Dennis Kennedy

I spent some time tonight on the A Whole Lotta Nothing blog and was greatly rewarded.

I particularly enjoyed Matt's list of books that shaped his view of the web, in part because I had read most of the books over the years and could nod my head in agreement with his assessments.

But I was delighted by his mention of Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics. While I think that the book is quite helpful in thinking about web site design, it's the most influential book I've ever read in terms of impact on my use of PowerPoint. The book made me think very carefully about the transition of thought from slide to slide and the logic of both the gap in between slides as well as the way to use slides themselves. If you think about that, that's a key element in comic strips. In fact, a lot of the explanantion of why many PowerPoint presentations are considered "bad" can be found in this book, but you have to think and try to draw some analogies out. It's well worth the effort.

Ironically, when people tell me they like my presentations, I'll mention this book and notice that they never believe me. Now, don't you do that. I recommend both Matt's list and McCloud's book.