Monday, December 10, 2012

Academia needs help from design


The problem I have with academia is not about learning being a bad thing, it just happens that academia taught us ALL to design badly and that this is the accepted premise. Unfortunately, under the flow of this academic mindset, I myself fall into the trap.

It was known that 95% of the presentations suck, irregardless of who the presenter is (Duarte, 2008). Why is it so? I am not telling the lecturers to undergo design presentation training but what is the point of conducting a lecture that nobody is mentally strong enough to listen?

Why are most of the lectures so boring? I certainly do not find the content or subject matter all that dull, in fact I quite enjoyed learning with the professors.
Designing is not about the use of tools, its about the use of mind. If PowerPoint is the only presentation tool one is able to use, make full use of it. Don't get me wrong, I am not teaching design 101, and I certainly do not think that I am in the right position to do so. The idea of “because I hold a pen and therefore I can’t hold a pencil” mindset should not be imprinted into every academic’s mind.

There is a huge misconception within academia about design being decorations and ornamentations. Design is more about problem solving (Veen, 2000), improving the functions to connect the presenter to the audiences. 

Duarte. N. (2008). Slide:ology: The Art and Science of Creating Great Presentations. Retrieved on 2012, 28 November from http://www.slideshare.net/macasagi/slideology-9866222 

Veen, J. (2000)The art and science of web design(1 ed.). New Riders Press.
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1 comment:

  1. UnknownDecember 27, 2012 at 10:18 AM

    Yes that's right. I sometimes wonder what presentations are for and why students are presenting. They tend to forget the real purpose of giving a presentation as a presenter. They don't even know what exactly they are presenting about.

    After listening to Prof.Stan's presentation and doing our presentation at the international conference, I really could learn the real meaning of giving a presentation as a presenter.
    Preparing one presentation does take time. Yes, it does. I mean it should take time.It is not like thirty minutes preparation. It is not like just reading up the transcripts.

    At the ending of a 'unprepared' presentation the audience is asked what they've learned from it, can they really answer the question? They might not even sure what it is about. It is still hard to do a worthy presentation tho.x
    Thank you for this post, Jasmine! ;)

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