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Re: The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint

• To: 'xml-dev@l...' <xml-dev@l...>
• Subject: Re: The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint
• From: Michael Champion <mc@x...>
• Date: Mon, 15 Dec 2003 12:20:23 -0500
• In-reply-to: <6.0.0.22.2.20031215094429.03b3a8e0@p...>
• References: <6.0.0.22.2.20031215094429.03b3a8e0@p...>

On Dec 15, 2003, at 9:46 AM, Jonathan Robie wrote:
>
>
> What is the "cognitive style" of writing documents in XML vs. 
> PowerPoint, Word, or FrameMaker? Do the tools we use to write affect 
> the way we think?

I'll bite.  I think the "cognitive style of PowerPoint" is more driven 
by the necessity of presenting information in a small number of 
discrete slides, each of which is constrained to have no more 
information than can fit in a 1024 x 768 pixel space with the words no 
smaller than 18 pt font and a strong convention to use simple graphics 
rather than words to illustrate something.  One can write slides in 
hand-authored HTML, or SVG or Flash or Apple Keynote,  and you still 
have the problems that Tufte notes.  Just as dyed-in-the-wool  FORTRAN 
programmers can write FORTRAN in any language, experienced PowerPoint 
Rangers can write .PPT in any format.

"Presentations largely stand or fall on the quality, relevance, and 
integrity of the content. If your numbers are boring, then you've got 
the wrong numbers. If your words or images are not on point, making 
them dance in color won't make them relevant. Audience boredom is 
usually a content failure, not a decoration failure"
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.09/ppt2.html

So, a forty word slide with smarmy, incoherent graphics written with 
HTML+JPEG or SVG or some other open format is just as bad as the same 
slide in PPT.  True, PowerPoint and its ilk encourage that by making it 
easy to write cutesy slides rather than thoughtful analyses, but that's 
Microsoft giving its customers what the sales/marketing consultants of 
a generation ago said they should want.

• References:
  • The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint
    • From: Jonathan Robie <jonathan.robie@d...>

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