you tomorrow.