The usage context is enough

Many of today's VC pitches are about some sort of mobile technology. It is very hard to find good images of people using modern phones at shop check outs (stock photographers: this is a business opportunity). I actually am not to concerned about showing the device. Giving a good feel for the usage occasion is much more important.

Asking the stupid question

In the middle of a design project, I decided to ask the client the fundamental question again: “So what is this about again?”. It was followed by a short silence in which I could imagine the eyes rolling at the other end of the phone line. The short and candid answer to the stupid question was actually very useful in the design process. It is OK to ask stupid questions. It is useful to have an outsider do it.

JPEGmini compresses file size not quality

JPEGmini has a new technology to compress the sizes of JPG files dramatically without quality loss. I took it for a test drive in snow-covered Amsterdam. My file was reduced from 2.4MB to 0.4MB and only by zooming into the image (click on the second image) you can see a slight, but only slight loss of brightness (can you tell which one is the original?). A pretty impressive result. The question is whether the JPEGmini offering will stay free, and whether will get used to adding another step to an already complex image processing workflow (find image, save it with key words, crop/extend for presentation, adjust dimensions, save Photoshop file, save for web, drag into presentation).

Your monitor device

Rock bands use massive monitor speakers to hear themselves play in a concert. When you run a virtual presentation, you need something similar. Slide transitions can be delayed especially when you use high res images. You are on the next page, but your audience is not.

To prevent this, log into your own webinar with a second computer, or even an iPad or internet-enabled smart phone to see what your audience is seeing. The really skillful presenter switches slides on his own computer but continues to talk about the slide that is still in front of the audience.



Image by Anirudh Koul

Infographic overload

The blog Bitrebels posted a number of infographics that compare the salaries of self-employed people in the U.S. versus those the U.K. Without picking on this particular design, this graphic shows common mistakes that often apear in infographic illustrations.

1. Round up the numbers to the nearest $ 000. The digits behind the comma do not add anything.
2. Group data together, a standard bar chart showing the 2 numbers with their delta is much clearer.
3. Pick a meaningful comparison unit. More than 3,000 hamburgers is not.

Speaking at one of the Outstanding Presentations webinars

For the second year in a row, Ellen Finkelstein is organizing her Outstanding Presentations workshop, a series of 7 weekly webinars by guest speakers. I will be one of them. Here is the line up of presenters:

• September 7: Carmen Taran, co-founder of Rexi Media and author of Better Beginnings
• September 14: Cliff Atkinson: author of the Beyond Bullet Points
• September 28: Bruce Gabrielle: Author of Speaking PowerPoint: The New Language of Business
• October 5: Me
• October 12: Simon Morton: Founder of Eyeful Presentations
• October 19: Andrew Dlugan: blogger at the Six Minutes blog
• October 23: Ellen Finkelstein will be wrapping up

For your calendars: October 5, 14:00 EST

The sessions are free and will be recorded for later viewing. More information about the Outstanding Presentations webinars here. Please note that you still need to register if you want to view the recorded sessions.

Product presentations and product catalogues are not the same thing

“Let me talk you through our exciting products!” And up comes the agenda page: product 1, product 2, product 3, product 4. Uh oh. Your audience starts checking whether there is guest WiFi to check some emails on the phone...

Product catalogues are an exhaustive description of what you have on offer. They are about you, not about the customer.

How can you keep a product or sales presentation interesting and relevant? Start explaining the overall architecture of your product range (we have big ones, and small ones, we work in this segment and that segment). Then, think about the needs of the customer in front of you and narrow down the options dramatically. Spend a lot of time / slides on solutions that are relevant for your audience, and surpress the urge to be complete and cover everything.

Data without context is meaningless (and boring)

The quarter is done, and here comes the day-long sales results presentation. Excel is pasted into PowerPoint, creating huge decks through which senior management has to sit through. Sales organizes by channel: small restaurants sales, growth; large restaurants sales, growth, supermarkets sales, growth. Marketing presents by brands: brand 1 sales, growth, brand 2 sales, growth.

If you are a marketing manager, looking at the Q3 sales and growth figures of a particular brand is really interesting. All the numbers of the previous quarters are more or less in your head. For the production manager though, going through these pages is mental torture, as she does not have the historical context readily available. (Read more about the Curse of Knowledge here)

The solution is the opposite of what I preach for bullet point charts: instead of breaking up slides into multiple pages, condense lots of data in 1 chart, but make it comparable. Put the quarter growth rates of all brands on a page and compare them. List the historical brand growth rates of the past 8 quarters on one page and see what is going on. There is no problem showing a massive amount of data on 1 slide, as long as it is about the same variable that is compared across different dimensions.

Wacom Inkling

I still have not found the perfect device to transfer sketches to a computer. Drawing with the mouse does not work. I do not like using drawing pads that do not allow you to see what you just drew on the same surface, and the very large touch screens are very expense and so heavy that they are impossible to carry around. And carrying around is crucial for creative sketching. Ideas always come up when you are not at your desk.



So, that is why I am excited about the Wacom Inkling that was announced today. A sensor tracks the movements of a regular pen on normal paper and stores them. Once you connect the sensor to a computer, sketches are transferred.

I see 2 benefits for presentation design:

1. Enabling me to include cartoon-type drawings in my presentations. The key here is the option to use layers. Sketch a character roughly on a piece of paper. Press a button to open a new layer, and trace a more precise drawing over the rough one. Repeat the process of necessary. The top layer can now be of decent quality, and transfered as a vector to your computer. Great.
2. An archive for sketches that can be filed and searched on a computer. 

The big question: does it actually work? I took the risk and ordered one and will report back.

Unconventional balance sheet visualization

Financial statements are completely unsuitable to put on a PowerPoint slide: too dense, too much information. I like to use column charts to represent this information and dramatically cut the number of categories in the process. After a while, even accountants get used to it. The chart below gives an example of a balance sheet, in a real presentation I would add data labels rounded to 1 digit behind the dot.

Being too explicit?

I just returned from holiday and this interior shot of a Tuscany bathroom (taken HERE near the marble excavation sites of Carrara) is an interesting visual. The explicit instruction makes it so tempting to do the opposite. I complied, but am wondering how many times the sign is ignored.

Steve Jobs quotes

The site Apple of Wisdom is packed with quotes by Steve Jobs. Useful to spice up your presentation. Also, the site design is an example of a minimalist style blurring the boundaries between presentation slide and web site design.