[Sigia-l] Smackdown: Edward Tufte vs. Don Norman

[Karl Fast]

> You acknowledged that the right form depends on the audience and
> goal. And yet you insisted that one form (executive summary) is
> better than the other (powerpoint slides). Aren't you conflicting
> yourself?

I was using the executive summary as a specific example. In general,
I would argue that a written document such as an executive summary
is preferable to bullet points.

Other examples, which I cited, include the bookjacket for a novel
and the abstract of a scientific paper. 

The audience and goal are indeed important (among other things). And
I would agree with the notion that sometimes, a powerpoint slide
with bullet points, can be extremely helpful under the right
circumstances (though a presentation with nothing but bullet points
is a disaster). I would also agree that a powerpoint of long
sentences, or even paragraphs, is even worse than bullets.

But there is a difference between a powerpoint file in conjuction
with the verbal presentation, and the powerpoint as an independent
document. My situation involved the latter, and much of this thread
has assumed this.

In my example, which has stirred the debate, the CEO asked for a
document outlining the project. I was to send him the document and
he would respond with questions. 

So I took our work and distilled it down to ten pages with lots of
diagrams and whitespace. It would have been no more than 1500 words.
It was carefully formatted to be readable. Key topics were
highlighted in bold so it could be skimmed. There was a brief,
half-page overview. Of course it could have been shorter, but that
is not the point.

The point is that he didn't want a written document. And he didn't
want a presentation either. He just wanted a set of bullet points.
Only bullet points were evidence of clear and thorough thinking.

I disagreed. Still do, obviously.


-- 
Karl Fast
http://www.livingskies.com/