Echo Presentations

Why I Love The 2015 Starbucks' Red Holiday Cups

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 01 Dec 2015 20:04:00 +0000

Did you hear that the 2015 Starbucks’ Red Holiday Cups have received a lot of criticism? Yes, some people even said the new cups represent a “War on Christmas” as they don’t explicitly say “Merry Christmas” on the side, nor do they have any immediate visual links to the festivity. According to the critics, Starbucks is not embracing the true spirit of Christmas.

Here’s my opinion: I love the new cups.

The only war these cups might be fighting is a fair war against crappy design. Unlike in previous years where Starbucks designed more traditional holiday cups, this year they opted for a minimalistic approach. A simple red cup, no “Merry Christmas” on the side, no stupid fonts, no snowflake, no decoration. Yet, the new cups look seasonal, because the colour is highly associated with Christmas.

2008 Starbucks's Red Holiday Cup - Simon Schoeters via Flickr

Starbucks vice president of design said: "This year we wanted to usher in the holidays with a purity of design that welcomes all of our stories.” To me, “purity” is the word that better explains the idea behind the new design.

This year’s holiday cups are a great example of “less is more.” Starbucks’ designers have managed to achieve the result everybody expected (a seasonal look) with less (a simple red cup).

In a Fast Company article In Defense Of Starbucks' Red Holiday Cups, John Brownlee nicely explained why he loves the new cups:

“I love the new Starbucks Red Holiday Cups. I love them because they don't have a cartoon character of an anthropomorphic reindeer with a clear intellectual disability on the side. I love them because they don't say "Merry Christmas" or "Happy Holidays" on them in some tacky novelty font where every ascender or descender is covered in fake snow, and every tittle has been replaced by a bulb ornament. I love them because they make a statement. Christmas doesn't have to be synonymous with godawful design. It can, instead, have a little class, and serve as a quiet analog to the chaos of the season.”

I can only agree with him.

Instead of worrying about the cups, the critics should be focusing their complaints on what’s inside the cups. I’d support them in that topic.

IMAGE: Fast Company

3 Essential Steps To Avoid Designing Useless Slides

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 25 Oct 2015 13:22:00 +0000

Warning: this slide may seriously hurt your eyes.

This is a real slide made by a real company in a real business meeting

When I first looked at it I thought “there is something completely wrong in the way most companies make presentations”.

The problem

The problem is we use PowerPoint too much. We make slides for everything, even for communicating where the toilet is.

Think about it, what’s the first thing coming to you mind when you are asked to make a presentation? I bet it’s PowerPoint (or any other presentation tool for that matter). That’s exactly the problem: people associate presentations with a tool and not with a story. [Tweet this] That’s why you have slides for communicating that “toilets are located just outside in the corridor”.

The reason why most presentations are poor is because we spend time making slides rather than crafting a story. In fact, making slides should be the last bit of the presentation process. Remember, slides are incredibly powerful when they amplify your message—but when they don’t, they are incredibly useless. In fact, they work against your message.
Audiences would be better off if most slides were eliminated. Trust me, you would do your audience a favour by getting rid of most of the slides you use. Have you ever thought about presenting with no slides at all?

As Garr Reynolds put it, “Presenting 100% naked may not be appropriate for every case, but stripping down as much as we can often will make a huge, refreshing difference. The result will be a presentation that is different and somehow more real, “real” like a frank conversation among friends.”

The solution

I suggest you follow this 3-step process when deciding whether you need slides or not.

(1) Use a message map
A message map is a simple tool that helps you structure your story. Here’s how it works. Write down the single message you want your audience to take away. Then, find three main points that support your key message. Your presentation will be based on those three points. Here’s a short video of Communication Coach Carmine Gallo showing how to use the message map and explaining why he believes it works all the time.

(2) Plan analog
Close your laptop, get away from it and craft your story with pen and paper. You should translate your message map into slides on a piece of paper first. And you should do that only if you think slides can amplify your message. You’ll be much more creative by planning your presentation in an analog way.

(3) Open PowerPoint (if you can't resist)

Only once you’ve planned your presentation “analogically” should you open PowerPoint—and only if you think slides can help you get your message across. But you don’t have to. When in doubt, don't.

3 Essential Steps To Avoid Designing Useless #Slides https://t.co/0yzvqCr6oO #EchoPresentations pic.twitter.com/DmGdcHpmHo
— Andrea Pacini (@echopresent) October 25, 2015

IMAGE: Sebastiaan ter Burg

The Ideal Length Of Any Presentation

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 21 Sep 2015 18:25:00 +0000

No matter what your topic is, the ideal length of any presentation ranges from 10 to 20 minutes at most.

Take TED. Given that their talks are watched about 2 million times per day, I guess we should ask ourselves what makes them so special. One of the reasons is the length of the talks. Regardless of who you are, TED doesn't allow you to speak for more than 18 minutes. Yes, even Bill Gates has to comply to this rule.

If you think about it, 18 minutes are more than enough to present your topic. They are enough to change your audience from a state in which they don’t know your topic to a state in which they do.

TED curator Chris Anderson didn’t choose this time constraint by chance, but rather it was a considered choice. According to him,

“It [18 minutes] is long enough to be serious and short enough to hold people’s attention. It turns out that this length also works incredibly well online. It’s the length of a coffee break. So, you watch a great talk, and forward the link to two or three people. It can go viral, very easily. The 18-minute length also works much like the way Twitter forces people to be disciplined in what they write. By forcing speakers who are used to going on for 45 minutes to bring it down to 18, you get them to really think about what they want to say. What is the key point they want to communicate? It has a clarifying effect. It brings discipline.”

What is the key point you want to communicate? That’s the question you should always be asking yourself before presenting. You need to make tough decisions about what to include and what to leave out. But if you do this exercise, you can be sure you’ll present only what matters to your audience and leave the rest out. When you feel tempted to include everything, remember that if everything is important, nothing is important.

“If everything is important,

nothing is important.”

Just like Twitter “forces people to be disciplined in what they write”, the 18-minute rule forces people to be disciplined in what they say. Creativity thrives under constraints. Therefore, limiting the length of your speech to 18 minutes or less promotes creativity.

I know what you’re thinking. I’m not convinced — how can I say everything I need to say in just 18 minutes? Okay, then consider the following:

John F. Kennedy delivered one of the most famous inaugural addresses in U.S. history in 15 minutes
Steve Jobs delivered one of the most famous commencement addresses ever in 15 minutes
Martin Luther King gave the “I Have a Dream” speech in 17 minutes

Here we are talking about speeches that made history. People made history in 15 minutes.

Still not convinced? Okay. David Christian narrated the complete history of our world in 18 minutes. If you analyze his speech, he actually took his audience on a 13.7 billion year journey—from the Big Bang to us humans—in about 12 minutes. 12 minutes to go through 13.7 billion years of history.

Hope I've convinced you now.

IMAGE: Martin L. King via NewNowNext

Two Super Easy Ways To Make Numbers Entertaining

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 01 Aug 2015 10:14:00 +0000

This post is about a problem I see with many presentations and a solution to fix it.

Problem
Presentations include too much data. To be more precise, presenters often include numbers and statistics without making them digestible for their audience. How often have you sat looking at slide after slide…after slide…and the only thing you’ve seen were numbers?

The problem, though, is not the numbers themselves. The problem is that numbers are not presented in a way that an audience can relate.

“Numbers are not presented in a way that an audience can relate.” [Tweet this]

Solution
In order for your audience to understand your data, you need to give them some context. How do you do that? There are two ways.

Put your data in perspective
Tell a story behind your data

(1) Put your data in perspective

I’ve recently stumbled upon a great Forbes article by Carmine Gallo where he explains this technique in detail. I’m going to recap the main points for you.

He wrote that statistics are hard to remember for two main reasons:

They are abstract
There is often no context around the numbers

By putting data in perspective, you’ll “turn abstractions into memorable images.”

Let me give you two examples:

This one is a personal experience of Carmine. He was meeting with an executive and talked about how to communicate his company’s environmental record, given that they had planted more than two million trees in the past. Instead of just showing this big number, they decided to say, “Two million trees. To put it in perspective, that’s the equivalent of 90 Central Parks.” Two million trees means nothing to many people. But 90 Central Parks is loads of trees. It means a lot!

Apple rarely show a statistic without putting it into perspective. For example, when vice president Phil Schiller introduced the new MacBook Pro, instead of saying it was 0.71 inches thick, he said, “It’s thinner than my finger.”

The point is that you shouldn't let your audience figure out what your numbers mean. Give them some context. Context will make any number relatable.

“Don't let your audience figure out what your numbers mean. Give them some context.” [Tweet this]

(2) Tell a story behind your data
Another way to make your audience understand your data is to tell a story behind it. Surprisingly, I haven’t learnt this presentation technique from a communication specialist, but rather, wait for it…a rock star.
In 2013, U2’s Bono delivered a fantastic TED talk: The Good News On Poverty. In this must-watch presentation, Bono always followed statistics with a story that brought the data to life.

Here’s an example:

“Since the year 2000, since the turn of the millennium, there are eight million more AIDS patients getting life-saving antiretroviral drugs. Malaria: There are eight countries in sub-Saharan Africa that have their death rates cut by 75 percent. For kids under five, child mortality, kids under five, it’s down by 2.65 million a year. That’s a rate of 7,256 children’s lives saved each day. Wow.”

Let’s be honest, how many details do you remember about what you’ve just read? The mistake most presenters make is they stop at the statistics. Unless you are a rock star presenter, in which case you would say something along those lines:

“Seven thousand kids a day. Here’s two of them. This is Michael and Benedicta, and they’re alive thanks in large part to Dr. Patricia Asamoah — she’s amazing — and the Global Fund, which all of you financially support, whether you know it or not.”

Bono showed this slide as he told the story.

That’s how you bring data to life. As Garr Reynolds recently tweeted:

No one remembers the data but they remember a personal story. Use real examples from the real world about real people to support the data.
— Garr Reynolds (@presentationzen) June 12, 2015

If you want your audience to grasp and enjoy your numbers, either put them in perspective, or follow them with a story, or do both.

IMAGE: Bono at TED 2013 via Jim Fruchterman - Flickr

10 Practical Tips To Design Your Next Presentation Like A Pro

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 19 Jul 2015 14:42:00 +0000

I want to give you the knowledge you need to design your next presentation like a pro.

I’ve recently made a presentation for a student who had to discuss his Master thesis to an audience on his graduation day. I’m going to use that presentation as an example for you to learn 10 basic design concepts that will take your presentations to the next level.

(The slides are in Italian, but I only want you to focus on the design. For the purpose of this article, the language and the content don't matter).

(1) Start strong

The first slide is the most important one. It sets the tone for what comes next. You need to use it to arouse curiosity. You want your audience to get intrigued. A high-quality image that supports your topic is always a good choice. This before-after slide shows you how most students would design the first slide of their Master thesis presentation and how they really should design it. Which one do you prefer?

(2) Use the rule of three

The rule of three is one of the most important concepts in communication theory. It means that people can only hold about three pieces of information in short-term memory. Therefore, split your presentation into three separate sections. I know this cannot always be done—but when possible find a way to use this rule. You’ll give your narrative structure and make sure your audience will remember your [three] main points. Apple uses this trick all the time.

(3) Never use bullet points

One of the main reasons why Death by PowerPoint is in everybody’s vocabulary today is bullet points. There is always an alternative to the boring bullets. An idea is to use icons instead.

(4) Display data effectively

The key to displaying data for maximum impact is to leave out all the elements that don’t add value to an audience’s understanding of your message. I’ve recently interviewed Rick Altman, host of the Presentation Summit. Speaking about data display, he said “most of the time you are sharing proportional data, [that is] how this thing relates to that thing. You could do that with two rectangles, one of them being longer than another one.”

How often do you really need a background? Do you need the lines across it? The answer, my friend, is no you don’t. In many cases you don’t even need the axes.

Extra tip: don’t use the title of your chart as the title of your slide. Instead, use a short message that tells the story behind the data. In the slide below, instead of “GDP and public debt” I wrote “Debt raises while GDP stays flat”. You’ll make it easier for your audience to immediately grasp the meaning of your chart. Remember, what’s important is not the data, but the story behind the data.

“What’s important is not the data,

but the story behind the data.” [Tweet this]

(More on data display here)

(5) Use hierarchy

If one element is more important than another, show it! One way to do that is by using hierarchy. Here’s how I used it in this slide:

Title: Raleway Bold, 36 points
Chart legend: Raleway Regular, 30 points
Source and numbers: Raleway Light, 20 points

From a visual point of view, the tile is more important than the legend, which in turn is more important than the data source.

(6) Go big or go home

If there is one thing you really want your audience to remember, make it big. If it’s important for your listeners to know the inflation rate is 1.2%, then that’s what you should do. Again, Apple does it all the time.

(7) Combine images and text

In visual communication, there are few things more powerful than a high-quality image combined with text. By no coincidence billboards are often designed that way. They need to grasp people’s attention in a matter of seconds—and so should your slides.

Extra tip: Use the rule of thirds. Imagine to break down your slide into thirds—both vertically and horizontally—so that you have four intersecting points. Then place the key elements of your visual either along one of the dividing lines or on the intersecting points.

Extra tip 2: Apply the same filter to your images. Here’s a small trick: create a rectangular shape of the colour you want to use for setting the tone of your presentation and place it underneath each of your images. Then substantially reduce the opacity so that the shape fades away. In my presentation I’ve used a blue shape and brought the opacity down to 20%. If you look carefully, each image has a blue tone.

Extra tip 3: Make sure images and text flow into each other. Notice where this woman is looking at? She is exactly looking at the text. I haven’t placed the text there by coincidence. As soon as you show such a slide, people will naturally look at the woman first and then follow her eyes towards the text. That’s exactly what you want them to do.

(8) Use colour wisely

I’ve already written about colour theory here and how to apply the theory here. To sum up, don’t use random colours. For example, the reason why I’ve used blue, red and white is because those are the national colours of Japan. Also, I didn’t use any red, but rather the same red as in the Japanese flag. (I then adjusted the shade to make it stand out better).

(9) Achieve unity

You may be thinking that some of these tips are too meticulous to even get recognised. However, it all adds up. If you apply them, you’ll come up with a unified presentation where all the elements work together to support your design as a whole. You’ll make sure your elements don’t compete with each other, but rather support each other towards a common goal of communicating your message. You’ll make sure your elements belong together.

(More on achieving unity here).

(10) Give credits

Never use somebody else’s images or design elements without giving appropriate credit. As one said, ”Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God’s.”

If you want to take your presentations to the next level, please reach me out at andr.pacini@gmail.com.

IMAGE: Nathanael Coyne via Flickr

Six Scientifically Proven Principles of Persuasion (VIDEO)

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 06 Jul 2015 18:19:00 +0000

Don’t do what you think might be right, do what science tells you is right.

Whether in business, in communication or in any activity you might be involved in, understanding the psychology of why people say yes is of invaluable benefit.

In Influence, Dr. Robert Cialdini revealed his evidence-based research on what moves people to change behaviour. According to the Journal of Marketing Research, “[Influence] is among the most important books ever written for marketers”. Above you find an animated video that summarises the book. The ideas in this article are mainly taken from that video.

Dr. Cialdini’s research demonstrates that we don’t consider all the available information to guide our decision making. Rather, we use shortcuts.
These shortcuts are the 6 universal principles of persuasion.

Reciprocity
Scarcity
Authority
Consistency
Liking
Consensus

“Influence is among the most important books ever written for marketers.”

— Journal of Marketing Research

(1) Reciprocity

Idea: we feel obliged to give when we receive. If a colleague does you a favour, you are more likely to return the favour.

Example: when you go to restaurants, you often get a small gift at the end of your meal—usually at the same time of the bill. A study conducted in several restaurants aimed to understand whether the giving of a mint had any influence over how much tip people would leave. Here are the findings:

when waiters gave a mint, tips increased by 3%
when they gave two mints, tips increased by 14%
interestingly, when waiters gave one mint, went away and then came back to the table saying “for you nice people here’s an extra mint”, tips increased by 23%. We feel obliged to give when we receive.

Key to remember: be the first to give and give something that’s personalised and unexpected.

(2) Scarcity

Idea: people want more of those things they can have less of.

Example: when British Airways announced in 2003 they would no longer operate their twice-daily London-New York flight, the next day sales took off. Why? Easy, the flight became a scarse resource, so people wanted it more.

Key to remember: it’s not enough to highlight the benefits of the products or services you are selling. You also need to make your prospective customers understand why your product is unique and what they lose if they don’t buy it.

(3) Authority

Idea: people follow credible experts.

Example: if a doctor shows his diploma in his studio, you are more likely to trust him. If a person asks you for money to park somewhere, you are more likely to give the money if he wears a uniform rather than casual clothes.

Key to remember: it doesn’t have to be you telling your potential clients you are brilliant. You can find other people to do that for you. That’s exactly what many online services do: they use experts who have already embraced an idea to convince others to follow them. Here’s a screenshot of the NextDraft’s landing page. It’s not Dave Pell himself trying to convince you to subscribe to his newsletter—he lets the President of the Atlantic and the Executive Producer of the Daily Show to do that for him.

(4) Consistency

Idea: people like to be consistent with the things they have previously said or done.

Example: a study reduced missed appointments at health centres by 18% simply by asking the patients rather than the staff to write down appointment details on the future appointment card.

Key to remember: the consistency principle is activated by asking for small initial commitments that can be made. Remember, those commitments have to be voluntary.

(5) Liking

Idea: people say yes to those they like. This is fairly intuitive, but science also tells us specific factors that make us like people.

We like:

people who are similar to us
people who pay us compliments
people who cooperate with us towards mutual goals

Example: in a series of negotiation studies carried out between MBA students of two business schools, a group were told “time is money, get straight down to business”. In this group around 55% were able to come to an agreement.
A second group were told “before you begin negotiating, exchange some personal information with each other and identify similarities you have in common. Then, begin negotiating”. In this group, 90% of them were able to come to a successful agreement.

Key to remember: before you start doing business (whether online or offline), look for areas of similarity you share with others and pay genuine compliments.

(6) Consensus

Idea: people look at the behaviour of others to determine their own, especially when in doubt.

Example: visit the Buffer blog and scroll down to the bottom. A message will pop up: “Join more than 2 million people who save time on social media with Buffer”. This technique is used by many websites—and it works. It's a social proof: if you know that more than 2 million people are already using a service, I bet you start thinking it must be a cool service.

Key to remember: instead of relying on your own ability to influence others, you can point to what many others are already doing.

In this article we’ve looked at six scientifically validated principles of persuasion. By implementing these small, practical and costless changes to your activities, you’ll see a big difference in your own ability to make others say yes to your requests.

One Useless Slide You'll Never Design Again

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 20 Jun 2015 08:55:00 +0000

Warning: the slide you are about to see was made by a real company during a real business presentation — and it will hurt your eyes!

When I first looked at it I thought “there is something completely wrong in the way most companies make presentations”.

The problem

The problem is we use PowerPoint too much. We make slides for anything, even for communicating where the toilet is. When looking at a slide like the one above, it’s clear that we became the tools of our tools.

Think about it, what’s the first thing coming to you mind when you are asked to make a presentation? I bet it’s PowerPoint (or any other presentation tool for that matter). That’s exactly the problem: people associate presentations with a tool and not with a story. That’s why you have slides showing that “toilets are located just outside in the corridor”.

“People associate presentations with a tool and not with a story.” [Tweet this]

The reason why most presentations suck is because we spend time creating slides rather than crafting a story. In fact, creating slides should be the last bit of the presentation process. Remember, slides are incredibly powerful when they amplify your message — but when they don’t, they are incredibly useless. In fact, they work against your message.
Audiences would be better off if most slides were eliminated. Have you ever thought about presenting with no slides at all? Who said we need slides?

The solution

I suggest you follow this 3-step process in order to decide whether to use slides or not.

1. Use a message map
A message map is a simple tool that helps you structure your story. Here’s how it works. Write down the single message you want your audience to take away. Then, find three main supporting points. Your presentation will be based on those. Here’s a short video of communication coach Carmine Gallo showing how a business can use a message map to tell its story. According to Gallo, “it is one of the most powerful tools in communication. It works each and every time”.

2. Plan analog
Close your laptop, get away from it and craft your story with pen and paper. I’ve learnt this from Garr Reynolds and I can tell you it’s the most valuable presentation-related piece of advice I’ve ever received. You’ll be much more creative by planning your presentation in an analog way.
You can translate your message map into slides, but (1) on a piece of paper first, and (2) only if they help amplify your message. If not, do not use them.

3. Open PowerPoint (if you can't resist)
Only once you’ve planned your presentation “analogically” should you open PowerPoint. If you’ve decided that slides might help you get your message across, then design visuals that complement your story. But you don’t have to. In fact, when in doubt, don’t!

The slide I showed you above is good for (almost) nothing. But it is good for showing that if we only focus on PowerPoint, we run the risk of becoming the tools of our tools. Next time you are asked to make a presentation, forget PowerPoint, get away from your laptop and think of your presentation as a story, not as a series of slides. [Tweet this]

IMAGE: Business Television

Quick Guide To The Picture Superiority Effect

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 31 May 2015 11:15:00 +0000

Do you know that you are more likely to remember concepts when they are presented to you as pictures rather than as words? This is the Picture Superiority Effect, which has been proven true by several experiments.

Here's a YouTube video that does a great job at explaining this concept in 30 seconds.

Repeat with me: people remember pictures better than words. [Tweet this]

“People remember pictures

better than words.”

Dr. John Medina—molecular biologist and research consultant— wrote Brain Rules, where he shared what scientists know about how our brains work. One of the things they know for sure is that “based on research into the Picture Superiority Effect, when we read text alone, we are likely to remember only 10 percent of the information 3 days later. If that information is presented to us as text combined with a relevant image, we are likely to remember 65 percent of the information 3 days later.”

There are many fields where the Picture Superiority Effect is used. Here are a few examples:

Marketing communications: highly visual billboards, posters and brochures get more attention
Advertising: ads with pictures get more business
Social media: posts with images get more likes and re-shares

As Randy Krum pointed out in his blog Cool Infographics, this ad campaign from Verizon is a perfect example of the Picture Superiority Effect in action.

This map shows Verizon’s network coverage area compared to that of their competitors. Three days after seeing it, what do you think are you more likely to remember, the words or the maps?

What I struggle to understand is why individuals and companies do use the Picture Superiority Effect in their marketing communications, advertising, and social media activities and but not in their presentations. Is a customer presentation less important than a Facebook post?

Instead of designing 40-word slides nobody will remember, use picture superiority to make your presentations more memorable. [Tweet this] A short message supported by a quality image is way more powerful than a full paragraph on a slide.

According to Dr. John Medina, “the brain does not pay attention to boring things”. Because a 40-word slide is indeed a boring thing, then the brain does not pay attention to 40-word slides.

“The brain does not pay attention

to boring things.” — Dr. John Medina

Two more points:

For the Picture Superiority Effect to work, the images must be relevant to the content. You can’t assume that any image would work. Make it relevant!
Picture superiority applies to any visual display, not just images. Therefore, people are also more likely to remember concepts when they are presented to them as charts and graphs rather than as words.

Not convinced yet? Then take this:

“Use the picture superiority effect to improve the recognition and recall of key information. Use pictures and words together, and ensure that they reinforce the same information for optimal effect.”

— Universal Principles of Design (page 152)

Make it visual!

IMAGE: CameliaTWU via Flickr

The Two-Step Formula For Convincing Anyone Of Anything

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 18 May 2015 17:53:00 +0000

Here's a simple yet powerful trick to convince and persuade people to embrace your idea. I’ve learnt it from Marco Montemagno, digital entrepreneur, public speaker, broadcaster and founder of Super Summit.

Premise: if you’re not following Marco Montemagno yet, do start now! He constantly shares great business advice on his social media channels. He is a must-follow especially if you speak Italian, but he also shares content in English.

A few days ago he posted a video about how to convince anyone to do anything. Because it’s in Italian, I’m going to translate the key points for you.

First day of school for one of his sons. 600 wild kids who don’t want to go into their classrooms. The situation is uncontrollable, so much so that all the parents ask themselves how the Head teacher can possibly manage to get the attention of 600 kids. Here’s what she does: she rings a bell until all kids stop doing what they are doing and then says, “do you want to stay here and get bored with your parents (thumbs-down) or do you want to come in your classroom to read wonderful books and get the best sweets of the school (thumbs-up)?”

In a nanosecond, all the kids went to the classrooms.

The communication lesson Marco Montemagno drew from his experience is this: in order to convince someone to embrace your idea, you need to do these two things:

Link frustration to the existing situation, the one you want to change
Link pleasure, desire, advantage to the new situation, the one you want to be in

Think about it, this is exactly what the teacher did.

“Do you want to stay here and get bored with your parents?”. She associated boredom with the situation she wanted to change
“Or do you want to come in your classrooms to read wonderful books and get the best sweets of the school?”. Huge pleasure associated with the situation she wanted to be in

“Associate frustration with the situation you want to change and pleasure with the situation

you want to be in.”

Let me give you a business example. Do you remember how Steve Jobs introduced the first iPhone in 2007? Have a look at this (from 4:37 to 7:40).

When he introduced the Apple’s “revolutionary” user interface, he put two messages across:

The key problem with the then smartphones was that their buttons and controls couldn’t change. They all had keyboards and control buttons fixed in plastic whether you needed them or not
Because every application needs a slightly different user interface, Apple invented a new technology called Multi-Touch, “which is phenomenal. It works like magic.”

Doesn’t that sound familiar? Steve Jobs—Apple's Head teacher—first linked frustration to the existing smartphones by highlighting their main problem; then he linked huge desire to the upcoming iPhone by listing all the reasons why its new user interface was phenomenal.

This simple trick can be used in a myriad of situations. For instance, in a presentation where you introduce your next big thing, or in a chat with your boss where you need her approval to get your project funded. As Marco Montemagno pointed out, even politicians often use this formula to get more votes.

Next time you want to convince anyone of anything, associate a lot of dissatisfaction with the situation you want to change and a lot of pleasure with the situation you want to be in.

If you liked these ideas, say thanks to Marco Montemagno.

IMAGE: marcomontemagno.it

Interview With Rick Altman, Host Of The Presentation Summit

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 10 May 2015 09:27:00 +0000

Rick Altman has a 25-year experience in training and consulting on the whole of the presentation process, from preparation to design and delivery. He is host of The Presentation Summit, an annual conference for presentation professionals held annually. And he is also author of the book Why most PowerPoint presentations suck, and how you can make them better.

Recently I had the pleasure to interview him and here's a recap of what we discussed about.

Why do most PowerPoint presentations suck?

Many people would tell you it’s self-evident. I see three main reasons:

The tool: PowerPoint is probably the easiest program in the Offie suite to start using. Both my daughters started creating slides where they were 10 years old. And while Microsoft would tell you this is one of its virtues, I would tell you that’s a very bad thing. People declare themselves proficient long before they should.

Design: People are asked to design presentations all the time, but very few have a background in graphic design. Most people don’t even know what the word design means. The result is that slides often act as a barrier between speaker and audience.

Speaking: We are asking people to do this thing that they are scared to death to do: speak in public.

Combine these three points and that’s why Death by PowerPoint is in everybody’s vocabulary today.

Can you tell us about The Presentation Summit?

This is our 13th season. For four days we will cover all the facets of the presentation experience, from message crafting to presentation design, software techniques, and delivery. The thing I am most proud of is the way we created a community around this conference. We brought together people who didn’t know where to turn for help with the greatest challenges of giving presentations. Thanks to our Summit, not only have they learnt how to overcome these challenges but they have also made lasting relationships.

This year you have two big names in the communication world. One is Garr Reynolds.

Yes, we don’t deserve such good fortune. This will be his 5th time speaking at the conference. He will be speaking from his home in Japan. In the last couple of years we had him speaking at our Guru Session, which starts at 9pm and goes until midnight (middle of Garr’s day in Japan). It’s for those who can’t get enough of this experience. Last year his appearance was wonderful because he understood it was late for us, in fact we had a lot of beer and wine on that evening. He came with no agenda at all and started taking questions. He was hanging out with us. In fact at one point he actually got a beer too.

What do you like about Garr Reynold’s approach to presentations?

If you look at his work, everything just fits in a magical way. You know that you are in the presence of a brilliant designer when you can’t really explain it. It’s like recognizing fine art, can you describe what it is? Maybe not, but you know it when you see it. I feel that way when I see Garr’s work. His ideas are profoundly simple and he shares them with such an elegance that everybody can relate to.

The other big name is Guy Kawasaki. What is he going to talk about?

He is going to tell us the “10 Things All Presenters Should Do”. From there the sky’s the limit.

I’m sure one of the 10 things will be his famous 10-20-30 rule. What do you think about it?

It’s so simple as to be almost profound. But it also is quite disruptive. I have clients who are shocked when I tell them the font size should be at least 30 points. As a former venture capitalist, Guy Kawasaki had to sit through so many presentations and that has given him a perspective on this world that's unique. The 10-20-30 rule comes straight out of that.

What are the 3 things all presenters should do? One tip for preparation, one for design, one for delivery.

Preparation: You must know your material. People have to understand their narrative and have to practise with their visuals.

Design: Separate, separate, separate. There are three tenets to a good presentation: what you say, what you show, and what you give. That is, what you say out loud, what you show on the screen, and what you give to your audience afterwards. Those should be three separate things and each of them should be as good as you can possibly make them. What happens all too often is that the deck you prepared is the only thing you have. You say it, you show it, and you print it. If you can separate out these critical pieces of the presentation experience, you are going to become much better.

Delivery. Find your most genuine self. What is it about you that others want to hear about? You can’t fake genuineness and there is no substitute for it. Of course you learn some tactics and strategies to become a better communicator, but you can’t try to become somebody else.

“There are three tenets to a good presentation:

what you say, what you show, and what you give.”

In the Summit you'll have a “PowerPoint vs Keynote” session. Do you think the presentation tool makes a difference?

No. Of course there are differences between PowerPoint and Keynote. Each of them enjoys advantages over the other. But the software you use is just a mediocre commodity and should not be the biggest determinant of your success. You can perform good work or bad work with either one.

(Here is my take on this topic)

You'll also have a Pecha Kucha session. Do you think people can get better at presenting by practising Pecha Kucha?

(Pecha Kucha is a presentation format where the presenter shows 20 images, each for 20 seconds. The images advance automatically and she talks along to the images)

Without a doubt, and I have first-hand experience in this. There is a lot of skills involved. First of all, you can’t fake it — you really have to know your stuff. Also, you have to have practised your material enough so that you can anticipate slide transition. And all have to be timed out. Of course you don’t have to be a robot, yet it’s tremendously challenging.

Data visualization. What are your tips for displaying data effectively?

Simplify as much as you can. Here's where the software works against you. Who decided that every chart must have a background by default, or the lines going across them, or axes with tick marks? What does any of that contribute to somebody’s understanding of your message? All this weaken our ability to tell a good story. Let’s not forget: we are the presentation, not our slides. So it’s up to us to tell the story behind these numbers. The chart should help us, not take over for us.

(Here are my data visualization tips)

How do you convince people and companies that the way they have always been making presentations is not effective and that there is a better way?

It’s hard, both in corporate America and all over the world. One thing I do is I show people some before-after slides, so that they can see a slide that’s much more evocative then the junk they have created. Another thing I do is I make them practise with a properly crafted slide which is different from the slide they have been using, which they became addicted to. It helps. Remember, Rome was not built in a day and in the last several years I have seen real improvement. So we need to be patient.

These are just some of the ideas Rick Altman shared with me. If you want to get more insights, here's the full video.

Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed it, share it :)

IMAGE: Rick Altman on Vimeo

The 5 Best Sites And Blogs on Communication and Design

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 15 Apr 2015 18:50:00 +0000

Here’s a collection of the top web resources with the best content on communication, presentations and design.

(1) Presentation Zen

“Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.”
— Garr Reynolds

Without doubt, Presentation Zen is the presentation blog. Best-selling author and speaker Garr Reynolds delights the reader with tons of gems on presentation preparation, design and delivery: the three key elements that make a great presentation.

Content-wise, Presentation Zen is the benchmark all other blogs should be measured against. If you find someone who writes about presentations without knowing Garr Reynolds, do yourself a favour by not listening to him.

@presentationzen

(2) Ethos3

“In 25 years looking at stuff like this, I have never encountered something like this. You guys really know your stuff.”
— Guy Kawasaki on Ethos3

Ethos3 is one of the world’s best presentation agencies. They do two things: presentation design and presentation training. His founder—Scott Schwertly—is author of the boook “How to be a Presentation God”. Ethos3’s blog is full of practical tips on how to become a better presenter.

@Ethos3

(3) Canva

“The easiest to use design program in the world.”
— The Webbys

I wrote about Canva already. Canva is an online service that makes design simple for everyone. What they have is not just a blog, it’s much more than that. It’s a Design School. Here you can find valuable tips on typography, colour, images, and design in general. They also provide great tutorials and teaching materials. On a scale from 1 to 10, the value you get from their articles is about 11.

@canva

(4) TED

“Ideas worth spreading.”
— TED mantra

Just in case you don’t know it (I doubt it), TED is an organisation whose aim is to spread great ideas. They do it in the form of short talks (18 minutes or less). It began as a Conference on Technology, Entertainment and Design (hence TED), and now covers any topic.

TED Talks are viewed by millions of people every day. There must be a reason for that! Here are the three TED talks I like the most.

@TEDTalks

(5) Big Fish Presentations

“Content is King, but design is its Queen.”
— Big Fish Presentations

These guys are not as famous as Garr Reynolds or Nancy Duarte, but they also know their stuff. Their blog covers topics from presentation theory and design to public speaking. Definitely worth checking out.

@BigFishPresCo

Putting all together

Speaking.Alltop

Alltop.com was founded by Guy Kawasaki, hence it’s guarantee for greatness. It’s an aggregator of the latest stories from the best sites and blogs that cover a topic. Which topics? Anything you can think of. Like presentations and public speaking? Check out speaking.alltop.com. More interested in design? There you go: design.alltop.com. It’s that easy.

@alltop

Echo Story

Disclaimer: I created Echo Story

Echo Story is a weekly newsletter of what I find in business, communication and design, and human-interest topics and think is worth sharing. With Echo Story I help people find better content. The idea is similar to Alltop, but it only focuses on the three topics above. Talking about communication and design, if you don’t want to be bothered finding great content yourself, you can simply subscribe to receive the best of the best straight to your inbox. Once a week, for free.

Here's what you missed last week. Sign up free if you like it: http://eepurl.com/bdIUb9

If you know other sites and blogs that you think should make the list, please let me know. I’d love to add them to my favourites.

This Company Is Making Design Amazingly Simple For Everyone

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 08 Mar 2015 12:15:00 +0000

“Every once in a while, a revolutionary product comes along that changes everything”, said Steve Jobs during the introduction of the very first iPhone in 2007, a product that really changed everything.
Recently, I’ve discovered a design tool that some of you will find just as revolutionary. Certainly I find it one of the best tools available today. Introducing Canva: a website that lets you create beautiful designs in less than a minute.

In one of my previous articles I gave you my take on the (non) importance of software tools. I said that, especially when it comes to presentations, the tool doesn't matter. It doesn’t matter whether you use Keynote or PowerPoint. The key is the approach you follow, the message you want to convey and how your craft it. Ultimately, a great presentation is the result of an activity that starts before you even open up the software. That’s why I suggest that you start creating your presentation in an analog way. Close your laptop, take a pencil and sketch your ideas on a piece of paper. Use the software only to turn your ideas from an analog form (pencil and paper) to a digital one (PowerPoint or Keynote). You can never turn a bad presentation into a good one by using a tool rather than another one.

I still have the same opinion. I still believe that analog is the right way to go. However, every once in a while a revolutionary product comes along that changes everything. In this article I’m going to give you 6 reasons why I fell in love with Canva. Six reasons why you might fall in love with it, too.

(Before starting, I’m not saying that Canva can turn a bad presentation into a good one. Never! But for certain design types, it’s simply a fantastic tool. Let’s see why)

(1) It makes graphic design simple for everyone

With the time it takes to boot Photoshop, you can create a beautiful design in Canva. Canva’s designers have already created a number of layouts you can use for each design type. Trust me, especially if you’re not a professional designer, this tool is going to blow your mind. Don’t trust me? Watch this short video guide to see how easy it is and what you can do with it.

(2) It works perfectly with social media

I fell in love with Canva also because it’s the first tool ever that combines two of my greatest passions: design and social media. You can create designs specifically tailored to social media. You can choose among Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Instagram, Pinterest, you name it. Here are my Facebook cover, Twitter header and Google+ cover. All made in Canva in less than a minute.

As you can see, you don’t have to worry about the dimensions of your image. Canva will automatically adjust it for that particular social media platform.

Here are two other examples of designs I made in Canva specifically tailored to social media.

Facebook post

Twitter post

By choosing a specific social media platform from the Canva's homepage, you can be sure your design will look great because the dimensions are exactly right for that platform.

These are simple designs. But would you know how to create them in Photoshop? Would you be able to design them in a minute? If not, go and check out Canva.

(3) It works perfectly with anything else

Not only is the social media integration amazing, Canva also makes it super easy to create other designs, such as posters, business cards, email headers, Kindle covers, etc.
One of the things I do is I help people find great content. I do it by sending a weekly newsletter of what I see in business, communication and design, and human-interest topics and think is worth sharing. Here’s my email header, made in Canva.

Remember, (1) I created it in about a minute, (2) the dimensions are exactly right for an email header, so I can be sure it'll look good.

(4) It comes with professional fonts

You can choose among several professional fonts. Things like Calibri are not contemplated. I’ve discovered fonts I didn’t know before: Raleway, Quattrocento, Roboto, Over the Rainbow, and many others. They are all included in Canva.

(5) It educates people

Many websites today have a blog section. Canva is no exception. However, these guys went further. Their blog is not just blog, but rather a Design School. Every week they come up with practical articles that educate you and make you get better at design, even if you’re not a pro. Canva’s designers teach you how to effectively use fonts, colour, images, background, etc. They also give you the keys to good branding.

I love this concept for two reasons:

Design reason: it makes me get better at design
Business reason: it makes me appreciate their product even more because it teaches me how to use it effectively. It gives me practical advice on how to take full advantage of Canva.

That’s what businesses should do: create a great product, and give something (for free) that makes that product even better. Something that makes users appreciate the product even more.

(6) It’s free

Unless you use the images included in their library, you’ll never pay a dime. You can always upload your own images for free and use them with the nice layouts already created by their designers. Compare that with Photoshop.

Because I think tools don’t matter much, I was skeptical when I first heard of Canva. Then I tried it and fell in love with it. Try it yourself and let me know what you think.

Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed it, share it. ☺

3 Tips For Achieving Unity In Your Design

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 16 Feb 2015 20:11:00 +0000

“The whole must be greater than the sum of its parts.” If a design respects this rule, then it’s unified.

The principle of unity is one of the most important design principles. A design is unified when all the elements work together to support the design as a whole. It is unified when the elements don’t compete with each other, but rather support each other towards the common goal of communicating a message. The elements of a design should look like they belong together, rather than being arbitrarily placed on a page, slide, website, etc.

Why is unity important?

The principle of unity is important for two reasons:

People naturally look for a connection between elements. They see the whole first and then the sum of its parts.
The goal of a design is to communicate a single message. [Tweet this] The more your elements are unified, the more the viewer will perceive your message as a single message.

You can achieve unity by paying attention to your choices of images, colours and style. Here are three tips to create a unified presentation (these principles are also valid for documents, websites, leaflets, you name it).

(1) Use the same font

Better yet, use the same professional font. Calibri is not a professional font. Helvetica is a professional font. You could use two (at most three) fonts as long as there is a reason for it. If there is no reason, then stick to one font only. In the presentation below I used two fonts: Gotham and Over the Rainbow. The former as the main font and the latter to give some additional comments a “human” touch. The reason for a second font was that I wanted to distinguish the main content from the comments.

(2) Give the same “tone” to images

This presentation by Ethos3 is a perfect example of consistency in the use of imagery. As you can see, the designer applied the same greenish effect to each image.

Extra tip: to achieve a similar effect in PowerPoint or Keynote you can simply place a coloured rectangle above each of your images and increase the transparency. It won’t be exactly the same effect as in the above deck, yet it’ll make your images look like they belong together. In the before-after slides below, you can see the original images on the left and the same images with a transparent blue shape placed above them on the right.

(3) Create a colour pallet

Even better, derive a colour pallet from an image that best represents your message. Don’t worry, you don’t have to be a professional designer to do this. Last year I wrote a super easy step-by-step guide on how to derive a colour pallet from an image and use it throughout a presentation.

For every element you use in your design, ask yourself why. Why did I choose that font? Why did I choose three fonts? Why did I use this colour rather than that colour? Asking yourself why is the first step to achieving unity.
Ideally, the relationship between the elements of your design should be so well defined that whatever you change would make your design worse.

Thanks for reading! If you found some value in this article, I'd really appreciate you sharing it out to you network.

7 Lessons From Guy Kawasaki They Won't Teach You At Business School

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 01 Feb 2015 12:36:00 +0000

Chief Evangelist of Canva, a graphics-design online service. Executive fellow at the Haas School of Business at U.C. Berkeley. Entrepreneur and former advisor to the Motorola business unit of Google and chief evangelist of Apple. Author of 13 books, including the best business book ever written: The Art of The Start, which has now been fully revised and expanded for the first time in a decade (available here from March). If you are an entrepreneur, or you want to become one, or you are simply interested in business and entrepreneurship, and you haven't read this book, go buy one! To give you and idea, here you can watch Guy presenting the book in 2006. Guy Kawasaki is one of the most enchanting business minds of our times. Because of his experience, he has so many valuable lessons to teach us. A couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to meet him in London at an event organized by 3-beards.

Here are 7 lessons I've learnt by reading his books and by following him online in the last years. 7 business lessons they won’t teach you at business school.

(1) Make meaning
The best reason to start a company is not to make money, but rather to make meaning. [Tweet this] There are three ways to make meaning:

Increase the quality of life: Spotify lets you find your favourite music in a second. It increases your quality of live.
Right a wrong: Canva makes design simple for everyone. Why has Melanie Perkins started Canva? Because she thought that going through the pain of learning how to use Photoshop to create nice designs was wrong. Hence, she fixed that wrong.
Prevent the end of something good. You see something beautiful which is being ruined and you can't stand that. So you start up to prevent that.

If you start up solely to make money, you won’t make meaning and most probably you won’t make money either. But if your goal is to make meaning, you’ll eventually make money too. As Richard Branson says, "do good, have fun, and the money will come.”

(2) Make a mantra
Do not make a mission statement for your organisation. Make a mantra instead. Let’s compare the two with an example.

Here is (or was) Wendy’s mission statement:
The mission of Wendy’s is to deliver superior quality products and services for our customers and communities, through leadership, innovation and partnerships.

As Guy puts it, “this is a useless kind of statement. It is too long, not unique, not memorable.” If you go to the Wendy’s website now, you’ll see at the top of the page four words: Quality is our recipe. That’s a mantra! In fact, that’s a great mantra. It explains every employee and every customer what they stand for.

Another examples of good mantras:

Spotify: Music for everyone
Canva: Democratize design
Nike: Just do it!

(3) Jump to the next curve
“Don’t be content with doing things 10% or 15% better. Do things 10 times better”, Guy says.

Here are two examples:

The laser printer: The printing business jumped to next curve when the laser printer was invented. At the time, a printer company wouldn’t be happy with simply introducing more typefaces. It would shake up the industry by jumping to the laser printer curve.
Amazon: Jeff Bezos didn’t go from 250,000 books in an analog book store to 300,000 books in an analog book store. It went to 2.5 million books in a digital book store. He jumped to the next curve.

(4) Don’t worry, be crappy
Having the above in mind, you then need to get going and ship. Ship, learn, and test. Then repeat. Don’t wait for your product to be perfect, because it will never be. In fact, your product doesn't have to be perfect—it has to be better than before. “Lots of things made the first Macintosh in 1984 a piece of crap—but it was a revolutionary piece of crap”, Guy says.

(5) Follow the 10/20/30 rule
The 10/20/30 rule is for presenters. It goes like this:

You should be using no more than 10 slides in your presentation
You should be able to deliver it in 20 minutes
You should not be using a font smaller than 30 points. Yes, 30 points!

Even though I don’t follow this rule strictly, I do like it. I don’t follow it strictly because I don't believe in a one-size-fits-all approach. However, the 10/20/30 rule does a great job at pointing out that when it comes to presentations, simplicity is king.

(6) Hire better than yourself
You must have heard this hundreds of times: "As an entrepreneur, you should hire A players." Guy goes a step further. He suggests that A players hire A+ players. You should hire better than yourself. As he goes, “B players hire C players, C players hire D players, and D players hire E players. If you start hiring B players, you’ll wake up one day being surrounded by Z players.”

(7) Be a mensch
This is my favourite. It’s not a lesson in business, but rather a lesson in life that you can apply in business. A mensch is someone who’s admired and trusted—someone whose opinion is sought. There is no higher praise than being recognised as a mensch. There are three ways to become one:

Help people who cannot help you: Help for the pleasure of helping.
Do the right thing, the right way: This is about morality! There are certain "absolutes" in life we must always adhere to.
Pay back society: Entrepreneurs are blessed with the ability to create great things. Therefore, they have a moral obligation to pay back society.

Ultimately, at the end of your life you'll not be judged by how many things you own—you'll be judged by the answer to this simple question: “Did you make the world a better place?”. [Tweet this]

The links in the above presentation work best if you open it directly in Slideshare.

Thanks for reading! If you found some value in this article, I'd really appreciate you sharing it out to you network.

Photo: Me and Guy Kawasaki in London

How to Make a Business Pitch the Pixar Way

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 22 Dec 2014 21:25:00 +0000

Since Pixar made its first feature-lenght film in 1995—Toy Story—it has been capturing people’s imagination with incredible films like Monsters Inc., Finding Nemo, and Up. Not only has Pixar become famous for making the first computer-animated film ever (Toy Story), but also for its brilliant storytelling techniques.

I’ve recently stumbled across this article highlighting the 22 rules of storytelling according to Pixar. The idea came from former Pixar story artist Emma Coats who tweeted about what she had learnt during her time working at the animation film studio.

Among many of the Emma’s gems for telling a great story, here’s to me the essence of Pixar's storytelling:

Once upon a time there was ______. Every day, ______. One day ______. Because of that, ______. Because of that, ______. Until finally ______.

Drawing from a Bloop Animations’s video examing Pixar's storytelling rules, Caroline Siede wrote that “all Pixar films (and most good films in general) center on a call to adventure that pulls a hero from his comfortable world to a new, unfamiliar one. In Toy Story, Woody must learn to live in a world in which he isn’t Andy’s favourite toy when Buzz arrives. In Finding Nemo, Marlin must cross an entire ocean to find his abducted son. […] Watching a character react, fight, and grow in his new surroundings is what makes these Pixar films so compelling.”

As counterintuitive as this may seem, you can apply this storytelling formula to your business presentations too. In fact, not only is this something you can apply to business pitches, it's actually something you should do if you want to make them memorable.

If you think about it, this rule goes hand in hand with the old Aristotle’s three-act structure, a storytelling technique not only used in movies, but also in writing and in many other art forms built around a story. And a presentation is an art form built around a story. [Tweet this] The three-act structure splits a narrative into three parts:

Set up
Confrontation
Resolution

Here's how Aristotle's three-act structure and Pixar's storytelling rule come together.

Set up: Once upon a time there was ______. Every day, ______. One day ______.
Confrontation: Because of that, ______. Because of that, ______.
Resolution: Until finally ______.

Now let’s see how you can use Aristotle in your business pitch.

Set up

At the beginning of your presentation you should describe the world as it is without your idea, product, service, etc. (Once upon a time there was ______. Every day, ______). Your audience will be with you because you are describing something they are familiar with. Then, pose a problem that changes their perspective (One day ______). If you are pitching to a customer, highlight a problem they have that you can solve. By doing that, you are creating a gap in your customer’s mind between the world as it is today and the world as it could be tomorrow if there was a solution to their problem. This is your call to adventure that pulls your hero (your audience) from their comfortable world to a new, unfamiliar one.

Confrontation

During the second part of your pitch, you should be playing with the gap you’ve created previously. Give concrete examples of what your audience’s world looks like with such a problem and what it could look like if you had a solution (Because of that, ______. Because of that, ______). It’s crucial not to reveal your solution at this stage. Remember, Marlin had to cross an entire ocean to find Nemo.

Resolution

Until finally ______. This is the right time to reveal your idea, product, or service. By going through the three steps, you’ve not only created a gap in people’s minds, but you’ve also built on a desire to see that gap being filled. Once you do fill it up with your solution, they will be more inclined to accept it.

Like these ideas? Meet me over on Twitter or Google+ to start the conversation right now!

IMAGE: iMERICA

The Ultimate Guide To Speaking So That People Want To Listen

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 02 Dec 2014 20:26:00 +0000

Estimated reading time: 3 minutes, 30 seconds

In this article I'll share with you:

The ultimate guide to speaking so that people want to listen
My humble opinion on this topic
An example from a personal experience that can teach us something about communication

Julian Treasure’s ultimate guide to speaking so that people want to listen

In this TED talk, Julian Treasure—a sought-after international speaker—offers up seven things effective communicators must not do and as well as four elements every great speaker should master.

Here are the don’ts:

Gossip: “We know perfectly well the person gossiping five minutes later will be gossiping about us”, says Julian
Judging: “It's very hard to listen to somebody if you know that you're being judged.”
Negativity: It’s also very hard to listen to negative people, those who always see the glass half empty
Complaining: See above
Excuses: It’s hard to listen to somebody who never takes responsibility for his own actions, but rather blame others. Worst case is when people blame others for failures and praise themselves for achievements
Lying: Who likes layers?
Dogmatism: “The confusion of facts with opinions.”

And here are the do’s:

Honesty: Be clear and straight
Authenticity: Be yourself
Integrity: Be your word
Love: Wish them well

Julian’s talk is full of great insights. If you’d like to find out more about his ideas, I do suggest that you watch the video above. He truly knows what he’s talking about.

My humble opinion

We are flooded by tips and tricks on how to get better at communicating our ideas. And it’s fine because the power of the spoken word is huge. This is not only relevant to TED speakers or international speakers. It’s valid in business, education, family life, etc. I can’t think of any aspect of our lives where the ability to effectively share one’s ideas is not relevant. However, I also think sometimes we dive into too many details. So I thought I’d do many of you a favour if I narrow the Julian’s list of do’s and don’ts to one main concept.

The one piece of advice that matters the most is authenticity. None of the Julian’s lessons work if you are not authentic—if you are not yourself. You may be good at not judging, at being positive, you may be honest, but ultimately being yourself is preparatory for all the rest. In Carmine Gallo’s latest book Talk Like TED, I’ve found the best communication lesson ever: “Stay in your lane.” Carmine says we shouldn't pretend to be Ken Robinson, or Steve Jobs, or Hans Rosling. We can (and should) learn from them, but we need to follow our path and become “the best representation of ourselves that we can possibly be.” [Tweet this]

My personal experience

A couple of weeks ago I shared on Facebook a photo of my girlfriend which has a lot of meaning for both me and her. A little bit of background. I live in England, she lives in Italy, so you can imagine how rarely we see each other. We’ve recently spent together a nice long weekend in the Venice of the North: the lovely Amsterdam. On our last day we went to the airport and had to say goodbye before the security checks because we were assigned two different gates. Our goodbyes always come with some tears—it’s all inclusive. After an hour, though, she unexpectedly appeared again right on the other side of my gate, so we could see each other for one more minute. I couldn't not share that meaningful moment.

This photo got about 130 likes. For someone who’s not Guy Kawasaki, it was an all-time record. Why do you think many of my friends liked it? I believe the main reason is that we’ve been authentic. We haven’t been afraid to show who we really are. We shared our story with no barriers. People are naturally drawn to things that are transparent and authentic.

This is not a lesson in social media, it’s something you can apply anywhere. In your next presentation, in a meeting with your boss, in a job interview, in the relationship with your friends, authenticity is key. Stay in your lane and be the best representation of yourself that you can possibly be.

IMAGE: TEDxYouth@Manchester via Flickr

One PowerPoint Secret That Will Drastically Improve Your Presentations

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 16 Nov 2014 09:55:00 +0000

Estimated reading time: 4 min

A few days ago a friend of mine asked me to check a presentation he made for a meeting with one of his customers. He works for a London-based company which carries out market research for other businesses that are interested in certain information. He had to present the research findings to a client and asked me for a feedback on his deck. Because the slides he used were rather cluttered with unnecessary elements, I suggested that he made them more visual. He said: “Andrea, I know our presentations should be more visual, but we have a problem: our customers want to see the results of our research—they want to see the data, the numbers, the hard stuff. If we make visual presentations, then we would need to prepare another document as a handout and we don’t have time for that.”

I understand his point. Businesses don’t have much time to spend on creating both a nice presentation and a document for future reference—and most likely they don’t have the foresight to hire a presentation specialist to do the work for them. But the good news is, there is a solution.

By reading this article you’ll learn how to create visual presentations that at the same time include as much information as you like (seriously!), without doing extra work.

I usually don’t write about presentation tools and their features because what matters is the approach you follow. If you get the approach right, it doesn’t matter which tool you use. [Tweet this] In this short clip John Lasseter—Chief Creative Officer at Pixar—gives an important piece of advice to inspiring animation students:

“…Through your career the software will change, what’s important is […] what you do with the software. And what you do with the software...you’ll learn that from the basic fundamentals

(drawing, design, film grammar, story, etc.).”

Design, storytelling, public speaking, visual communication: these are the basic fundamentals that matter when it comes to presentations, not the software. However, I’ll make an exception today. There is one feature presentation tools have which can really set your presentation apart: the Notes Page view. Most people don’t know it, or don’t use it at its full potential. I’m going to show you how it works in PowerPoint, but the idea is exactly the same with Keynote.

The Notes Page View

If you pull down the “View” menu and click “Notes Page”, voilà, you’ll see your slide on the top and a text box on the bottom. Whatever you write in that text box won’t be seen by your audience when you are in Presentation View. What I find nice about this box is that you can use it to display any kind of information: text, charts, tables, images, etc.—the sky’s the limit! What’s even better is that it’s extremely easy to place and move objects within the box. It’s as easy as it is to move elements within a slide. You can even customise the position of the text box and of the slide and change their size as well.

Here’s a screenshot of the Notes Page view (my PowerPoint is in Italian, but you’ll find this button on the same position, regardless of the language).

If you think about it, this feature can improve your presentations—and your customer’s satisfaction—by making your slides breath. It allows you to create simple visuals that amplify your message during your meeting and—with no extra work—a follow-up document with all the additional information you want your customers to take away. The only difference for you is that instead of cluttering your slides with loads of text nobody will read, you can put everything in the text box on the bottom, save it as a pdf and print it or email it to your customer. Without even realizing it, you are creating both a nice presentation and a professional document at the same time.

Here's a before/after example.

Before - common slide

After - visual slide + Notes Page view

If you show the “before” version during your meeting, there are only two possible scenarios:

your customer won’t be able to read the text
your customer won’t be able to listen to you

People can’t read and listen at the same time. [Tweet this] There is no way out. Most business people know that, but very few seem to do anything about it. If instead you show the visual slide of the “after” version, this will amplify your message and you’ll have more chances to get your point across. Your customers will even be happier because (1) they won’t have to attend another boring meeting, (2) they'll get what they want (“the data, the numbers, the hard stuff”). The only difference is, they'll get the additional information on a separate document.

Remember, you've created this separate document with no extra effort. Instead of including loads of information on your slides, you killed two birds with one stone by using the text box on the bottom.

I know what you’re thinking. You're thinking that by using this method you’ll need to remember what to say during your presentation—and you’ll no longer able to read through your slides. And you're correct. There is nothing you can do about it. You’ll need to know your material. If you are not willing to invest time learning your material, no secret will work for you. But if you are willing to do that, then using the Notes Page view will drastically improve your presentations and make your customers happier.

Tell me, do you think you can apply this tip to your presentations? I'd love to know your thoughts. Leave a comment below or meet me over on Google+ or Twitter to join the conversation right now.

IMAGE: Earth Day Presentation via Flickr

John Rauser: How to Present Statistics Without the Agonizing Pain

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 22 Oct 2014 17:33:00 +0000

Does drinking beer make you more attractive to mosquitos? This is the question John Rauser—data scientist at Pinterest—wanted to answer in his presentation Statistics Without the Agonizing Pain at the 2014 Strata Conference in New York.
As counterintuitive as this may seem, the answer to this question can save lives. Malaria is transmitted via mosquitos, so “if you can understand which people are at greatest risk for mosquito bites, you can target your interventions much more accurately and you can do a better job at fighting malaria.”

If you ask around whether drinking beer makes you more attractive to mosquitos, there will be people thinking you are crazy and people thinking it might well be the case. This can be seen as a statistical argument. The way you can solve such problems is through a statistical procedure called sampling distribution. I’m not going to explain you how this works, don’t worry. Even because I wouldn't be able to. But there is something remarkable in the way John Rauser presented the problem.

John Rauser's slide: Analytical approach
to sampling distribution

He showed that there are two methods you can follow: an analytical approach and a computational one. The former is the traditional, painful method most professors would teach you—a method which is purely based on theory; the latter is more tangible. The analytical approach includes formula after formula; the computational one is more understandable because it shows you the statistical process unfold so that you can understand the meaning behind the formulae. It makes the numbers and statistics meaningful. According to Mr. Rauser, the analytical approach is agonizing because “the idea of a sampling distribution is really hard to understand […] and when it’s presented in pure mathematical formalism […] it’s just hopeless.”
Thanks to his effort to make the complicated simple, the audience could understand his topic at a deep level.

Mr. Rauser’s goal was to convince the non-statisticians in the room that the road to statistical fluency is shorter than they think. To do that, he put a great deal of effort into making a complicated topic easy to understand. He put himself into his audience’s shoes. By no coincidence he used simple visuals that amplified his message. He even showed a few pictures. Have you ever seen a statistician showing pictures during a presentation?

Examples of slides used by John Rauser

As a bonus, he also closed his talk in a powerful way: “The message that I want to leave you with is this...” Whatever follows gets remembered, because the audience understands you are about to conclude, so they will inevitably pay attention.

Does drinking beer make you more attractive to mosquitos? Now you know how difficult it can be to answer such a question. Yet, the good news is no matter how difficult or technical your topic is, there is always a way to make it easier for your audience to understand. [Tweet this] Whether you are a professor teaching a tough subject, an employee presenting a project to some colleagues, an entrepreneur pitching a world-changing idea to investors or potential clients, present your topic without the agonizing pain. If it's possible to explain the sampling distribution of the test statistics under the null hypothesis in a simple way, anything is.

I'd love to know your thoughts on this article. Let me know in the comments below or meet me over on Google+ or Twitter to join the conversation right now!

IMAGE: John Rauser via Pinterest

3 Presentation Lessons from Singer-Songwriter Caparezza

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 15 Oct 2014 17:41:00 +0000

Last week Italian songster Caparezza performed in London. I was lucky enough to be there to enjoy his show. For those of you who don’t know him, Caparezza is a talented artist from Southern Italy. Everybody knows him for his hair style, but trust me, there is much more than that. I’ve got curly hair as well, but that doesn’t allow me to consider myself an artist.

He is not only a great singer—he is a fantastic performer as well. He knows what to do to create memorable shows. Thanks to his concert, I’ve come to understand there is something in common between a singer and a speaker, even a business speaker. Here are three super serious presentation tips from one of my home country’s craziest singers.

(1) Focus on how you say it

Caparezza always tries to come up with new ways to communicate his songs’ meaning. It’s not only what you say, but also how you say it. His new album Museica includes a song called Cover. It’s a story that he tells going through some of the most memorable album covers in the history of music—from The Queen’s Innuendo to Bob Marley’s Legend to Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon. Instead of just singing, last week he had all of these covers hanging from a whiteboard and showed them one at a time as he was singing. His words were in perfect tune with the “visuals” and that amplified both the song and its meaning.

Lesson for presenters: Content is king, but communication is its queen. [Tweet this] It doesn’t matter what you say unless you communicate it effectively.
Just as Caparezza used album covers to bring his song to life, you should find ways to amplify your content. Here are three tips:

Use simple and highly visual slides
If the presentation is short (10 minutes or less) don’t use slides at all. A nice alternative is to sketch your thoughts on a whiteboard
Tell stories, not just facts. Use stories to bring your facts and numbers to life. In this Forbes article, Communication Coach Carmine Gallo explains how to present data like a pro using a TED talk by U2’s Bono as an example.

(2) Have fun

Caparezza is 41, yet he is still a child on stage. He enjoys the gig as much as his fans do. He is artist and audience at the same time. You can see it by simply looking at his smile. It’s authentic. He is not pretending he is having fun—he is really super excited about his show.

Lesson for presenters: Don’t take yourself (or your topic) too seriously. Even if your topic is businesslike, a bit of humour may help. If you look at the world’s best speakers, they often use humour in their talks. In How Schools Kill Creativity—the most popular TED talk of all time—Educator Sir Ken Robinson made large use of humour to lighten up his speech. According to Carmine Gallo, “humor lowers defences, making your audience more receptive to your message. It also makes you seem more likable, and people are more willing to do business with or support someone they like.”

(3) Connect with your audience

Caparezza is great at connecting with his fans at a personal level. He even knows some of them—the ever-present ones—by name. Last week he invited Fabio to jump on stage to help him with his performance. He surprised all of us with something that none of us would have expected.

Lesson for presenters: Your presentation is not a monologue, but rather it’s an opportunity to engage your audience with a conversation. You can ask them questions and encourage them do to the same with you. Who said Q&A must come at the end? Remember, a presentation is a conversation, not a sermon. [Tweet this]

Lessons are everywhere, as long as you keep your mind open to learning. If you want to master your public speaking skills but you don’t have £500 for a training course, go to a concert, have fun and the skills will come.

Like what you've just read? Spread the word by sharing this article.

IMAGES
Album Covers from YouTube
Caparezza at BassFestival via Flickr
Caparezza at Koko London via Facebook

3 Can't-Miss TED Talks That Will Make You Think, Laugh and Cry

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 12 Oct 2014 12:52:00 +0000

Last week Rio de Janerio hosted TEDGlobal 2014. As always, it was an amazing opportunity to talk about ideas worth spreading. TED Talks have been a great source of inspiration for me over the last years. They made me think, laugh and cry. Following the thrill of this year’s event, I’ve collected for you three of the best presentations in the history of the conference. Seriously, if you haven’t watched them yet, do it now!

Bryan Stevenson: We need to talk about an injustice (2012)

Human rights lawyer Bryan Stevenson reveals the injustice behind America’s justice system. “The US justice system treats you better if you are rich and guilty than if you are poor and innocent.” His talk is about humanity, compassion and justice.

Stevenson received the longest standing ovation in the history of TED. If you ask him what he does to be so persuasive, he would simply tell you “I just tell stories.” Indeed, he spent the first 5 minutes telling a personal story of his grandmother to introduce a key concept: the power of identity. And throughout his talk he told other anecdotes that helped him make a personal connection with the audience.

When Carmine Gallo asked him about his secret, he said: “If you start with something too esoteric and disconnected from the lives of everyday people, it’s harder for people to engage. I often talk about family members because most of us have family members that we have a relationship to. I talk about kids and people who are vulnerable or struggling. All of those narratives are designed to help understand the issues.”

Stevenson’s talk is considered to be one of the most persuasive TED talks ever. Trust me, you can’t not watch it.

Why I chose it: it’s the best example of the power of a great story. After his presentation, the audience donated $1 million to his-non profit organisation. That’s the equivalent of $55,000 for every minute he spoke. Who said public speaking doesn't matter?

Dan Pink: The puzzle of motivation (2009)

Daniel H. Pink—one of the top business thinkers in the world—makes “an evidence-based case for rethinking how we run our businesses.” In his funny, thought-provoking talk, he reveals the mismatch between what science knows and what business does. Traditional rewards (bonuses, commissions, etc.) are not always as effective as we think. In fact, when it comes to 21st-century tasks—the right-brain, creative, conceptual kind of works—rewards narrow our focus and lead to poorer performance.

The solution is a new approach built around intrinsic motivation and based on three pillars:

Autonomy: the urge to direct our own lives
Mastery: the desire to get better and better at something that matters
Purpose: the drive to do what we do in the service of something larger than ourselves

In a presentation being viewed more than 11 million times, Pink introduces revolutionary business practices that will shape the organisations of the future.

Why I chose it: it challenges conventional wisdom. “Science confirms what we know in our hearts,” Pink said.

Simon Sinek: Why good leaders make you feel safe (2014)

Leadership expert Simon Sinek explains what makes a great leader, starting from the innate human necessity to feel safe. According to Sinek, the business world is dangerous—the economy may go through a recession, your competitors will try to steal business from you—and the key to survive is in the environment created by the leader. “If you get the environment right, everyone of us has the capacity to do great things.”

When we feel safe inside our organisation—when we don’t fear our leaders—we are naturally driven by the desire to do remarkable things.

“When a leader makes the choice to put the safety and lives of the people inside the organisation first, to sacrifice their comforts and sacrifice the tangible results, so that the people remain and feel safe and feel like they belong, remarkable things happen,” Sinek said.

Why I chose it: Sinek shares ideas that inspire. In perfect TED style, his ideas are worth sharing. Head counts vs. heart counts; authority vs leadership. Plus, I love when he goes back to the beginning at the end of his talk. This is to me one of the most powerful ways to close a presentation.

These talks have one element in common: they are all built around a story. Each speaker presented his ideas in a way that was meaningful to the audience. They all thought about how best they could share their message in a way that was worth spreading. They didn’t just inform their audience, they changed them from a state in which they didn’t know or didn’t care about their topics to a state in which they did—from a state in which they didn't believe in their ideas to a state in which they did. And they achieved that through the power of storytelling.

Tell me, what’s your favorite TED talk?

IMAGE: American Justice via Flickr

What The London Underground Map Can Teach Us About Design

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 23 Sep 2014 19:50:00 +0000

I have recently come upon a great real world example of good design that you can refer to if you want to improve your presentations. Do you know the difference between the way London and New York designed their underground maps? Here it is.

Notice anything? The main difference I see is that while New York designed a map that’s geographically more accurate, London opted for an abstract design. Which one do you prefer? I’m quite confident most people would prefer an abstract map instead of a version which attempts to reproduce an illusion of reality. The reason being, abstract maps are uncluttered. They show only what’s relevant. Think about it, do you need to see all the lakes and parks of a city when looking at a subway map? You won’t be examined in geography before you get off. The only thing you need to know is where the stations are and how they are linked to each other.
Before designing anything, we have to put ourselves in the end user’s shoes. We should be asking ourselves “what do we want people to understand?”. In our example, we want people to know which subway line they should take and where they should get off. That’s it. And that’s why a cleaner, uncluttered design works best. London uses a visual language of form, colour and line to create a composition which may exist in the world. Of course out there things are different, but for the purpose of a map it’s absolutely okay to go abstract.

Design lesson for presenters

When you make a presentation, your slides can be thought of as subway maps. You don’t need to include all the information you have in your mind (all the lakes and parks). Remember, it’s scientifically proven that people are not able to read and listen at the same time. Therefore, including loads of information on a single slide simply doesn’t work. It’s a waste of your time and—most importantly—of your audience’s. What you should do instead is ask yourself what you want your listeners to understand. Once you know this, use only that single takeaway in your design. One main idea per slide is one of the secrets to designing great presentations.
I know most people don’t feel comfortable with this approach because they think that by including lots of information in their visuals they are proving they've done their homework. However, this strategy never leads to the desired outcome—it only leads to boring and incomprehensible presentations. In fact, the only point they are proving is that they were too lazy to spend time working on their material in order to understand what was relevant to their audience and what was not.
Knowing one’s material should be a given. I expect every presenter to know his material. There is no need to prove it by cluttering your slides. It might be that you'll have to spread your content out over more slides, and that’s okay. You can still prove you've done your homework even if you use simple visuals. In fact, the simpler your slides the more your audience will think you know your material. Let your design breath by only including what’s relevant to your audience and leave the rest out.

Instead of showing something like this...

Why don’t you design something like that?

As you can see, I've used two slides with one main idea each. The first slide introduces the main topic; the second shows the three key points I want my audience to remember.
You might be thinking, “yes, the second version is nicer, but I’m missing a lot of important information”.
Truth is, you are not missing anything. Slides are there to amplify your message, not to replace it. They help to get your message across only if they are simple and easy to understand quickly. But you are the presentation, not your slides. Certainly, you can and should expand from your design. And that’s something you can do without a visual display behind you. By designing simple visuals you'll make sure your audience will look at them, quickly understand the meaning behind them, and then get back to you to listen to your message.
If there are any concepts that are absolutely necessary for you audience to know and you can’t include them in your slides otherwise you'd clutter them, you can always prepare a handout where you can include as many details as you like. This is something your audience can refer to for additional information either during or after your presentation. But the visuals themselves should only complement and amplify your speech. They should never substitute for it. Remember, you are the presentation, not your slides.

With its abstract design choice, London triumphed over New York in the Subway Map Challenge. When I say go abstract in this context what I mean is that for a presentation to be successful you should opt for a simple, uncluttered and minimalistic design. Let you slides breath by only including what’s relevant and get rid of the rest. Your audience will appreciate it.

I'd love to know your ideas. Let me know in the comments below.

IMAGES
Light Rail by A bloke called Jerm via Flickr
London Underground Map via Diagrams.org
NYC Subway Map via Urban Omnibus
Message in a bottle via Human Rights Commission
Icons from The Noun Project

The Real Purpose of Any Presentation

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 17 Sep 2014 19:21:00 +0000

Sometimes you think you know something, but you don’t. You think you know it until an event happens—an event as simple as buying a book. You still think you know it until you actually read the book. And finally, you find out you didn’t really know it. This article is for presentation lovers.

In Resonate, Nancy Duarte reveals the answer to the mother of all questions: what’s the purpose of a presentation? That’s the most important concept to know if you want to transform the way you make presentations. Because everything else, every design and communication tip, every piece of advice you might have been given, anything that’s written in this blog comes from an understanding of what the purpose of a presentation is.

There is always one goal and one only, regardless of which kind of presentation we are talking about. First of all, let me tell you that the purpose of a presentation is never to inform. Even the most informative presentation—the one you might make next week to update your colleagues on a project you are working on—is not meant to inform. The purpose of any presentation is to change your audience. Yes, change.

By that I don’t mean you necessarily have to get emotional. You can include touchy feeling moments if you think it’s appropriate, but that’s not the point. Your goal as a presenter is to change your audience from a state in which they don’t know about your idea (or your project, your business, etc.) to a state in which they do—from a state in which they don’t believe in your idea to a state in which they do. Even with your presentation to your colleagues, your purpose is not to inform them. You want to change them from a state in which they don’t know about the information you are sharing with them to a state in which they do. This is the big difference between an amateur and a pro and something you can accomplish only by learning about presentation design and delivery.

Informing vs. Changing

If you just want to inform someone, why would you make a presentation? Wouldn’t it be enough to create a document (or a slidedoc if you prefer) and email it? Or, if your material requires your presence, can’t you print it out and go through it together with your colleagues (or your boss, your customer, etc.)? Doesn’t that make more sense?

But if you do choose to make a presentation—a 21-century presentation—it’s because your purpose is no longer to inform. Therefore, following the usual bullet point style will no longer be effective. You can certainly inform people with bullet points, but you won’t change anything and anybody with them. That’s why presentation design experts like Garr Reynolds and Nancy Duarte tell us that less is more. That’s why communication coach Carmine Gallo tells us that “the rule of three is one of the most important concepts in communication theory”. That’s why Apple’s keynotes include photos, images and words, but no bullet points. That’s why in this blog you find specific advice on how to prepare, design and deliver effective presentations. Tips like how to work with colour, how to open and close a presentation, how to combine images and text and why it matters. It all comes from an understanding that the purpose of any presentation is to change your listeners from a state in which they don’t know about your message to a state in which they do. And you can only do this if you follow certain design and communication principles.

If you inform your audience about your fantastic idea, most likely nothing special will happen as a consequence of your presentation. After all, you’ve just informed them. But if you aim to change them through your presentation, you are one step closer towards making them believe in what you believe. Understanding the purpose of a presentation is the most important concept to be familiar with. Everything that follows wouldn’t make sense without it. This blog wouldn’t make sense without it.

Love these ideas? Let everyone know by sharing this post.

IMAGE: YouTube

3 Simple Presentation Tips From the Simplest Ad Ever Made

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 11 Sep 2014 20:53:00 +0000

Consumers are tired of being bombarded with superfluous information. They are tired because superfluous information distracts them—it doesn’t help them make the decisions brands want them to make. And I’m not only talking about buying decisions. This also holds true when a billboard needs to be noticed, a blog needs to get subscribers and a presentation needs to be remembered. And I could go on forever.

It’s proven that the best way to get people’s attention is not to give them detailed information, but rather to give them exactly what they need to know. The key to being remembered is simplicity. The reason being, bombarding people with more information is what everybody does, so the only way to stand out is to do things differently. How often did you find it difficult to understand what a website was all about because it included too much information? How often did you struggle getting the message behind a billboard because it was cluttered with unreadable text? The problem I see today is not lack of information, but rather too much of it. So the only way to stand out is to make your message as simple as possible.

Look at this photo. Would you notice this man if he walked past you?

Why? Well, because I guess you don’t run into a person with so many piercings every day, right? He stands out. And that’s exactly the point: we are naturally attracted by things that stand out. We notice them.

We are surrounded by solutions which stand out from the crowd because they are different.

Apple’s products are successful (also) because they are simple and intuitive
McDonald’s billboards get noticed (also) because they include only one message
Google is the world’s number one browser (also) because it uses a lot of white space

The best example of “less is more” I've recently stumbled upon is the Ivar’s half-second ad from the 2009 Super Bowl.

Think about it, what does the ad tell you about Ivar? The answer is nothing. It doesn’t tell you anything about the products they make, the price they charge, why they are better than the competition. You see the ad and don’t even know what they do (they are a chain of seafood restaurants). Yet, it received so much attention. Why is this? Because they did something different. Instead of overloading their audience with lots of details, they made a very simple ad—the simplest ever made. And it worked. Of course Ivar took this concept to the extreme. I’m not suggesting that any ads, products or websites should follow that level of simplicity. A good compromise comes from Albert Einstein: “make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler”.

3 Takeaways for Presenters

There are three lessons presenters can learn from the Ivar’s ad. When preparing your next presentation, ask yourself the following questions:

1. What’s the one message I want my audience to take away? Or the 3 main messages. If you want to stand out, don’t give people 12 reasons why they should support your idea. This concept is called Rule of Three. It simply means that in short-term (working) memory we are only able to process about three pieces of information. According to Carmine Gallo, the rule of three is one of the most powerful concepts in communication theory (more on that here).

2. What’s the minimum amount of information I can share with my audience? Notice that the key word here is “minimum”. Many presenters tend to share as much information as they can think of. If you want to stand out, think carefully about what your audience really need to know, give it to them and ignore the rest.

3. How can I present my idea in as simple a way as possible? It’s not enough to know what to include and what to get rid of. If you want to stand out, you need to present your idea so that even your daughter would understand it.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that you should kill every detail. I’m sure you have lots of invaluable information to share with your audience. What I’m saying is that you should carefully think about what’s valuable to your audience and what’s not and plan your presentation accordingly. Make it as simple as possible, not simpler.

I'd love to know your thoughts on this article. Meet me over on Google+ or Twitter to join the conversation right now!

IMAGES:
Effectiveness and Simplicity via Bryan Dunlop
Man with piercings via Random Paradise

Never Use That Colour Again: Design Lessons from Football

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 03 Sep 2014 20:21:00 +0000

With huge sorrow for rugby fans around my country, the Italian football league has finally started. As always, with a bit of delay compared to the other major leagues, but here we are again ready for another exciting season.

This year, an interesting fact happened during the pre-season. Never before the Juventus fans complained so much about their team’s shirts. What they found improper was the colours of names and numbers. I have to say they weren’t wrong at all. The Italian defending champions came up with a rather controversial colour choice this time: white background with yellow names and numbers. With these colours, recognising the players was as easy as climbing the Everest.

Even the UEFA asked Juventus to solve the problem. As a consequence—after a pre-seanson where the team continued to play with the orinal colour choice—just a few days before the league started they finally sorted this out by changing yellow with black.

Design failure

Who’s fault was that? The colour choice was not made by Nike, Juventus main sponsor. It was made by Stilscreen. This is not the first example of a design failure, here is a funny list you can entertain yourself with. There are many others on the web. Had Stilscreen thought twice before making this decision, fans wouldn’t have complained that much.

Likely—when it comes to colour—there are some simple concepts we can all refer to, no matter what we do in our lives. Whether you are a company designing football shirts, an employee making a presentation to your colleagues, an entrepreneur pitching investors, a developer designing a website, understanding the basic principles of Colour Theory is of great importance. Here and here you find everything you need to know in order to avoid a design failure like the one Juventus went through. Colour Theory helps us make the best decisions when it comes to combining colours.

In our example, it was obvious that because yellow and white are both light colours, it would have been hard to make numbers and names stand out. That doesn’t mean that a white background only goes with black names. However, if you want to make your design visible, it is always good practice to follow one of these two combinations:

Light background and dark elements

Dark background and light elements

This is not something only related to football and shirt design. It has a lot to do with presentation design as well. How often have you found yourself unable to see a slide because of an improper colour choice? By reading the two resources I gave you above, you’ll acquire the knowledge you need to properly work with colours. You’ll learn about the colour wheel, some basic colour combinations and a great tool specifically created for non-designers.

I have to admit I was one of the furious Juventus fans, so I’m glad they corrected the gaffe and am now ready for another super season, hoping that it will go the same way as last year.

If you’d like to chat more about how to effectively use colour, click over to Google+

How to Design Like Apple: The Picasso Way

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 31 Aug 2014 10:15:00 +0000

Would you believe me if I say that a company is teaching its employees how to design beautiful products by showing them a bull? Yes, a bull, the male counterpart to a cow.

The company in question is Apple, the creature is Pablo Picasso’s The Bull. In 2008 Steve Jobs founded the Apple University, an internal program which would indoctrinate new hires into the company culture and teach them how Apple designs its products. Randy Nelson—from the animation studio Pixar—teaches the class “Communicating at Apple”. Rumors say that in one of his classes last year he showed the 11 lithographs that make up Picasso’s The Bull to teach employees how to communicate in a clear and concise way when designing

products.

But what does a bull have to do with design and communication? This work of art is a series of 11 lithographs of a bull that Picasso created in 1945. To start the series he drew a realistic bull, with a snout, a tail, hooves and so on. Then he went through a series of iterations where he kept subtracting details to a point where only the essential elements were visible. The last image “reduces the bull to a simple outline which is so carefully considered through the progressive development of each image, that it captures the absolute essence of the creature in as concise an image as possible”. If you are interested, you can read a detailed analysis of The Bull here.

If you think about it, this has a lot to do with product design and communication. Apple’s design is minimalistic and intuitive. It captures the absolute essence of an idea in as concise a product as possible. Take a simple remote control as an example. In this short clip from 2005, Steve Jobs compares the then brand new Apple remote to their competitors’. Back then, a common remote had over 40 buttons, the Apple’s remote had 6 (things have not changed much since). Why that? Well, because Apple decided that only three buttons were needed—a button to play and pause, a button to select what to watch, and another to go to the main menu. That is what I mean by "capturing the absolute essence of an idea in as concise a product as possible". Just as Picasso eliminates details to create a great work of art, Apple eliminates details to design a great product.

And this approach doesn’t only hold true when it comes to making products intuitive, but also for communicating ideas effectively. When you pitch your idea to investors or your boss, you want to hack away from the unessential. You cannot give them 12 reasons why they should back your idea. As Picasso would do, give them 3 reasons. Three reasons why they should believe in what you believe. When thinking about your message, you too should go through a series of iterations and subtractions until you get to the absolute essence of it. Jony Ive describes the Apple’s design mindset as “A Thousand No’s for Every Yes”. And this applies to both design and communication.

You can also incorporate the Apple’s design ethos in your next presentation—you can make your next presentation the Picasso way. To do that, it is always good practice to simplify two main aspects of your work:

Content

Do not be afraid to omit certain points. Remember, if everything is important, nothing is important. My suggestion is to write down an outline of what you want to communicate. Then go through a review process with the clear intention to reduce your message to the absolute essence. That means that you need to cut, cut and cut some more. Not only will your audience appreciate your ability to get rid of the unessential bits, you will also make it easier for them to understand your core points.

Design

Just as Picasso did with the bull, you can create a first version of your slides and then review them until you end up with visuals that are as clean and simple as possible. Just as Apple's engineers did with the remote control, strive for simplicity. If you have a doubt about whether to include a certain element or not, don't. It's better to err on the side of caution by including less rather than more. The following before/after slide is an example of data being displayed poorly and how you can improve the display. The slide on the left-hand side is too complicated. It includes unnecessary elements which don't add meaning to the data (e.g. slide number, date, map). On the right-hand side you have only the absolute essence of the data. The result is that your audience will be able to understand the message behind the data in a few seconds.

If you want to think like a designer, strive for simplicity. Be open to what surrounds you, there are plenty of lessons you can learn by looking around with open eyes. Pay attention to billboards, TV ads, logos, websites and even bulls. You'll notice that the best works of art are often the simplest.

If you’d like to chat more about presentation design and communication, write a comment below or meet me over on Google+ or Twitter to jon the conversation right now!

IMAGE: FAST COMPANY

More:
Fast Company, How Apple uses Picasso to Teach Employees About Product Design
The New York Times, Simplifying the Bull: How Picasso Helps to Teach Apple's Style