20 Words are Worth at Least One Picture

Posted by Doug on Aug 30, 2009 in Thoughts | 0 comments

I cannot stress enough that you should never use words to convey a thought in a presentation when an image will do better. Yes, it takes more brain power and yes, it takes more work. But the results are worth it. When conveying a message in a remote presentation, it is important that the audience receive your message quickly and and clearly as possible. This is especially true if you want the audience member to interact with the slide and provide input. The clearer your image and message, the more accurate and honest the response to your query will be.

Many years ago, I put the creative team at GRAFX into the conference room and put a task before them. I set a shiny, new, all white porcelain coffee mug, full of steaming black coffee  on the center of the conference table and put a pad and pencil in front of each member of the team. The task was simple: using no more than 20 words, completely and accurately describe this mug so that someone who could not see the mug, but only their paper, would know exactly what it looked like. I left the room for 15 minutes.

When I returned, the results I got back were as expected. They came up with a grand total of 53 words between them, words such as:

White
Shiny
4″ Tall
Coffee
Mug
Curved Handle
Porcelain
Glazed
Flared
Smooth
Hardened
Hot
Steamy
Dark Fluid

Lots of words that covered every aspect of the mug’s shape, color, size, hardness, usefulness, reflective properties and so on. All in all a good exercise in marketing writing. But there was one artist all by herself in the corner of the conference room. As we discussed the words the others submitted, she sat quietly. In fact, I didn’t notice her at first. Finally I saw that she still had her paper so I asked to see it. She was clearly embarrassed and didn’t want to give it up easily. “I don’t think I understood the assignment’ she said. I told her it didn’t matter and asked if she would please share the paper with the class. Here is what was on her paper:

“No Betsey, you understood perfectly”, I replied.