On Apr 6, 2009, at 11:08 AM, Bob Freeman wrote:
Anyone want to 'go there' on Tufte's thoughts on PowerPoint?
Having attended a Tufte Tirade (and I loved every minute of it!), I'd say I would agree with his points when it comes to engineering. For my part, I would take a hybrid approach: paper report with the details required for the discussion, using PowerPoint or Keynote if the audience required it.
Honestly, I have met few software engineers who can think clearly without a white board (myself included). So I see a PPT presentation as "canned whiteboard", allowing me to get the discussion going. I often find projecting onto a whiteboard to be a best-of-both-worlds approach. I project the diagrams and then get engineers to contribute with a marker or two. I find it simpler than constructing animations and it allows me to annotate or elaborate on the diagram itself.
What Tufte is really pissed about is poor practices in management creeping into engineering--i.e. sloppy diagrams that do not illuminate or add to your knowledge. That's his whole deal: diagrams and graphics that contribute to a discussion or illuminate an issue. When he sees sloppy or deceptive diagrams, he goes ballistic. When he sees it get into engineering departments and become requirements that dumb down engineering discussions--like it did at NASA--he is especially upset. And rightfully so, as it cost people their lives. Twice.
I think the arguments that PPT is a tool, used well or poorly, are spot on. I think Tufte's arguments about the information density of a printed page versus a deck of PPT slides are insightful, and it should help people make better decisions about their presentations based on audience and intent. But I don't think his arguments preclude using tools like PPT.
I can't remember if it was at a Tufte seminar or a news story, but I remember the Pentagon started limiting PPT presentations. A lot of generals went crazy--for most, creating PPT slides with cool animation and graphics was all they did most of the day ;-)
Matt -- Matt Luker */rsh tech your source for programming know-how phone: 617.418.3480 email: [email protected] web: http://www.rshtech.com/ _______________________________________________ Boston-pm mailing list [email protected] http://mail.pm.org/mailman/listinfo/boston-pm
