“Caught up within a single style of visual presentation.”

The previous post alluded to the fact that the fault for bad presentations does not lie with the presentation software. The master of presenting data and information, Edward Tufte, has erudite thoughts on the matter. “Powerpoint is like being trapped inside the style of early Egyptian flatland cartoons rather than using the more effective tools of Renaissance visual representations.” 

His point is that the software itself imposes significant limitations on the abilities of the presenter to deliver effective presentations; “there is no coherent software for serious presentations,” principally because presenters are, “caught up within a single style of visual presentation”. Powerpoint (in its various commercial guises) is all that presenters aspire to and thus attempts to communicate our complex, multi-dimensional world using this are bound to be severely limited.

The development of new communication styles within the monopoly established by powerpoint type programs will take time to become accepted and established. The p cubed (p3) concept is that developing the story first will alter the whole nature of communication; it is not giving a powerpoint, it’s about an altered perspective.

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