Visual Empathy

Since Jenn seems to be in a visual display kind of mood lately (and I guess I am also over on Writing Frameworks) - I thought I would share an interesting concept in presentations. "Death by PowerPoint" is a phrase that rings true for me lately. In teaching a graduate level course on Curriculum Design, we ask the students to do Board of Education presentations to lend a touch of authenticity to the course. They have been so painful in the past, that I have taken to doing really bad presentations using PowerPoint to show what they should not do. I don't need to do my gig anymore as I have found this video that is far more entertaining.

But I am intrigued by a Daniel Pink article in Wired about Pecha Kutcha. Japanese for "chatter," Pecha Kutcha is an innovation of two architects which applies a simple set of rules to presentations: 20 slides, 20 seconds each. After that - no more, you're done.

It is an interesting concept and certainly causes the presenter to maximize what they put on a slide visually while minimizing the accompanying chatter. I really like this video by Pink, which attempts the Pecha Kutcha format, and also speaks about the power of empathy in the signs around us:

2 comments:

Jennifer Borgioli Binis said...

This definitely connects to my recent data display kick. The implications he shares regarding signage apply to how we display data. However, I'm wondering about creating empathy with data displays as the goal is usually to let the data speak for themselves. Instead, I think the goal might be to create a connection the students. Is it possible to create data displays that trigger a connection to the children that the data represent?

Unknown said...

Hmmm something like..."There is a child behind these numbers. Make assumptions carefully." ?????