BEFORE: The original request was to show a slide with jumbled acronymsshowing the state of Java development. The title was long and an acronymcollage was not visually-stimulating.

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metaphors and existing photography.Duarte chose to take a unique “home-grown” approach using digital photog-raphy. Duarte conducted a series ofphoto shoots using its own staff asmodels. The result was a cost-effectiveway to put a human touch on theBorland slideshow.

For example, to depict Borland’sdiversity of development options, whichare often titled with technical acronyms,Duarte worked with cans of alphabetsoup to display the acronyms in a soupbowl. To highlight the increasingamount of pressure to deliver solutionsthat meet management’s high expecta-tions as well as time and financial con-straints, we photographed a “stresseddeveloper” being squeezed by imposingcubicle walls. To demonstrate the col-laborative features of Borland’s prod-ucts, we arranged photos of employeeslooking at each other and then alterna-

S cotts Valley, Calif.-based BorlandSoftware, a company that createsapplications for software develop-

ers, was recently invited to give akeynote presentation at a high-profileindustry event. Borland executives want-ed the presentation to define its posi-tion in the industry, and create a memo-rable impact on software developers inthe audience to show that Borland hadempathy towards the struggles develop-ers face on a daily basis.

Borland brought its ideas and objec-tives to Duarte Design. The companyhad already developed a basicslideshow. Duarte Design was hired tofinesse the slideshow and come upwith creative ways to connect to thesoftware developers who’d be in theaudience watching the presentation.

A variety of design options wereconsidered for the visuals, but wewanted to avoid using common

tively looking the other way toward thedevelopment environment.

After a series of photo shoots, theimages were brought into AdobePhotoshop for final edits. The slideshowwas set on a clean-white background.This allowed the images to take centerstage in telling the story. To make thefinal display more impressive, we usedembedded Flash files, PowerPoint’s ownanimation and audio to give the slidesan impressive “high-tech” look and feelto match Borland’s message.

The end result was a creative techni-cal presentation that expressedBorland’s complex ideas, but at thesame time, touched the human elementof Borland’s customers.Software and System used: AdobePhotoshop 7.0, Macromedia Flash MX,Microsoft PowerPoint 2002; MicrosoftWindows XP.

Creative visuals take the place of text

P

by nancy duarteNancy Duarte’svisual design teamhas developedpresentations in theSilicon Valley since1988. DuarteDesign specializesin digital presenta-tions for corporatestorytelling. She canbe reached atnancy@duarte.comor www.duarte.com.

AFTER: We solved the jumbledacronyms with a metaphor of soup.We bought a can of alphabet soup,strained, and washed the letters andcarefully placed them with a toothpickinto a fresh bowl of tomato soup. Theimage catches the eye and draws theaudience in better than an acronym-laden slide.

Use human elements to spice up technical presentations

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Animated sequence brings list to life

Put a human into the solution

BEFORE: This slide lists the pressures today’s developer faces at work, with no artwork. The companyhad originally considered an image of a developer with its head ready to explode. But we felt that thesuggestion was too graphic, and the dark tone may shadow its intended message.

BEFORE: Borland had previously used what they affectionately called a “cheese wheel.” However, thisgraphic does not show that the main differentiator of its product was the collaboration feature thatinvolves human interaction during the development process. There is no human aspect to this wheel.

AFTER: Instead we choose to show developer is under tremendous pressure at work, byanimating an employee being squeezed by enclosing cubicle walls. Using white foam core ascube-wall “props” we staged several shots with the developer in various body positions. The textwas added later and the slide sequence is programmed to automatically animate the illusion ofthe incoming cube walls.

BUILD: The human images areanimated to show employees looking ateach other representing the interactionbetween the roles people play as theydevelop software. As the animation iscompleted, the final slide shows thosesame roles at work manipulating data onan invisible screen surface.

BUILD:Each shot shows the cube walls inchingcloser to the employee. The animated slidesand incoming text create a light-heartedmetaphor of how a “developer” feelsabout the obstacles he faces on the job.

AFTER: We wanted to show a “human” collaborative solution so we mapped where eachemployee would be and choreographed the movements. When animated, it gives the illusion thatthe employees are looking at each other and “working” with each “human” component.