The ability to craft (and deliver) a good presentation should be in the quiver of every designer, right along side their Moleskine and Micron pens. I use presentations to unravel a vague idea or requirement to be sure I completely understand all of the facets and details. If I can’t clearly explain a topic or idea then I need to go back to the project stakeholder and regroup. In some cases this will uncover holes that need to be address even before I start sketching out a wire frame.

1. INFLUENCING CHANGE
THROUGH PRESENTATIONS

2. HOWDY!
my name is
TRAVIS ISAACS
and I’m an
INTERACTION
DESIGNER *
http://flickr.com/photos/dustinaskins/1430483437/ 2 * among other things

3. Q Have you sat through a bad presentation?
3

4. Q Have you sat through a bad presentation?
Q Why was it bad?
4

5. Q Have you sat through a bad presentation?
Q Why was it bad?
Q What do you remember about it?
5

6. Q Have you sat through a bad presentation?
Q Why was it bad?
Probably nothing.
Q What do you remember about it?
6

7. A vicious circle
Bad
presentations Bad
communication
Less
training
Death by PowerP Bad
(a
relations
oint
Less nd how to fight it)
money Less
sales
Alexei Kapterev
7

8. Q HOW DO I INFLUENCE CHANGE?
A PRESENTATIONS

9. NOT A SILVER BULLET.

10. n
ago our fathers brought forth o d
Four score and seven years nceived in Liberty, and dedicate
n, co
this continent a new natio en are created equal.
to the proposition that all m
ether
a great civil war, testing whted, can
Now we are engaged in conceived and so dedica
, so
that nation, or any nation n a great battle-field of that war. We
long endure. We are met o rtion of that field, as a final resting
have come to dedicate a po ve their lives that that nation might
a
place for those who here g and proper that we should do this.
live. It is altogether fitting
n not
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate—we ca ve men,
allow—this ground. The bra it, far
consecrate—we can not h gled here, have consecrated
living and dead, who strug d or detract. The world will little
above our poor power to ad hat we say here, but it can never
note, nor long remember w is for us the living, rather, to be
It
forget what they did here. ished work which they who fought
dedicated here to the unfin advanced. It is rather for us to be
here have thus far so nobly task remaining before us — that
here dedicated to the great e take increased devotion to that
from these honored dead w e last full measure of devotion —
th
cause for which they gave that these dead shall not have died
that we here highly resolve under God, shall have a new birth of
in vain — that this nation, ment of the people, by the people,
freedom — and that governish from the earth. 10
for the people, shall not per

11. http://www.norvig.com/Gettysburg/index.htm
n
ago our fathers brought forth o d
Four score and seven years nceived in Liberty, and dedicate
n, co
this continent a new natio en are created equal.
to the proposition that all m
ether
a great civil war, testing whted, can
Now we are engaged in conceived and so dedica
, so
that nation, or any nation n a great battle-field of that war. We
long endure. We are met o rtion of that field, as a final resting
have come to dedicate a po ve their lives that that nation might
a
place for those who here g and proper that we should do this.
live. It is altogether fitting
n not
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate—we ca ve men,
allow—this ground. The bra it, far
consecrate—we can not h gled here, have consecrated
living and dead, who strug d or detract. The world will little
above our poor power to ad hat we say here, but it can never
note, nor long remember w is for us the living, rather, to be
It
forget what they did here. ished work which they who fought
dedicated here to the unfin advanced. It is rather for us to be
here have thus far so nobly task remaining before us — that
here dedicated to the great e take increased devotion to that
from these honored dead w e last full measure of devotion —
th
cause for which they gave that these dead shall not have died
that we here highly resolve under God, shall have a new birth of
in vain — that this nation, ment of the people, by the people,
freedom — and that governish from the earth. 11
for the people, shall not per

12. “Presentations should help us to discuss and
decide on the issues that shape our lives and
organizations.”
Cliff Atkinson - Beyond Bullet Points
12

13. high
Email
Presentation ENGAGEMENT
Report
low
low FIDELITY of INFORMATION high
13

14. “Presentations should help us to discuss and
decide on the issues that slides, lives and
It’s not the shape our it’s
organizations.” you use them.
how
Cliff Atkinson - Beyond Bullet Points
14

15. How do I give a [good, memorable, amazing,
Q inspiring] presentations?
15

16. Guy Kawasaki:
“It’s quite simple: a PowerPoint
presentation should have ten slides,
last no more than twenty minutes,
and contain no font smaller than
thirty points.”
Scott Beale / Laughing Squid - laughingsquid.com 16

17. “Lessig Method”
240 slides ~20 minutes
[VIDEO]
17

18. “No more than
Six words on a
slide. EVER.”
Mike Gould, www.mondodyne.com 18

19. 19

20. “Bullet points
create obstacles
between presenters
and audiences...”
20

21. “Many true statements are too long to fit on a PP
[PowerPoint] slide, but this does not mean we should
abbreviate the truth to make words fit. It means we should
find a better tool to make presentations.”
Edwarde Tufte, edwardtufte.com 21

22. “Many true statements are too long to fit on a PP
“POWERPOINT IS EVIL”
[PowerPoint] slide, but this does not mean we should
abbreviate the truth to make words fit. It means we should
find a better tool to make presentations.”
Edwarde Tufte, edwardtufte.com 22

23. Prescriptive, not descriptive
Text
23

24. TIP
UNDERSTAND
PURPOSE
24

25. WHAT IS
THE PURPOSE
OF YOUR
PRESENTATION?

26. WHAT IS
THE PURPOSE
OF YOUR
PRESENTATION?
or- application, website, feature, etc.

27. http://flickr.com/photos/82409598@N00/585974241/
EXPLORE

28. http://flickr.com/photos/98635529@N00/317715920/
ALIGN

29. http://flickr.com/photos/trishabrunner/1399735883/
INSPIRE

30. INFLUENCE PROTOTYPE
UNDERSTAND CHOOSE
DEFINE IMPLEMENT
RESEARCH LEARN
IDEATE CHANGE

31. INFLUENCE PROTOTYPE
UNDERSTAND CHOOSE
DEFINE as important as what
IMPLEMENT
Understanding purpose is
just
RESEARCH in the slide LEARN
you put
IDEATE CHANGE

32. TIP TELL A STORY
32

33. Not that kind of story...
Our Fishing Tr
ip
http://flickr.com/photos/9803968@N08/1605754211/

34. Not that kind of story...
Our Fishing Tr
ip
the story of how you came to
this conclusion
http://flickr.com/photos/9803968@N08/1605754211/

35. 35

36. “Humans spent thousands upon thousands of
years developing/evolving the ability to learn
through stories. Our brains are tuned for it.
Our brains are not tuned for sitting in a
classroom listening passively to a lecture of
facts, or reading pages of text facts.”
Kathy Sierra
36

37. Rememb er Muliplication Tables?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/basak/391016492/

38. http://www.flickr.com/photos/basak/391016492/

39. Even multiplication tables
tell a story
(albeit, a boring one)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/basak/391016492/

40. A calculator can’t
tell a story
http://www.flickr.com/photos/basak/391016492/

41. Intriguing
W hat makes a good story?
Provocative
Identification
Emotional
Engaging
Revealing
Conversational
http://flickr.com/photos/flisspix/225315476/ 41

42. “...a meaningful story inspires belief in you and renews
hope that your ideas indeed offer what you promise.
Genuine influence goes deeper than getting.”
STORY FACTOR by ANNETTE SIMMONS
42

43. Intriguing
prestory?tion
senta
W hat makes a good
Provocative
Identification
Emotional
Engaging
Revealing
Conversational
http://flickr.com/photos/garrettdimon/1423843432/in/set-72157602121290543/ 43

44. Silke Schümann 44

45. quot;What begins to matter more [than mere data] is the
ability to place these facts in context and to deliver them
with emotional impact.quot;
Dan Pink
45

46. TIP SHOW, DON’T TELL
46

47. “The software is being stretched far beyond it’s
original intended design to accommodate new
features.”
47

48. The software is being stretched far
beyond it’s original intended design
to accommodate new features.

49. TIP SHOW, DON’T TELL
http://headrush.typepad.com/creating_passionate_users/2005/12/_but_is_it_memo.html 49

50. http://headrush.typepad.com/creating_passionate_users/2005/12/_but_is_it_memo.html 50

51. http://flickr.com/photos/11849973@N00/1308764271/
51

52. 1. Introduction
The goal of the project is to design and implement a user-friendly interface that will allow
Domain T146181
n.ch/problem/mod/C Managers to access (read and/or write access) the business rules that are implemented in
http://consult.cer the workflow to enforce Service Level Agreements in the PRMS application.
collaboration.
y much for your
We thank you ver The goal of this document is to propose a design for the SLA form that meets all the
requirements, as described in the User Requirement Document, version 2.4.
Timing Details:
--------------- The rest of this document presents typical use cases and snapshots of the corresponding
screens of s status in
thi the Remedy User Tool for better clarity.
Status for this
case is Open. For IT Remedy - P
IT Services / Mas
/ User 2 describes
RMS
s Storage / AFS Sectionking days. Typical use cases for creating/modifying SLA business rules:
the time limit has been def
ined to 3 wor
Design Docum
1. Accessing DomainAdministration form
es the case to be
resolved ent for the SLA
Ple ase note: the SLA
definition requir Creating a New SLA Entry
to Fixed) within
5 wor
2. g days.
kin Form
(and status set 3. Modifying a SLA Entry ired
when the time lim
it has exp Proposal
l be triggered in to you,
Another alarm wil will be sen4. aga
t Copying an existing SLA Entry Version 1.3 – Jun
taken. It e 2003
if no action is ll@cern.ch
to: Harry.Rensha 5. Deleting a SLA Entry Catherine Charb
and onnier, FIO/SAO
- Vincen
Section 3 describes additional PRMS Templates in order to send the SLA alarms. t Doré, FIO/SAO
1”:
Example for “ESCALATION Level Section 4 describes how to modify the PRMS Template “New” that sends the
acknowledgement mail to the user as it will make use of SLA variables.
Notes: This is the Desig
n Document for
Requ the SLA form in
1. All forms will irements Dowithout version
be called cument the prefix “PRMS:” for the Remedy PRMS the
easier reading of
2.4. application based
document. on the User
2. As usual, in a form, mandatory fields are in Bold.
History
Author
Document creati Date
on v. C. Charb Comments
1.0 onnier 23 April
2003 Creation
Document upda
te v.1.1 C. Charb
onnier 13 May 20
03 Comments from
Nicole Cremel an
Roger Woolnou d
gh (mainly abou
Templates). Co t
Document upda mments from Vin
te v.1.2 C. Charb Doré. cent
onnier 15 May 20
03 Corrections aft
Document upda er the SLA Desig
te v.1.3 C. Charb Meeting with PR n
onnier 25 June MS Domain Ma
2003 Update about SP nagers.
and On Hold Tim
ers.
vices
posed by the IT Ser
Services domain pro
sible text in the IT
For informa tion, example of pos
Domain Manager:
ctrl)
to afs account gif
rm (what happened
- SLA Level 1 ala
Subject: CT146181 2
mann@cern.ch 20
Cc: Bernd.Poller
1
52

53. tracker.garrettdimon.com
1. Introduction
The goal of the project is to design and implement a user-friendly interface that will allow
Domain T146181
n.ch/problem/mod/C Managers to access (read and/or write access) the business rules that are implemented in
http://consult.cer the workflow to enforce Service Level Agreements in the PRMS application.
collaboration.
y much for your
We thank you ver The goal of this document is to propose a design for the SLA form that meets all the
requirements, as described in the User Requirement Document, version 2.4.
Timing Details:
--------------- The rest of this document presents typical use cases and snapshots of the corresponding
screens of s status in
thi the Remedy User Tool for better clarity.
Status for this
case is Open. For IT Remedy - P
IT Services / Mas
/ User 2 describes
RMS
s Storage / AFS Sectionking days. Typical use cases for creating/modifying SLA business rules:
the time limit has been def
ined to 3 wor
Design Docum
1. Accessing DomainAdministration form
es the case to be
resolved ent for the SLA
Ple ase note: the SLA
definition requir Creating a New SLA Entry
to Fixed) within
5 wor
2. g days.
kin Form
(and status set 3. Modifying a SLA Entry ired
when the time lim
it has exp Proposal
l be triggered in to you,
Another alarm wil will be sen4. aga
t Copying an existing SLA Entry Version 1.3 – Jun
taken. It e 2003
if no action is ll@cern.ch
to: Harry.Rensha 5. Deleting a SLA Entry Catherine Charb
and onnier, FIO/SAO
- Vincen
Section 3 describes additional PRMS Templates in order to send the SLA alarms. t Doré, FIO/SAO
1”:
Example for “ESCALATION Level Section 4 describes how to modify the PRMS Template “New” that sends the
acknowledgement mail to the user as it will make use of SLA variables.
Notes: This is the Desig
n Document for
Requ the SLA form in
1. All forms will irements Dowithout version
be called cument the prefix “PRMS:” for the Remedy PRMS the
easier reading of
2.4. application based
document. on the User
2. As usual, in a form, mandatory fields are in Bold.
History
Author
Document creati Date
on v. C. Charb Comments
1.0 onnier 23 April
2003 Creation
Document upda
te v.1.1 C. Charb
onnier 13 May 20
03 Comments from
Nicole Cremel an
Roger Woolnou d
gh (mainly abou
Templates). Co t
Document upda mments from Vin
te v.1.2 C. Charb Doré. cent
onnier 15 May 20
03 Corrections aft
Document upda er the SLA Desig
te v.1.3 C. Charb Meeting with PR n
onnier 25 June MS Domain Ma
2003 Update about SP nagers.
and On Hold Tim
ers.
vices
posed by the IT Ser
Services domain pro
sible text in the IT
For informa tion, example of pos
Domain Manager:
ctrl)
to afs account gif
rm (what happened
- SLA Level 1 ala
Subject: CT146181 2
mann@cern.ch 20
Cc: Bernd.Poller
1
53

54. 54

55. http://www.cuteoverload.com/ 55

56. http://www.cuteoverload.com/ 56

57. http://www.cuteoverload.com/ 57

58. http://www.cuteoverload.com/ 58

59. http://www.cuteoverload.com/ 59

60. Fidelity not Duplicate labels
needed are clumsy
Lacks visual
heirarchy Call to action?
60

61. Fidelity not Duplicate labels are clumsy
needed
handwriting font
suggests informality
Fidelity not Speech bubble = comment
Lacks visual needed
heirarchy Call to action?
SImple way to give informal, textual comments
or to preserve or punctuate dialog.
61

62. Virtual “Clipping”
SUBJECTIVE / QUALITAT
Focused on
Experienc
(People, Activities, Cont
Meaningful
Has personal significanc
Pleasurable
Memorable experience worth
62

63. SLIDES DON’T MAKE
TIP GOOD READING
MATERIAL.
63

64. SLIDES DON’T MAKE
GOOD READING
TIP For your, or your audience
MATERIAL.
64

65. 65

66. Characters per page Characters/IN2
Physicians’ Desk Reference 13,600 168
Guinness Book of World
4,600 162
Records
Nytimes.com 4,100 44
PowerPoint slide 250 3
The Cognitive Style of Powerpoint: Pitching Out Corrupts Within - Edward R. Tufte 66

67. Characters per page Characters/IN2
Physicians’ Desk Reference 13,600 168
Guinness Book of World
4,600 162
Records A few seconds
Nytimes.com of reading material 4,100 44
PowerPoint slide 250 3
The Cognitive Style of Powerpoint: Pitching Out Corrupts Within - Edward R. Tufte 67

68. The audience can read
faster than you can speak.
68

69. 69

70. “If all you want to do is create a file of facts and
figures, then cancel the meeting and send in a report.
Do it in PowerPoint if you want, but it’s not a
presentation, it’s a report. It will contain whatever you
write down, but don’t imagine for a second that you’re
powerfully communicating any ideas.”
Seth Godin
70

71. G ot room for one more?
71

72. hard to read?
72

73. what are you
trying to tell me?
73

74. what’s the story?
74

75. slides a free.
It’s ok to splurge.
75

76. Too many slides
76

77. Simple concepts can
be hard to understand
when presented over
too many slides.
how did i
get here?
77

78. DON’T LET CHART
TIP JUNK GET IN THE
WAY OF YOUR STORY
78

79. •Bullet 7%
•Bullet 8%
10% 35%
•Bullet 11%
•Bullet 29%
•Bullet
79

80. Risks Risks Caused by Risk Mitigation
Delivery date risk due to a The XYZ application is not web Utilize resource augmentation to
gap identified in the current service enabled and the work to expedite the application
XYZ application. enable the application is not development.
funded at this time.
80

81. Risks Risks Caused by Risk Mitigation
Que?
Delivery date risk due to a The XYZ application is not web Utilize resource augmentation to
gap identified in the current service enabled and the work to expedite the application
extras application. enable the application is not development.
funded at this time.
81

82. Risks Risks Caused by Risk Mitigation
Delivery date risk due to a The XYZ application is not web Utilize resource augmentation to
gap identified in the current service enabled and the work to expedite the application
XYZ application. enable the application is not development.
funded at this time.
The problem:
XYZ application is not web service enabled
Causing:
The delivery date to slip
The solution:
Resources
82

83. • Increase market share by 25%
• Increase profits by 30%
• Increase new-product introductions
83

84. • Increase market share by 25%
It’s Increasethe bullet that’s
• not profits by 30%
bad, it’s the delivery
• Increase new-product introductions
84

85. If we... We will... Then we can...
Increase market share Increase profits Increase new products
85

86. • Increase market share by 25%
bullets and by 30%
• Increase profits summaries don’t
inspire belief.
• Increase new-product introductions
86

87. Good presentations influence change
87

88. Good presentations influence change
88

89. Have A
Clear
purpose
Good presentations influence change
88

90. Have A
Clear
Stories create
purpose
influence
Good presentations influence change
88

91. Have A
Clear
Stories create
purpose
influence
Good presentations influence change
Visuals create
memories
88

92. Have A
Clear
Stories create
purpose
influence
Good presentations influence change
Visuals create Avoid communication
memories barriers
88

93. ACTIVIT Y!
89

94. 90

95. 91

96. 92

97. 93

98. 94

99. I have two computers, can I share files and
Q my printer between them?

100. ETHERNET
ETHERNET ETHERNET
Yes! Connect your computers and printer
A together with ETHERNET!

101. ETHERNET is a technology developed by Xerox, Intel,
DEC in 1976 to allow devices to communicate over a
single cable.
http://flickr.com/photos/ahkitj/20853609/ 97

102. NETWORK
ETHERNET
ETHERNET ETHERNET
A group of ETHERNET connected
devices is called a NETWORK.

103. NETWORK
ETHERNET
In justETHERNET slides, we:
4 ETHERNET
Asked a question you want answered
Used imagery to make things memorable
told a story
didn’t bore you
A group of ETHERNET connected
devices is called a NETWORK.

104. “A subtle yet powerful shift occurs when you seek to
influence wise decisions rather than “right” decisions.”
STORY FACTOR by ANNETTE SIMMONS
100

105. THANKS!
me
travis@travisisaacs.com
my blog