Presentation Drawings

That “What would we do without it?” web site Wikipedia says a presentation drawing is used “to develop a design idea into a coherent proposal, to communicate ideas and concepts, to convince clients of the merits of a design, (and) to enable a building contractor to construct it...” Presentation Drawings are so much a part of our world, it’s easy to see why they wouldn’t get a lot of attention. But they are important, and it’s worth taking the time to talk about why.

Presentation Drawings as a Form of Communication

I’ve mentioned before the work of Edward Tufte, who has done a lot of research on the communication of information. In his book Beautiful Evidence he shows many examples of documents rich in information, containing little or no “fluff,” and provide the consumer the freedom to take in the information in their own way. One of Tufte’s favorite examples of this type of communication is the basic road map, which he points out is so good in part because “we’ve been perfecting it for several hundred years.” Like a roadmap, presentation drawings can elegantly communicate many different things in the same space.

What’s Being Provided

By showing location and labeling the products to be provided, a presentation drawing communicates what will and will not be provided. Takeoff sheets presented in a tabular format can describe the same information, but they cannot tell a customer ‘at a glance’ what areas will be framed and what, if any, are “by others.” With a quick look a customer can be reassured that the entire structure is going to be framed.

How the Framing Will be Done

The details of “how we are going to do this” are laid bare by the presentation drawing. This enables us to communicate, “We’ve got this figured out, and here is our proof.” It also provides the framer with a “how to” guide for setting the trusses.

Reveal the Assumptions We’ve Made

By creating notes and including section details, we can point out tricky framing situations and expose certain assumptions we’ve made in our framing design. This is crucial in order to avoid delays or misunderstandings during the erection process. It’s worth restating the obvious that pictures are better than words for communicating many things. For example, showing a picture of the cathedral truss spanning a given area is less likely to lead to a “surprise” for the customer than simply writing “volume ceiling” on the layout.

Who We Are

We can spell out what company did this work, who we are, and who you should contact if you have questions. By the quality of our work, we communicate how professional, how meticulous, how helpful we are. Alternately, we can communicate the opposite by presenting sloppy or inconsistent work. If your customer on one job receives a professional, complete presentation drawing on 24” x 36” paper and the next time receives a sloppy, incomplete layout on 8½” x 11”, what are they likely to think about your company? I might think, “Wow, the quality of the work I get from these guys really depends on which designer I get.”

Keep it Clean

“Fluff” is those things that, if we left them out, would not reduce the informational content. Avoid adding things simply to make the layout “pretty.” Color can be used to great effect to make information “stand out,” but it can be also used simply to make things look attractive. Color, like special effects in a PowerPoint presentation, can take attention away from the information. Let the information always have center stage.

Keys to Success

The Presentation Drawing is the most important piece of visual communication we provide with the order. It should be complete, detailed, and consistent. The elements, that is, “What we always include,” need to be understood by all. At a glance we should be able to tell if any one of these ‘essential’ elements is missing. Periodically, the list of elements should be reviewed, and new ones added if experience has shown that their inclusion may prevent problems from repeating themselves. You will inevitably have some people on your staff that are better at this form of visual communication than others. Take their natural abilities and incorporate their “art” into the “science” of creating presentation drawings that communicate the very best about your company to your customers.

Analysis and Presentation

I was fortunate enough to attend a one-day seminar in Philadelphia earlier this year put on by Edward Tufte, Professor Emeritus at Yale University. The $380 fee included four of Dr. Tufte’s books. I would estimate that about 1,000 people (!) attended the seminar the same day I did. I would recommend the seminar and the books to anyone who wants to communicate better or understand the dynamics of good communication.

Most of us attend meetings and presentations as part of our jobs. Many of us are asked at one time or another to present something – or to be consumers of other people’s presentations. What are the elements of an effective presentation? What follows are my interpretations of Dr. Tufte’s thoughts from the seminar and from his book Beautiful Evidence.

Your Job as Presenter

When you present, you have a story to tell. Don’t lose sight of your story. When you are finished, your audience should have no doubt about what your story was. Next comes the question, “Have I presented convincing evidence that my story should be believed?” As a presenter, you are responsible for the intellectual and moral integrity of your presentation. To be believed, you must “do your homework” and honestly communicate the findings. And as a listener, you are responsible for understanding what the story is and to evaluate its believability.

What is the best way to communicate information? Naturally, there is no easy answer. Dr. Tufte suggested: "Whatever it takes" – meaning, “Do whatever it takes to convey the story and don’t restrict yourself to one type of data or one style of presentation.” A simple approach is to simply do a ‘high-resolution data dump’ followed by a discussion of it. Said another way, “Put the information out, then ‘hold a press conference.’"  As an example, if the meeting is about improving sales, the meeting might begin with the distribution of some meaningful reports (homework!) and after a few minutes to time allotted to digest the information, a discussion is held on what the data means and what can be done. One more thing: People will be amazed if you finish early.

Notice how different this approach is from presenting a series of PowerPoint slides. The typical “PowerPoint style” of presentation has many faults, most notably that the presenter has dictatorial control over how the topic is covered, not only the content, but also the pace. As Dr. Tufte says, “(PowerPoint) presentations too often resemble a school play: very loud, very slow, and very simple.” Aggressive managers interrupt presentations like this, stop them, and almost always the meeting is better for it.

Onto some sound principles for telling your story:

Principles of Analysis and Presentation of Data

1.      Show comparisons, contrasts, differences – When we are analyzing any question, we always want to know, “Compared to what?” If we are going to use a visual tool to make our point, we should show it next to something we want to compare it to.

2.      Show causality, mechanism, explanation, systematic structure – As we are making our point, we also want to be teaching or explaining about “Why it is so.” For example, if we wanted to show sagging truss sales, we could also show them in light of housing starts, or mortgage rates, or whatever we think provides a possible connection.

3.      Show multivariate data; that is, show more than 1 or 2 variables – This is a real challenge because we have so few role models to emulate. A few examples – the baseball statistics in the Sports Section of your newspaper. There a dozens of statistics tracked for both teams and individuals and we each consume those numbers in our own way. Also, each reader will also draw their own conclusions from the same set of numbers. (That’s OK!) Another example is a road map, which shows routes, terrain, population, distance and may other forms of data. Maps, perfected over hundreds of years, show a wonderful variety of data and have almost no “fluff.” (You can tell fluff by asking, “If I left this out, would any meaning or understandability be lost?”)

4.      Completely integrate words, numbers, images, diagrams – This means that we place different types of information together, rather than segregating them. On a truss layout, we know the value of labeling everything right on the layout. Tables on the side of the layout are “second best” and should be avoided except to show summaries.

5.      Thoroughly describe the evidence. Provide a detailed title, indicate the authors and sponsors, document the data sources, show complete measurement scales, point out the relevant issues. This documents the evidence, and provides the basis for the intellectual and moral integrity of the presentation.

6.       Analytical presentations ultimately stand or fall depending on the quality, relevance, and integrity of their content. This suggests that the best way to improve a presentation is to improve the content – make it more substantial. Has the content of the presentation contributed to the questions it seeks to address?

Some examples of presenting multivariate data - completely unrelated to components: World History, How to Look at Modern Art, Napoleon’s Winter Campaign, More…