meaningful? Looking at the demographic of people who actively use Power Point is also another clue to why the presentation might be lacking. Just think of all the millions of Windows PCs out there, and then the amount that have Office, that’s a pretty high number. I don’t see him arguing on why not to use Internet Explorer, why is that?, oh yes it’s a lost cause because a majority of people do not even realize what “software” really is. “I can uninstall Windows? But I don’t see it in the Add/Remove Programs!”
In general I would like to believe that The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint is more concerned with a lack of efficient communication happening in corporations and businesses:
“Any organization which designs a system… will inevitably produce a design whose structure is a copy of the organization’s communication structure” (Melvin E. Conway 7)
Effective communication should not be put into a Content Wizard (especially if Microsoft designed it, although Office is their only one product worth owning) and Power Point is often used as the weapon of choice for slaughtering a presentation. Tufte emphasizes on real substances, with words, and paragraphs, although I am unfamiliar with this technique, I hope soon to be able to communicate efficiently with it.
Tufte has a large hate especially for Nasa and its affiliates use of PP, although I would hope no major decision was ever made solely off of power point, especially if its Nasa. Reading geeky reports is suppose to be their bread and butter. From my experiences with the tech industry, unless you are into cutting edge design trends (Apple, Xbox team, Sony) more than likely you will give a poorly designed, data filled presentation, which in my mind is not so bad.
1 comment:
It really was pretty much a NASA and power point bashing fest wasn't it? It made him very hard to read, and I agree with Gabi's (? I think it was her that said it) comment in class that he seems very extremist. I really agree that he should have slowed down the ranting screaming rage for a minute and tried to think of solutions to the problem instead of pointing out the obvious problem itself. I mean, how many people who use power point don't know that it's not a great program? I think it's fairly obvious that it is just a simple, easy to use program that your average third grader can manipulate on a daily basis to come up with a volcano report. I could be generalizing, but I doubt very many people are under the illusion that it's that much better than it is. His book would have been much better and easier to read, I think, if he had just taken a deep breath and thought the whole thing through instead of ranting for 30 pages.
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