Steve Jobs (20 page)

words
and
pictures. In Mayer’s experiments, groups that were

exposed to multisensory environments—texts and pictures, ani-

mation, and video—always had much more accurate recall of the

information, in some cases up to twenty years later!

CONTIGUITY PRINCIPLE

“When giving a multimedia explanation, present correspond-

ing words and pictures contiguously rather than separately,”

Mayer advi
ses.17 I
n Mayer’s experiments, he exposed students to certain types of information and then tested them on what they

had learned. Those students who had read a text containing

captioned illustrations near the corresponding words performed

65 percent better than those students who had read only plain

text. Mayer says this principle is not surprising if you know how

the brain works. When the brain is allowed to build two mental

representations of an explanation—a verbal model and a visual

model—the mental connections are that much stronger.

SPLIT-ATTENTION PRINCIPLE

Mayer also advises, “When giving a multimedia explanation,

present words as auditory narration rather than visual on-screen

text.
”18 W
hen presenting information, words delivered orally have greater impact than words read by your audience on a slide.

Having too many words to process overloads the brain.

COHERENCE PRINCIPLE

“When giving a multimedia explanation,” writes Mayer, “use few

rather than many extraneous words and pictures.
”19
Shorter presentations with more relevant information are more consistent

CHANNEL THEIR INNER ZEN
95

with cognitive-learning theories. In sum, adding redundant or

irrelevant information will impede, rather than aid, learning.

Mayer says an ideal slide would contain an image along with

a simple line drawing directing the eye to the area that you

want the viewer to see. This is called “signaling,” and it is based

on the scientific premise that your audience should not have

to waste cognitive resources trying to find their place on the

screen. Now, keep this in mind as we return to the “Let’s Rock”

event. About six minutes into the presentation, Jobs described a

new feature available on iTunes—Genius (see Table 8.3).
20

What could be easier to follow than simple line arrows point-

ing to the relevant area of a slide? Line drawings, few words,

and a rich library of colorful images and photographs make up

the majority of Jobs’s slides. Simplicity—the elimination of clut-

ter—is the theme that ties them all together.

The “McPresentation”

Critics once derided USA Today as “McPaper” for its short,

easy-to-read stories. They’re not laughing now. USA Today

boasts the largest circulation of any newspaper in the United

States. Readers love the colorful and bold graphics, charts, and

photographs. After USA Today launched in 1982, many daily

newspapers had no choice but to follow with shorter stories,

splashes of color, and more photographs.

USA Today became famous for its “snapshots,” stand-alone

charts carried on the lower left of the main sections (i.e., News,

Sports, Money, Life). They are easy-to-read statistical graph-

ics that present information on various issues and trends in

a visually appealing way. These graphics are among the best

learning tools to create more visual slides. Study them. You’ll

see Richard Mayer’s theory in action. Statistics share the slide

with images, making the information more memorable. For an

index of USA Today “snapshots,” visit usatoday.com/snapshot/

news/snapndex.htm.

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DELIVER THE EXPERIENCE

TABLE 8.3
MORE EXCERPTS FROM JOBS’S 2008

“LET’S ROCK” PRESENTATION

STEVE’S WORDS

STEVE’S SLIDES

”We’re introducing a new feature called Genius.

Genius

Genius is pretty cool.”

“What Genius does is automatically allow you to

Automatically make

make playlists from songs in your music library

playlists from songs

that go great together, with just one click. It

in your library that go

helps you rediscover music from your own

great together—with

music library and make great playlists that you

just one click

probably wouldn’t think of making any other

way, and it really works well with just one click.”

“So, that’s what Genius is. Here’s what it looks

Image of an iTunes

like. Let’s say you’re listening to a song—in my

library screen shot with

case, a Bob Dylan song.”

a song highlighted

“There’s a Genius button down here in the

Animated circle

corner. You push that, and voilà—you’ve

appears and surrounds

made a Genius playlist. In addition, you can

small Genius logo at

bring up the Genius sidebar that makes

bottom right of screen

recommendations from the iTunes store of

music you might want to buy.”

“So, how does all this work? Well, we’ve got

Simple cloud line

the iTunes store in the cloud, and we’ve added

drawing with Genius

Genius algorithms to it.”

logo inside

“So, you’ve got your music library. If you turn on

Image of iTunes music

Genius, it’s going to send up information about

library; arrow appears

your music library to iTunes so we can learn

moving up from iTunes

about your musical tastes. This information is

to cloud

sent completely anonymously.”

“But it’s not just information from you, because

Many images of iTunes

we are going to combine your information with

music libraries appear

the knowledge of millions of iTunes users as well.”

alongside original

“And so, you’re going to send your information

Arrow up from original

up, and so are they.”

image to cloud,

followed by more than

a dozen arrows from

other images

CHANNEL THEIR INNER ZEN
97

STEVE’S WORDS

STEVE’S SLIDES

“And as that happens, Genius just gets

Genius logo in cloud

smarter, and smarter, and smarter.”

replaced with word

“Smarter”

“Everybody benefits. When we send back

Arrow appears moving

down Genius results to you, they are tailored

downward from cloud to

to your music library.”

iTunes library image

“So, automatically make playlists from songs

in your library that go great together, with

just one click. That’s what Genius is about.”

[moves to demo]

White Space

According to Garr Reynolds, there is a clear Zen aesthetic to

Jobs’s slides. “In Jobs’s slides, you can see evidence of restraint,

simplicity, and powerful yet subtle use of empty space.
”21 T
op designers such as Reynolds say the biggest mistake business

professionals make is filling up every centimeter of the slide.

Nancy Duarte describes white space as giving your slides

visual breathing room. “Visible elements of a slide often receive

the most focus. But you need to pay equal attention to how

much space you leave open . . . It’s OK to have clear space—

clutter is a failure of design.
”22
Duarte says it’s “laziness” on the part of the presenter to put everything on one slide.

Dense information and clutter requires too much effort

for your audience. Simplicity is powerful. Empty space implies

elegance, quality, and clarity. To see examples of how design-

ers use space, visit some slide design contest winners at

Slideshare.net (slideshare.net/contest/results-2008).

Picture Superiority Effect

By now I hope you have decided to gather up your current slides,

especially those with bullet points, and burn them. At least burn

them digitally by deleting them and emptying your recycle bin

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DELIVER THE EXPERIENCE

so you can never retrieve those slides again. The argument for

the visual representation of ideas is such a powerful concept that

psychologists have a term for it: the picture superiority effect

(PSE).
23
Researchers have discovered that visual and verbal information are processed differently along multiple “channels” in

your brain. What this means for you and your next presentation

is simple: your ideas are much more likely to be remembered if

they are presented as pictures instead of words.

Scientists who have advanced the PSE theory believe it repre-

sents a powerful way of learning information. According to John

Medina, a molecular biologist at the University of Washington

School of Medicine, “Text and oral presentations are not just

less efficient than pictures for retaining certain types of infor-

mation; they are
way
less efficient. If information is presented orally, people remember about 10 percent, tested seventy-two

hours after exposure. That figure goes up to 65 percent if you

add a picture.
”24

Pictures work better than text because the brain sees words

as several tiny pictures. According to Medina, “My text chokes

you, not because my text is not enough like pictures but because

my text is too much like pictures. To our cortex, unnervingly,

there is no such thing as words.
”25

Steve’s Love of Photos

On June 9, 2008, Steve Jobs announced the introduction of

the iPhone 3G at the WWDC. He used eleven slides to do so,