This recent chart from Fox News is an example of how an inaccurately designed chart can be horribly misleading. Take a look at the relative position of the 8.6% for the month of November on the far right.

Charts should make trends in large sets of data more clear. Using them to mislead is wrong.

Source: FlowingData: Fox News still makes awesome charts

And also check out: FlowingData: Best pie chart ever

My favorite line in the talk is:

“There’s something almost magical about visual information. It’s effortless. It literally pours in. If you’re navigating a dense information jungle, coming across a beautiful visualization is a relief. It’s like coming across a clearing in the jungle.”

Source: TED Blog

Two questions that can change your life from Daniel Pink on Vimeo.

Check out this awesome video presentation created for Daniel Pink’s new book, Drive. It’s a fantastic example of how a video presentation can tell a short, powerful story to sell an idea. Production credit goes to the very talented Lindsey Testolin.

About the presentation

Duke Children’s Hospital needed a new way to tell their story. They wanted to strike an emotional chord with their audience, conveying the importance of the hospital and the countless lives they affect. The presentation was to be shown at The Teddy Bear Ball, the hospital’s large annual fundraiser gala, so it also had to honor the hospital’s many departments and staff.

Our job was to synthesize a huge collection of facts and anecdotes into a single, powerful presentation that was relatable to a non-medical audience. I’d like to share with you some of the thoughts that went into the presentation design process, with several tips you can use for your future presentations.

Tips from behind the scenes

Choosing visuals to depict the work done by a hospital was a challenge. Early on in the process we made the choice to not show any photos of sick children or children undergoing surgery — it’s just too depressing. We wanted to focus on the transformative nature of hospitals, not the reasons for visiting them. So we went abstract and used brighter, happier images while avoiding the stock photo cliches. Rule #1 was always be respectful to the seriousness of the content.

The story has a clear transition from the past to the present. We underscored this transition with the way we used photos in the slides. For the sections about the past, the photos have white borders and shadows and are dropped onto the slide, with the text lying outside the borders of the photos. It creates a look and feel of an old scrapbook. For the sections about the present and future, the photos switch to full-bleed (they are extended to the edge of the slide) with the text incorporated into the images. This more modern, professional feel pulls the audience into the content in a vivid and visceral manner.

The theme of the presentation was “our story,” so we used a repeating visual of children reading storybooks. At the start of each new section, there was a pause in the rhythm and an image of a child holding a brightly colored storybook. This motif culminates at the presentation’s emotional climax with a bold slide depicting a row of huge, brightly colored storybooks. “Our story is just one part of millions of much bigger stories.”

Similarly, we heightened the emotional impact of the story’s climax and ending with an old filmmaking technique. Throughout the presentation, the photos of the children gradually go from wide-shot, to medium close-up, to close-up. By drawing the perspective in closer to the subject’s face, the audience is drawn closer into the storytelling and will make a stronger emotional connection with the content.

I hope you enjoy our presentation and this glimpse into the presentation design process on a project like this. Duke Children’s Hospital is a wonderful organization that does some truly amazing work. It was a pleasure working with them.

Link to presentation video.

(The video version above is set to music from Disney-Pixar’s Up!)

Check out our latest presentation on SlideShare. “The Future of Work” is an educational presentation that explores how incredible technology is changing the way people collaborate on projects and work together on teams. Enjoy!

Check out this great TED talk from Dan Ariely about human decision making. I personally love this kind of research. Though it can be a little disconcerting, it’s fascinating to learn about the brain and how we’re not always in as much control of our perception as we think.

Dan Ariely is a behavioral economist and the author of Predictably Irrational. From a presentation design standpoint, his talk is a perfect example of how a data-driven speech can be made captivating when combined with the magic ingredients — 1) good storytelling, and 2) visual slides.

Dan is one of these rare academics who bridges the gap between academia and the general public. His research is cutting edge in the scientific community, and he is able to share it (both writing and speaking) in a way that engages just about everyone.

I’ve had a chance to hear Dan speak in person several times and can say his presentations are always crowd pleasers. Enjoy!

Dan Ariely TED Talk