Floor to ceiling
In 480 we’re reading Ian Parker’s “Absolute PowerPoint,” a pretty good essay which tracks some of the often-discussed effects of PowerPoint, as well as the history of presentation software in general. Lots of good stuff here. Three of my favorite things (in bullets, of course):
- the name AutoContent—now part of MS Office—was intended as a joke.
- the concept of “raising the floor” but “lowering the ceiling,” borrowed from Clifford Nass. I’ve always thought about this as “least common denominator” effect, and wouldn’t be surprised other names for it exist. PP makes the worst better, but the best worse. Thus, it makes all presentations a little more average.
- Parker’s shoutout for Steven Johnson’s best book, Interface Culture, which I considered assigning for 480, and may still excerpt.
PP (and a lot of office software in general) seems to violate Hetland’s directions for code-writing by putting the “ingredients” and “directions” together—that is, it unites form and content, rather than enabling them to be kept separate. We start to think in bullet points because to use PP we have to.
Edward Tufte’s “The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint” provides another interesting take on PP which is definitely worth reading.
September 9th, 2005 at 4:11 pm
I am confused about what we are supposed to read in the Kelly piece for 480. Do you mean the four subheads under style like the concept?