Don’t Suck at PowerPoint

These days, it is fashionable to use slides with lots of images and little text. Though it is fashionable, it is not always effective, because visual learners will understand/remember your points better if they can read the words.

For presentations that you won’t deliver in person, this is especially important. Even though you will be recording audio over your slides for your final presentation, you can’t be sure that people will take the time to listen. So, can your slides stand on their own, without your voice-over, and still communicate effectively? That’s quite challenging, but feasible. Here is an example that accomplishes that:

[Update: One additional tip for not sucking at powerpoint is to proofread your text, something the above presentation occasionally fails at.]

And this is an example of what your bio slide could look like:

Implications of social science for interface design

Head over to my other blog and look over a presentation embedded there from a Google UX researcher. Note the close connection between social science (understanding people’s social behaviors) and interface design.

Client-centered design

A little humor… educational, though.

How a Web Design Goes Straight to Hell, from the Oatmeal.

Key function out of reach

Above is a screen shot from a list/task/project management service, Toodledo. I haven’t used it in a while, and when I came back to it earlier this semester, it took me a few long seconds to find the “Add a task” function. Can you see it? (you can click the picture to enlarge)

Granted, as you resize the browser window, the application looks different and the “Add a task” button appears within reach. But I don’t like working in tiny browser windows.

This is an example that violates one of the Gestalt principles of perception: Things in close proximity appear as one big shape/whole. Placing the “Add a task” button so far off makes it seem like it doesn’t belong in the application. I was looking for it within the application area, not outside of it.

There are many other things I would change about the Toodledo interface… This is a typical example of cramming in so many features (to satisfy the GTD productivity system) that the application becomes cumbersome. Every time I use it, I have to learn it all over again. Instead, I think I’ll switch back to todoist.

Do you have a favorite task/list management application? Which one?

And, more importantly for our course… What would you change about the Toodledo interface?