{"id":1399,"date":"2012-04-02T09:13:29","date_gmt":"2012-04-02T09:13:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/presentation-skills-blog.co.uk\/?p=1399"},"modified":"2012-04-02T09:13:29","modified_gmt":"2012-04-02T09:13:29","slug":"presentations-on-the-tube","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.awareplus.co.uk\/presentation-skills-blog\/presentations-on-the-tube\/","title":{"rendered":"Presentations on the tube"},"content":{"rendered":"

I live in the north of England and so I only use the tube system in London when I visit or pass through on my way to work or friends. And as anyone who’s not a regular visitor to London will tell you, the tube is a massively complicated and confusing place\/system. (You can tell the regulars, they’re the ones who get annoyed at anyone who has to stop to read the signs! :) )<\/p>\n

A quick look at the conceptual map of the tube will show you what I mean.\"Map\u00a0\u00a0Trying to find your way around if you don’t know which way your station is, what line it’s on or which way the trains are traveling is a bit of a nightmare.<\/span><\/p>\n

I have to admit, without my trusty iPhone app I’d be in trouble – and yet, can you imagine how complicated this map would be if it hadn’t been simplified?! It’s topologically accurate, but not geographically. (By the way you can see a pretty cool shot at showing something more physically accurate map in places like this<\/a>.) <\/span><\/p>\n

On a recent trip to London to do some work for Dell, it struck me how well designed the map (and the whole signage in general!) actually is. Information in presentations should be presented in ways that people can understand and use. The map is an excellent example of that – it’s got a huge amount of information on it, and with just a few minutes study you can find your way around…<\/span><\/p>\n

To cite Einstein:<\/p>\n

Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler.<\/p>\n


\n<\/em><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

which pretty much means this map hits the spot.<\/p>\n

\"simplified<\/a>

Presenting information in simplified form<\/p><\/div>\n

Back to my journey. Let’s keep things as simple as possible and we get things like this simplified abstraction on the right here…<\/p>\n

No information you don’t need – just the facts about whether you want to turn left or turn right on to platforms 1 & 2 or 3 & 4.<\/p>\n

Not only does it give you the information you need (and only<\/strong> the information you need, nothing extraneous to confuse you or distract you) it gives it to you at the very moment you need it – as you get to the decision point… left or right!<\/p>\n

Imagine being given the original map, or anything like it, at this point!<\/p>\n

The designers of signs and maps on the London tube can teach us a lot about how to design our presentations, clearly! It’s not about telling your audience what you know – it’s about telling them what they need to know, in a way they need to know it. And whatever else the London tube system gets right or wrong, the way it presents navigation information approaches pure presentation genius.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I live in the north of England and so I only use the tube system in London when I visit or pass through on my way to work or friends. And as anyone who’s not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-presentation-tips"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.awareplus.co.uk\/presentation-skills-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.awareplus.co.uk\/presentation-skills-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.awareplus.co.uk\/presentation-skills-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.awareplus.co.uk\/presentation-skills-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.awareplus.co.uk\/presentation-skills-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1399"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.awareplus.co.uk\/presentation-skills-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1399\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.awareplus.co.uk\/presentation-skills-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.awareplus.co.uk\/presentation-skills-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.awareplus.co.uk\/presentation-skills-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}