As technology progresses, visual “stuff” is usually the first that gets added, because, well, we can
- Huge wings on cars in the 1950s
- Drop shadows and gradients in Windows XP
- Realistic textures on iPhone screens
- LED displays and indicators on consumer electronics
- Animations and effects in PowerPoint
- Highly sophisticated frameworks dreamed up by management consultants
- Massive BI management dashboards
But after a while, we start to understand how technology really can make things clearer and more useful, and the initial “because we can” features get eliminated.
The way people communicate in companies is going through a similar transition. Long, formal memos, are replaced by email, informal slack messages with a “Dear Sirs” greeting.
Presentations need to go through a similar transformation. I am working on it.