Category Archives: Books

Infographics Smackdowns

The increased interest in information graphics has also brought increased debate over their use, abuse and effectiveness. Connie Malamed over at Understanding Graphics even questions the correct usage of the terms “infographics,” noting that most of the time, “infoposter” is more appropriate. (I even use the term “data collage” in certain cases.)

There is no question that infographics and data visualizations are becoming powerful communication tools in journalism, online and in business. One of my colleagues credits the creation of an infographic for one of our client’s products with getting an important news article placed in a major national paper. The infographic itself was never printed, but it successfully “sold” the story to the newspaper.

NiemanWatchdog.org recently criticized and cautioned the media for misuse of infographics in covering the Bin Laden killing. They rightly point out that just because you’re drawing a picture instead of using words, you still can’t make stuff up. (Would you make up sales numbers if you used a bar chart instead of prose?) They laid out 6 rules journalists and the media should follow in using infographics.

Chartjunk Dustup

Stephen Few is one of the leading voices in data design and his books and site are must-reads. He is a passionate advocate for simplicity and clarity in charts, and he recently reignited a debate over whether there actually is any merit in the type of chartjunk that Edward Tufte rails against.

Last year a group of researchers published a study arguing that embellished USA Today-like charts and graphs are actually more “sticky” and communicative to a reader than Few’s/Tufte’s more spartan styles.

Stephen wrote a critical article respectfully taking exception to the methodologies and findings of the researchers.

If you’re not Tufte-d out, both Few’s article and the original study, are worth a read. Plus, Bruce Gabrielle gives a nice summative overview of the study and its problems at SpeakingPPT.

Few vs. McCandless

Stephen also ruffled a few feathers by criticizing on his blog the work and style of David McCandless. There were a lot of comments back and forth on Stephen’s post and even more in a post on Flowing Data, one of the top sites dedicated to information design.

If you’re not familiar with McCandless’ work, a good introduction is his TED talk.

* * *

Well, for what it’s worth, I agree with Stephen Few‘s work and approach. I love David McCandless‘s style. I respect Edward Tufte, and I also admire Nigel Holmes, whose work is often held up as representative of needless chartjunk and embellishment. (But yes, Nigel, you do need to work on that website of yours…)

All that said, I disagree with all of them to varying degrees when it comes to certain things. But I’m glad there is so much passion and that the debate is so lively! Information design is a continually and rapidly developing discipline that holds great promise. I’m seeing firsthand major companies desperate to be able to visually communicate their stories elegantly, succinctly and smartly. Hardly a day goes by now in which the word “infographic” is not part of some conversation at work.

And I’m not even going to go into “Big Data,” a tidal wave of an issue McKinsey just released a large report about.

Oh, and by the way, I’m hiring a full-time information designer…know anyone?

Categories: Books, Showing Data, Visual Thinking.

Visual Language for Designers (Review)

I read a lot of books on design and visual communication. Often, they prove either overly academic and textual without enough actual visual examples or they end up being just a yearbook of pretty designs.

Connie Malamed’s Visual Language for Designers, which I just finished, is a remarkable and well-researched book that not only lays out the principles and techniques of how designers communicate with graphics, but includes hundreds of excellent examples from a wide variety of international designers. And refreshingly, there is not a single negative example: Bucking the current trend of writers pontificating about what NOT to do (and often showing BADLY designed examples), all of the included graphics are successful examples of the specific design principles discussed.

The book functions on many levels—from beautiful coffee table book to scientific study to design textbook. As such, it should appeal to numerous audiences. The only caution I would give is to those looking for a step by step “how to be a graphic designer” reference. This isn’t it. Connie does address basic (and advanced) design principles, but does so through scientific and cognitive lenses. Therefore, when discussing “eye gaze,” she doesn’t stop at simply saying that one should generally have the eyes of a photo subject look inward on a page. She goes further, referencing “neuropsychological” and “neurophysiological” theories, and then through multiple visual examples shows how to employ this principle to very different ends. Though very accessible and readable, it is still a sophisticated book for a sophisticated audience.

Just as with any form of art, it can often be a mystery as to just why a graphic design succeeds or fails. Connie breaks down much of the mystery to show that there is actually a visual language and there are concrete techniques used by designers to communicate effectively—even though I am sure she would agree that designers are not always conscious of their use of this language.

After an introduction of how we process visual information, Connie divides the book into 6 principles:

Organize for Perception
Direct the Eyes
Reduce Realism
Make the Abstract Concrete
Clarify Complexity
Charge it Up

Each section examines the science of the principle, then discusses how to apply it in practice through various techniques. And on every page the reader is given multiple relevant examples—each one getting its own straightforward description.

And I love the fact that while the book is based in science, the author wasn’t afraid to address the use of emotion which she discusses in “Charge it Up.”

If you’re a graphic designer or the kind of person interested in visual communications or one of those people with the suite of Edward Tufte books on their desk, you need to add Visual Language for Designers to your collection. Buy it here!

I’m now a confirmed fan of Connie’s, and hope there’s another book in the works. In the meantime, I’ll be a regular reader of her site, understandinggraphics.com.

Categories: Books, Design.

Nancy Duarte’s resonate and the Presentation Story Construct

I’m a big fan of series of 3’s, but lately I’ve been far more interested in series of 2’s. So much easier to remember, right…?

To that end, Nancy Duarte is out with her new book called resonate. Hopefully you have all read her first book slide:ology and my endless praise for it. Resonateis not a sequel, but as Nancy herself explains: a prequel.

Slide:ology focused on the visual design of a presentation, and it is probably the best book ever written on the subject. But presentation design is only one part of creating an effective presentation. And it’s part 2. Part 1 is writing the story. Enter resonate and Nancy’s codification and method for writing a clear and effective presentation story—a form which, she explains, lies somewhere in between a factual report and a dramatic piece of fiction.

In trying to identify a repeatable structure for effective presentation, Nancy reverse engineered and analyzed successful presentations by Steve Jobs, Martin Luther King and others. What she discovered is that persuasive presentation is about moving from where we are today to where we want to be tomorrow. From pain to gain. From what is to what could be. And a dynamic persuasive presentation constantly moves us back and forth (contrast = engagement) ultimately resting in the world of tomorrow where hopefully our audience picks up the gauntlet we have laid down for them: Hire our company, approve our ad campaign, restructure your business, fund my research, etc. A presentation should be about moving your audience to a new and better tomorrow.

While Nancy explores mythic structure and Joseph Campbell in the book (don’t worry, it doesn’t get too heady, and there are lots of Star Wars references), it is simply this elemental series of 2, Today/Tomorrow construct that is at the heart of resonate. Here it is.

Every word and piece of information from your presentation can now be categorized as either “today” or “tomorrow” in this simple series of 2. Of course, this is the basic construct upon which can be layered your various points and presentation techniques. And Nancy uses this basis to create sparklines that analyze presentation and ensure that enough contrast in content and form is used to maintain engagement. Here’s a simple sparkline for an absolutely wonderful and entertaining TED talk by conductor Benjamin Zander.

The book is filled with much more than the construct itself including numerous case studies, sample presentation slides and various dramatic techniques for creating a memorable presentation. If anyone is interested in viewing a one hour webinar that Nancy gave on the material from the book, click here and enter the password “webinar”. It’s very good. And if you ever have the opportunity to see her speak live as I did a few weeks ago at the Presentation Summit 2010 in San Diego—take it. (Yeah, she’s a pretty good speaker herself.)

The Summit was a well-produced conference, and I got to meet with many of the leading players in the world of presentation software and design. Microsoft was even generous enough to send their PowerPoint product development folks who allowed themselves to be grilled endlessly on missing, requested and frustrating features. (Yes, they know the page numbering in 2007/10 sucks, and they’re working on it…)

Categories: Books, Storytelling.

Presentation Summit 2010

The last time I went to a convention in San Diego, I was 14 and it was a convention for magicians. So now I’m geeking out in a different way in that city.

In October for the first time I’ll be attending The Presentation Summit, the one and only annual conference dedicated to presentation.

Run by Rick Altman, who is the author of the awesomely titled,Why Most PowerPoint Presentations Suck & How You Can Make Them Even Better, the conference began under the title, “PowerPoint Live.” I’m happy they made the change since there is far more to on screen presentation than just one piece of Microsoft software.

From what I understand, the conference is targeted at presentation professionals at all levels. There will be sessions on how to use and make the most of PowerPoint (including special sessions for “beginners”), but there will also be talks on visual communication, webinars, digital photography and the business of the business.

And featured speakers include Nancy Duarte and Garr Reynolds, the two leading thought leaders when it comes to effective presentation.

Though the conference has sold out in the past, there are still spots open if anyone is interested in attending. Drop me a line if you decide to go. We’ll grab daiquiris by the pool. I mean, we’ll talk about serious presentation stuff…

Categories: Books, PowerPoint, Presenting Live.

Edward Tufte

Of the dozen or so “go to” books I have on my desk at work, 4 of them are by Edward Tufte.

Acknowledged as the godfather of information design, Tufte was an academic whose first self-published book, The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, became an instant classic and filled a huge unknown void. It was named one of the “100 Best Non-Fiction Books of the Century” by Amazon. He has since followed up with 3 more books (Envisioning Information, Visual Explanations, Beautiful Evidence) along with his screed on the evils of Powerpoint, The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint.

Tufte is a passionate advocate for clear and effective data and information design, so much so that he was recently appointed to the President’s Recovery and Reinvestment Act advisory panel “to provide transparency in the use of Recovery-related funds.”

At times, I think Tufte goes a bit overboard in his railings against PowerPoint in that he views the software as synonymous with presentation itself (and bad presentation at that) and not simply as a tool—that can be used for good or for evil. Still, his analysis of and conclusion that the misuse of PowerPoint contributed to the Columbia Shuttle disaster is absolutely fascinating reading, and a worthwhile warning for anyone who relies on presentation to communicate a difficult, but important message.

While Tufte’s book are beautifully designed works of art, they can be a little daunting at time to the average reader. Still, I strongly recommend his regular one day seminars held around the country to anyone who has to present as part of their job. Seminar registrants are given a copy of each of the 4 books. From Tufte’s website, here are the upcoming seminars.

Denver, CO — June 11, 2010
Portland, OR — June 14, 2010
Seattle, WA — June 15 & 16, 2010

Tufte coined the term “chart junk” which I’ve talked about —all those extraneous gridlines, tick marks, 3D effects and redundant labels. And here Tufte shows his minimalist approach to data design. But he is also a big fan of packing as much useful information as you can into a graphic. Think of a well-designed train schedule or a subway map. In this area, Tufte always refers to a famous 1869 Charles Minard analysis of Napoleon’s disastrous 1812 March to Moscow as “the best statistical graphic ever drawn.” In a single visual, Minard elegantly plots a half-dozen variables, each of which could warrant its own separate chart.

Categories: Books, Showing Data.

Book Review: The Non-Designers Presentation Book

I wish I had an equally high recommendation for Robin Williams’ The Non-Designers Presentation Book as I do for PresentationZen Design. While Robin has some useful things to add to the discussion, her latest book just serves as a reminder that talented designers are not necessarily good presentation designers. I’ve often seen great graphic designers suddenly lose all their design training when they open PowerPoint. Often, when art directing traditional print designers on presentation, I’ll just say “Imagine you’re designing a billboard…” (And sometimes it even works.)

Robin is an excellent design writer (I particularly like her Robin Williams Design Workshop), but though she gives presentations often herself apparently, I found the book to be a scattered and cursory collection of thoughts and principles, oversimplified and lacking in a true understanding of the power of communication through on screen presentation.

Okay, that sounds harsh. She does have a grasp of the basics, which always bear repeating:

Reduce, reduce, reduce your text

Don’t be afraid of spreading your information across many slides

Eliminate superfluous stuff

White space is okay

Use full screen imagery instead of wimpy small pictures

Distribute separate detailed handouts

And she also caught my eye with a couple of interesting thoughts such as:

Design your slides so that they make no sense on their own; make them require elaboration

Use animation to define sections of your presentation

But overall I just feel as though Robin is way too enamored with using funky fonts; using contrast on individual slides, but not enough overall in a presentation; allowing too much repetition; and just settling too often for slides that fix the big problems, but still are way too PowerPoint-y.

The average person will definitely learn something from this book, but your time and money are much better spent reading Garr Reynolds and Nancy Duarte.

Oh, and apparently the one rule Robin insists you must adhere to is: Never use Helvetica. Get ready for the Garr vs. Robin cage match…

Categories: Books, Design.

Book Review: PresentationZen Design

Two new books all about presentation design for non-designers have just hit the scene. The first is Garr Reynold’s follow-up to his essential 2008 Presentation Zen,called PresentationZen Design. If you missed it, you can read my discussion of his first book here.

Garr’s new one is a highly thought-out and impeccably researched guide to designing effective, clear and powerful on-screen presentations that look professionally designed (and written), but that can be created by the non-designer without fancy tools.

The themes here, obviously, are simplicity, directness and beauty. The book, like so much in this world should be, is divided into thirds:

1. COMPONENTS
In the first section, Garr introduces the mantra of “Think communication, not decoration” and discusses limited use of text and typography (suggesting a limited number of fonts that should be part of your presentation toolkit). He even gives a spirited defense of Helvetica (which I wholeheartedly agree with.) He follows this with a primer on color usage and theory, giving some practical tips for quickly and easily finding color schemes. Then it’s on to imagery, perhaps the most important aspect of presentation. Finally, he addresses how to simplify and present your data so that, as I always say, you present not data, but the meaning of your data.

2. PRINCIPLES
Here Garr dives into some larger, but simplified design theories, and applies them to presentation. Using negative space, creating focus and balance, and grids are all covered.

3. THE JOURNEY
Finally, Garr discusses a path for continuing to improve your presentations and skills.

The book is absolutely littered with effective (and non-effective) slide examples, almost on every page. The last section also gives a half dozen more complete presentation samples. Presentation Zen had wonderful examples, but the new book takes a major step up in showing hundreds and hundreds of real-world slides and the reasons why they are infinitely more effective than just bullet points.

PresentationZen Design is a more in depth book than Presentation Zen. But it belongs on the desk of anyone who fires up PowerPoint regularly. It also belongs on the desk of the professor who, Garr recounts, graded down his student for presenting an effective, complete academic presentation (with a detailed companion handout), because the student did not use bullet points and because it did not look “like a PowerPoint.”

Categories: Books, Design.

Book Review: The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs

I just finished a cool new book by Carmine Gallo called The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs. Though Jobs and his style are often discussed with regard to effective presentation practices, this is the first time anyone has done a true analysis and devoted so many pages to explaining exactly why Jobs is considered one of corporate America’s best speakers.

Echoing Jobs’ pervasive use of a series of 3, Gallo divides his book in thirds:

Create the Story
Deliver the Experience
Refine & Rehearse

Repeatedly using the actual scripts from Jobs’ keynotes to prove his points, Gallo portrays the Apple CEO as exacting and at times devious in his use of simplicity. For example, by avoiding jargon, tech-speak and clutter, Jobs consistently manages to craft the story he wants the consumers and press to hear. Often, it seems as the press is simply photocopying Apple press releases (“The world’s thinnest notebook,” “Apple reinvents the phone,” “1,000 songs in your pocket,” etc.)

Jobs’ zen aesthetic is evident everywhere, from his attention to lighting and stagecraft, avoidance of complicated numbers and statistics and to his use of imagery and sparse use of words on screen.

What you won’t see at an Apple Keynote are bullet points. What you will see are product demos, humor, guest speakers, props, stunts, surprises and a lot of theatricality.

As Gallo explains in recounting Jobs’ famous job offer to then Pespi CEO John Scully (“Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugared water or do you want a chance to change the world?”), there is always a messianic zeal that pervades Jobs and his presentations. The author spends a whole chapter on the use of “Holy Shit” moments.

Finally, Gallo talks at length about Jobs’ rigorous preparation and rehearsal, things I imagine most people never imagined were involved in the seemingly casual Apple presentations.

The book is much more than hero worship (although there is a little of that). There are concrete techniques described and analyzed that almost anyone could make use of in their own pitches and presentations. It’s worth picking up.

Behind the Steve

A Real Behind the Scenes View
if you want to learn a little more about life behind the scenes of a Steve Jobs Keynote (and the exhaustive work that goes into it), Mike Evangelist, a former product lead for Apple, wrote a fascinating story for the Guardian called “Behind the Magic Curtain.”

And check out this secretly taken pic of Steve’s onstage notes from one of his Keynotes…

Finally, the wonder of the interwebs means that you can watch many of Jobs’ keynotes on YouTube…

Categories: Books, Presenting Live.

The Three Essential Books on Presentation, Part 3: Made to Stick

My favorite read from the past year is undoubtedly Chip Heath’s and Dan Heath’s Made to Stick. Inspired by and very much in the vein of Malcolm Gladwell, the book explains what makes an idea or a story compelling and memorable.
From urban legends (why is it exactly that everyone knows about the bathtub of ice kidney thieves?) to the deceptively simple mission statements of successful companies such as Nordstrom and Southwest Airlines, Made to Stick is about telling stories that people remember.

So how will this make your PowerPoint better? All presentations are, ultimately, stories. You’re not presenting last quarter’s sales figures, you’re telling a story. Or at least you should be. You don’t present data, you present the meaning of your data. People remember and are moved to action by stories–not by charts and bullet points. Chip and Dan identify the 6 essential components of a sticky story, breaking down their analysis into the acronym SUCCESs:

Simple
Unexpected
Concrete
Credible
Emotional
Stories

Unlike Presentation Zen and Slide:ology, this is a book you can’t just flip through, picking out sample slides and ideas. But it’s also far from academic and dull. If you enjoy Malcolm Gladwell’s writing, you’ll appreciate this one.

The brothers also maintain a Made To Stick website and monthly column in Fast Company Magazine.

STICKY PRESENTATIONS

Chip and Dan don’t specifically discuss on-screen presentations much in the book, but they have written a small document called “Making Your Presentations Stick.”You can find it as an “extra resource” on their website.

Categories: Books.

The Three Essential Books on Presentation, Part 2: Slide:ology

Arguably the most important person in presentation design today is Nancy Duarte, owner of probably the world’s largest presentation-only design firm, the northern California-based Duarte Design.

Nancy and her firm have been at the forefront of the recent revolution in how information is presented visually, with her biggest claim to fame so far being her firm’s work on Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth.

In 2008, Nancy released her primer on presentation design, slide:ology. It remains one of the most important books around on how to put together a visual story in the form of an on-screen presentation.

In contrast to Presentation Zen, slide:ology is more technical and comprehensive with more philosophy and technique. But the book is still very accessible to all. It covers…

Creating a new slide ideology
Creating ideas, not slides
Creating diagrams
Displaying data
Thinking like a designer
Arranging elements
Using visual elements: background, color, and text
Using visual images
Creating movement
Governing with templates
Interacting with slides
Manifesto: The five theses of the power of a presentation

Though is doesn’t read like a textbook, it could be used as such for designers and non-designers alike. There are sections on creating easy color schemes, using animation to tell your story (why else would you use animation…?), understanding basic design concepts such as grids and image placement, how to create a template, using diagrams effectively and much, much more.

Nancy sprinkles the book with real world samples from Duarte’s portfolio, so you’ll find tons of quick and more involved ideas to inspire your next presentation. And you’ll see throughout that you don’t need a fancy template to communicate your ideas; Nancy is, as I am, a big advocate of designing content, rather than the frame around it.

This is a book you’ll definitely want as a constant reference.

Categories: Books.