Review: Dan Roam and the SQVID

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book review, currently reading, Dan Roam, design, SQVID, The Back of the Napkin, visual design

I recommend The Back of the Napkin by Dan Roam for budding visual designers.  It is a basic, building block text to help you get from Point A (death-by-PowerPoint) to Point B (truly visual visual presentation).  For those of you are just starting the path to thinking like a designer, this book will help you make that leap.  For those of you who know and practice the philosophies of Garr Reynolds and Nancy Duarte, this text isn’t a must-read.  For example, if you read this blog and feel confused by my Design Tips of the Day, definitely pick up your copy of Roam’s book to start developing those visual thinking skills.

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Of all reviews I read, I agreed with this one the most: ”Like many books, Back of the Napkin seems to have begun with a brilliant very short concept that someone (correctly) thought would sell like hotcakes if padded out into a full-length book. The author really does present significant insights, but the irony is that they would have been best summarized literally on the back of a napkin, rather than dragging them out into full book form. So it reads like a 300-slide PowerPoint presentation advocating brevity” (Source).

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One concept that I did love from Roam’s text was SQVID.  You can read about SQVID and peruse the ebook here.

Superteachers: Creativity is the Future of Education

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creativity in education, education, leadership, superteacher

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This week, Superteachers: Part One will focus on the first important quality of a superteacher: creativity.  First, read Superteachers: An Introduction.

Beautiful Visual Resume

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resume, slideshare, visual resume

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Okay, so this definitely makes me want to revamp my entire visual resume.  That will be my February project!

 

Images of the Day: a.inguanta

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Ashley Inguanta, image of the day

Ashley Inguanta, a super talented colleague, sent me her Flickr page yesterday, and I am in love with her work!  Check out my 3 favorite images of Ashley’s below:

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Inspiration: Philippe Starck’s Why Design?

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design, inspiration, Philippe Starck, TED, TED Talks

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Philippe Starck is a French product designer who can teach us a lot about delivery.  His thick accent, like all accents, draws us in because of its novelty.  After 5:00, however, we start to focus on the content instead of the beautiful sound of the vocal delivery.  His self-depreciating humor and energetic delivery involving many sound effects keeps his audience engaged.

After watching Starck’s TED Talk, I did a little research on his work, and I wanted to share these beautiful designs with you:

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Wise Words: Philippe Starck

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advice, design, Philippe Starck, wise words

Presentations That Stick

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Chip and Dan Heath, Heath brothers, Keynote, Made to Stick, PowerPoint, presentation, presentations that stick, public speaking, visual design, visual presentation

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How can you avoid creating that death-by-bulletpoint presentation that everybody hates?  Made to Stick‘s Dan Heath gives three tips: 1) be simple, 2) show something, and 3) tease before you tell.  I love Heath’s tips in conjunction with Garr Reynolds’ advice.  In Presentation Zen, Reynolds emphasizes restraint, simplicity, and naturalness when designing visual presentations.

Heath explains that if your PowerPoint is overloaded with too many messages, your audience will remember nothing.  Simplicity is key for audience retention.  He says that a slide should be about communication – not decoration.  Presentations should be visual – like a demonstration.  Presentations should not be an entire speech typed out on slides.  Heath’s best point: “If you want to audience to value your message, you’ve got to get them curious about it” (Source).  The Heath brothers are so valuable in communication and presentation!  If you haven’t read Made to Stick and Switch, I highly recommend both books to help you create messages that are clear and engaging.

In The News… Links of the Week

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data visualization, every presentation ever, Garr Reynolds, Hans Rosling, in the news, links of the week, Nancy Duarte, Nicki Smith-Morgan, Public Words, State of the Union analysis

Twitter provides me with a wealth of information on a daily basis, so I began bookmarking each week’s best news and articles.  This particular collection of good reads was the most insightful in a long time and even included two new posts by my favorite presentation experts: Garr Reynolds and Nancy Duarte.  Reynolds and Duarte’s articles analyze Hans Rosling and President Obama’s State of the Union respectively.  Two other tremendous reads are an analysis of this hilarious mockery of every presentation ever and a collection of over two dozen bloggers’ take on pubic speaking.

“10 Lessons Learned from ‘Every Presentation Ever’” by Presentation Advisors refers to this YouTube sensation.  Slideshare posted this list of lessons including “don’t read your slides” and “don’t use clip art… ever” as well as the lesson I feel is most important “your opening is crucial!”  What was your greatest takeaway from “Every Presentation Ever” ?  My advice is this: if you’re developing a presentation that is just like every other presentation in the world, you’re not doing your job effectively.  Your goal as a presenter is to connect with and engage your audience, and you cannot do either if you create just another boring presentation.  Learn to stand out by researching and reading tips from the master: Garr Reynolds…

… and speaking of the man himself, I’m always thrilled when Garr Reynolds writes a new blog post.  This week, Presentation Zen presented “Hans Rosling: The Jedi Master of Data Visualization.”  This post couldn’t have come at a better time, as I just wrote a blog post about the importance of data visualization (read it here).  Reynolds agrees; he says that Rosling “proves time and time again, that data are not dull—and when you are trying to change the world, there is no excuse for boring presentations” (Source).  As always, I stumbled upon something fascinating while reading Reynolds’ work: a documentary on Rosling.  I highly recommend!

Nicki Smith-Morgan Tweeted “27 Brilliant Bloggers Talk About Public Speaking.”  Take the time to read each of these articles, especially if you are a budding presenter!  Alex Cequea suggests you “learn the story format,” and James Dabbagian emphasizes that your PowerPoint presentation should not be your speech.  What wisdom did you take from these 27 brilliant bloggers?

Last, Nancy Duarte analyzed President Obama’s State of the Union address in “What Is, and What Could Have Been.”  Even though Duarte is politically conservative, I felt she was unbiased overall when reviewing the President’s speech.  Using her sparkline, Duarte points out many strengths and weaknesses of the content of the speech and touches a little bit on his visual presentation.  I would have liked to see Duarte’s assessment of Obama’s delivery, however.  Dave Nguyen’s sketch alone makes this article worthwhile!

What great articles did you read this week?

Dan Pink: What Really Motivates Us

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Dan Pink, drive, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, inspiration, what really motivates us

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After reading Dan Pink‘s A Whole New Mind: Why Right Brainers Will Rule The Future, I’ve been dying to get my hands on 2011′s Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us.

*We can definitely revise that death-by-bulletpoint slideshow at 2:00, but I’ll accept it because Dan Pink is so fantastic.

Design Tip of the Day

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animation, clip art, design, design tip of the day, Diana Carrico, Garr Reynolds, Keynote template, PowerPoint template, presentation template, slideshare, transitions

While perusing Slideshare this morning, I realized that one element sets apart a good slideshow from a great slideshow.

Now, let’s first define “slideshow.”  A slideshow is a visual presentation.  A slideshow is not a slideument.  It does not include bullet points.  It doesn’t use a template, and it isn’t death-by-PowerPoint.  A slideshow is visual.  It applies the picture superiority effect.  It utilizes glance media, and the audience can easily digest the slide’s content in 3 seconds.  Slideshare, unfortunately, does still contain ineffective slideshows.  They regularly look like this:

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That being said, when looking through real slideshows, what one quality separates the winners from the losers?  Our design tip of the day is an important one: don’t be corny.

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Examples of corny include corny transitions and animations; corny clip art; corny stock photos; and corny templates.  The example above falls victim to all of the above.

Below is an example of a Slideshare presentation that works.  Judging only the first slide, I was immediately drawn in and wanted to click to learn more.  My first impressions are rarely wrong on Slideshare… If the first slide sucks, the rest of the slideshow sucks.

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I liked Contemporary Trends because of the elegant font and the simplicity of the first slide.  The punch is, actually, a lack of punch.  This first slide relies on restraint, one of Garr Reynolds’ most important principles in Presentation Zen.  Clicking through Diana Carrico‘s slideshow, we see these themes of elegance, simplicity, and restraint repeated. She avoids the flames transition and doesn’t have “comet” animation flying her text in. On the second slide, she doesn’t use a clip art chair; she uses an actual image of a chair.  The element I’m most excited Carrico doesn’t use: templates!  There is no “Craft” or “Industrial” or “Sedona.”  She uses simple black and white.  This is a slideshow that works… because it isn’t corny.