With an increasing number of mobile design options emerging by the day, creative people are finding new and powerful ways to flesh out their visual concepts while on the move. The era of the mobile studio is upon us, so we thought we’d share a handful of brilliant apps to help you capture your inspiration whenever–and wherever–it may strike you.

Adobe Ideas

A vector app for iOS and Android that lets you finger paint and sketch. In addition, It works seamlessly with the desktop versions of Illustrator and Photoshop so you can take your creations to the next level when you get home.

http://www.adobe.com/products/adobeideas.html

Source: http://www.adobe.com/products/adobeideas.html

Adobe Photoshop Touch

Create multilayered images, apply filters, and share your creations using your Android tablet. Not only this, the layers are preserved when you bring you creations into Photoshop on your desktop.

http://www.photoshop.com/products/mobile

Source: http://www.adobe.com/products/touchapps.html

Air Display

Brought to you by Avatron. Multiple monitors in a coffee shop for ten bucks. Hard to argue the creative benefit when paired with your laptop and your favorite creative software.

http://avatron.com/

Bamboo Paper

A simple and effective sketchbook app from Wacom, the ever-popular tablet people. Use your fingers or try their Bamboo Stylus for even greater precision.

http://www.wacom.eu/index2.asp?pid=294&lang=en&gm=3

Moodboard2

Collect and organize things that inspire you. Plan your creative projects when the mood strikes, then share with friends or clients.

http://www.atinytribe.com/apps/moodboard

Source: http://www.atinytribe.com/

Photoforge2

Full resolution editing and layer support make this one powerful tool for creative nomads.

http://photoforge2.com/

Source: http://itunes.apple.com/app/photoforge2/id435789422?mt=8

Procreate

Savage Interactive delivers a whopping 1920x1408px canvas to your ipad. Use their intuitive interface to sketch, paint, and even edit photos.

http://savage.si/procreate/

Source: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/procreate/id425073498?mt=8

Sketchbook Pro

Autodesk introduces their digital sketching software to iOS and Android. Voted one of the “5 Must-Have iPad Apps” by Wired Magazine.

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/pc/index?id=6848332&siteID=123112

Snapseed

Nik Software brings us a stunningly simple photo editing app for iOS that features some innovative new filters and options.

http://www.niksoftware.com/snapseed/usa/index.php?view=intro%2Fmain.shtml

Source: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/snapseed-for-ipad/id439438619?mt=8&ls=1

And last, but not least… the zero dollar app that requires no installation:

Light Table Pro-Series Alpha: Championship Edition

Photo courtesy of Andrew Heine. All Rights Reserved.

Now go download one or a bunch of these apps and hit the road!

Presentations have been through many (delightfully positive) changes in the last few years—but believe it or not—the most dramatic change is yet to come. Come along as we roll back the curtain and predict what the future looks like.

1. Tablet war will shape future of presentations

Tablets are hot and are creating new ways to engage customers with rich content and immersive experiences. iPads get passed around a conference table the same way yellow pads used to. But delivering a presentation on these devices requires different design considerations and a more immersive experience. Navigable stories and short video clips will win on this presentation platform. You want the folks at the table to hold the tablet and “see” what you’re saying quickly. A recent HBR blog posting said that, “Designing documents to be a sensual physical experience and not just a visually cognitive one demands different aesthetics and sensibilities. This nascent transition will be as profoundly important for future interpersonal communications—and branding—as the transition from radio to television. Having the right touch to get the right touch will become a desirable communications competence.”

2. Authenticity trumps “spin”

The instability in our world continues to make people skittish about the future and skeptical about the “truth” they’re being told by government and business. That leads to an even greater hunger for authenticity and transparency in communication — “spin” is out, “sincerity” is in. Hint to communicators: the audience can tell the difference no matter how you try to disguise it. Read Nick Morgan’s book Trust Me and Garr Reynold’s The Naked Presenter (review to come!). Both will help you come across as more authentic.

3. Hand made by [insert name here]

One way to come across as sincere and authentic is to present slides or sketches made by you. Almost all my internal slides delivered at Duarte staff meetings are all hand-sketched and scanned in. You can achieve the same result by hand drawing slides or even whiteboarding instead of slides. When my IT department was faced with buying new, expensive networking equipment, we brought in three vendors. The most expensive vendor—who also happens to be a Duarte client– had us sit and watch flash overview pieces on the web (the same ones that we created for them!) We felt like they didn’t know us or understand our problem. So we went with the vendor who could whiteboard a vision of how they might solve our problem. If you feel you can’t draw, use your favorite hobby to tell a story and take pictures along the way.

4. Increase in NO SLIDE ZONES

Speakers will stand up and talk. I didn’t say they won’t plan, they’ll talk without slides. We’ll see this more at the executive level and it will filter down through all layers of the business as well. People will get over the urge to sit behind the security blanket of a badly-designed, word-riddled PowerPoint slide. They’ll present “naked” or they’ll put in the effort required for great visuals.

Here’s a great example of a speech by Facebook’s COO Sheryl Sandberg.

You’ll notice that her comfort monitor has dense text slides that serve as her teleprompter but they are not projected behind her. She’s very lovely on stage and her talk is chock full of stories. If she’d chosen to project her slides, it would have diminished her gracefulness on stage.

Less and less people will stand in front of poorly constructed visuals. Presenters will use great supporting visuals or none at all. The public’s tolerance for bad PowerPoint will eliminate the majority of bad visuals out there. Social stigma and peer pressure from having poorly constructed and distracting visuals will be career limiting.

Thanks for feedback from the Twitterverse: @viperblueuk @stephenRemedios @jwgorham @mpascoe @story_jon @reggyMortier @pediatricINC @tlgerglund @advanceUrSlides @anafxfz @matthewmccull @brataas @janschultink @twid @paulflanigan @toddbullivant @jaeSelle @edlee

If you have an important idea to spread, you’ll probably want it to spread beyond only the folks sitting in the room. Using social media tools can help give you and your idea further reach. Since it takes hours to prepare for a big presentation, it makes sense to get as much visibility for it as possible.

I got a sneak peek at a very interesting research study from Dan Zarrella (check out his book) over at HubSpot. He’ll be hosting a webinar about the findings from his paper The Science of Presentations. He analyzed extensive surveys and Twitter feeds to determine how social media tools can make an idea–in this case a presentation–contagious.

The audience surveyed was primarily social media folks so the first statistic was a bit of a surprise for me. Even though people spend a vast amount of time in presentations, thirty-five percent of respondents said they tweet about presentations never or less than once a year. Then, later the research showed that most presentations are tweeted for the audience to share information or novelty insights. In other words, people like to share things they’ve never heard before. So if you tie those two statistics together, it sounds like most presentations aren’t very informative or novel enough to tweet about. Let’s fix that!

There are tons of interesting insights from the study. And if you attend his webinar on Thursday August 19 at 1pm EDT and you’ll get a copy of his new e-book.

Here’s what I particularly enjoyed from the study:

1. 52% surveyed said they’ve joined a presentation because of a tweet. I’ve personally seen that happen. While delivering a presentation at Web2.0 in NYC about 20 minutes in, there was a nice surge of new attendees. I found out afterward that a Twitterer with a hefty following said my presentation was good so folks bolted from the boring sessions. Make sure your presentation is the one people are flocking toward, not from!
2. Notify the audience at the beginning of your presentations that you have an automatic PowerPoint-to-Twitter application running like SAP PowerPoint Twitter Tools. Using a tool like this auto-tweets important points as you’re presenting. This allows the audience to focus on your presentation and simply retweet your key points.
3. People are more likely to Tweet or blog about a presentation if they like the person giving it. The study also pointed out that the excitement and passion of the speaker impacted whether they would share via Twitter.

Caring about Twitter is important. Reviewing your Twitter feed after a presentation is like being a fly on the wall near the water cooler after your talk. People share what they thought was insightful and repugnant. It’s a great feedback mechanism for you as a communicator and also for the quality (or novelty) of your idea.

The end of the e-book has some great points about simplicity that you should print out and post on your wall. Also, Austin Carr over at Fast Company interviewed Dan on insights from Dan’s study and feedback on how simplicity works for Steve Jobs. It’s a nice read.

During a recent vacation to visit family in Pennsylvania, my husband and I made a side-trip to New York City to see the Jim Henson Company’s production of Stuffed and Unstrung. (Think: live improv comedy + Henson puppets + adults only) The show was hilarious, and I definitely recommend it, but one aspect of the show particularly caught my eye…

During intermission and after the show, they used a website called Visible Tweets to display tweets on the two large screens that occupied most of the stage. Okay, not the first time I’ve heard of someone displaying a Twitter feed during an event. But Visible Tweets is the best execution I’ve seen yet.

The audience was given a hash-tag to add to their tweets, and during intermission many people remained in their seats, waiting for their tweet to show up on the big screen. It was engaging and fun, and even got audience members talking more among themselves. (You might even see a couple of tweets from me up there!)

The biggest benefit, of course, is the free buzz generated by the audience. Not only were those tweets being read by those in the theater, but also by anyone in the world with access to Twitter.

Twitter has become the hottest new social media tool, and I’m excited to see how people start using it more in presentations. How have you used it so far? Sound off in the comments.

Have you ever thought about what you’re doing when you update your Facebook page, change your LinkedIn profile, or tweet? You’re telling a story. With simple phrases and pictures, you’re presenting to the world your opinion on world events, or your favorite restaurant.

With the explosion of social media and mobile devices, the impact of these presentations has the potential to be felt far beyond the board rooms and conference halls for which they were originally designed. However, your audience has access to–and is bombarded by–thousands of sources of information, which means your message needs to work harder to stand out from the rest.

Presentations have existed for thousands of years, starting at least as early as humans began gathering around campfires. And though presentations have drifted from this intimate, expressive environment, their roots are firmly planted in story. Modern presentations tend to value information over inspiration, and often eliminate the story to make room for bullet points and statistics.

Utilizing humans’ natural penchant for storytelling is an easy way to increase the effectiveness of  your message. Presentations were made to be passed on from meeting to meeting, stories were made to be passed down from generation to generation.

Recently, I heard a quote that beautifully illustrates the relationship between presentations and the digital movement:

“Technology is the campfire around which we tell our stories.”

–Laurie Anderson

Come join Nancy Duarte at ad:tech SF on April 21st, as she speaks about transforming ideas into action through storytelling and amplification via social media.

Storytelling through social media is just one of the topics us Duartians are exploring for 2010, and we want to hear your thoughts! Join the conversation by posting to our blog, or Twitter Nancy at #nancyduarte.

And as a small token of appreciation for your social media support… Register for the Full Conference or Premium pass as Duarte’s special guest with code: SPKRGUEST and get 25% off the online price.

How important is the launch of a new product? Important enough to plan, rehearse, and script something comprehensible?

On CNBC, the newscasters compare today’s Google Nexus One launch with the iPhone launch Steve Jobs hosted just two short years ago. Here’s the clip, scroll forward to 3:44.

Steve Jobs definitely plans and rehearses more than this guy did. This old article in the Guardian states that Steve Jobs spends weeks planning a presentation and almost two full days rehearsing it.

The newscaster comments the slides were so bad he thought they were done on an old overhead projector, which isn’t true. It was the delivery that was bad.

In defense of well designed slides, I thought the launch presentation was lovely. We didn’t create these slides but I sure wish we had. They’re beautiful. And the Boy Genius Report did a great job capturing images of the slides that were projected. Lovely.

So I can go on long rants about how spending time on attractive slides is a waste of time if you don’t have anything to good to say. The newscasters came across like the entire presentation was a disaster. Now, there are times when presenters try to camouflage their lack of content by creating attractive slides. They are trying to disguise their lack of preparation and inferior insights with making things look attractive. At times the audience is so thrilled to be given visual breathing room it lures them into thinking that the content was actually okay when it was either poor or non-existent.

However, I don’t think that is the case with this launch presentation. I think the poor guy just didn’t practice. It was a big day, with big stakes and well… he shoulda known better. The press picked up on his foible and I hope he catches a break.

My advice to the guy? Practice, practice, practice.

Let’s arrange a meet up.  How about inside PowerPoint?

Yep, it’s true.  Microsoft wanted those who use PowerPoint to have on-hand access to world-class presentation training within their software (yay!) and asked us if we would mind sharing some of our tips in the next release of their presentation software, Microsoft PowerPoint 2010.

We have had to keep our excitement under wraps during the development of the project, but now that Microsoft has released the public beta of its Office 2010 suite, we can let you know about it!

Embedded within PowerPoint 2010 you will find Duarte’s Five Rules for Creating World-Changing Presentations, a fun, informative guide to help you create effective presentations.   And that’s not all.  They even let us take the software for a spin around the block while we were developing the piece so we got to use the new features of PowerPoint 2010 to make it.  Very fun.  Needless to say, we are eager to share the Five Rules with you.

So, how can you get it?  First, you need to download the Microsoft Office 2010 Public Beta.

Next, open PowerPoint 2010 and navigate to the File button in the upper left-hand corner.  Click on that button and select New.  In the Available Templates and Themes window, click on Sample Templates.  You should see a choice called Five Rules.  That’s us!  Either select it and click the Create button on the right or simply double click on the image.  It will open up a PowerPoint template that contains our story.  Launch it in slide show mode, sit back, and enjoy the show.  Then, when you are done, feel free to use the template for your next presentation, or deconstruct our graphics and animations to see how we used the tools to achieve the results you see.

We will be deconstructing various segments from the animation and sharing that with you here on our blog, so check back here for some inside looks into the next version of PowerPoint.  Until then, see you in PowerPoint!

Earlier this year, Toyota commissioned the design of a custom typeface to promote the release of the iQ–a car manlier than Andre the Giant spinning donuts in a dump truck on the deck of a pirate ship while AC/DC performs “Highway to Hell” in the back. In and of itself, this isn’t uncommon, of course; custom typefaces are playing a larger and larger role in corporate branding strategies these days. What is uncommon, however, is the tool with which the font was created: the vehicle itself:

By outfitting the car with brightly colored markers above each of its wheels, an overhead camera was able to precisely record its movements and transform the path into vector data representing each glyph. The result is a surprisingly usable typeface, reminiscent of handwriting and yet smoother and more spontaneous at the same time. Be sure to check out the video for the rest of the details. If nothing else, it’s probably the first recorded instance of a professional stunt driver becoming an internationally-recognized type designer in a single afternoon.

Best of all, it’s free to download and use!
Grab a copy here: http://www.iqfont.com/

As a final note, Toyota’s accomplishment is especially impressive considering that GM’s stunt driver ran out of gas before completing the first glyph for the ill-fated Hummer Sans:

Oh, what could have been.

Spending the day at Decker was delightful. Shortly after arriving, the transformation of my delivery techniques was well underway.

The meeting started at 9 a.m. in their San Francisco office. Their office is in a first-class building that is inspirational and professional. The path to their front door walks you through a zen-like garden with a large tiled circle. When you stand in the center of concentric tiles and talk, your voice is amplified (no idea how that worked).

Kelly greeted me right on time and we started off reviewing my goals for the day.

Even though I’m an “okay” presenter, it was easy to see right away some areas of development and the power that great delivery has in connecting with the audience and conveying ideas well. I’d never had an objective view of how I communicate and as Kelly recorded my delivery, she had great insights for me.

Great communication is more important than ever right now. It feeds the impression we leave about our transparency and authenticity (or worse, can do the opposite). She had a great quote by Bernard Baruch “The ability to express an idea is well nigh as important as the idea itself.”

Even though I might have been considered “good enough” by many, having someone walk through the weak spots in my delivery was extremely valuable. We worked on three key areas:

1. Eye contact
2. Posture
3. Gestures

Here’s the “before” video. I removed the audio from the clip so you can focus solely on my body language. I scan the audience and don’t look anyone in the eye, I’m swaying and leaning on one foot or the other, I keep my hands cupped in front of me and my legs crossed. I thought I came across as comfortable and casual in front of a crowd but in reality, I look uncomfortable and possibly even uncaring.

Now look at the transformation. In this video it looks like I’m talking to people instead of at them. My movements are more intentional, my stance is more grounded and my eyes aren’t darting around from side to side.

Kelly felt like I had good facial expression but she had to work on my eye contact for quite a while. She’d put photos of people with various expressions on the chairs and had me hold their eyes for 5 seconds. It was uncomfortable at first but the results are visible in the video clip.

She’d snap her fingers when it was time to move to another set of eyes to gaze into. Last Friday I spoke at the HOW Conference in Austin and received the most positive feedback I have had to date. People felt like I was speaking directly to them (and I was).

When Kelly saw enough improvement in my eye contact, we began to focus on posture and gestures. My son feels that I already talk too much with my hands, so for Kelly to instruct me to use even bigger gestures was counter-intuitive.

Below on the left we’re practicing at the Decker offices and the photo on the right has me utilizing big gestures by workin’ the How Conference crowd:

When I was done writing my presentation for HOW, I actually rehearsed the presentation and mapped out some moments that could use gestures in a dramatic way.

Once Kelly had my posture and gestures tidied up, I got to work in the infamous Decker Grid creating new content.

She walked me though brainstorming about the listeners, considering their point of view, the action steps I want them to take, and the benefits to them. I love the idea of using a folder and sticky notes to prepare  presentations in an analog environment before opening up your presentation application. We borrowed this idea and made our own version of a content development system. The difference between theirs and ours if that ours is focused on the creation of presentations, and theirs is a tool to be used for all communications including phone calls and 1:1′s. It works very well!

The coaching Kelly gave for handling a Q&A had a huge impact on me. She played the role of hostile Q&A girl and I had to make sure she didn’t lure me into her Q&A trap.

Man, she was good. She’d have a sweet unassuming face as she asked a question and then trapped me with an accusation. She also questioned my credibility and then cornered me to answer a huge string of questions. To break away from her caustic-ness, she helped me visually block her from my view, break away via body language, look another direction, throw my arm in the air and ask if there are any more questions. It worked WONDERS!

She also identified a pretty significant “filler word” I use that I’d never noticed before. She’d absconded a tape from my speaking engagement at FWE&E and queued it up to the Q&A session. For some reason I use the word “right?” as punctuation. It’s like I’m trying to get them to agree with me. It sounds horrible. In this clip alone I say “right?” six times in one minute. Now I can hear myself saying it and am working on eliminating it from my delivery.

[audio:Nancy Duarte @ Decker.mp3]

We can go through our careers feeling “good enough”. But in reality, I kinda sucked. It took the insights and patience of the Decker program to break some of my repetitive patterns. My body can “feel” the movement I’m to make, I can see the audience more sincerely and I can hear verbal patterns that were unidentified before.

Kelly was kind enough to graduate me, probably because I rallied to be the teacher’s pet by taking her to having drinks! It was a lovely day with the lovely Kelly Decker, and I am forever changed because of it.

Betsy Palay is the President of the Association of Medical Illustrators. She’s been a friend of Duarte’s for a few years. We connected around the concepts of making the complex simple. What could be more complex that showing how invisible things happen in our human bodies. Here are her insights into changes that have happened in the medical illustration field.