April 04, 2006
PowerPoint love promotes pondering the prevailing perspective
Like many of you, I have a love-hate relationship with Microsoft PowerPoint. Okay, so Edward Tufte always seems to have a hate-hate relationship with it--and hearing his disdain firsthand in a city near you is always encouraged--but you get my point.
So anyway, I'm back in love with PowerPoint. Oh yes, I know. I hear you. Yes, yes, I'm like some poor hostage suffering from a case of Stockholm syndrome after being incarcerated with his captors a few too many days. And I'll admit, some of that may be true. Sure. I may be spending a bit too much quality time with my buddy PowerPoint, as of late. We may be spending a few too many hours staring into one another's eyes. But, you know, that proximity may be a good thing with PowerPoint and me.
Because it's given me a new perspective on my oft maligned PowerPoint. And here it is: maybe part of the problem isn't PowerPoint, maybe part of the problem is the form factor of PowerPoint.
Which got me to thinking, why do we insist on designing PowerPoint slides at a horizontal perspective? I mean, that construct was developed for editing on screen, but I can't tell you the last time I watched someone present from a screen. I mean, most of the time I watch people present their little PowerPoint presentations, they're generally presenting with a projector.
I assume you have witnessed similar occurrences with PowerPoint and presenters. Okay, good. Stick with me.
We just design PowerPoint in a horizontal format, because that's the form it originally took. But we don't have to stay in that form. Do we? If we're projecting at a wall? Are we cramped for wall space? I mean, do we all work in offices that are cramped like some Being-John-Malkovich-ceilingly-challenged space? I'm pretty sure there's a good 5 feet of usable space there.
So why do try to wedge everything into a horizontal perspective?
Well, you say, because that's the way that PowerPoint forces us to design. Does it really? You can change the perspective of the presentation however you want. You're not constrained by the canvas, that's for sure.
Well, everyone expects it that way, you say. Who cares? That's a stupid excuse.
Well, that's how the projectors work, you stutter. Ah ha! There we go. That's exactly the same spot I arrived after I beat myself up on those same questions. (No worries. I'm always much harder on myself than I am on you, because I've always had a soft spot in my heart for you.) The projector is why we do it. The projector!
We're forced into horizontal PowerPoint design, not because of the information or the construct or requirements or the software tool but because of the machine that projects the information on the wall.
Might I make a slight suggestion? Topple the machine.
I think you're slightly stronger than the average micro-light projector they're building these days. I think you can do it. If you can carry it into the room, I'm fairly confident you can handle it.
So tip it. Topple it. Upend it. Set it on its side. Force it to provide a different perspective.
And what do you get? Something a little more familiar? A space with which you've been working since your youth? A vertical representation of a page begging to be designed?
Interesting. Potentially a perspective worth exploring. Even in PowerPoint.
Technorati tags: PowerPoint, Presentation
PowerPoint love promotes pondering the prevailing perspective
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