Freewriting 1
on Tufte's The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint
14 September 2006
In his 31-page pamphlet, Tufte exposes the innate flaws of Microsoft's extensively popular visual presentation program. He argues that PowerPoint's condensed, hierarchical presentation methods limit the amount of space in which one must display vital information, thus compromising the presenter, the integrity of the content, and most importantly, the audience.
Tufte argues that the flaws inherent in the cognitive style of PowerPoint are a reflection of the software corporation that created it. He uses Conway's Law to support this argument. "Any organization that designs a system... will inevitably produce a design whose structure is a copy of the organization's communication structure."
There are many different forms of communication in the world today: speech, telephone, television, mail, e-mail, text messaging, etc., each form transmitting information at different speeds using different methods. People speak 100-160 words per minute, which is not an especially high rate of data transmission. Humans can understand and transmit visual evidence at a much higher rate (humans can navigate large consice charts containing an extensive amount of information very quickly), and yet PowerPoint is one of the least effective forms of data transmission. It is, in a sense, "backwards technology," compared to the amount of information that could be transmitted visually. A similar case is with the text message. People tend to have long, drawn out text message conversations that could probably be much quicker and more effective if either party would simply dial the other's number and speak to them.
The bottom line is this: PowerPoint is a tool like any other. Different jobs require different tools and sometimes PowerPoint just isn't the right tool for the job. In my opinion, PowerPoint's hierarchy of bullets and slide-by-slide chunks of information can be effective for making key points during a concise, organized oral presentation, if used correctly. When it comes to situations in which quantitative accuracy is very important, like Tufte's NASA example, the old fashioned sentence and paragraph are the best tools for the job. PowerPoint should never replace the written report as a means of communicating vital information.
14 September 2006
In his 31-page pamphlet, Tufte exposes the innate flaws of Microsoft's extensively popular visual presentation program. He argues that PowerPoint's condensed, hierarchical presentation methods limit the amount of space in which one must display vital information, thus compromising the presenter, the integrity of the content, and most importantly, the audience.
Tufte argues that the flaws inherent in the cognitive style of PowerPoint are a reflection of the software corporation that created it. He uses Conway's Law to support this argument. "Any organization that designs a system... will inevitably produce a design whose structure is a copy of the organization's communication structure."
There are many different forms of communication in the world today: speech, telephone, television, mail, e-mail, text messaging, etc., each form transmitting information at different speeds using different methods. People speak 100-160 words per minute, which is not an especially high rate of data transmission. Humans can understand and transmit visual evidence at a much higher rate (humans can navigate large consice charts containing an extensive amount of information very quickly), and yet PowerPoint is one of the least effective forms of data transmission. It is, in a sense, "backwards technology," compared to the amount of information that could be transmitted visually. A similar case is with the text message. People tend to have long, drawn out text message conversations that could probably be much quicker and more effective if either party would simply dial the other's number and speak to them.
The bottom line is this: PowerPoint is a tool like any other. Different jobs require different tools and sometimes PowerPoint just isn't the right tool for the job. In my opinion, PowerPoint's hierarchy of bullets and slide-by-slide chunks of information can be effective for making key points during a concise, organized oral presentation, if used correctly. When it comes to situations in which quantitative accuracy is very important, like Tufte's NASA example, the old fashioned sentence and paragraph are the best tools for the job. PowerPoint should never replace the written report as a means of communicating vital information.
posted by stag. at 7:24:00 PM
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