Home

Show what you mean

“Saying what you mean” may be a great way to build a strong friendship. It is not, however, a great way to build website navigation, or a presentation visual.

It is not that words are lame. They are wonderful, precise, meaningful. But they do not provide the immediate understanding visuals carry. Reading is a complex, fairly lengthy process. It involves a sequence of steps: seeing + pattern matching + pattern interpretation. Reading is also linear in nature. is perfect  this of example a sentence fact this (This sentence is a perfect example of this fact). Finally, reading requires focus, attention. One cannot read a book, and drive in busy traffic (this kind learning cost me $2600, enjoy your savings).

Seeing, however, is simpler and quasi-immediate. immediate grasp of the metric; meaning of the metric conveyed at the same time as its value; low attention requirement to observe the figure. Watching is also more parallel, and requires less attention.

These differences are the reasons why maps are visual and not long-winded tales of all the ways to go to all the places. These are also the reasons why fighter jets, military helicopters and most civil airplanes have kept analog displays in the cockpit in the Digital Age. And these are the reasons why I really liked a nice little feature in the otherwise fairly modest North Arizona University website:

Now, millions of websites have a map link. But most still link to maps through words like “map” or all-times-favorite “directions” or the ever-so-dreadful “click here”. Some will have a picture of a map linking to the full-fledge picture map or its Google, Yahoo, or Live mashup bread. But few personalize it to the point of making the link a tidbit of the real map. Anyway, this one triggered the thought, and hence deserved the credit. So there you go. Thanks to North Arizona University

Now, there is a limit to the power of images, and it is the meaning people put on them. If you show a knife to a cook, it is full of possibilities. It is a tool. It evokes to do’s, etc. Now, if you show the same knife to students, they may think “Scream” trilogy. So as you can see, images may be powerful ways to convey simple messages, within the confines of agreed upon context, amongst known viewers. But images are also a wonderful way to convey the wrong message, very powerfully

This is a funny and interesting topic, which we will keep for next time. In the meantime, to make a point of living by what we just told, let’s summarize our point visually:

Leaders aren’t born. They are made.

“Leaders aren’t born. They are made.”

Vince Lombardi

The stroke of insight of Jill Bolte Taylor

Jill Bolte Taylor is a brain scientist. So you will soon understand the extraordinary insight she got when one morning, she woke up with a terrible pain on the left temporal lobe. As a person, she was both living an intense connective experience and a struggle for survival against a stroke. As a scientist, she had a unique insider experience of what a stroke does, and what it means. As her brain functions (motion, speech, memory, self-awareness, etc.) were shutting down one by one, she started to experience an intense connectedness, the loss of the constant brain chatter, the loss of the sense of self and separatedness.

“How many brain scientists have been able to study the brain from the inside out? I’ve gotten as much out of this experience of losing my left mind as I have in my entire academic career.”

Jill Bolte Taylor

If the video takes to long to load, you can go and Check TED.

Gen Y + Gen X > 1.5 x Boom

I have always liked the style (and obviously seriousness) of Deloitte publications.

The 3 Concentric Views: Strategic, Operational & Tactical

This series of patterns patterns for thinking and visualizing reality.

Principle of the pattern

The same reality can often be seen differently depending on the perspective you you observe it from. This is true for a landscape, a scene, as illustrated (more or less successfully) by the recent movie Vantage Point. In the movie, various characters see the same scene, the assassination of the president of the United States, from their own perspective. It is only by looking at the various perspectives of the story that the truth about what happened can be pieced together.

This is also true for a business activity or business process. A strategic outlook, an operational review, and a tactical analysis will all provide useful insights. However, combining and comparing these perspectives provides far much more insight.

although the vision will be different, each aspect will tend to affect the other two.

For instance, looking at a particular interaction or business activity on these three different time scales will likely uncover different types of activities, owners, challenges, benefits… maybe different tools are used as well.

Applications of the pattern

The 3 Concentric Views pattern is useful when trying to reconcile the views of different groups contributing to the same business process, but with different degrees of involvement and time concern.  Whether the 3 Concentric Views or the Prism is more appropriate depends on the nature of the difference of perspectives. If the perspectives differ on some groups being involved with the tactics, some more concerned about the long-term . In most cases, it is well combined with the Prism pattern, which shows the various angles of process.

Example

A good example of this pattern is the Strategic, Operational, Tactical views of the Product Development Lifecycle:

• At a strategic level, Senior leadership is essentially concerned with…
• At an operational level, Middle management, both on the business and IT side, is essentially concerned about getting things clarified and done. The main concerns are the scope and the end-user validation.
• At the tactical level, the most important concern is getting things done. It includes making sure specifications are precise, accurate, understood and that the test cases are comprehensive and prioritized.

To address each of these challenges, the main players of each of these leagues will employ different tools. Their success or failures will be seen on a different horizon.

Template for your own use

You can download and reuse these templates freely. Please, keep the copyrights and links in the document, if you share them. This way, if people like these templates too, they will know where to find these documents too. Share the love

The templates exist in 2 visual forms: 3-views-in-one, and 1-view-per-page. I also saved them in 3 different file formats, so that you can use them whatever the platform and tool you may use.

The 1-view-per-page template is convenient for use in the early stage of a brainstorm session or workshop. Just print a copy of the relevant view to each participant, and let them consider their own perspective for a while.

The 3-views-in-one template is convenient for use in a the later stage of a brainstorm session or workshop. You can print a copy per participant or team, and let them consider all perspectives for a while. Or you can fill it and leave it as a give-away.

AcrobatPDF templates: 1-view-per-page. 3-views-in-one.

Powerpoint templates: 1-view-per-page. 3-views-in-one.

OpenOffice templates: 1-view-per-page. 3-views-in-one.

Free Software Foundation

The FSF is a charity with a worldwide mission to advance software freedom — learn about our history and work.

The More Loving One

Here is yet another poetic intermission.

        The More Loving One
          by W. H. Auden

Looking up at the stars, I know quite well
That, for all they care, I can go to hell,
But on earth indifference is the least
We have to dread from man or beast.

How should we like it were stars to burn
With a passion for us we could not return?
If equal affection cannot be,
Let the more loving one be me.

Admirer as I think I am
Of stars that do not give a damn,
I cannot, now I see them, say
I missed one terribly all day.

Were all stars to disappear or die,
I should learn to look at an empty sky
And feel its total dark sublime,
Though this might take me a little time.

From “Homage to Clio” by W. H. Auden

Moesta and Errabunda

Here is a new poetic intermission.

        Moesta et Errabunda

Tell me, does your heart sometimes soar, Agathe,
far from the dark sea of the sordid city,
towards another sea, a blaze of splendor that
is blue, bright, deep as virginity?
Tell me, does your heart sometimes soar, Agathe?
The sea, the vast sea, consoles us for our efforts!
What demon entrusted the sea, that hoarse singer
that accompanies the immense roar of tempests,
with being the sublime sleep-bringer?
The sea, the vast sea, consoles us for our efforts!
Carry me wagons! Take me, frigate!
Far, far! Here the city slime is made of our weeping!
Is it true that your sad heart, Agathe,
cries: ‘Far from remorse, from crime, from suffering,
carry me wagons, take me frigate!
How far perfumed paradise, you are removed
from us, where the clear blue is all love and happiness,
where what one loves is worthy of being loved,
where the heart drowns in pure voluptuousness!
How far, perfumed paradise, you are removed!
But the green paradise of childhood’s thrill,
the games, the songs, the kisses, and the flowers,
the violin making music behind the hill,
and the wine glass, under the trees, in twilight hours,
- But the green paradise of childhood’s thrill,

the innocent paradise full of secret yearning,
is it already further than India or China?
Can we call it back, with cries of longing,
and re-create it, with its voice of silver,
the innocent paradise full of secret yearning?

                        Charles Baudelaire

Note: Moesta et Errabunda: Sad and Restless.
‘Agathe’ is pronounced as ‘Agat’, to rhyme with ‘that’.

The sleeper of the valley (Le dormeur du val)

Here is a little poetic intermission… Details count, even the least of those, at the end.

THE SLEEPER OF THE VALLEY

There’s a green hollow where a river sings
Silvering the torn grass in its glittering flight,
And where the sun from the proud mountain flings
Fire –and the little valley brims with light.
A soldier young, with open mouth, bare head,
Sleeps with his neck in dewy water cress,
Under the sky and on the grass his bed,
Pale in the deep green and the light’s excess.
He sleeps amid the iris and his smile
Is like a sick child’s slumbering for a while.
Nature, in thy warm lap his chilled limbs hide!
The perfume does not thrill him from his rest.
He sleeps in sunshine, hand upon his breast,
Tranquil –with two red holes in his right side.

                                     JEAN ARTHUR RIMBAUD (1854-1891)
                                     [Translator: Ludwig Lewisohn]

Intranet trends

As I was doing some competitive research on Enterprise 2.0, I found this report by Intranet Benchmarking Forum, dated 02 January 2008, on Intranets and Portals Trends for 2008. In a nutshell? Prime time.

Where are intranets and portals going in 2008 and beyond? What will be the hot topics for intranet managers? The IBF charts the trends to look out for in the year ahead.

1. High-level workflow: Intranets will become increasingly broad digital environments for carrying out work tasks. Among IBF members running more advanced and effective intranets, there is a strong focus on using the intranet to give employees access to value-adding online services. 
2. News in decline: Screen real estate given over to news will decline as a heavy focus on news struggles to prove its value. In contrast to what many communications people running many ‘early generation’ intranets might think, staff do not have an insatiable appetite for top-down news and announcements about the company. 
3. Collaboration and community: User-generated content will help build connections and encourage better information flow around the organization. SharePoint will continue to be in the vanguard – more than half of IBF members are now using the system as the basis of, or in tandem with, their intranets. 
4. The ‘under web’: Intranets will become two-tier environments, with an ‘official’ more formal intranet, and a ‘dark web’ or ‘under web’ where social software tools are widely used. Increasingly, the intranet ‘landscape’ will extend beyond the firewall to include things like Facebook, which will become part of users’ wider online working environments. (However, Facebook and other similar tools can never adequately replace the corporate intranet or portal). 
5. Universal access: As remote and home working increase, so does the need to deliver intranet services anywhere/anytime. Busy managers need to be able to access vital information on the intranet, or take full part in a web meeting, even if they’re parked in a lay-by using a PDA. 
6. Lovely user experiences: Intranets will go through a design renaissance with dull design replaced by engaging user interfaces. Attractive visual design is not, after all, the enemy of usability; if it is done well, which includes proper user testing, it can be an important ingredient in driving intranet usage and effectiveness. 
7. Culture and brand hubs: Advanced intranets will perform a larger role in building culture and brand for the organization. This is particularly so in global organizations that need to foster a sense of global and local identity.

This article is based on the introduction by IBF chairman and chief executive officer Paul Miller to the latest IBF member directory (available only to IBF members), as well as recent IBF research. For more of Paul’s thoughts, see the IBF blog for December.

If you want to see more articles and trends like these, you can check the Intranet Benchmarking Forum.

« Previous Entries / Home