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Presentation Skills Considered Harmful

Kathy Sierra · 4 Oct 2013

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Every claim below was made in this piece, quoted word for word and numbered in the order the piece makes them, so you can read it there rather than take our word for it. The sentence above each quote is our reading of the claim, not their wording. Each quote was checked against a stored copy of the page at build time; where the two differ, the quote is the fact.

  1. Because unless you're a paid performer - musician, comedian, motivational speaker - you are not the reason they came to the conference. They are sitting in your session because of someone that matters far more to them than you: themselves. They are there for their own experiences, and "watching you present" is not one of those experiences.
  2. And if it's a user experience, then what am I? Ah... now we're at the place where stage fright starts to dissolve. Because if the presentation is a user experience, than I am just a UI. That's it. I am a UI. Nothing more. And what's a key attribute of a good UI? It disappears. It does not draw attention to itself. It enables the user experience, but is not itself the experience.
  3. Because what matters most is NOT the UX but the POST-UX UX. What happens after and as a result of the user experience? The best software and product designers know this. The best game designers know this. The best authors know this. The best filmmakers know this. What happens after what happens happens?

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