[Novalug] Presentation over Power Point?

Soren Harward stharward@gmail.com
Mon May 2 19:18:20 EDT 2011


On Sat, Apr 30, 2011 at 10:23 PM,  <cmhowe@patriot.net> wrote:
> Has anyone on this list taken his two-day course? Own his books?
>
> more than one who knows how to do things Tufte's way. Tufte is scheduled
> to teach his signature two-day course in the Washington area in a few
> days. My feeling is, if you are willing to make the effort to attend, are
> able to learn the material and hold a job where that ability can be put to
> use, it would be worth the $380 it costs.

I have "The Visual Display of Quantitative Information", and did a
guest lecture on data presentation in my graphic design class when I
was in grad school, which was basically a 1-hour synopsis of Tufte
reframed to start from elements of visual art instead of elements of
data presentation.  I think Tufte's principles are immensely useful if
you already have a basic understanding of plotting and data
presentation, as long as you don't take him too seriously.  His
minimalist aesthetic should be balanced by more conventional
aesthetics; yes, an asymmetrical box-and-whisker plot conveys the same
information that a symmetrical one does, but the symmetrical one just
"looks better".

On the other hand, from what I've heard of his course, I don't think
it's worth dropping $380 for unless that kind of money means nothing
to you.  And if that kind of money means nothing to you, you're
probably better off paying someone to do your slide decks for you, and
sending them to the seminar instead.

Speaking of which, this is actually one of main reasons why many
presentations are so terrible: the person who is giving the
presentation is not the one who designed the slides.  The presenter
just looked over the slides the morning or night before (or hour
before) the presentation, so the slides are as much a crutch for the
presenter to tell him what he should talk about as they are a visual
aid to help the presenter tell the audience what he wants to tell
them.

-- 
Soren Harward



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