Before I proceed, let me define the symptoms of Acute PowerPoint Poisoning.

• The text of some laborious Congressional bill pales in comparison to the information contained on your slides (i.e., if you need paragraph delineations on any one slide, you have too much information).
• If the graphs or charts on your slides cause people to grimace and squint as they’re trying to decipher their meaning.
• You end up just reading off the slides because you could not possibly provide as much in-depth information verbally.
• Not one member of your audience is looking at you. They are looking solely at your slides.
• You cannot possibly finish this presentation in the time alloted.

When my boss expressed her disdain for this type of information overload I understood what she meant, as both Jon and I have always agreed that when dealing with information processing and design, less is more.

There is only so much information our brains can process at any one point. If you overload an audience with vast quantities of information, what you will ultimately find is not that you look smarter or more informed, but that your message has been totally lost.

The Law of Parsimony
What this all boils down to is what I will call the Law of Parsimony. If you want to get a message across visually or verbally, keeping it simple works best. You want people to digest the information you provide and the visual design standing behind it as a whole package.

It you overload any one audience with a library’s worth of information backed by a jam-packed set of design heavy slides, chances are that the message will not be conveyed as you intended.

Keep it simple, keep it clean. Allow the information you use to support the personal appeal of your presentation. Bear in mind the Law of Parsimony and you will never risk an untimely death by acute PowerPoint poisoning.

According to wikipedia (currently the only original source):

This will be kicked off by a launch celebration in both San Francisco and New York featuring “14 foot tall laptops” streaming the images from their webcams from one city to the other, live music in both locations, as well as television coverage of the event.

Fun, but do they need a hip rebranding? I suppose they don’t sell many radios these days but I wonder who they’re trying to appeal to–since when did anybody need to be excited about going to Radioshack? Maybe they’re planning on enlisting @THE_REAL_SHAQ to help?

According to this current tally 43.3% of all desktop web users use some version of Internet Explorer to browse the web. Another 46.6% use the Firefox web browser.

Governance for these browsers is provided by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), which sets the international standard. Browsers that follow these standards do 2 things:

1. They help provide a consistent and more pleasant experience for internet users.
2. Particularly pertinent for this blog, browsers that use W3C standards mean I spend less time testing the websites I develop. This means less billable hours to my clients.

The introduction of Internet Explorer 8 in addition to current versions of Firefox mean I will spend less time programming to fit versions of web browsers that are not W3C standard. Currently at least 30% of my web development time is spent making websites work for browsers that do not follow these standards.

The bottom line: adopting web standards now means a future of reduced website development costs.

With the introduction of Internet Explorer 8, the situation has improved, but keep in mind that Industry changes like these only came about as more and more websites followed web standards.

Demand that your site be standards compliant to ensure that web standards will continue to be adopted and help lower development costs.

The redesigned Tropicana carton (left) and the original (right)

The total image redesign was orchestrated by Pepsi-Co, who owns Tropicana, with hopes of revitalizing sales for the venerable orange juice brand. However, the new design strategy failed and sales dropped 20%. The situation was bad enough to cause Tropicana to switch back to it’s old design.

Should Tropicana’s debacle be used as a reason not to consider an image rebrand?

Not at all. Rebranding can be an effective way to bring new attention to an established company or product. A successful rebrand communicates a new approach, revitalized values or shift in focus. It must also capitalize on what worked before–elements that existing customers or clients have responded to favorably and learned to recognize and trust.

The new design was sterile and generic. The rebranded Tropicana cartons looked like they came from an entirely different universe compared to the original. There was absolutely no continuity with the previous experience and the new look didn’t offer anything interesting or exciting to grab positive attention.

A missed opportunity, Tropicana failed because it didn’t acknowledge existing expectations nor did it communicate anything original. In fact, the biggest complaint against the new cartons is that they too closely resemble a generic store brand appearance. Ouch.

When it comes to using Flash on a website, I almost always advocate against it if there are other ways to obtain the same result. Why? Flash hasn’t kept up with the constant pace of innovation on the internet. It is frequently slow to load and most “smart phones” have little or no flash support (see the iPhone). Plus, there is no guarantee that a Flash element will be properly indexed by a search engine like Google, if at all–which means less exposure for your business.

Frankly, there are better ways to achieve the same effect. Check out the “Featured Work” gallery on our home page or our graphic design gallery. These elements were done entirely without using Flash. They also degrade nicely, which means someone with a less capable device, like a mobile phone, will be able to view all of the content.

Flash, however, provides too convenient a solution for many website needs to be ignored. There is currently no better way to add video to a website. Plus, sometimes it’s the simplest way to create dynamic elements like a slideshow or gallery.

A little bit of Flash, used properly, can be impressive. The best way to proceed when Flash becomes necessary is to make sure the site is perfectly functional without it.  A sleek-looking Flash navigation menu will make your site worthless if its not visible to your site users.

Consider also the total web experience of Flash. Adding something like a spinning logo or an animated splash page might be neat the first time, but distracting on subsequent visits.

A good rule of thumb: avoid Flash unless it can add something meaningful to your site’s content.

We’re public image experts, specializing in graphic design, public speaking and wardrobe. We remove obstacles to ensure you and your business always present the most impressive image possible.

The “Big Picture” Blog will be your source for tips, insight and ideas to compliment our services. Feel free to add your input, thoughts and ideas. We’re always glad to answer questions and discuss.

We love what we do for a living and we’re excited to share it with you!