RE: my last post on great information brokers
A quick snippet of someone whose presentation gave me some awesome information to walk away with and feel super smart (therefore, Khoi Vinh rocks ’cause he’s brilliant and he presented the information in a way I can use it to feel smart):
“Most features are for experts, but most users are intermediates.”
Yep. Remember that. Even when designing presentations.
Sure, there were probably a few people in the audience who went, “Bah. I already knew that. Tell me something I haven’t heard before.” But Khoi presented for the rest of us who needed to hear that, which made him one of my highlights. 
I thought Khoi Vinh’s presentation was fantastic.
Clear, easy to follow, smart, and with lots of obvious things said that I never thought of expressing so obviously. I think I had more “Oh I got to use that” moments during his presentation than anyone elses.
Khoi rocks indeed; he has a talent for meaningful one-sentence-conclusions.
I really appreciated the way he showed contrast between state of the art technology and the things the public actually uses. (HD vs YouTube, Digital SLR vs cameraphone, Skype vs SMS)
Here is another quote: ‘Options are obstructions‘
Hi Tara,
Totally agree about Khoi – great speaker. His workshop on Thursday morning was excellent too.
His workshop was on using grids for web design but he went right back to the basics of design with some slides showing old posters – somehow without patronising those with an art background.
Like you said, he takes you through the steps and the thought processes required to get where he is.
He was also very well prepared. As my Mum always tells me, “If you fail to prepare, then prepare to fail.”
Paul
agree, he was absolutely excellent.
really want to try and get a hold of those slides.
one of the highlights of FOWA, along with digg and meeting kosso at geekdinner.
John.
Khoi is a well known user of Apple’s Keynote, so that explains some of the inherent pleasures of his presentations, and I too want to see his slides – he is, after all, a master of design and useability.
Whuch makes me wonder why he, and so many others, persist in vertical layout of text for the vertical axis in charts, as illustrated in your blog entry.
One thing I teach in my Keynote presentation skills (blogged also) is: “You work hard (preparing your slides) so the audience has it easy.”
So you label your slide (as Khoi did, but why upper left and not centre where the sweet spot is on the graph), and you make the labels easy to read. If it’s in English, read left to right then next line, lay out the text that way, not vertically so I have to angle my head. Some people easily read this way (I can easily read a book upside down) others can’t.
In a large audience, go for the LCD and make all the words easy to see and read. It’s a little thing, but in a day’s workshop or conference, it can be very fatiguing (ie, interfering) to have to unnecessarily work that hard, albeit less-than-concsciously.
It’s just a little thing, I know, but they all add up, and contribute to Death by Powerpoint (or even Keynote if you’re not careful).