Avoid PowerPoint abuse
Do you have PowerPoint skills? Can you size images and auto-create charts and graphs from Excel spreadsheets? If so, you might say that you indeed possess PowerPoint skills. It may even be listed on your resume as a job qualification. But if your definition of PowerPoint skills doesn’t extend beyond use of the software program, your skills may have room for improvement—at least according to Edward Tufte, a statistician, professor emeritus at Yale University, and noted analytical design expert.
I’ve been subjected to a lot of PowerPoint presentations lately, which is why this recent blog post, “Death by PowerPoint,” caught my eye. Nearly dead is exactly how it can sometimes feel sitting through a droning presentation while squinting at vague, text-heavy slides.
So why are PowerPoint presentations usually so boring and ineffective? Those in Tufte’s camp believe that PowerPoint provides the crutch for fuzzy communication. I’m inclined to agree. You don’t have to fully articulate your thoughts or follow lines of logic when all you have to do is cram a few phrases into bullet points.
“Combine that with the all-too-human reluctance to think (see ‘ditto heads‘) and the popularity of PowerPoint is clear: It creates the illusion of participation without the sweaty bits,” writes Robin Harris, author of the blog post referenced above. “Getting into issues requires the hard work of questioning assumptions, examining evidence, determining values and accepting compromises.” It’s difficult to generate that kind of mental activity from a few bullet points and a gradient-enhanced bar chart.
All of this got me thinking back to a Tufte infographics seminar that I attended last year. Below are a few of Tufte’s primary information design principles. Use these tips to avoid gratuitous PowerPoint abuse.
The human brain uptakes information very quickly…
And uses multiple skills to analyze and understand it. But your typical PowerPoint chart dumbs down information to the lowest common denominator. Tufte recommends that you trust the intelligence of your audience to understand the material you’re presenting, in all its glorious complexity and detail. Which leads to another one of his main principles…
Don’t just know your audience. Respect your audience.
Tufte says that simply claiming to “know” your audience usually results in underestimating it. He’s a big believer in people’s native intelligence and analytical skills and feels that acknowledging and playing to that intelligence is the first step to understanding what your audience needs.
Let the content drive the vehicle (or format), not the other way around.
Tufte’s basic principle is do “whatever it takes” to convey your message. That means looking closely at your content to find the best way to present it. In other words, don’t fire up the ol’ PowerPoint and create a colorful bar graph or pie chart every time you have some data to present. Instead, let the data guide you to the best vehicle or format in which to present it.
Show as much information in as few pages as possible.
That doesn’t mean reducing your font size to shove as many words and pictures as possible onto the page. It means designing your infographic, chart, table, etc. to convey as much information as possible. Tufte said, “There’s no such thing as information overload. There’s only bad design.” And bad design tends to be the result of muddled thinking.
Use a “super graphic” handout instead of a PowerPoint.
This was, at least to me, one of the more provocative viewpoints presented in the seminar. Tufte prefers a “super graphic” to multiple pages of charts and graphs that the audience then has to string together in their minds. The idea is that one dense graphic tells a more complete story, and engages the intelligence and analytical skills of the audience. When information is presented tangentially in space, rather than separated on multiple slides, it can present a more complete picture.
Below are a few examples of what Tufte would call “super graphics.” These graphics are obviously more suited to print than digital media, and they do require a fair amount of study to get the full picture, but that’s one of Tufte’s points.
What would you add to Tufte’s basic principles? Are they outdated or still fresh and modern? And do “super graphics” have a place in today’s digital world? Let me know what you think in the comments below.
P.S. For dessert, please take a moment to check out one of my favorite examples of visual info display, The Music Animation Machine. I find it brilliant in its simplicity, and hypnotic to watch. Enjoy.
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