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

[Boniface Lau]

> From: Karl Fast
> 
> 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.

Outline is for highlighting key points. When the CEO asked for an
outline, he expected key points to be laying out as bare bones, one
after another.


> 
> 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.

A diagram-filled abstract is not an outline. It is the whole animal,
albeit a miniature one, but not the bare bones expected from an
outline.


> 
> 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.

That is a reasonable expectation. After all, he was asking for an
outline.


> Only bullet points were evidence of clear and thorough thinking.

When you deliver a miniature animal to the person who is expecting
bare bones, he naturally feels you haven't think things through, i.e.
dissecting an animal into bones.


Boniface