If you’d like to see a pretty awkward interview, then check out the video above of me on the Whatever Show with Alexis and Jennifer. Good lord. It was only their 3rd show – the ladies having made the transition from Sirius radio to television – so it became pretty clear to me that the producers were still ironing out some kinks. Regardless of the slight fiasco, I thought that Alexis (Martha Stewart’s daughter) was inquisitive and endearing and I thought that I represented visual thinking fairly well in the freaking four minutes I had to do it. Have I done better? Yes. Did I learn something from the experience? Most definitely. What did I learn? (1) Television is a circus filled with sound and fury. (2) I look better wearing make-up. And (3) Even in the most ridiculous of back-stage circumstances, I can let go of pressure and enjoy myself. That 3rd discovery rocked. So even though I didn’t get my Sharpie mention in, I’d still have to say, in keeping with the title of the show, “whatever.” We all got through it.

For those of you who are aware of the Ignite presentation format, I probably don’t have to tell you how nerve-wracking it is. 5 minutes, 20 slides, 15 seconds per slide and you have zero control of the slide transitions. Hello. My worst nightmare as a presenter. To top off the format challenge, this particular Ignite presentation on The Doodle Revolution was done at O’Reilly’s Foo Camp, quite possibly the brainiest gathering of brainiacal brainiacs on the West Coast. So, you know, no pressure. I prepared for weeks for the shortest presentation of my career. I got through it and rather enjoyed it, so I hope you will too. Play the video above to witness the public beginning of The Doodle Revolution.

I was absolutely impressed with the Zappos Insights Bootcamp. It’s a 2-day workshop designed to expose people to their famous culture – the values that drive it and the people and policies that keep it growing. I was so impressed, in fact, that I’ll write another blog post soon showing the video with interviews from some participants. The images above were the four 32-square-foot murals I created for the group while they were in the workshop. Tony Hsieh, the CEO, and Alfred Lin, the CFO, made presentations during the session and I think people were a little bit starstruck. The Zappos guys have officially reached celebrity status, but they remain humble. One principle I took away from the session (among many) was that hubris gets you nowhere, quickly. More to come.

While in Waikiki, I was invited by Burt Lum – the gracious host of a radio show called Bytemarks Café – to be on Hawai’i Public Radio to discuss the intersection between new technology and visualization. (Not that I’ve even scratched the surface of all the possibilities there, but it’s worth a conversation.) We were joined by instructor and web designer Chris Gargiulo from KCC. Chris and I discussed the process of designing for the audience’s experience and our personal insight into good design principles (and what I unfortunately referred to on-air as “fugly” design principles). We had callers ask about PowerPoint – one teacher said her school’s design specs require the use of blue text on a yellow background (what?!) – and others discussed some of the challenges of thinking through good design. To catch the audio file, Listen here. If you only want to hear my contribution, start at 19:56. Thank you for listening. Good night, and Good Luck.

Listen to it here

]]> http://sunnibrown.com/2009/06/10/hawaii-public-radio-bytemarks-cafe/feed/ 0 http://sunnibrown.com/2009/06/10/life-is-hard-enough-without-visual-thinking/ http://sunnibrown.com/2009/06/10/life-is-hard-enough-without-visual-thinking/#comments Wed, 10 Jun 2009 02:23:13 +0000 Sunni http://sunnibrown.com/?p=548

Okay, so I jest. I forced my students to express happiness after an 8-hour day of learning visual thinking techniques. But if you ask them, I don’t think they were truly coerced. Click on the photo to see pictures of them in action and my assertion that they were enjoying themselves will be more credible. I even had one gentlemen – originally late to class and hiding in the back – have a breakthrough in his willingness to draw at all, much less in front of others. It was one of those moments that, as a facilitator, you live for. Well worth drafting a customized 30-page curriculum. The topics covered in the workshop ranged from shapes, figures, faces and listening techniques to a closing discussion on fairly sophisticated information design (this group moved fast). I would have liked to have someone draw me a diagram on the intricacies of the Hula dance, but we ran out of time.