The biggest mistake I have seen in business since the digital revolution, is not being there to explain the work in person.
m
The biggest mistake I have seen in business since the digital revolution, is blaming the digital tools.
Sorry, I don’t understand. Can you explain that better?
I couldn’t get the software to blend that radius and surface…
Software keeps crashing…
We can’t seem to access the licence…
Laptop isn’t seeing the projector…
It’s too expensive to issue an ECO, what’s the work around…
I didn’t receive that email, can you send a disc…
I don’t understand, it was working yesterday…
Can’t print…
pier,
I’m with you. I hear that nonsense all the time where I work. It’s hunting season!
Is that what you meant? I meant that sending work digitally and then hoping it will present itself, or talking about it over the phone is a terrible way to present and one of the biggest mistakes designer’s make these days.(in the name of convenience) enabled by technology Web ex is better but still a half measure. . …funny but I’m betting if we were having this conversation in person we would know exactly what each other’s inferences’ were.
M
it’s true what you say, the face contributes so much to communication.
But, I knew what you meant because I’ve done what you mention. Not from vanity but reality: globally distributed teams mean presentations can be virtual or both real and virtual. I absolutely dread marketing or engineering executives re-presentation of my material without my presence.
There are techniques in presentation formats to improve communication of visual information.
Communicating digitally is definitely a design challenge
It really helps if you know your audience, i.e. you work with this team all the time and you pretty much know how they will react to or respond to the materials presented. Better still they know / respect you enough to clarify points that were at all unclear or not what they might have thought you meant.
I have spent far too much time on certain presentations trying to make sure EVERY detail was so clearly spelled out that no incorrect inferences could be made, and I have spent far too little time resulting in ?'s all around. I am constantly working @ knowing what the optimal info level is and how to make sure the parties that recieve these documents know THEY are the intended audience and they may want to consult me prior to presenting / sharing with others.
Some people don’t make very good impressions in person for whatever reasons, but have excellent phone skills or convey their thoughts better in writing. The digital presentation can possibly help that person out a lot when other factors outside of their control might affect their in-person presentation.
I haven’t had the opportunity to use the new Adobe Acrobat 8 yet, but this seems like it could help solve some of these above issues. You have live video chats while reviewing the projects.
http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/experience/?promoid=YNBL
Click on COLLABORATE to view the demonstration movie.
Video is a big help. Especially with the ability to control the camera from both ends. Still the delay and the forced positioning and the scanning and the speed are real handicaps.
M
Hi, im a newbie here anyway can you explain this…I really dont get it…
I’ve done some desktop sharing/phone conferences with clients. It works great. I’ve been working on a few larger freelance projects where myself, engineering, marketing, and investors will all be in different locations. The desktop sharing is awesome for this so we can discuss concepts, spin models, and find ways to reach a consensus faster.
When I can’t do this, I find it is better to send a multipage pdf that walks people through the story instead of a bunch of jpegs.
“A poor craftsman blames his tools”
Mark’s original point is still the biggest problem of all. In fact, we just had a not-so-great conference call today!
Our local clients are so much easier to work with. Wish we had more of them, but globalization isn’t half bad either.