Visual Communication and Design, Now with Audio!

Podcast: Planning and Storyboarding

HarryMiller — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 23:17:00 GMT

Is it worth spending the time it takes to sketch out graphical ideas in advance, or is it better to get started quickly and spend the time on the version you plan to hand off? Does it make sense to spend resources storyboarding a video, or is it wiser to spend that time shooting, as soon as the story is done? In this episode my manager says it’s often not worth the time it takes to do a lot pre-production planning; but then, he’s never seen anything I’ve put together without it. Listen to the episode Duration: 14:32 Size: 13.33 MB For articles about using visuals effectively and other topics, free downloads, and more information, visit http://office.com/ ....(read more)

Podcast: Pictograms, simplicity, and complexity

HarryMiller — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 16:30:00 GMT

There’s often a conflict between conveying information quickly and conveying it effectively. How simply can you show the information without crossing over into obscurity? That line is where pictograms live. Some pictograms cross over that line and contain no information for people who haven’t learned the visual code, but are dense with information for those who have learned it. When you create visuals to communicate, which is more important – information density for the initiated, or information clarity for the first-timer? Listen to the episode Duration: 14:36 Size: 13.39 MB Pictogram article at pixelresort.com: http://pixelresort.com/blog/how-and-when-to-use-pictograms/ For articles about using visuals effectively and other topics, free downloads, and more information, visit http://office.com/ ....(read more)

Podcast: Minimalism in writing and presentation

HarryMiller — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 01:56:00 GMT

The concepts behind Minimalism have been an accepted part of good technical writing and presentation style for some time, but it never hurts to hear it again. Eric Schmidt just finished a two-day writing workshop on minimalism, and he talks about the most important lessons he took away from those sessions. Listen to the episode Duration: 13:08 Size: 12.05 MB For articles about using visuals effectively and other topics, free downloads, and more information, visit http://office.com/ ....(read more)

Interview: Finding the right graphic design

HarryMiller — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 14:00:00 GMT

Geetesh Bajaj, PowerPoint MVP, designs and sells high-quality PowerPoint templates on his site, Ppted.com . He also provides in-depth how-to information on his other site, Indezine.com , as well as writing the Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007 Complete Makeover Kit . Geetesh graciously took some time to answer a few questions from the Visual Communication and Design blog. All images in this post are taken from Ppted.com . Where do you get your inspiration for the visual “look & feel” of your design? Design always evolves. I would not be truthful if I said that I had an exact idea of any look and feel for a project. So, ‘inspiration’ in itself is a relative term that’s not fixed. I might get inspired by something and start working on it – and unconsciously, I might drift to another look and feel. In the end, inspiration is a starting point that evolves into a seemingly different end result. I get inspired by many conventional things: photography, natural textures, historical motifs, etc. In addition, I find inspiration in children’s art, the angle at which a door hinges on to a door frame, how you can place some handmade paper over another and create design, or even plain doodling. The difficult part is to transfer that sort of inspiration to my design staff, so I try to make the difficult into the easy by breaking my thoughts into small concepts. I just give them a brief idea and then allow them all the creative freedom that I can. I’ve never been disappointed with that approach. Some people have stated that the principles of graphic design are “Contrast, Repetition, Alignment, and Proximity.” What principles do you observe when designing your templates? Graphic design in its pure form has no principles, just guidelines. I’ve found that no principle works all the time. However, these tricks work pretty well: · Look at a design, and keep looking for a while · Play with it, and · Allow the natural choices of evolving that design to progress. Every design has something hidden within itself – like a macrocosm within the microcosm. You just have to discover that for your design. How do you decide whether a specific graphic design layout is appropriate for your content? There’s very little in this world that may not work for all content, primarily because you are going to evolve while you work. Watercolor artists do not have that freedom because evolution for them may translate into another painting; with the digital canvas that we use in PowerPoint, evolution is the cure for everything. There’s nothing that cannot be made better through constant evolution – and after all, a new graphic design layout is a mere click away! Yet we suffer from bad design all the time, and that happens because people are scared to experiment or they are pressed for time. Of course, both experimentation and logic have their place in deciding what type of layout you want to use for a particular slide. Luckily, those options can be easily narrowed down by first creating a proper outline. Once that is discovered, it’s easier to implement the guidelines that you mentioned rather than the other way around. If you start with the guidelines, you have all rules, no soul – if you end with them, they can actually improve your design....(read more)

Learn by doing: Example of using games to teach software

HarryMiller — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 22:30:00 GMT

In my last post , I talked about how I believe that appealing to multiple learning styles is the key to creating valuable instructional content. Obviously, one of the best ways to learn how to do a new (or frequently forgotten) task is to just do it. Office Labs, a group here at Microsoft, has embraced this concept with their "Ribbon Hero" game. Ribbon Hero is a free, downloadable add-in for PowerPoint, Word, and Excel. Each one features a series of challenges that ask the "player" to complete basic Office tasks in order to score points. You can learn more about Ribbon Hero on the Ribbon Hero download page , at the Office Labs website. Or, if you prefer, you can watch Doug talk about it in this video: Office Casual: How to play the game of Office Ribbon Hero Download Ribbon Hero So, what do you think, technical communicators? Would you define this as "documentation"? Do you think that this approach will help people learn how to use software? Let's hear your thoughts. Eric S....(read more)

Screencasts ARE documentation

HarryMiller — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 20:00:00 GMT

We came across a blog post , written by a technical writer, who describes her personal experiences with creating screencasts. Her manager asked each member of her writing team to create a video featuring a product that they document. This line from the blog post strikes a chord for me: Another great thing: this product has historically had a bit of an image problem about being hard to use, and Stacey’s video made the product look easy. I laughed, I oohed and aahed at the graphics. I was enjoying the music and the smooth mousework, and I swear to God, I pictured myself clicking around competently in the product experiencing the same feelings I had while watching the video. And there was this gem, as well: So I have hope for screencasts. Not to replace our hundreds of procedures, but to do something new that we are missing entirely right now. And, I hope we are going to think about what that is and do it right. Because so far, my impression is that screencasts may be like newsletters–if the first one I open is packed with good content, I’ll probably open the next one, too. If not, I probably won’t. To my mind, the blogger has set some important criteria to evaluate the screencasts-as-documentation: Does the video take a complex concept/procedure and make it “look” easy-to-do? Is the video interesting enough that it could be serialized AND people would want to watch the next episode? What criteria do you use to evaluate screencasts? Please add your comments to this post! - Eric S....(read more)

Interview: Creating attractive PowerPoint presentations

HarryMiller — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 14:00:00 GMT

Geetesh Bajaj, PowerPoint MVP, designs and sells high-quality PowerPoint templates on his Internet site, Ppted.com . He also provides in-depth how-to information on his other site, Indezine.com , as well as writing the Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007 Complete Makeover Kit . Geetesh graciously took some time to answer a few questions from the Visual Communication and Design blog. All images in this post are taken from Ppted.com . When you begin creating a PowerPoint presentation, do you decide upon the graphic design and visual appeal first, or do you organize the content and information first? One of the first steps to creating a presentation is applying a template (see my previous post about “discovering” the right template). There’s a common factor that binds the template and the presentation. First, they are both part of a unified scheme. Then, they both have to work towards the same goal of creating simplicity and balance of design. For most presentations, I assume that such a template is already in place. If there’s no such template available, I might have an idea about the design at the back of my head – something I would call inspiration. In a presentation, the most significant part is content, and I don’t start looking at the visual parts consciously until I have the outline of the presentation in place. By ‘outline’, I don’t just mean the content in PowerPoint’s outline pane , but rather three related concepts: · Actual text content, pruned and edited · A story that evolves, and visual content that supports the story · The flow from slide to slide – no assumptions and no flashbacks! Would you agree with the statement that “animation distracts the audience from a presentation”? When would (or wouldn’t) you use animation? To a certain extent, I would agree but I would not use that as an irrevocable mantra – a better statement would be: “Animation that does not have a purpose is distraction. Animation that emphasizes the important is enhancement.” What is your favorite, new, graphic design feature in PowerPoint 2010? I love the new Artistic Effects in the Picture Tools – these are so amazing!...(read more)

Podcast: Visual efficiency in design and in video demos

HarryMiller — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 22:36:00 GMT

Visual efficiency means creating graphical elements and placing them to take advantage of the way the eye and brain work. We based our discussion around a presentation given by Ryan Coleman (linked below), who discusses four things that the eye and brain see first in any space: color, shape/orientation, size/proximity, and motion. We also talked about how these elements help or hurt video demonstrations – are they leading the viewer to where you want them to look, or are the most interesting visuals somewhere else, pulling the viewer’s eyes away from what you’re showing? Listen to the episode Duration: 18:22 Size: 16.8 MB Ryan Coleman’s presentation at Ignite Toronto: http://vizthink.com/blog/2010/01/13/designing-for-visual-efficiency-an-ignite-talk/ For articles about using visuals effectively and other topics, free downloads, and more information, visit http://office.com/ ....(read more)

30-second video tips on YouTube

HarryMiller — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 01:23:37 GMT

If you didn’t want to log into Facebook to see the video tips, they’re now on YouTube. Please leave a comment and let me know what you think! Here are a couple of examples; the rest are on the Office Online channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/OfficeOnlineVideos For articles about using visuals effectively and other topics, free downloads, and more information, visit http://office.com/ ....(read more)

Interview: Designing PowerPoint templates and images

HarryMiller — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 14:00:00 GMT

Geetesh Bajaj, PowerPoint MVP, designs and sells high-quality PowerPoint templates on his Internet site, Ppted.com . He also provides in-depth how-to information on his other site, Indezine.com , as well as writing the Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007 Complete Makeover Kit . Geetesh graciously took some time to answer a few questions from the Visual Communication and Design blog. All images in this post are taken from Ppted.com . When you begin creating a template, do you decide upon the graphic design and visual appeal first, or do you organize the content and information first? For a PowerPoint template, I look at three areas: 1. Explore the type of slides that a client or prospective user normally creates, or use a generic set of slides if there is no client involved 2. Play with and adapt to the slide layouts based on the exploration in the preceding step, and 3. Create a typical presentation that is more representative of the content researched. Then I explore the design factor by looking at it in terms of a grid, colors, and different content types. This will ultimately lead me to discovering the right template. The important part here is “discover.” Your templates on Ppted.com are so detailed and rich – how do you envision that people use them? Ppted has detailed and rich templates simply because I love color and texture! Unfortunately, no one else creates templates of that kind – and in a strange way, that’s very fortunate for us. We also work hard to retain the same saturation and contrast values in a design. Every Ppted design has a background that works because you can read all the text and see any foreground elements. We test every design to ensure that they work with four accepted color harmonies : · Monochromatic · Analogous · Split Contemporary · Double Contemporary In addition, we provide all designs as wide screen variations, along with coordinated transparent graphics – and we test them too. The resultant designs look brilliant when projected as well as looking attractive and understated at the same time. Also, PowerPoint 2010 has a great “Save As” movie feature and several of our users have been playing with creating presentations that contain our backgrounds as movie backdrops! I notice that several of your templates feature static images in the background that fade gradually from left to right (example). What intrigues you about this effect? I like this effect because it allows us to create designs that use color and texture effectively. If there’s some foreground content like a detailed table or chart, then the presentation designer can actually use the faded area of the slide rather than the saturated parts. In addition, each design includes variations with large white areas and more variations with semi-transparent, solid box areas so that you can use them in all sorts of slides and layouts....(read more)

Learn by watching 30-second video tips on Facebook

HarryMiller — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 01:29:00 GMT

Part animated comic strip, part screencast, these short videos are designed to help you learn Visio 2010. What do you think about this strategy and the videos themselves? Visio video page on Facebook : http://bit.ly/VisioFBVideo If you use Visio, you can download the beta from http://www.microsoft.com/office/2010/en/visio/download.aspx . For articles about using visuals effectively and other topics, free downloads, and more information, visit http://office.com/ ....(read more)

Clarity Episode 4: Website map in exchange for information

HarryMiller — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 14:00:00 GMT

A chance encounter at a coffee shop leads Clarity to a new case and a possible lead for information. Watch how Visio tames the client’s website through an easy-to-use wizard that pulls information directly from the site. Will we find out what people around town are saying about Clarity? - Eric S....(read more)

Clarity Episode 3: Network diagrams are no sweat

HarryMiller — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 14:00:00 GMT

A nervous client with a tight deadline needs to document his network, fast. Harrison Clarity applies his Visio skills to create a network diagram quickly and easily. - Eric S....(read more)

Podcast: Creating screencasts as a narrative series

HarryMiller — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 21:48:00 GMT

What’s the best way to create a screencast that teaches people how to do something? Well, we don’t know the answer to that. Instead, we talk about one particular series that includes “how-to” screencasts as part of a dramatic narrative. The intent behind this approach is to get people who ordinarily wouldn’t watch training on a piece of software to watch it anyway, because it’s entertaining and has an interesting story and it’s not a waste of time because I’m learning how to maximize our investment in this software, boss… Doug Thomas hosts this episode, where he interviews all the creators, writers, and stars of the info-drama series “Clarity”. Listen to the episode Duration: 14:03 Size: 12.9 MB Check out these Clarity episodes: 1. Create an office layout diagram 2. Create an organization chart 3. Create a network diagram 4. Create a Web site map For articles about using visuals effectively and other topics, free downloads, and more information, visit http://office.com/ ....(read more)

Clarity Episode 2: From Excel spreadsheet to Visio org chart

HarryMiller — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 17:07:00 GMT

Harrison Clarity, visualizer-for-hire and Visio master, demonstrates how to convert data from an Excel spreadsheet into Visio organization chart shapes with just a few clicks. You, too, can download the free trial of Visio 2007 here . - Eric S....(read more)

Matching message and presentation … with PowerPoint 2010

HarryMiller — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 23:09:00 GMT

This presentation, which combines some of the new features in PowerPoint 2010 as well as a tasteful and integrated application of animation, provides five rules for matching your message and your presentation. Office PowerPoint 2010 "Five Rules" sample presentation Nancy Duarte, writer of Slide:ology and principal of Duarte Design , is a master of creating beautifully designed, intricate presentations. (Want to see more of the new PowerPoint 2010 features in action? Check out this video .) - Eric S....(read more)

Podcast: Matching visuals and presentation style to your information

HarryMiller — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 22:10:00 GMT

Information is communicated not only by words in a message, but also in the way the message looks and the style of how it’s delivered. If these aspects don’t all work together, the message loses effectiveness. Listen to the episode Duration: 15:05 Size: 13.82 MB The article that inspired this episode: The Extreme Presentation(tm) Method blog post: http://extremepresentation.typepad.com/blog/2008/01/ballroom-vs-con.html For articles about using visuals effectively and other topics, free downloads, and more information, visit http://office.com/ ....(read more)

Create an office layout? Let Clarity show you how

HarryMiller — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 22:50:06 GMT

Check out the first episode in our series that demonstrates the “film noir” side of Visio (and some helpful tips, too). (We’d also like to thank Tom Johnson, technical writing guru, for mentioning these on his blog, I’d Rather Be Writing .) Stay tuned for the continuing adventures of Harrison Clarity! - Eric S....(read more)

Podcast: Deconstructing a new video series – what works and what doesn’t?

HarryMiller — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 20:06:00 GMT

This episode captures a meeting where two writers and their manager deconstruct their new video series called Top Templates (edited for time – who wants to sit through a whole meeting?). Take a few minutes and watch some episodes of the show so you know what they’re referring to; they’re shorter than two minutes each and they’re even entertaining: Gift Certificates episode Ocean Letterhead episode The discussion touches on how the information is organized and delivered, and how effective the interactions and the visuals are for the video series. Listen to the episode Duration: 25:06 Size: 17.2 MB For articles about using visuals effectively and other topics, free downloads, and more information, visit http://office.com/ ....(read more)

Podcast: Office Offline and comics in communication

HarryMiller — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 21:26:00 GMT

David Salaguinto joins us to talk about his comic Office Offline. David creates Office Offline to get people thinking, talking, and sharing in a way they never would with short text blog entries about the same subjects. He gives us some insight into his goals and inspiration with the comic format. Listen to the episode Duration: 16:24 Size: 11.2 MB Some resources we used in this episode: Office Offline comic at http://blogs.msdn.com/officeoffline David Salaguinto’s twitter feed at http://twitter.com/Salaguinto For articles about using visuals effectively and other topics, free downloads, and more information, visit http://office.com/ ....(read more)

Podcast: Is familiarity or novelty a better strategy in visual design?

HarryMiller — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 17:21:00 GMT

People get bored of seeing the same old things all the time. But they also don’t like things that are different. So what do you do when you’re planning how to back up your communication with effective visuals – go for novelty or familiarity? Listen to the episode Duration: 16:07 Size: 11.08 MB Some resources we used in this episode: Familiarity and learnability from 8164.org Familiarity and Innovation in User Interface Design from Web Standards Group For articles about using visuals effectively and other topics, free downloads, and more information, visit http://office.com/ ....(read more)

TC4D: Make Better Videos with Less Rework by Using Storyboards

HarryMiller — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 20:54:00 GMT

Storyboards help you plan your video shot by shot. That way, you can make sure your video is at least as interesting as the audio, and you have a list of all the most important shots. If you just make a text-only script, it can be easy to overlook sections where visuals would be a big help, but they weren’t obvious on the day of the shoot. I use Visio for storyboarding my videos. I made a template with panels for the pictures, and text boxes beneath each panel for the dialog or voice over. To draw the visuals, I just drag shapes onto the page, or insert pictures, screenshots, or clip art into the panels. For information about Visio, visit http://www.visio.com/ . Right-click and save to Download in Zune format Download in iPod format (also enclosed in the RSS feed)...(read more)

Podcast: Should I think about design or is clear communication enough?

HarryMiller — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 20:29:00 GMT

When you create a document or a presentation, is the information all that’s important? Is it worth spending time to make it look nicer, when there’s already barely enough time to finish? The answer may surprise you! Although probably not. And there isn’t really an answer that covers every situation. But still, it’s something you should think about and it makes an interesting discussion. Listen to the episode Duration: 21:26 Size: 14.7 MB Some resources we used in this episode: Before and After Graphics for Business by John McWade (publisher’s site) The Non-Designer’s Design Book by Robin Williams (publisher’s site) Does Design Matter? on the Speaking about Presenting blog For articles about using visuals effectively and other topics, free downloads, and more information, visit Office Online at http://office.microsoft.com/ ....(read more)

Podcast: Video in Social Media

HarryMiller — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 20:42:00 GMT

Video has become an integral part of social media. Especially for younger people who are growing up with it, in some cases it’s easier to talk into the camera on the computer and upload it to Facebook, where all their friends will see it, than to write something out. What effect does this have on peoples’ expectations of your communication with them? Listen to the episode Duration: 16:25 Size: 11.5 MB During the conversation Doug talks about this video clip. It’s almost an hour long, but it’s worth watching if you’re interested in video and social media (in fact, more than that, it’s required watching!): An anthropological introduction to YouTube For articles about using visuals effectively and other topics, free downloads, and more information, visit Office Online at http://office.microsoft.com/ ....(read more)

Podcast: Using Visual Space Dynamically

HarryMiller — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 22:13:00 GMT

Visuals are usually created with the display space in mind. If the display area is a certain size, you make your visuals fit in that space by shrinking things, rearranging them, leaving things out, or breaking them up into related spaces. But in the digital domain, only the window is generally fixed – the visuals can extend indefinitely, like the outdoors or outer space. You just need a way to show people what you want them to see, or give them a way to navigate where they want to go. Listen to the episode Duration: 15:22 Size: 10.5 MB An example of an artwork that uses this principle is Civilization, by Marco Brambilla, which is an installation at The Standard Hotel in New York. You can see a video of this work here: http://motionographer.com/theater/marco-brambilla-civilization/ For articles about using visuals effectively and other topics, free downloads, and more information, visit Office Online at http://office.microsoft.com/ ....(read more)