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Public Visual Thinking Workshop – Saturday March 17th

At VizNetwork, we’ve been doing visual thinking workshops for our customers for years. Topics have ranged from presentation design, presentation delivery, data visualization, dashboard design, visual literacy, gamestorming, and much, much more. (Just check out the list of topics on our home page for a more complete list).

We’ve been asked over and over “When [...]

Mobile App Design Class – Fall 2011

I will be teaching a mobile app design class this fall at Michigan State University. During this class, students will learn what to consider when designing a mobile app–from concept to completion. Some of the topics include:

How to get to know your Audience Competitive Research Information Architecture for Mobile Visual Design for Mobile Mobile [...]

You Are Your Own Visual Aid

Presentation gurus and speaker coaches often talk about body language. What should you do with your hands? How should your face react? How do eliminate (or at least reduce) fidgiting? More advanced presenters go well beyond what their hands or face do and begin to think about how their whole body can help them tell [...]

Using Visualization to Think

Often, we focus on visualization as an output, as a form of communication or speaking. It’s happens all to easily, since it’s the thing we see. However, often the real value of visualization comes in the process which causes, maybe forces, us to think differently. Sometimes the thinking and the speaking worlds come together and [...]

Living Trash Free

Is it possible to live trash free for a year? Possibly. What about trash & recycling free? I was skeptical to say the least. Darshan Karwat, a Ph.D student studying aerospace engineering at the University of Michigan, showed me how.

It occurs to me that often, it’s not just our lives that get filled with [...]

The Funny Librarian

Can a librarian, professor, and policy maker talking about intellectual property rights be funny, relevant, and have a great message too? A resounding yes! The key is knowing your audience. Sure, Paul’s years of experience both in academia and the public sector made him an expert, but that expertise is often a recipe for disaster [...]

Inspiration through Crazy Ideas

Over the past few years I’ve coached hundreds of speakers. Without a doubt, I learn something from each one. The diversity of their backgrounds, experiences, and topics make my learning one of the most enjoyable parts of my work.

However, every once and a while, my enjoyment goes beyond learning and on to inspiration. Earlier [...]

A Lesson in Listening from a Stutterer

In my business, metrics about how one did as a speaker (or speaker coach) are often rare and largely subjective. However, there’s one indicator from an audience that is pretty clear…a spontaneous, standing ovation. Almost nothing makes me happier than when one of the speakers I had the privilege of coaching gets a standing ovation. [...]

How High Do You Really Need to Be?

People speak in metaphors all the time. For example, “we’re in the weeds” or we should “eat our own dog food”. Metaphors have even made it into technology with “desktops” and “windows”, though neither remotely reflect their real world counterparts (and probably shouldn’t). Some metaphors are used so often they slip past cliche and right [...]

Making Your Message Pop

Everybody wants their message to stand out. However, messages often get lost in the fog of competing information. In December, my friend and colleague, Ryan Coleman, did a great Ignite presentation on designing for visual efficiency called “Why is Waldo so !#@%ing Hard to Find”. As with all Ignite presenations, it’s fast (just about 5 [...]

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