As a voice & presentation skills trainer there’s a big news story around at the moment – Bill Gates is stepping down from Microsoft. It’ll be interesting to see what happens to his software design. The big example of how his personality impacts upon his software (for me, but I’m biased :) ) is in the presentation software, PowerPoint. BG’s great at what he does but what he does is… squeeze in lots of features: that’s how he works, a great details man.
It’s how all geeks work and God bless ’em for it. But that’s not the right way with presentation software.
That needs to be written from a user-perspective more than any other package, because “most users don’t want to be” – not many people like giving presentations, so they use the software to hide behind…. and if the software drives them in a particular direction they’ll naturally tend to go in that direction.
So if you couple fear with the tendency of the software to encourage you to think in a lots-of-details-and-bullet-points-sort-of-way. and you’ve got a recipie for a bad presentation.
…. and I think that stems from the top at MS.
It’ll be interesting to see what happens….. maybe the package will develop a little more “usability†even if it doesn’t develop many more features. It would be great if it did!
Simon
By and large people attend business functions or access media (including Websites, Magazines, Broadcast, Documents etc) for one of two reasons only.
1. To learn or Get something (get information)
2. To be entertained.
The late eighties and the early nineties witnessed the evolution of not only the home PC but the Internet. Additionally the marketing people reversed the traditional orders of function and form… presentation became everything.
More significantly though from this perspective the introduction of simple to use, inexpensive, feature rich software (eg MS Word & Frontpage) to create and format documents has seduced many users into advancing the perception that how their document/website/presenation/ looks is more important than the “message they are trying to get across.” Some might say this is MS’s greatest legacy.
(Obviously this software has evolved to service sophisticated markets and needs… and there is plenty of high quality output.. there’s plenty of good out there as well!)
But next time a friend or colleague asks you to visit their Website … copy and paste the words only into notepad or your favourite plain text editor and view the output without the glitz… then tell them what you’ve learned about their business, topic or products.
Good points: and nice hint at the bottom!
“Good points: and nice hint at the bottom!”
Thanks… I have a growing sideline in advising selected clients on Website Reduction Techniques to improve performance. (One or two Web designers have a fatwa out on me..)
When it comes to getting a message across fast in my opinion the 3 most effective systems yet devised are…
1. The Fire Bell
2. The Dinner Gong
3. The Low Oil Pressure Warning Light
To the best of my knowledge no one has ever felt the need to include a menu, logo or animation on any of those….Maybe this isn`t quite the same thing, but any mention of PowerPoint sets me off on one….
Microsoft has been responsible for many great things… but they also gave the world free access to Menus, Clipart and Word Art….
*lol* For me, PowerPoint isn’t evil in the same way a loaded gun isn’t evil. It CAN be used for good things, but the odds are not…….. :)
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Good post and a pleasant summation of the problem. My only problem with the analysis is given that much of the population joined the chorus of deregulatory mythology, given vested interest is inclined toward perpetuation of the current system and given a lack of a popular cheerleader for your arguments, Im not seeing much in the way of change.