Edward Tufte and PowerPoint

Edward Tufte is famous for his books on the visual display of information. He is also well known for his dislike of PowerPoint. Check out how much Tufte hates PowerPoint by going here.

Another visual explainer

The Explanation Industry is on the rise, especially when the explanation uses compelling visuals. Check out a company called Say It Visually!. I especially liked their explanation about Skype.

Pie charts are evil

I recently spoke at Ignite Sydney on the topic 'Pie charts are evil'.

What?

I have just finished reading the 2009 Interim Report for Macquarie Airports (a publicly listed Australian company). The first two sentences of the CEO's report are:

In the first half of 2009, the proportionately consolidated proforma EBITDA of our airports fell 4.2%, outperforming the 7.2% decline in traffic. This demonstrates the value of active management.

I actually think it demonstrates an example of poor writing where incomprehensible jargon is used to validate the writer's assertions. I am astonished that a company with a market valuation of over 4.5 Billion dollars doesn't take more care with shareholder communication.

Did you know?

For years Xplane has been producing short, informative videos using interesting graphics. Below is there latest video, 'Did you know 4.0' with interesting facts about social media and communication technologies. It lasts 4 1/2 minutes.

Part of the Clear Messages Foundation course includes material on how to communicate using napkin diagrams. One of the big names in this space is Dan Roam, the author of "The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures. I recently spotted the following Slideshare that Dan created using simple diagrams to explain the complex ideas behind Healthcare in the USA.

Healthcare Napkins All

View more documents from Dan Roam.

Processes in a circle

It is very common for iterative processes to be represented by a circle. A famous example is Deming's Plan Do Check Act:

I was surprised to recently learn that this diagram was actually created by Deming's teacher Shewhart. Anyway a problem with these diagrams is the reader does not know where to start. Let's look at another example from NIEM (National Information Exchange Model) - this diagram is available at NIEM's website.

The labels on each of the stages of the life cycle change their orientation causing the reader to tilt and re-tilt their head. The inputs and outputs from each stage are scattered all over the outside of the circle making it difficult to know what goes into and what comes out of each stage.

Here is the NIEM diagram re-drawn to keep the words in the same orientation and a clearer representation of inputs and outputs:

If you really want to use a circle to show that the process is iterative then consider the following style:

The horizontal arrows allow the reader to see where to start and make it easier to annotate with deliverables. The circle at the end gives force to the concept of iteration.