I will be giving a webinar for Adobe on various aspects of the Extreme Presentation method on Wednesday, March 17 (St. Patrick's Day!) at 10 a.m. Pacific Time. More details here
Selected by duarte
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The Extreme Presentation(tm) Method
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Presentations that Drive Action: Webinar
9 Feb 2010 | 11:52 am -
Prezi: the compromise breaker
25 Jan 2010 | 8:54 amI am very excited about Prezi. I commented on it briefly in a post some months ago, and have been spending some time with it since then. Yesterday they announced an upgrade, including revisions to their editor, including simple addition of YouTube video and easier text editing. Here's why I'm excited about it. I think Prezi is one technology that can actually bridge the gap between Ballroom and Conference Room style presentations. People who who follow this blog, or who have read Advanced Presentations by… -
Extreme Presentation workshops in Australia and Asia
25 Jan 2010 | 7:05 amWe are happy to announce that the High Performance People Group of Melbourne, Australia are now offering the Extreme Presentation workshop in Australia and Asia. Justin O'Brien, founder and President of the group, came to Washington DC in December for his advanced training in the Extreme Presentation method, and is now certified to deliver the Extreme Presentation workshop. Justin blogs here. -
Advanced Presentations by Design on sale at Amazon.com
8 Jan 2010 | 7:55 amGood news. Advanced Presentations by Design is now being offered by Amazon.com at a more competitive price of $32.18, 28% off it's list price of $45.oo. -
Pre-emptive Strikes: how to field tough questions
19 Nov 2009 | 3:33 pmTom Antion is a renowned public speaking expert; I asked him if he could share a few thoughts on fielding tough questions from your audience, and I'm grateful for this guest post he has written in response: Here are some rules to follow when you are expecting tough questions tocome up during your presentation. 1. Show that you understand their point of view. Restate yourunderstanding of how they feel before you offer your answer. 2. Use appropriate Self effacing humor. One time I took a large archerytarget and hid it on stage before the audience arrived. Near the beginning of my speechI…
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slide:ology
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Favorite fan mail…that has made it through
8 Feb 2010 | 3:03 pmI *heart* fan mail. There is nothing better than hearing from you guys. We’ve been getting so much mail that we’ve decided to take the load off by setting up specific accounts for different needs. Our goal is to stay better organized so we can respond to your questions faster. If you’re interested in working with us on a project, contact: info@duarte.com If your question is specific to our workshops or webinars, send it to: training@duarte.com For all things media-related, including speaking engagements, contact: tracy@duarte.com All fan mail, and additional questions/comments go… -
Beyond Bullet Points: Interview with Nancy Duarte
5 Feb 2010 | 5:30 pmIf you’re interested in presentation design, you’ve heard of Cliff Atkinson. His best-selling book, Beyond Bullet Points, has inspired many people to break away from the traditionally bullet-heavy presentation format. His book has also inspired a blog, to which Meryl Evans is a frequent contributor. Meryl recently interviewed Nancy Duarte on behalf of the Beyond Bullet Points blog. (Say that ten times fast.) Nancy and Meryl chatted about what makes a presentation effective and memorable (a story), what makes a story good (it moves your audience), and why sketching and drawing at… -
Product Launches Should be a Big Deal
1 Feb 2010 | 4:39 pmMatt Lauer said that the launch of Windows 7 was the most important launch Microsoft had done in ten years. If that’s true, why’d it suck so much? Each month I receive a publication called “Vital Speeches.” Last month’s issue included a transcript of Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer’s launch presentation. Please don’t let this speech discredit the folks at Vital Speeches, it’s a great publication. But really, couldn’t Microsoft’s herd of press folks have come up with a catchier title? While writing the next book, I’ve been in speech analysis-mode, and have considered… -
Five Predictions for 2010
22 Jan 2010 | 10:47 amLast year was our first year for making predictions: http://blog.duarte.com/2009/01/five-predictions-for-presentations-in-2009/. I’m late to the party again this year, but I feel pretty excited about what 2010 will bring. In the year 2010… 1. Presentations and social media will blur. Audience and presenters will have 2-way communication. It won’t just be about the audience twittering to the backchannel. 2. There’ll be another movie about a slide show. Or, if there isn’t a movie about a slide show… there might be a movie about slides. Or a celebrity will use slides to create a… -
Your Data Wants a Makeover
15 Jan 2010 | 3:23 pmSimplicity does not necessarily mean skimping out on the meat of your presentation. When handled correctly, complex scenarios and data can still be included while being transformed into something that is easily comprehensible to the average audience member. No, this does not mean packing seemingly endless charts, tables, and graphs onto every slide. What it does mean is that with the right finessing, even incredibly complex data can be picked apart and rearranged in a simple and engaging way. “The Power Gap” (a new animated infographic by Airside) is a great example of making a…
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The BBP Blog by Cliff Atkinson
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Interview with Nancy Duarte
4 Feb 2010 | 4:02 pmWhat makes an effective presentation? I recently interviewed Nancy Duarte, CEO and principal of Duarte Design and author of slide:ology, to find out what she thinks. You don’t have to go far to figure out Duarte is passionate about story-telling and using effective visuals to tell the story. Meryl Evans: A person is trying to create a presentation that tells a story, but struggles to make it flow. What’s a good way to turn your topic into a story that flows? Nancy Duarte: Seems to me, if you don’t have a flow, the story isn’t really quite there yet. There are many… -
Webinar: “The Backchannel – A Presenter’s Nightmare or a Dream Come True?”
14 Jan 2010 | 11:34 amJoin me at 10am Pacific Time on Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2010 for a webinar sponsored by SlideRocket titled The Backchannel: A Presenter’s Nightmare or a Dream Come True? The session description is below – I hope you can join me! Register now at this link. The Backchannel: A Presenter’s Nightmare or a Dream Come True? with Cliff Atkinson Ready or not, the backchannel has arrived! Armed with laptops and smartphones, audiences are no longer sitting quietly while speakers are talking – instead they’re using Twitter and other tools to create a backchannel where they chat with one… -
My new book “The Backchannel” now available at online retailers
3 Dec 2009 | 4:47 pmBuckle your presentation seatbelts, because the backchannel is coming! I’ve spent the last part of the year writing my new book The Backchannel: How Audiences are Using Twitter and Social Media and Changing Presentations Forever, which is now available at online retailers and soon in a bookstore near you. The Backchannel explores the dramatic changes that are coming soon in the field of presentations. The idea of the book was conceived at the South by Southwest Interactive Conference in March 2009, where I witnessed how audiences there were using Twitter to communicate with one… -
Getting Started with the BBP Story Template
9 Jul 2009 | 8:32 amThe BBP story template helps you organize and outline your thoughts for a presentation before working with PowerPoint. I recently created a presentation on the value of Twitter to businesses, and worked through the sequence of Act I: the Setting, Role, Point A, Point B and Call to Action slides. Act I sets up your story with key elements to identify the setting, main character and conflict. Sound familiar? We all learned this in grade school English. The easiest one: main character. That would be your audience. Setting Setting doesn’t point to the location of the presentation. -
8 Ways to Extend Your Presentations
29 Jun 2009 | 4:03 pmWith social media growing as a popular resource for businesses to reach out and connect with customers and prospects, presenters need to look outside of the room where they give presentations. Sharing them on the Internet establishes your expertise, shows how you think, spreads your brand and provides yummy link juice. Here are eight ways you can squeeze more out of your hard work in creating your beautiful bullet-free presentation. Record your presentation. With so many digital cameras and technologies readily available for low prices today, it’s easier to record your presentation.
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TEDTalks (video)
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TEDTalks : Peter Eigen: How to expose the corrupt - Peter Eigen (2009)
8 Feb 2010 | 8:40 amSome of the world's most baffling social problems, says Peter Eigen, can be traced to systematic, pervasive government corruption, hand-in-glove with global companies. At TEDxBerlin, Eigen describes the thrilling counter-attack led by his organization Transparency International. -
TEDTalks : Tom Shannon: The painter and the pendulum - Tom Shannon (2009)
5 Feb 2010 | 7:08 amTED visits Tom Shannon in his Manhattan studio for an intimate look at his science-inspired art. An eye-opening, personal conversation with John Hockenberry reveals how nature's forces -- and the onset of Parkinson's tremors -- interact in his life and craft. -
TEDTalks : David Agus: A new strategy in the war on cancer - David Agus (2009)
4 Feb 2010 | 7:00 amTraditionally, David Agus explains, cancer treatments have had a short-sighted focus on the offending individual cells. He suggests a new, cross-disciplinary approach, using atypical drugs, computer modeling and protein analysis to treat and analyze the whole body. -
TEDTalks : George Whitesides: A lab the size of a postage stamp - George Whitesides (2009)
3 Feb 2010 | 7:01 amTraditional lab tests for disease diagnosis can be too expensive and cumbersome for the regions most in need. George Whitesides' ingenious answer, at TEDxBoston, is a foolproof tool that can be manufactured at virtually zero cost. -
TEDTalks : Jamie Heywood: The big idea my brother inspired - Jamie Heywood (2009)
2 Feb 2010 | 7:37 amWhen Jamie Heywood's brother was diagnosed with ALS, he devoted his life to fighting the disease as well. The Heywood brothers built an ingenious website where people share and track data on their illnesses -- and they discovered that the collective data had enormous power to comfort, explain and predict.
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information aesthetics
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An Animated Infographic Annual Report
8 Feb 2010 | 3:42 pmDan Meyer's infographically translated statistics about the year 2009 shows an original and animated view on the now popular practice of publishing one's life as data. The data contains several dozen statistics about the pop culture he consumed, the people he talked to, the (Belgian...) beer he drank, the places he visited, the vehicles he took to those places, and the amount of sleep he enjoyed each day. These statistics was spread across several thousand cells of a spreadsheet, which were then condensed and animated into the 2.5-minute video clip. As one commenter smartly puts it, animating… -
Data Fiction: Storytelling with Information Graphics
4 Feb 2010 | 4:53 pmThe combination of storytelling and information visualization has been long predicted, although still very few examples do exist. On the other hand, some might claim typical information aesthetic visualization is all about tell a compelling story. Following project takes infographic storytelling one (literal) step further: Sumedicina [janalange.de] is the title of a fictional thriller story about an international virus scandal, and is mainly told through the medium of infographics. One might not feel completely sure whether this is just an excuse to create a collection of visually impressive… -
Huge Interactive Signpost Shows the Direction to Favorite Locations
4 Feb 2010 | 1:00 amThis gigantic, interactive signpost sponsored by Nokia Ovi Maps in the form of a dynamically rotating electronic LED screen allows passers-by to send in their favorite location and coordinates via text or email. The giant pointer, hung on a 60ton construction on height of 50m, then automatically rotates to the given direction and displays the submitted description to the world. Watch the documentary video below. See also the Nokia Blog [1,2] and FarFar. Via Engadget. -
Ward Shelley: Infovis Oil Painting Artist
3 Feb 2010 | 9:35 pmUnknown to me before, visual (infovis?) artist Ward Shelley [wardshelley.com] comes as a refreshing surprise. Shalley's impressive oil paintings and pencil drawings use real information in an attempt to depict the understanding of how things evolve and relate to one another, and how this develops over time. Usual topics range from art or cultural history, such as the arc of an artist's career and its influences, or the effect of particular ideas in an aesthetic or political movement. The paintings are interpreted as being "wide-screen", as all information is available to the interacting eye… -
Information Landscapes in 1994 (MIT Prof Muriel Cooper)
1 Feb 2010 | 10:32 pmBack in 1994, Muriel Cooper, one of the co-founders of the MIT Media Lab where she taught interactive media design as the head of the Visible Language Workshop, presented her work at the TED5 conference in Monterey, CA. Her presentation would initiate a new era of data visualization, and it changed the way designers thought of the possibilities of electronic media. (Maybe quite similar to how David Small's dynamic renditions of text changed my way of thinking about 3D visualization). Her work was revolutionary as it pushed typography into the 3 spatial dimensions, and augmented it with…
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FlowingData
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Track Mouse Activity On Your Computer
9 Feb 2010 | 12:31 amAnatoly Zenkov provides this nifty tool (Mac and PC) to track your mouse pointer. Really simple. Just start it, let it run, minimize the window, and carry on as usual. In the end, you get this image that looks something like a Pollock. Circles show areas where the pointer didn't move while the tracks show movement. The above is my own activity during the past couple of hours. I was just randomly browsing while watching the Laker game, so it's kind of all over the place. Run while using a single application for a while, and you might see something like Zenkov's tracks on Photoshop. What do… -
Data Underload #8 – Unsolicited
8 Feb 2010 | 12:56 amA few months back, the Caltrans Performance Measurement System (PeMS) opened up a brand spanking new forum where people could discuss how they used the group's traffic data. They created an email list to tell everyone about the new forum. The problem is that PeMS used a single address to email everyone. So when someone "replied all," he would in turn email every single person on the list. What followed was a long thread of emails that (entertaining) morning. This is that email thread. It got ugly quick (and kind of inappropriate towards the end). Let this be a lesson to you site… -
Weekend Fodder
7 Feb 2010 | 12:30 pmHere are some links and stuff to chew on as you wait for the Super Bowl, in between the beer, pizza, and wings. Pink Floyd Timeline, 1960-2000 - A highly stylized timeline of music from Pink Floyd over the years. The making of the NYT’s Netflix graphic - The interactive showing the geography of Netlfix rentals was a big hit around the Web. Detailed, engaging, interesting, and a great ad for Netflix. An Interview With Nicholas Felton, Creator of the Feltron Annual Report - It manages to make a bigger splash every month. Felton gets into some of the details of compiling the report [thanks,… -
Undergraduate Summer Program for Statistics
5 Feb 2010 | 11:28 amIf you're an undergraduate with an interest in data and statistics, you should definitely consider applying to this one-week summer program: Explorations in Statistics Research. It's in Boulder, Colorado and your travel expenses, along with room and board, will be covered. The seven day workshop is designed so that students get a sense of how statisticians approach large, complex problems. Several different topics will be presented over the course of the week. You'll also get hands-on experience with computing and visualization tools. Basically, you're going to have fun with data when you're… -
Excessively Labeled Airplane Tells You Where the Big Cheese Sits
5 Feb 2010 | 12:51 amIn case the in-flight pamphlet isn't enough for you, everything on this Kulula airplane is labeled for your convenience. Look, there's even a spot to put your boots. So convenient. [Thanks, Fernando]
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Guy Kawasaki
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How to Avoid Gullibility
8 Feb 2010 | 3:45 pmWe’ve all been sucked into doing something stupid, right? Fortunately, Steven Greenspan has written a book called Annals of Gullibility. In its conclusion he explains how to avoid gullibility, and I’ve provided a synopsis for you. Read the full story at the American Express Open Forum. More on psychology if you need the advice. -
How to Be Empathetic
4 Feb 2010 | 10:24 pmBy definition, good marketers are empathetic. That is, they have a capacity to understand and care for the needs of others. Bruna Martinuzzi explains how to be empathetic over at the American Express Open Forum. -
How to Not Be Annoying on Twitter
4 Feb 2010 | 10:19 pmAmber MacArthur explains how to not be annoying on Twitter over at the American Express Open Forum. Sage advice for you to develop a great reputation and following on Twitter. More Twitter tips. -
The Elements of Guyle: British Blogging
27 Jan 2010 | 10:06 pmWant to make your blog classier? You should blog like a Brit. I explain how to do this in ten easy steps. -
How to follow the Apple announcement
27 Jan 2010 | 7:56 amFollow the Apple announcement at Apple.alltop. We aggregate over 200 sources there.
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Seth Godin
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TEDthink
9 Feb 2010 | 3:00 amCan you factor this? If you're like most people, you get a little queasy at the thought. And when you were in tenth grade, you surely wondered why they were bothering you.(the answer is (x-2) times (x-2), in case you were curious.)It turns out that the real reason you needed to do this work was to be able to play with numbers in your head. Abstract numerical thought is an important skill among educated people.Which brings us to TED, a conference held every year in Long Beach. It's going on right now. Watch a few TED videos and try to get ahead of the speaker. They have an idea...it's probably… -
Frightened, clueless or uninformed?
8 Feb 2010 | 2:57 amIn the face of significant change and opportunity, people are often one of the three. If you're going to be of assistance, it helps to know which one.Uninformed people need information and insight in order to figure out what to do next. They are approaching the problem with optimism and calm, but they need to be taught. Uninformed is not a pejorative term, it's a temporary state.Clueless people don't know what to do and they don't know that they don't know what to do. They don't know the right questions to ask. Giving them instructions is insufficient. First, they need to be sold on what the… -
The least I could do
7 Feb 2010 | 3:35 amOne way to think about running a successful business is to figure out what the least you can do is, and do that. That's actually what they spent most of my time at business school teaching me.No sense putting more on that pizza, sending more staff to that event, answering the phone in fewer rings... what's the point? No sense being kind, looking people in the eye, being open or welcoming or grateful. Doing the least acceptable amount is the way to maximize short term profit.Of course, there's a different strategy, a crazy alternative that seems to work: do the most you can do instead of the… -
iPad app of my dreams: the digital talking pad
6 Feb 2010 | 8:10 amHere's the spec. If you build it and it's great, I'll use it and I'll blog it.A while ago, I posted about the talking pad and a modern version of it.I think there's a killer app version of this for the iPad, and I hope someone will build it. The talking pad is an interactive presentation tool for smart people.OverviewIt's a very simple concept: a collection of pages (slides, images, type, let's call them pages) that are easy to navigate in a non-linear way. Along with the standard zoom features, I'd like to be able to write on any of them in real time using my finger. I can also call up, on… -
The relentless search for "tell me what to do"
6 Feb 2010 | 2:26 amIf you've ever hired or managed or taught, you know the feeling.People are just begging to be told what to do. There are a lot of reasons for this, but I think the biggest one is: "If you tell me what to do, the responsibility for the outcome is yours, not mine. I'm safe."When asked, resist.
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Digital Roam
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My first public "back of the napkin" training conference March 4-5 in San Francisco. 10 seats left.
20 Jan 2010 | 10:53 amOver the past two years, I've had the opportunity to share live my "back of the napkin" visual thinking approach with somewhere around 10,000 people in 20 states. (That's not including dozens of webinars reaching a dozen countries.) Now for the first time, I'm offering my full two-day training conference to the public. This is the full version of the same workshop I've delivered to Microsoft, eBay, Boeing, Gap, Kraft, Frito-Lay, Cisco, the US Navy, and the United States Senate. Back of the Napkin Training ConferenceView more presentations from Dan Roam. The… -
Unfolding the Napkin is available!
28 Dec 2009 | 10:22 pmAfter 18 months of effort on the part of many people (Adrian, Ted, Courtney, Will, Amanda, Mark, Tom, Les, Isabelle, Sophie, Celeste, and everyone who provided feedback along the way -- you know who you are!) I am overjoyed to announce that as of today Unfolding the Napkin: The Hands-On Method for Solving Complex Problems with Simple Pictures is here and available! If you enjoyed drawing on The Back of the Napkin, I think you'll really enjoy Unfolding it. It's not just the sequel, it's a remarkably different reading, seeing, and drawing experience; a complete do-it-yourself 4-day… -
Napkins at 35,000 feet
26 Dec 2009 | 8:11 amDelta airlines flight attendant Jewel Van Valin found a unique way to help passengers relax on long flights following the bleak days of 9-11. She gave them crayons and asked them to draw. She found that the mood of passengers changed dramatically when they put crayon to paper. She's kept the drawing in flight tradition going ever since and now has 3,000 sketches created by her passengers. The Palm Springs Air Museum now has a show of Jewel's passengers' visual thinking. Photographer Ricky Mia has taken excellent photos of Jewel and her passengers at work. He also links to this… -
Napkin. Unfolded.
14 Dec 2009 | 4:36 pmThis holiday season has officially started at our house: I just received the first box of copies of my new book from Portfolio. Unfolding the Napkin: The Hands-On Method for Solving Complex Problems with Simple Pictures is here. (Well, almost. Although it's available for pre-order at all the online retailers, it won't be shipped until Dec. 29.) I'm excited about this book. Thanks to you, feedback on The Back of the Napkin came in from around the world over this past year and a half, and the most common theme was a request for more do-it-yourself exercises. I created Unfolding the… -
The Men Who Stare at Boats
7 Dec 2009 | 5:17 pmThe Strategic Studies Group is located at the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island. This group reports directly (and solely) to the Chief of Naval Operations in the Pentagon. The SSG is tasked with coming up with revolutionary ways of thinking about conflict and winning wars. I was honored to be invited to give a full "back of the napkin" workshop to the senior officers of the SSG. Last week I packed up my tablet PC and whiteboard and headed off to face the bracing December winds of Newport. Although I'm not at liberty to share what we talked about, I can say that I had an…
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800-CEO-READ Blog
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What’s in a name?
9 Feb 2010 | 12:35 pmI know a lot of people who just don’t read business books. It’s just not something they’re interested in. Maybe the perception is that a book can’t provide all the answers, or that they’ll figure things out on their own. Maybe “business” is something they’d rather not admit they take part in. Yet, these same people have jobs, go to work everyday, have the same issues, goals, etc. as those of us who do avidly read business books. For those who do read them, think about how different your life would be if you hadn’t read these things? Where… -
The Rubber Macondo.
9 Feb 2010 | 7:02 amIn the early part of the last century, Henry Ford was one of the most influential and admired men in the world. He was an industrialist-philosopher, building a new, mechanized Eden in America. He hired men of every color, nation and religion and payed them an unheard-of five dollars a day to stand in one place at work and live a clean life at home (Ford had a Sociological Department that sent hundreds of agents into Dearborn and Detroit to investigate employee’s lives and write up personnel reports). He had a benevolent supremacy over everything in his factories, from its workers to the… -
Stressed out?
8 Feb 2010 | 1:05 pm2009 was a challenging year, and the challenges haven’t stopped in 2010. In fact, we all are likely working even harder to dig ourselves out of last year, or maintain our solid standing in the current one. With that work, comes stress, and unless we manage that stress properly, our hearts will pay the price. Dr. John M. Kennedy’s new book just came out. Titled, The 15 Minute Heart Cure: The Natural Way to Release Stress and Heal Your Heart in Just Minutes a Day, the book provides a preventative approach to managing stress, and taking care of your heart. This isn’t just a… -
Friday Links
5 Feb 2010 | 6:49 pm➻ Today is the first birthday of what we call in the office “our book,” The 100 Best Business Books of All Time by Jack Covert and Todd Sattersten. Todd wrote a happy birthday post for the book, and I gave away the last of the 100 best books we have to give away today on inBubbleWrap. ➻ The new issue of Portfolio’s Business Beat is out. As usual, our dear Mr. Covert has his “Just Jack” corner. This month, he discusses Discovering the Soul of Service by Leonard Berry. You can read more about the other features of the latest Business Beat on The Portfolio… -
Elbowroom: Space the Final Frontier
5 Feb 2010 | 7:52 amThe time has come for 800CEOREAD to move into their new space! It’s been a long time coming and we’re still trying out different things that work for us to get settled in nice and cozy like. Here’s a few pictures of what it’s like so far. It’s not the finished situation, yet, but it will give you an idea of the layout. It’s been a long wait – but we think it’s worth it! Happy Friday, everyone!
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Word of Mouth Marketing
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Free Kills
9 Feb 2010 | 6:00 amEveryone is all excited about the idea of free. Free software, free content, and Chris Anderson’s book, Free: The Future of a Radical Price. But it’s not always good. When something is given away free, it kills the market for similar products. iTunes is a very adequate music manager. But it doesn’t work well for large collections, multiple users, or home networks. By giving it away to almost everyone, there is no more market for music manager software. No one is ever going to pay for it again, so no software developers have a reason to build something better. RSS feeds… -
Job opportunity: We’re looking for a brilliant director of sales
8 Feb 2010 | 1:00 pmWe’re quickly growing here at GasPedal and have an immediate opening for a director of sales for our Social Media Business Council community. A few must-have qualities: Proven BtoB sales experience with VP- and C-level execs at large corporations Strong knowledge of social media and word of mouth marketing Consultative and approachable — our product is a long-term community membership; this is a relationship-building position Honest, trustworthy, and ethical Sales are brisk and the product is popular. Current members include Procter & Gamble, Dell, Wells Fargo, Microsoft, Home… -
7 smart rules of social media manners
8 Feb 2010 | 6:00 amSome great business blogging advice (and life advice) from Christopher Burgess of Cisco: You Are Responsible: There are no do-overs. There is an adage, “Once posted, forever toasted,” which serves to highlight the reality that your information, data and content will be available to one and all, seemingly forever, and it is guaranteed to revisit you sometime in the future. Abide by the Rules: Individuals are accountable for their actions. This is a basic tenet of public discourse and elucidation. Don’t share your company’s confidential data. Don’t speak about… -
Superbowl
7 Feb 2010 | 5:14 pmZe Frank speaks for me: Best line: “Everyone knows it takes millions of dollars to create compelling content.” Ze’s Website Share: -
How to scare away new customers
7 Feb 2010 | 6:00 amWe ordered a sample pack of a new kind of computer paper. We even paid $10 for the samples. They charged us $10 shipping. We ordered $150 worth of parts from a catalog on our first order. We forgot a few things, so we bought $20 more. There was a $4 ’small order fee’. There are certain moments when you know you just found a new customer: First phone call, first visit, asking for samples, new customer buys twice in a week. Set up a process to identify these actions. Give them extra samples. Send them links to how-to videos. Include a coupon for a free upgrade on the second order.
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Indexed
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How good is good?
9 Feb 2010 | 8:09 am -
Eww, slimy.
8 Feb 2010 | 8:00 am -
Architecture, romance, careers, whatnot.
5 Feb 2010 | 4:36 am -
Just rotten.
4 Feb 2010 | 4:34 am -
They are out to get you. And they’re stealthy, too.
3 Feb 2010 | 4:33 am
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VizThink Blog
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VizLinks | Visual Thinking Bookmarks for February 8th
8 Feb 2010 | 2:00 pmA collection of visual thinking links found on the web in the past few days by our editors & vizthink community contributers. Have a link suggestion? Tweet it or add it to delicious and be sure to tag it with vizthink. These are the links for February 8th: Color Theory for Designers, Part 1: The Meaning of Color – Smashing Magazine – Liked this article? You may also enjoy:VizLinks | Visual Thinking Bookmarks for February 4th VizLinks | Visual Thinking Bookmarks for February 7th VizLinks | Visual Thinking Bookmarks for February 1st -
The Seed (An Animated Voyage)
8 Feb 2010 | 6:45 am‘The Seed’ is the creation of animator/artist Johnathon Kelly, produced in conjunction with Adobe, and is an excellent, animated depiction of the life of an apple seed: The Seed from Johnny Kelly on Vimeo. From the video’s description on Vimeo: A two-minute animated voyage through nature’s life cycle, following the trials and tribulations of a humble apple seed. The film was kindly funded by Adobe, made using their CS4 range of software. It was produced at Nexus Productions and features a soundtrack by Jape. It was made using a mixture of stop motion papercraft and 2D… -
VizLinks | Visual Thinking Bookmarks for February 7th
7 Feb 2010 | 2:00 pmA collection of visual thinking links found on the web in the past few days by our editors & vizthink community contributers. Have a link suggestion? Tweet it or add it to delicious and be sure to tag it with vizthink. These are the links for February 7th: The BBP Blog » Interview with Nancy Duarte – "What makes an effective presentation? I recently interviewed Nancy Duarte, CEO and principal of Duarte Design and author of slide:ology, to find out what she thinks. You don’t have to go far to figure out Duarte is passionate about story-telling and using effective… -
[Rewind] An Interview with Jessica Hagy of ‘This is Indexed’
5 Feb 2010 | 7:03 amOn this week’s VizThink rewind we’ve pulled an interview Tom Crawford did with Jessica Hagy back in November of 2008. Jessica is the creator of “This is Indexed” and I have no doubt that you’ve encountered one of her humorous venn diagrams or other charts over the past couple of years. This visual podcast runs about 20 minutes, so it’s a pretty quick listen but it gives you some great insight into Jessica’s process. Indexed by Jessica Hagy at VizThink ‘09 Originally Published November 20, 2008 Visualization can be a very powerful tool. Even… -
VizLinks | Visual Thinking Bookmarks for February 4th
4 Feb 2010 | 2:00 pmA collection of visual thinking links found on the web in the past few days by our editors & vizthink community contributers. Have a link suggestion? Tweet it or add it to delicious and be sure to tag it with vizthink. These are the links for February 4th: GEO Data Portal Posters – The motherload of UN Data related infographic posters… (h/t Randy Krum of Cool Infographics) Liked this article? You may also enjoy:VizLinks | Visual Thinking Bookmarks for January 9th VizLinks | Visual Thinking Bookmarks for January 25th VizLinks | Visual Thinking Bookmarks for December 17th
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Adaptive Path
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Temple Grandin at UX Week 2009
8 Feb 2010 | 9:04 pmOn Saturday, HBO premiered its original film Temple Grandin, and the media exposure around it has definitely raised Ms. Grandin’s profile. We were extremely fortunate to have her speak at UX Week 2009, explaining how her autism affects how she perceives the world, her work with animals, and her experience in what I call “animal-centered design”. Here are videos of her entire presentation (there aren’t many full-length presentations of her online, and I couldn’t find any others where she talks about design). Temple Grandin PART 1 of 2 | UX Week 2009 | Adaptive… -
Signposts for the Week Ending February 5, 2010
5 Feb 2010 | 5:29 pmDon’t call them “whiteboards”! We most definitely find these bamboo dry erase boards compelling. We’re digging on these tips for crafting subtle & realistic user interfaces. Like everyone else, we’re itching to design for iPad. Already some folks have made it a little bit easier: Here’s a collection of iPad UI elements on Flickr, and here are clips from the Apple announcement that focus on the new interactions. As part of some literature research for a client project, we dug up “Instructive Interaction: Making Innovative Interfaces… -
Tricks with Slime Mold
4 Feb 2010 | 11:00 amMy spirit animal is slime mold and I’m not afraid to admit it. This stranger-than-fiction life form has become the poster child of self-organizing systems, and the experimentation is getting interesting. I’m a bona-fide member of the Slime Mold fan club, and it’s inspired a collection of thoughts about how companies can leverage the bottom-up, self-organizing methods that slime mold has mastered. Now honestly, I’m more of a dictyosteliomycota fan. But I’m not against admiring the myxomycota branch of the family. After all, what’s not to love about an… -
Analytics – The Usability Lab of the new decade
3 Feb 2010 | 9:22 pmBrandon started a discussion on an internal mailing list, asking, “The usability lab is now the ________ ?”, and explaining: 10 to 15 years ago the usability laboratory was the must-have for vetting and testing your design ideas. But more nimble development processes and new tools seem to have superseded the usability lab. Some of these are: remote screen sharing and screen recording tools and services voice of the customer feedback systems, like Get Satisfaction and other SaaS tools A/B testing and multi-variant testing remote co-design tools like online card sorting survey tools… -
30 seconds to creativity
2 Feb 2010 | 9:26 amI tweeted a while back that it’s been discovered you can boost creativity with side-to-side eye movement. People who watched a target moving side-to-side for 30 seconds have been tested as producing significantly more ideas when immediately given a creative task. This technique is, “thought to increase the cross-talk between the hemispheres.” So I put together both a PowerPoint and Keynote file to help you do the same thing. Try it out before your next design session, and let us know if you think it works!
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Information Design Watch
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Brainstorming A History of the World
5 Feb 2010 | 11:07 amRattle offers its first blog post on developing the user experience strategy for “A History of the World,” the companion web site for the BBC Radio 4 series of the same name. Written and narrated by Neil MacGregor, Director of the British Museum, the radio program travels through two million years to tell the history of humanity through 100 handmade objects from the Museum, ranging from a stone chopping tool to the cell phone. The web site enables exploration of these objects in detail, but also gives users the opportunity to participate by commenting on the collection or… -
Easy = True
2 Feb 2010 | 10:21 amAn interesting article on “cognitive fluency” offers this great infographic: Reporter Drake Bennett leads with the fact that “that shares in companies with easy-to-pronounce names do indeed significantly outperform those with hard-to-pronounce names.” He continues: Other studies have shown that when presenting people with a factual statement, manipulations that make the statement easier to mentally process – even totally nonsubstantive changes like writing it in a cleaner font or making it rhyme or simply repeating it – can alter people’s judgment of the… -
Rendered in Neat Circles
2 Feb 2010 | 6:43 amPopular Science links to another interesting information graphic on space exploration. This one, designed by Michael Paukner, illustrates the number of human-created objects orbiting Earth — and assigns responsibility: You can view larger versions on Paukner’s Flickr page. The title of my post comes from the Popular Science URL: see-space-debris-cloud-surrounding-earth-rendered-neat-circles. Ironically, this summarizes the problem with the visualization. Despite the attractiveness of the graphic, the neat circles show linear values by area, making precise comparisons completely… -
Real-Time Bus Location
30 Jan 2010 | 6:23 pmUsing GPS and Google Maps, MASCO — the Medical Academic and Scientific Community Organization, Inc., of Boston, Massachusetts — offers this elegant real-time bus map for its shuttle service. The map shows buses in service, their location, and their direction of travel. For folks waiting at the bus stop, the service is accessible via web-enabled phone at http://shuttles.masco.org/m. -
Why Hospital Data is Growing: Genetic Testing, EMRs, and the “-Ologies”
29 Jan 2010 | 1:21 pmAs a UX consultant with clients in the healthcare arena, I’m not unfamiliar with the kinds of data needed by employees on a hospital intranet, or by current and prospective patients on a public site. But I’m usually more concerned about the best way for people to find this information, rather than where it’s coming from and how it gets managed. So I was especially interested in the Global Information Industry Center at UCSD’s eye-opening report on data growth in hospitals. (If the group’s name sounds familiar, these are the same folks who recently concluded…
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Andy Sernovitz's Damn, I Wish I'd Thought of That!
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Free Kills
9 Feb 2010 | 6:00 amEveryone is all excited about the idea of free. Free software, free content, and Chris Anderson’s book, Free: The Future of a Radical Price. But it’s not always good. When something is given away free, it kills the market for similar products. iTunes is a very adequate music manager. But it doesn’t work well for large collections, multiple users, or home networks. By giving it away to almost everyone, there is no more market for music manager software. No one is ever going to pay for it again, so no software developers have a reason to build something better. RSS feeds… -
Job opportunity: We’re looking for a brilliant director of sales
8 Feb 2010 | 1:00 pmWe’re quickly growing here at GasPedal and have an immediate opening for a director of sales for our Social Media Business Council community. A few must-have qualities: Proven BtoB sales experience with VP- and C-level execs at large corporations Strong knowledge of social media and word of mouth marketing Consultative and approachable — our product is a long-term community membership; this is a relationship-building position Honest, trustworthy, and ethical Sales are brisk and the product is popular. Current members include Procter & Gamble, Dell, Wells Fargo, Microsoft, Home… -
7 smart rules of social media manners
8 Feb 2010 | 6:00 amSome great business blogging advice (and life advice) from Christopher Burgess of Cisco: You Are Responsible: There are no do-overs. There is an adage, “Once posted, forever toasted,” which serves to highlight the reality that your information, data and content will be available to one and all, seemingly forever, and it is guaranteed to revisit you sometime in the future. Abide by the Rules: Individuals are accountable for their actions. This is a basic tenet of public discourse and elucidation. Don’t share your company’s confidential data. Don’t speak about… -
Superbowl
7 Feb 2010 | 5:14 pmZe Frank speaks for me: Best line: “Everyone knows it takes millions of dollars to create compelling content.” Ze’s Website Share: -
How to scare away new customers
7 Feb 2010 | 6:00 amWe ordered a sample pack of a new kind of computer paper. We even paid $10 for the samples. They charged us $10 shipping. We ordered $150 worth of parts from a catalog on our first order. We forgot a few things, so we bought $20 more. There was a $4 ’small order fee’. There are certain moments when you know you just found a new customer: First phone call, first visit, asking for samples, new customer buys twice in a week. Set up a process to identify these actions. Give them extra samples. Send them links to how-to videos. Include a coupon for a free upgrade on the second order.
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The Moth Podcast
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Ted Conover: All Prisoners Lie
8 Feb 2010 | 7:55 amWhile working as a prison guard in Sing Sing, Conover pays a price for the tough attitude he develops as a survival skill. Ted Conover’s new book, The Routes of Man: How Roads Are Changing the World and the Way We Live Today, will be released on February 9. His book Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize. He is also the author of Rolling Nowhere; Coyotes: A Journey Across Borders with America’s Mexican Migrants and Whiteout: Lost in Aspen. -
Malcolm Gladwell: Her Way
1 Feb 2010 | 8:30 amA well-intentioned wedding toast goes horribly awry for a young man and his friends. Malcolm Gladwell is a staff writer for The New Yorker and author of the best sellers “Blink,” “The Tipping Point,” “Outliers,” and “What the Dog Saw.” -
Ed Gavagan: Golf Clubbing
25 Jan 2010 | 8:07 amThe screwball tale of the child of a tough drill sergeant who is injured on a Texas military base in the early 1970’s. Ed Gavagan has lived in NYC since Ed Koch was mayor and has built and designed furniture on four continents. -
Jerry Mitchell: Beneath the Sheets
18 Jan 2010 | 11:15 amWhen a reporter uncovers unpunished crimes from the Civil Rights Movement, he begins to pursue the suspects, putting himself at great risk. Jerry Mitchell, an investigative reporter at The Clarion-Ledger in Jackson, Mississippi, was a 2006 Pulitzer Prize finalist. Over the past 20 years, his stories have helped put four Klansmen behind bars. We are thrilled to announce that he is a 2009 recipient of a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Genius Grant, which allows him to spend more time pursing Klansmen. -
Tony Hendra: Rock and Roll Parody Saved My Life
11 Jan 2010 | 4:11 pmA young writer at the end of his rope gets inspiration from a surprising source. Tony Hendra’s latest book George Carlin’s Last Words is currently in the NY Times Top 15 Best-Sellers, and is on sale now at www.amazon.com. He is also the author of Father Joe: The Man Who Saved My Soul and The Messiah of Morris Avenue: A Novel.
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Yahoo! News: Business
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Atmel's losses widen; shares climb on better sales (AP)
8 Feb 2010 | 6:46 pmAP - Atmel Corp.'s loss widened in the fourth quarter as the chip designer wrote down the value of its business, but its sales rose and investors pushed up its stock price after hours Monday. -
Obama's health care summit: Just for show? (AP)
8 Feb 2010 | 6:05 pmAP - Could this turn into something more than political theater? President Barack Obama's televised dialogue with Republican lawmakers on health care, promised for later this month, has the makings of an entertaining exchange. But the differences between the basic Democratic and GOP ideas are stark — and the two sides have increasingly hardened their positions in this election year. -
Still no word from Toyota on Prius recall (AP)
8 Feb 2010 | 5:26 pmAP - Toyota is close to recalling as many as 300,000 of its popular Prius hybrids over brake problems, according to Japanese media — a decision that would further embarrass a trusted brand suddenly beset by safety problems. -
Iowa AG files charges over film tax credits (AP)
8 Feb 2010 | 4:25 pmAP - Two filmmakers, their companies and the former manager of the Iowa Film Office were accused Monday of mishandling tax incentives designed to lure moviemakers to the state. -
AstraZeneca gets OK for expanded Crestor use (AP)
8 Feb 2010 | 4:02 pmAP - Federal regulators have granted AstraZeneca approval to market its cholesterol pill Crestor as a preventive measure against heart attack and stroke in patients with healthy cholesterol levels.
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PostSecret
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Sunday Secrets
7 Feb 2010 | 12:47 pmPostSecret is an ongoing community art project where peoplemail in their secrets anonymously on one side of a postcard.-----Email Message-----That's a Starbucks card and not a credit card...That's probably not helping your debt problem...Order Your Copy Today Amazon Barnes & Noble Books-A-Million Booksense Borders Brookline Booksmith Independent Booksellers Politics and Prose Powells Rainy Day Books Tattered Cover Book Store Watermark Books Close PostSecret on Facebook -
PostSecret News
7 Feb 2010 | 12:36 pmThe German version of PostSecret - PostSecretDeutsch - opened an exhibit of cards yesterday at the Tübingen City Museum, in Germany.The KSU PostSecret Exhibit opened last week in the Sturgis Gallery. Contact International Arts & Artists for PostSecret Exhibit information.Contact Keppler Speakers for Live PostSecret Event information.PostSecret Media ContactI'll see you this Saturday at the American Visionary Art Museum's Annual Fundraiser. "Dress Happy"There's Always Hope. . .
