I did not write this book.

I found it.

It purports to be a sentient book offering to teach you magic through a series of rituals.

Perhaps it’s a joke, a game, or an unusual self-help manual. Regardless of what it is, it changed my life. Perhaps it will change yours too.

Did I learn magic in the end? I can’t be certain. What I know is that I see the world and myself differently now — everything seems a little lighter and a little brighter.

Background

I’m embarrassed to admit it. I was idly browsing the shelves of my local library to see whether they had a copy of one of my books. Don’t judge; I was waiting on someone and trying to pass the time. Instead of my book, I found this one: a slim black volume with the word “Psst!” on the spine.

That caught my attention. I slipped the book out to take a closer look. The text continued on the front. That was that, I was captivated.

I want others to be able to have the experiences I had, but it turns out the book is not available anywhere. Nowhere. There is no site or shop that carries it. My library tells me it’s not in their catalogue, despite standing on their shelves. There are publishing details in the back of the book, but these turned out to be some kind of internal joke. Weirdly, the author has the same name as I do, which I guess explains why I found the book in the first place. I have been unable to find any trace of him.

As the book is not available anywhere, I decided to create a reprint. I am aware that I might be stepping over a line here. If I have gone too far, I will make amends, but this book is simply too good not to make it available to more people. I feel compelled to share the book. When you read it, you will know why.

What this book is

This book seems to speak directly to you and teach you magic through a series of fourteen exercises.

The magic is not the spells-and-fireballs kind but the deliberate alteration of how you see, think, and act in the world. The exercises are like little games that you perform with your mind and body, sometimes in the comfort of a chair, sometimes venturing out into the world.

A few examples:

Staring into a mirror in low light until your sense of “I” wobbles.

Turning your visual blind spot into a “portable hole” for things you want to let go of.

Walking through your city as if every sign and object were a message meant for you.

Giving yourself a secret new name and testing how it changes your behaviour.

Travelling backwards in time to deliver advice to your earlier self.

Who is this for?

You might like this if you:

Have a soft spot for experimental literature and books that talk back.

Enjoy games, daydreaming, and imaginative play.

Are curious about magic but allergic to dogma.

Like the idea of doing philosophy with your whole body, not just your frontal cortex.

Want a structured excuse to gently, playfully mess with how you see yourself and the world.

Get your copy

I had some hardback copies printed (at Mixam in the UK), which are available directly from me. If you live in Sweden, you can Swish me at 0703–631930.

The book is 315 SEK if you pick it up in person (Malmö) and 370 SEK if you would like it sent anywhere in Sweden.

To the rest of the world, the book is 40 EUR or 47 USD postpaid (you choose whether to pay in EUR or USD). You can send money through PayPal to prozpero@gmail.com

There is also a digital edition in PDF that can be purchased at itch.io for 12 USD.

A free sample can be found near the bottom of the itch.io page.

You’ve just given a talk. Afterwards, people stop by and tell you how interesting it was and what a good job you did. This is nice to hear of course, not least since you were feeling nervous earlier. However, to improve as a speaker, and to become better at crafting effective presentations, you need more specific and actionable feedback. Hearing that you were interesting, even in those cases where this is true, gives you no indication of how to further develop your presentation and your delivery of that presentation.

Getting useful feedback on a presentation turns out to be quite difficult. In my experience, people seem unsure what to give you feedback on. When there is something that they might have an opinion on, they are often vague and tread carefully in order not to hurt your feelings. Since getting honest feedback can actually be a bit jarring, most of us contribute to this dynamic: we avoid asking difficult follow-up questions and we are then relieved not to have to hear any uncomfortable observations.

But, I really need and want some honest and workable feedback. Feedback is the best way that I know of to develop as a speaker, and it is also the quickest way to improve a presentation.

Is there some way of changing the dynamic of the typical feedback situation? I think there is. Let’s look at the problem again. I think the reason that we seldom get feedback that we can use boils down to two things:

1. Most people that we ask for feedback are actually unsure what to give feedback on. They haven’t given much feedback before and don’t know what aspects of your presentation and delivery to focus on.

2. Most people also don’t know how to give feedback, and they afraid to inadvertently hurt your feelings, upset you, or worse, make you angry.

I have created a small set of cards that go a long way towards solving both of these problems. Before giving a presentation, you hand the cards to people in your audience (or send them out if you are presenting online). Each card suggests a specific aspect of presentation technique to pay attention to and to give feedback on.

By handing out the cards, you are giving express permission to the people who receive the cards to give you feedback. There is no longer any doubt that the feedback is desired, and since each card addresses a specific topic, it is clear that you are willing to receive feedback on that specific topic. The cards could be likened to a kind of contract: you agree to give me feedback on x, and I agree to gracefully receive your feedback on x.

When you hand out the cards, you could mention that you are hoping for direct and honest feedback, but it works best if you don’t make a big deal out of it. Act as if this is a regular part of your routine.

If you feel uncomfortable asking for feedback, and uncomfortable receiving feedback, I would recommend that you read another essay of mine. That essay suggests some unique ways to think about feedback that can radically change how it feels to receive it (at least it did for me).

Each card targets a specific aspect of presentation technique, things like your use of language, your gestures, and the clarity of your central message. Every person with a card now knows precisely what to pay attention to. You have charged them with a specific task, but one that is considerably easier than giving overarching and general feedback on your presentation.

Using the cards

Before you deal out the cards, you are free to pick the ones that you will use. You can of remove any that target areas of presentation technique that you don’t want to hear about. If there are areas that you want a diversity of opinion on, you might put in duplicates. Needless to say, add your cards with your own questions.

I would suggest that you hand out the cards to people in your audience who seem attentive and interested. You could always ask them first if they would like to help. You could also let people choose which aspect they want to give feedback on. I prefer to hand them out as if this is simply part of my regular routine when I present.

You can ask for feedback immediately following your presentation. If this is impractical or uncomfortable for you, there is a version of the cards that has space on them for people to write their comments directly on the card. This also makes it possible for people to give you feedback anonymously.

Note that the cards are still under development. I welcome any feedback that you might have after you have tried them out. What worked for you, and what didn’t? How could they be further improved?

The cards are available for you to download in three different versions:

# All of the cards in one ready-to-print pdf.

# All the cards in a pdf with one card per page (to make it easier to send out individual cards to people when you present online).

# A larger version of the cards with space to write on the card.

Aspects of presentation technique

So what’s on the cards? Nine areas are covered:

1. Messaging: the message of the talk and the call to action.

2. Clarity: how easy the talk was to understand and follow.

3. Credibility: whether the facts and arguments presented were believable.

4. Engagement: which parts were more engaging, and which less.

5. Voice: pitch, quality, tempo and pauses.

6. Language: the type of language used and variety in expression.

7. Physicality: the speaker’s body language, gestures and movements.

8. Visuals: the quality and effectiveness of any visual aids used.

9. Connection: the speakers rapport and connection with the audience.

You don’t have to download the cards to read what’s on them. The following section reproduces the texts as they are printed on the cards.

Messaging

What was the central message of the presentation? Could you summarise it in one sentence?

What do you think the presenter wants the audience to think, feel and/or do after the presentation?

What is one thing the speaker should keep the same if they where to give the presentation again?

If they were to change one thing about the presentation or its delivery, what would that be?

Clarity

How easy was the talk to understand?

Were there parts that were harder to understand? If so, which parts?

Was there enough content? Too much? Too little?

What is one thing the speaker shouldn’t change if they where to give the presentation again?

If they were to change just one thing about the presentation or its delivery, what would that be?

Credibility

If there were facts given, did you believe them? If not, why not?

Was the chain of reasoning sound?
If not, where did you feel doubt?

Was the presentation a good fit for the audience given their level of knowledge and their beliefs?

What is one thing the speaker shouldn’t change if they where to give the presentation again?

If they were to change just one thing about the presentation or its delivery, what would that be?

Engagement

Was the speaker engaged? Where did they seem more so? Where less?

How did your own engagement go up and down? Anything that grabbed you? Anywhere that it got boring?

Does the speaker have a unique and individual point of view?

What is one thing the speaker shouldn’t change if they where to give the presentation again?

If the presenter were to change just one thing about their performance, what would it be?

Voice

How was the presenter’s voice? Was it relaxed or tense? Was it varied and expressive, or was it monotonous?

How fast did they talk?
Did the pace match the content?

Any verbal tics that you noticed (e.g. filler words or unnecessary sounds)?

What is one thing the speaker shouldn’t change if they where to give the presentation again?

If the presenter were to change just one thing about the performance, what would it be?

Language

How was the language that was used?

Was it at the right level for the audience? Was it abstract or concrete? Was it visually rich and varied?

Were any words or phrases overused or misused? If so, which ones?

Did the language feel like a natural fit with the speaker?

What is one thing the speaker shouldn’t change?

If the presenter were to change one thing, what would that be?

Physicality

What was the speaker’s body language, posture and gestures like? How did the speaker move?

Did their physicality feel natural?

Did the speaker’s movements and gestures fit their message?

Is there something about the speaker’s physical communication that they should keep doing?

If the presenter were to change just one aspect of their physical movements and expression, what would that be?

Visuals

Did the speaker use visual aids? Did these support, conflict or distract from the message?

Were there any obvious graphical mistakes?

Would the presentation have worked as well without visual aids?

What is one thing about the visual aids that they should not change?

What is one thing about the visual aids that could change?

Connection

How was the presenter’s connection and rapport with the audience? Did the speaker make good eye contact? Were any parts of the audience left out?

Did it feel like the speaker was making assumptions about the audience? If so, what do you think they were?

Were there any questions from the audience? Did it feel easy or difficult to ask questions? How well did the speaker interact with the people asking questions?

Post script

A massive thank you to Oliver Schöndorfer, who gave me some very useful feedback on the typography of the cards and suggestions for how to make them more usable. See some of his very entertaining and useful videos here.

I will be using these cards when I give a talk at UX Copenhagen on the 23rd of March 2023 (let me know if you want a discount code).

I speak and air is pushed through my vocal chords and mouth, vibrating the air around me. A wave of pressure hits your eardrums and is transduced into electrochemical signals that propagate through the neurons of your brain, making you see pictures, have thoughts, and feel emotions.

Reading words has much the same effect as hearing them. Scanning a row of graphical symbols evokes thoughts and feelings. It is impossible to resist. Words slip inside you, like water through the chinks on the sides of an old row boat.

You might try to fend them off, but you cannot fully isolate yourself from the effects of words – unless you do, in fact, isolate yourself.

Don’t read these words.

Don’t

Don’t think of a pink elephant.

Pink.

Elephant.

You cannot not read these words.

My musings on this topic started this morning as I began reading a book of poetry. Poetry intrigues me, but often leaves me nonplussed. I haven’t quite got the swing of poetry, but I sense that there is power here. Sometimes, however, an individual sentence will leap out and slap me in the face, and the meaning and mood will seep through and colour my thoughts.

The book that I was reading was “Calling a Wolf a Wolf,” a slim collection of poems by Kaveh Akbar. Earlier, the final line of one of his poems grabbed me. Here it is:

Blessed are those who can distract themselves

and blessed are the distractions:

a fuzzy purse of belly fat,

a bit of mint growing wild along a driveway,

china plates piled high with food so pale you pepper it just to see it’s there.*

Those words did interesting things to my brain. Perhaps to yours too? For me they left a scent, a mood, and something a bit like a blurry Polaroid image.

In his book on writing, Stephen King shares an interesting approach to his craft. King says that the point of writing fiction is not to transfer a detailed description from the mind of the author to the reader, and to have the reader render that description into a precise image in their mind. The key to effective writing, rather, is to nudge the reader with words, so that they conjure up images of their own. You don’t need to describe the rain outside in minute detail, instead you prod the reader’s brain so that it starts to rain inside them. For King, writing is a kind of mind manipulation.

I am reminded of the graffiti outside the woodworking shop at my first school. On the wall facing us, as we waited in line for the teacher to arrive and let us in, someone had written the following:

“Whoever reads this is stupid”

Too late. I’d read it. And not once, but every time that we had woodwork. The line incensed me for at least a year. Someone was calling me stupid. I couldn’t look away, and a part of me felt stupid for reading the text. Frustratingly there was no one to direct my ire towards or to protest the accusation. It’s a fun and silly piece of graffiti, yet I marvel at some anonymous kid in my past having such power over me, over my attention, and over my thoughts. Eventually I learned to look away.

I am also reminded of the stand-up comedian Russell Brand. He has a bit on stage where he talks about masturbating. He describes his own procedure, in ever increasing graphic detail, and eventually provokes an audience-wide groan of discomfort and embarrassment. He pretends to be indignant at the audience reaction and counters it by stating that he is only using words, and that words are nothing to be afraid of. He is right of course, and simultaneously so wrong.

In one way words are as harmless as a breeze or a doodle on a piece of paper. Brand is right that the words he used to describe his act of self-pleasuring are not the same as the act itself. We think that we have the freedom to react, or not to react, as we please.

But we don’t have that freedom, and that is why he is also wrong. Words invade us. At best we can fend them off, divert them, dilute their power, counter them, but we must always actively engage with them. Brand seems to place the blame on the audience for reacting. Yet, they, and we, cannot not react.

Words can be blunt like a butter knife or razor sharp like a scalpel. They can be insidious and they can be beautiful. They can be kind and they can be transformative. I don’t want anyone to stipulate or regulate what we do with them.

What I do want is for you to take special notice of them, for just a day or two, and observe the effects that they have on you and on others.

Oh, one more thing:

Whoever reads this is stupid

An earlier version of this text served as the script for a short YouTube video that I made a couple of years ago.

*Note that the formatting of the quoted part of the poem has been altered compared to the original.

I hate online presentations. I hate giving them and I hate watching them, especially yours. We can be pretty sure that even after the pandemic we will work online more than we used to. We will travel less, we will have more meetings online, and we will give more online presentations. Of course, the meetings suck too, but in this essay I will focus on making your presentations less tortuous to watch.

I will provide you with a bunch of suggestions for what to do. Follow just a handful of these recommendations and you will outperform 95 percent of everyone else currently giving online presentations. Needless to say, your message will have more impact than they have ever had. More importantly, you will rock!

So, here is my frustrated, off the top of my head, list of things you could attend to:

Know your tech

Make sure that the technology you will be using works before people arrive. Test it yourself, and test it together with someone online.

Do your best to upgrade the speed and stability of your internet connection. It might cost you, but do it. A poor connection will have you stuttering and freezing like you’re having a seizure.

Make sure that you have as good sound and video as you can possibly get. This will basically come down to buying an external microphone and an external camera (or a stand for your mobile phone so that you can use your phone as your camera). I have no recommendations for kit; the internet is full of lifeless blog posts about this very thing.

It goes without saying that you should know the software that you use. The days of exclaiming “I can’t find the share button” are now officially over.

Look your best

Don’t take it personally, but you are boring to look at. Also, I don’t want to see your poorly cropped head against a trite stock background photo. Imagine instead that you were a TV star. What would you expect to see? Get some proper lighting and light yourself from more than one angle. Never have the light behind you unless you want to be a dark anonymous outline and confess your sins. Go learn a proper lighting set up. Since you are not an anime character you probably don’t need a ring light.

Dress well and comb your hair. Just this once. And wear some pants, you never know what reflective surfaces might be behind you. Choose clothes that contrast well with your background.

Choose your background intentionally. Don’t leave it to chance. One thing that works quite well, and provides visual interest, is to have a bit of space behind you, and things in the background that indicate depth. When you present you don’t have to sit in the very same spot you sit all day, you can move about and pick another spot.

Think about how you are framed. Do it how they do it on TV or YouTube. Make sure that your head and shoulders, all the way down to your nipple studs, are visible. Have a little space above your head, but not too much.

Think of it like this: you are designing a picture. The picture people will see consists of you, your style, your clothes, your background, props, colours, light and shadow. Go ahead and design that picture. Experiment and take short videos and screenshots of yourself as you do so. Remember, for most of the time people will be watching just a small stamp sized image of you. For that reason it pays to keep the image a simple one.

Work it

Damn it, we are still online! But now you are well lit and looking good, much better in fact than any of the other jerks on the call. We’ll assume that you know how to create a nice looking and relevant slide deck and how to craft a compelling message. You got that down pat before the pandemic. But things are not like they were when you were in the same room as other flesh and blood humans. You are now a tiny glitchy thumbnail. You will need to act larger. You need to work it!

First of all, look into the camera. Not into space, not at the notifications coming in, and not down at the floor. Look into the camera and the people watching will feel more connected to you. Experiment with exactly where to look. Video yourself looking at, above, below and to the side of where you believe the camera to be. You may want to adjust the distance between you and your camera. Watch the video and note when it feels as if you are making eye contact with yourself. While you’re at it, throw yourself a kiss.

Stand-up when you present. You will have better posture, you will breathe better, you will feel calmer, and your voice will sound better.

If you stand up it will also be easier for you to move and to make gestures. This will make you appear more dynamic and you will be more interesting to look at. When you’re at it, video yourself trying out a few moves and gestures. Go overboard, then pull it back just a little. Why don’t you actually script a couple of gestures into your presentation.

Be sure to vary the dynamics of your speech. You may feel uncomfortable doing so, but know this: the acceptable range (i.e. from your slowest to your fastest, and from your most quiet to your loudest) is much bigger than you think. In any case, if you get it wrong your audience can adjust the volume on their headsets.

Talk spontaneously if you can, rather than reading from your notes. If you choose to read from a script, practice doing so until you sound natural. Once again, practice and video yourself. If you just read the words you will not sound natural, make sure to also pay attention to the meaning of the words. This makes a world of difference! Meaning has a tendency to slip away when we have read something too many times. One thing that really helps your delivery is to imagine that you are speaking to a single person, even though your audience will consist of many more.

If you use a script, remember that spoken language is different from written language. When people are hearing you, rather than reading you, they are taking your words in at the rate that you are speaking them. You need to write in a way that is not too informationally dense. You need to plan some pauses and repetitions so that people have moments when they can catch up mentally.

If you read your script from a teleprompter (which is not an expensive thing to acquire), you can seem to have eye contact with your audience. Again, you need to practice and video yourself doing this.

What is a good speaking tempo? I suggest that you time a few speakers that you like. Write your script and read it out loud whilst timing yourself. Keep working until you have the same rate of words per minute as the target that you set. Try a couple of different tempos before you decide. You will note that there are tempos that are more natural for you and when your voice will sound better. Many people suggest that 140–150 words per minute is about right.

Don’t be boring

In the first days of television, presenters were filmed in profile. God knows why. Today that seems decidedly odd. But the medium was new and they were finding their way. Today, TV and other streaming programming have a myriad of tools at their disposal. You should watch more TV, especially talk shows and reality TV. See what you can borrow and adapt for use in your next presentation.

Here are ten quick ideas to start you thinking about ways in which you could bring more life and variation into your presentations:

1. Instead of having a digital slide deck, you could make up a bunch of physical signs, or draw on a sketch pad. Perhaps you could incorporate a stack of Polaroids or an old photo album into your talk? An advantage to eschewing the habitual slide deck is that you, rather than your deck, will be seen full frame.

2. Use props. What have you got at home? What could you make? What would you like to buy? Now you have a perfect excuse for an indulgent shopping spree.

3. Present from multiple physical locations. Move from location to location during your presentation. If you are at home, set up a few landing spots and practice doing the rounds. Perhaps you could wrap up your presentation by coming full circle and returning to your starting location.

4. Bring someone else into your performance. Ask them questions or have them make a statement. Who do you have available? If no one’s around, call someone on the phone and have a conversation with them during your presentation. Do you have any pets and kids? How might they contribute?

5. Pick up a book or a newspaper and read a passage or short quote. You will finally get some leverage out of those inspirational mugs that you insist on collecting.

6. Is there an activity you can do at the same time as you talk? Cook, knit, or maybe build something? If you take a break from talking, what might you do? Juggle, perform a magic trick, run a physics demonstration?

7. Think about all the ways in which music is used in a television show. There is intro music, outro music, special music to mark moods and transitions. If you play an instrument how might you incorporate this skill? Do you own a record player? Put a record on. Ever sung during an online presentation? I thought not. That would surely be something that people remember. What non-musical sound effects could you use? Hate to break it to you but your jokes could really benefit from a laugh track.

8. Utilize the technology. Get more gear. Always a good idea. Have more than one camera and switch between different angles and lenses. Make full use of the available software options, such as filters, effects, overlays, cut outs, titles, graphics, animations etc.

9. Do you do voices or impersonations? That’s a surefire way to bring some life into your performance. If you think that is going too far, what if you created an alter ego with a different point of view? You could take different positions, or simply point your head left or right to indicate two different points of view.

10. Have a package delivered ahead of time to everyone who will be attending your presentation. What’s in it? Could be anything. Something to eat, smell, touch, play with? Your budget and imagination are the only limit, and perhaps the laws of the realm.

You are not alone

You are the one presenting, but you are not alone. There is an audience. Remember them? It is easy to forget them. Speaking online is like shouting into a black hole. As well as compelling and relevant content, and your engrossing performance, a great way to get them engaged is to involve them.

To get them engaged you might need to teach them how to be engaged. Ask them to do something during your talk. This can be as simple as having them pick one thing from the talk to try afterwards. You could start by having them write a personal note on a question they’d like answered.

Ask them questions, rhetorical and otherwise. What if you started your talk with a Q and A rather than ending with one? It can be a challenge to get people to respond during an online meeting. How do you do it? One way is to ask them direct questions. Since you can see their names, on most platforms, you can address them directly. Some people might find this uncomfortable. The good news is that discomfort is not dangerous. It is your job to make it as comfortable as possible. Ease them in with some easy questions.

You can also make use of the meagre means provided by the horrible online platform that you are stuck on. Have people put up digital hands in lieu of real ones. Have them post words, questions, comments and emojis in the chat. Create breakout sessions, big or small. Having people chat with just one person for a minute substantially increases their willingness to ask questions in public.

Try something like Mentimeter.com to have your audience answer live polls and quizzes, and automatically create word clouds and other infographics.

A confession

Online presentations generally stink. You hate them too. So, you might wonder, do I do all of the things that I write about? Well… no I don’t. Any of them? Well, maybe a couple. Most of the time I suck just as much as you do.

From this day forth, however, I pledge to eat my own dog food. I will strive to make more of an effort to be less boring. I would like you to call me out when I slip into my old ways.

There are a lot of ideas presented here and many areas for us to work on. Don’t worry too much. If you just make a tiny effort you will instantly stand out against the background of mediocrity. What might be a first small, easy, thing for you to start doing? What little change can you make? Go and make it. Or don’t, and be boring. I can’t promise not to start surfing for new shoes during your next online presentation.

This piece was previously published over at inUse.se

In talking with people it seems as if one of the main barriers to getting creative things done is self-censoring: the fear that what we are doing is not good enough or original enough, and concerns about what other people may think of us.

Our creative urge is also often quenched by ambitions set too high. Mix all of that doubt together with social anxiety, high ambitions, and the limited time that most of us have available, and most projects never get off the ground.

The two part formula that I have hit upon circumvents these mental barriers, as well as our limited time for side projects. It goes like this. First:

Figure out the smallest version of your idea. What is the smallest, quickest, simplest embodiment of your idea that you can come up with? And don’t worry if this is a version that people will care for, or pay for.

Let me give you an example. I have accumulated a long list of ideas for books that I might write. Not long ago that list included over 30 different titles. Clearly I am never going to write those books, but is seems a shame for them to exist only as ideas hidden away in a list. I reviewed my list and put aside about five titles that I might conceivably want to write one day. I then took the remaining titles and started making fake ads for them. Ads, that was the smallest version of my book ideas that I could come up with. These ads are a bit like one-panel cartoons, where each one captures some provocative and often humorous thought. Making funny ads for non-existent books is a significantly smaller task than actually writing, editing and publishing those books. I created a channel for them on Instagram and shared them with my friends.

Now for the second part of the formula:

Make the smallest version of your idea that is easy for you to create with the particular resources and skills that you have available.

What does this mean? It means that if your idea requires you to draw, and you are not very good at drawing, then find a form for your idea that matches your ability, or which replaces the need for drawings with something else (e.g. collages or photos). If you still need drawings, then consider ways of generating them that match your ability. Or, perhaps ask a bunch of children to make the drawings for you, or program an AI, or make use of public domain art, or substitute written descriptions of the drawings for actual drawings.

Don’t be afraid to ask for help, or exchange favours. The people you know are part of the resources that you have at your disposal.

For my Instagram channel, I made simple book covers in a vector graphic program. This is something that I have done before and knew how to do. Instead of taking nice pictures of people reading and holding books, I simply purchased some stock photographs. At first I used a different image for each ad, but then simplified this further and reused the same photograph, only varying the colour of the book cover.

Here is the first one that I made:

The advantage of this approach is that it is doable with the time and skills that you have. You don’t have to make the most developed and ambitious version of your idea. Having something out there in the world, I would argue, is worth so much more than having something stuck in your head or in a notebook. It is also incredibly rewarding and motivating. The minimal versions of your ideas become prototypes which you can test on an audience, and revisit and develop later should you feel like it.

Here’s another cover:

It might be obvious by now that I like books. I also have a YouTube channel where I talk about books. I used the same approach for the channel as outlined here. Rather than faithfully reviewing books, which would require careful and nuanced reading, I decided to simply talk about whatever struck me as noteworthy in a book or, if I had an interesting angle, to talk about that. Sometimes I even talk about books that I haven’t finished reading.

I started with a simple process for making the videos, and have since worked to make it even simpler. The simpler I make the process — and the more stripped down I make the idea for a video — the more likely it is that I actually make a video.

Sometimes the easiest thing might simply be to blog your idea, or to post it on social media. There are also a lot of creative formats, as well as games, that have a kind of simplicity and low demand built in. Why not try your hand at blackout poetry (blocking out text on a printed page and leaving words that form a poem or aphorism), microfiction (stories with 300 words or less), or any of the art and party games that the surrealists used to indulge in (just google “surrealist games”)?

Also, don’t worry that someone will steal your idea. There is more to be gained by launching your idea into the world. Things will start happening, people will notice you, and by making things you will refine your style and purpose. Instead of fearing theft, give your ideas away. This is another of the methods I use to bring ideas out of storage and into the world. I have, for example, sent an idea for a TV show to National Geographic, interface solutions to Amazon Kindle, and a special design for a baby crib to a local manufacturer. I don’t expect much to result from this, but at least gain the satisfaction of completing small projects, and clearing my mind for new ideas.

So, what is the smallest version of your idea that you can easily make with the skills and resources that you have available?

Now go and make it!

*

This piece is adapted from one of the chapters in my book The shortest book on creativity I could write. The book recently came back from the printers and is looking rather lovely. You can get your copy here.

Our final participant for the day was struggling to use the device that we were testing. Everyone we had brought in for the test had hit the same conceptual hurdles. This participant, however, was visibly annoyed, more so than those before him. He groaned, he scoffed, and then told us all the ways in which the design was faulty.

This particular participant happened to be a designer. This is, of course, not an ideal subject for a usability test. As a designer he knew too much and was not representative of the intended user group. He had been recruited by our client, had dutifully turned up, and we had decided we might still learn something from him. At the end of the session he proceeded to tell us, with unshakable confidence and certainty, how all users would interpret, understand and evaluate the design. It was interesting how forcefully he insisted on what he was telling us. It was especially interesting because we knew that he was wrong.

We knew he was wrong in a way that one rarely has the satisfaction of knowing this. We had been testing all day and met with a veritable crowd of people. What he described did not match how any of our prior participants had acted, or reacted, nor did it conform to the preferences and opinions they had expressed. In fact, things were almost the exact opposite of what he was so certain of.

This is when it hit me: sometimes the strongly voiced, confident, and slightly condescending designer, is me. It has happened. More than once. It shames me to admit this.

Here was a guy expressing his opinions with such conviction, but which I knew to be wrong. He was telling me how things were, even though I had just had a series of experiences that ran counter to the picture that he was painting. Having seen the people who came before him I was in a privileged position. I found this to be incredibly humbling. Of course I know that I am sometimes wrong, but having this experience made that knowledge vivid and visceral.

Now that I express a thought about people’s understanding of a piece of design, I try to imagine myself standing in the middle of a line of people. I imagine what the person before me might say, and what the person after might say. I don’t always have to come up with specific answers, but the image reminds me that what they might say is likely to surprise me.

Sometimes we have to act with confidence, and projecting certainty can be part of being persuasive. There are also times when we are convinced that we are right, and on good grounds. But this doesn’t preclude a little humility.

We have a choice of which attitude to adopt, and how we communicate with others. This was one more thing that was brought home so clearly that day. All the people who took part in our test encountered and surmounted the same difficulties, but they did so in such varied ways. Some were calm and methodical, whilst others became uncertain or irritated. Some were indignant and demanded changes to be made to the device, whilst others offered their suggestions as possibilities to be taken into consideration. Seeing the breadth of possible reactions throughout the day, and seeing how gracefully some of our participants handled the situation, was very inspiring.

So what are the takeaways for you, dear reader? I’m telling you things that you already know: you are not the user, you are not representative of the user population, and you are sometimes wrong even though you are convinced that you are right. You knew this already. I knew this before that day of testing. What was startling for me was being so nakedly and concretely confronted with these facts.

How might you have the same experience that I had? Or how might you give members of your team or management that experience? The answer is straightforward: take part in user research and testing. If you don’t have the option of conducting user experience yourself ask if you can observe when someone else is doing it.

When you do, shut up, listen, observe, wait and defer judgement. If you do, you will stand to learn something important. Conducting user research is a fantastic reminder that people are different in interesting, informative and inspiring ways.

Note: should you prefer, there is a video version of this piece on you YouTube.

In the book Teach Your Child How to Think, by Edward de Bono, there is a short chapter that shows you just how to do that! The rest of the book is a stinker — or at least, fails to deliver on the promise of the title — but those few pages are pure gold. The chapter in question is on something that de Bono calls Movement.

We are taught that to be creative we should postpone judgement. But this is too weak, it doesn’t tell us what to do instead. Movement is an active and deliberate operation where you look at what is before you and use it to move forward. In movement any way forward counts. de Bono likens this to poetry and metaphor. I would add play and humour.

de Bono teaches a handful practical techniques for how to get movement from any idea. They are these:

1. Attitude

Approach ideas with the intention of seeing where they lead you, what they suggest, and what might be potentially interesting about them. Just having this intention will make a huge difference.

In my opinion it’s an attitude that can be equally useful in the rest of life, you know, the time you spend outside of workshops. When things happen to you — both good and bad — see what movement you can you get out of them.

2. Moment-to-moment

A hugely powerful technique, that I have found works well and is easy to teach, is to visualise an idea in action. Instead of seeing the end state of the idea, you play out the idea in your mind (or talking out loud if you are in a group) like a tiny movie. Say someone proposes delivering mail with flying cows — yes, it’s one of those kinds of workshops. You visualise the cows with mail bags strapped on, taking off, flying, manoeuvring and landing. Doing this you end up picturing what happens to the bag during flight. Questions arise that you have to answer: how will the bag stay on, how will it stay closed, what happens to it at the start and at the end of the trip? As you do so new ideas invariably turn up; ideas that you would not have had if you just visualised the static version of the initial idea.

3. Extract a principle

The next technique is slower and trickier. I find that it works poorly in workshops, but that it can be very powerful during solitary ideation, or together with other experienced ideators. This is how it goes: you take an existing idea, you analyse it and extract the abstract principle behind it.

For example, a colleague and I were once exploring novel uses of touch screen technology. We came up with an idea based on when the user was not touching the screen of their phone, instead of the usual focus on all the possible ways one could actively interact with the device. We then explored the principle of passive input in a bunch of other contexts and this sparked a host of additional ideas (and two patent applications).

4. Focus on the difference

You have probably had the experience of proposing an idea and someone else saying that they’ve heard or seen that idea before. This type of pronouncement kills an idea instantaneously and without further examination. To achieve movement, look rather for all the ways in which the idea is different, even if those differences are small.

de Bono gives the example of a plane landing upside down. The difference between a plane landing right-side up and upside down is that upside down the wings would provide downwards thrust. The two cases are similar, but the direction of thrust is different. Focus on this and it might lead to ideas of positive landings, such as landing against the force of a storm.

5. Search for value

Another powerful technique for finding value in a poor idea is to change the context of an idea, rather than the idea itself. Confronted with an idea that seems like a non-starter you can ask under which circumstances the idea would provide value or solve a problem.

de Bono gives the example of everyone wearing yellow at a company. As an isolated idea it doesn’t do much. But if we change the context it could be a solution to help customers identify staff at IKEA. In the context of customers trying to find service staff the idea provides an effective solution.

Understand the properties of the initial idea. Then go looking for a problem that would fit the solution.

I find that the technique provides an often needed change of pace and perspectives, and can be very useful in turning up interesting new problems to solve. For an innovator, finding new problems is just as important — perhaps more so — than finding new solutions.

Start using and testing these moves. At the very least, commit one of them to memory and use it at least once in the coming week.

There are more moves than just these five. I found another four which I detail in my book The shortest book on creativity I could write (available as a beautiful hardback directly from me, and in a Kindle version over at Amazon).

I have also made up a set of cards with all nine moves. Here is a pdf that you can download. I printed mine and laminated them (almost everything is just a little bit better when laminated).

You are about to give a presentation. Do you know why you are presenting? Are you clear about your desired result? Have you decided what you want people to think and feel during your presentation, and, more importantly, what you want them to say and do afterwards? If your presentation makes no difference to anyone, is there any reason at all to give it?

My personal wish is that my audience goes away changed (at least to a degree). I want them to be ready to act differently in some way. The purpose of my presentation is the first thing I think about when constructing a talk, or when giving feedback on someone else’s. Again, the first question to ask is:

Question 1. What do you want to happen after your talk? What is your desired result?

When you have thought about the question, write down your answer. If you have more than one answer, then write them all down. You can certainly have more than one desired outcome. Remember that you own the purpose of your talk. That purpose can be big or small, altruistic or selfish. Perhaps you want people to say “yes” to a proposal that you are making, or perhaps you just want people to think that you are clever (or both). You decide what it is. But decide.

Being clear about why you are presenting will improve your presentations tenfold. This is a great start, but how do you go from knowing your desired result, to achieving that result? Here are four follow-up questions that will help you track your path from purpose to result. The next question to ask is:

Question 2. Can your audience understand you? Can they follow you each step of the way?

If your audience doesn’t understand what you say, or can’t follow the flow of your argument or story, then your message will not enter into their minds. If you don’t get inside their heads you are just noise.

There are two main traps that I see speakers fall into:

• Taking too long to give the audience the context they need to understand what a talk is about.
• Failing to provide clear and logical transitions between the different parts of a talk.

To get your audience off to a good start, think about who they are, what they already know, and what the quickest way is that you could state your main point, thesis, question or purpose. Then look at each transition and make sure that the audience can follow along. I encourage you to start by making it overly obvious how one idea leads to the next.

If you are unsure of what your argument actually is, break your talk into 5–10 bullet points. This will reveal your structure — or lack thereof — and allow you to fine tune it.

Let’s say they understand everything you say, but do they believe you? This is the subject of the next question:

Question 3. Will your audience believe what you say?

During your talk you will tell stories, cite facts, make claims and draw conclusions. Will the audience believe you?

What are the things that your audience might doubt? There are two kinds of things that they might contest: things that go against what they already believe in, and things that run counter to what they want to believe in. To win them over you must establish your credibility as a presenter and the credibility of your facts.

Your personal credibility hinges on how you conduct yourself and on your reputation. Make sure to get a good introduction before you start, and then present professionally.

As for the credibility of your facts, the willingness of people to accept them will increase if your claims are easy to understand, and if you cite credible sources and evidence. Sometimes, acknowledging the audience’s scepticism can be a way of gaining their trust.

This all comes to naught if your audience feels nothing. So that is the next thing to examine:

Question 4. Will they care? Will they be engaged?

Even if your audience understands and believes you, they are not going to do anything unless they also care. What would make them care? What would make a difference to your audience?

Try to put yourself in their shoes. Look for things that would make their lives simpler and better, and for things that align with their values and the kind of people they want to be. These are all things that people care about.

Your audience will feel that you are speaking to them if they can recognise themselves in what you say. Are you solving a problem that they have, or answering a question that is on their minds? Are you (at least) entertaining? Can you surprise them? Can you rouse their emotions? These are all paths towards engagement.

We are almost there now. Getting your audience past the final hurdle is the topic of the last question.

Question 5. Do they know what to do?

Your audience is now ready. They believe you and they are engaged. They will not act, however, unless it is abundantly clear to them what they should do, how to do it, and when to do it.

To make it easy for your audience to act, summarise what you want them to remember and present it in a memorable form. This can be as simple as a handful of well worded bullet points, or a well-crafted slogan. Suggest a simple first step and also a trigger for when to perform that action.

I really want you to remember the five questions and try them out. That is why I wrote this text. To help you remember them, I have summarised them below and created an acronym. The next time you are putting together a presentation, or giving feedback on a talk, see if you can remember the word “rubed.” The acronym breaks down like this:

R is for the desired result.

U is for understandable.

B is for believable.

E is for engaging — that they care.

D is for doing — the action you want them to take.

The acronym “rubed” makes me think of the word “rubbed,” but missing a “b.” It’s as if that “b” has been rubbed off… I drew you a picture. It’s at the top of this essay.

I have a talk about applying the principles of stage magic to user experience design. The talk is a labour of love and combines two of my great passions. But, the last time that I was scheduled to give it, my heart wasn’t quite in it. I had given it a dozen times already and as I was looking over my slides and speaker notes everything felt old and worn. My examples seemed dull and my points obvious and trivial. I recalled how enthusiastic I had been when previously giving the talk. What was different now?

The first few times that I gave the talk everything was new to me. After repeated performances it had become overly familiar. Clearly, that is not the case for my audience. They are always hearing the talk for the first time. For them, it is always new. I had also forgotten my initial intentions behind the structure of the talk, my choice of examples, and the points that I was making.

What if I could somehow rekindle the intentions and emotions that I had initially when giving the talk? What if I could talk and act with the same energy and enthusiasm as I did those first few times? I decided to try and reconstruct my initial thoughts and feelings. I started at the beginning. What did I use to think and feel right before I said my opening lines? I came up with the following:

“You are all about to see some beautiful and wonderful things, learn some secrets, and look at your own area of UX in unexpected ways.”

I wrote this down. Reading it back I could feel some of my original enthusiasm returning.

I realised that this was really an old acting technique that I had read about in a magic book on showmanship. The technique is referred to as a ”silent script” (I’ve since also seen it called an “inner script” and “internal monologue”). The basic idea is that an actor uses a script not only for their spoken lines, but also for their thoughts. Silently reciting the inner script helps an actor create convincing observable behaviour; it helps the actor be the character that they are portraying.

I continued to work through the rest of the presentation, slide by slide, reconstructing my original intentions and feelings and writing them down.

Here are a couple more examples:

Going through my presentation like this rekindled my enthusiasm and eagerness to give the talk the following day. I was now revved up and ready to go!

If you decide to try this technique you could stop at this stage. I guarantee that you will present with renewed vigour. Or, you could go further and actually perform the silent script during your presentation; silently, of course. When I gave my talk the following day at the Amuse conference I did a mix of the two. I was still energised from having worked through my deck and notes, and during the talk itself I remembered much of my silent script. I didn’t recall everything, but I didn’t have to: as soon as I had regained my enthusiasm I was on a roll.

If this was a film you would now see me give the talk. You would see the audience cheer and rise to give me a standing ovation. That didn’t quite happen. But I did give my best performance of this talk to date. I had a fantastic and enjoyable time doing so, and lots of people came up to me for the rest of the conference eager to talk about design and magic.

I know that the next time that I need to summon my energy and enthusiasm I have a means of doing so. And now, so do you.

The key to giving great design feedback, as well as receiving it and putting it to productive use, is your attitude. The right attitude will makes more of a difference than your choice of formal method or process. In this essay I describe ten ways of thinking about feedback that have the potential to significantly and profoundly alter your attitude. These ten perspectives have the power to increase the effectiveness of your feedback tenfold.

The right attitude will makes more of a difference than your choice of formal method or process.

Each perspective can subtly shift your attitude to both giving and receiving feedback. You will no longer feel the discomfort that so many experience and you might actually start to savour the process. Your shift in attitude will be sensed by those around you and will change how they respond to you during a design critique.

I suggest that you read through the perspectives that follow and that you pick at least one idea and try it out as soon as possible.

1. It’s a gift

You will have heard this before: feedback is a gift and a blessing. It’s one of those statements that is true, but which may have lost some of its impact from overuse. On some days it can sound trite and new-agey. I believe it to be true, however, and important, because good critique can help you to improve anything that you are creating, or any skill that you are developing. It can even contribute to your personal growth. In other words, feedback can help make anything that you care about better. This is true whether or not the feedback was intended to help you. Feedback can make you see or understand something that you would otherwise not have seen or understood, or which would have taken you a long time to grasp. It can help you to come unstuck and renew your energy. Without the feedback, you would not have been in the position that you are now in. That is why it’s a gift.

Gifts are something that we are thankful for. I have often heard and read the admonition to always thank the person giving you feedback. I find this to be a little too ritualistic. If it is done by habit it risks becoming meaningless; we become like hectored children, acting by route and lacking insight. What I am encouraging you to do, rather, is to see the immense value that feedback can bring. Sometimes you will want to thank people for it, other times not.

Receiving feedback can be intensely uncomfortable, even when you understand and appreciate its value. When I personally feel discomfort (this can still happen, even after writing on the topic) I like to remind myself that the unpleasant feeling that I’m experiencing is a sign that I am receiving something useful, something that will help me further my own agenda and my goals. The feeling alerts me to the importance and value of the moment.

2. It’s just information

Feedback is just information. It is just words (and sometimes gestures, or a few hand drawn lines). Information is neutral. You don’t need to be upset or threatened by information. You don’t have to obey information. What you can do is use it, weigh it, take different stances towards it, probe it, and experiment with it.

The information in feedback is just another design material available for you to work with.

Thinking of feedback as information neutralises its occasionally distracting emotional effect and it frees you to see and make use of the value it provides.

3. Be curious

Once you begin to view feedback as information it becomes easier to start eliciting more of it. Become curious about design feedback in the same way that you are curious about user insights. When someone gives you feedback, try applying the same skills and attitudes that you (or perhaps the researchers in your team) do when conducting user research. Listen to what is being said, try to understand it from the perspective of the speaker, ask follow up questions to test your understanding, and dig deeper for more information.

This is quite the opposite of what commonly happens when people ask for feedback. All too often the person asking for feedback hopes to receive none, or at least very little; certainly nothing too challenging. The person giving feedback plays along in this little game. Both parts escape the potential discomfort of the transaction, and neither learns very much.

Break the pattern. See the collection of feedback as a kind of sport that you can get good at. Each session is a challenge to extract true, significant and useful information about how people understand and react to your design. Show other people, by your openness and curiosity, that you genuinely value their input.

4. Everyone doesn’t have to like your design, or even like you

One of the sources of discomfort that people feel when receiving feedback is that it can make us look bumbling, foolish, lazy and incompetent. Feeling this in front of other people adds shame to the list. This is only human. We want to feel accepted and valued by our peers. A giant leap towards becoming better at eliciting feedback and putting it to use is to start to care less about what other people think.

Everyone doesn’t have to like your design work. You should strive to do good work, of course, but everyone doesn’t have to like it. We are all different and have different preferences. In meetings you will attend there will be people with different values and who are driven by different agendas. Liking is very seldom a useful metric of what is good in design. Figure out which metric would be useful and bring that with you to the design critique.

Everyone doesn’t have to like your design, and everyone doesn’t have to like you. Your value as a person is neither dependent on people liking your work or on them liking you. I am not saying that you should become a rude and inconsiderate person, I am simply observing that caring less about what people think of you and your work increases the odds of creating good work. Find something more fundamental to care about.

5. It is very rarely about you anyway

If you still worry about what people think of you, and what their various reactions to you and your design might mean, realize that most of the time it is not about you anyway. Sometimes people are not going to give you the reactions you expect or hope for. Instead they will frown, lose attention and fixate on peripheral things. Be aware that a lot of the time they are actually not reacting to you, or to what you are presenting.

One mistake we often make is to misinterpret the reactions that we appear to be getting. A person’s thinking face, for example, might make them look grumpy or displeased, when in fact that are just thinking hard. Someone may be genuinely grumpy, but for entirely unrelated reasons that have nothing to do with you or your work; they may have slept poorly, had an argument at home, or suffer from severe constipation.

My general advice is to not overreact to the apparent reactions of others, and to withhold your reactions to the reactions that you seem to be getting. Avoid making the wrong assumptions by testing your understanding. One way to do this is by summarising the other person’s point of view and checking if you got it right.

6. Critique is inevitable

People sometimes ask for feedback, but secretly hope to receive none. Unfortunately, our peers sometimes comply with this game of pretence. Since there is nothing that cannot be improved in some way (as evidenced by thousands of years of innovation), and since there are always many perspectives from which to view and judge something, there is nothing that doesn’t warrant feedback. If you ask for feedback, or present your design for review, you will inevitably receive feedback. Critique is inevitable, regardless of the quality of your work.

There is therefore no reason to be surprised or apprehensive when you receive feedback. Always simply assume that there will be something than can be said about your work.

7. It will still sting sometimes

Even if you value feedback highly, and have a number of conducive ways of thinking about it, it will still sting sometimes. Sometimes what people say will get you down.

This is going to happen and it’s ok. We are only human, so be understanding and forgiving of yourself. These moments are an opportunity to learn something about yourself. Try to identify the uncomfortable feeling that you are experiencing. Probe it. When did the feeling arise? What was the exact moment? What is your discomfort really about?

The attitudes covered so far have mostly been about receiving feedback. The final couple of perspectives will improve how you give feedback and will make your feedback more effective.

8. Accept the assumptions — at least after a while

In design it is immensely valuable to question the assumptions underlying a piece of work. Why are we doing this? How will things be different? Who is this for? How are we adding value to the business and to end users? We often fail to do this to the proper extent. However, to help your fellow designers, at some point you have to accept the premises behind a piece of design, and work from those premises. To give good feedback you will sometimes have to do this even when you disagree with the underlying assumptions.

I see this as a kind of curtesy. I might state that I am sceptical of some assumptions, then do my utmost to work productively from those assumptions. Who knows, I might even change my mind about the assumptions later on.

Compare this to a poor game reviewer (or music or movie critic) who gives something a bad review because he or she doesn’t like a particular genre. We expect our critics to provide useful thoughts, within the confines of a genre or a premise, and to help those who enjoy a genre to make their decisions.

Good feedback, in my opinion, is helping to improve something, not about making it into something else.

9. Help make it the best that it can be

I have been told that I am good at providing unusually frank and useful feedback, but without making anyone feel bad. This has been said enough times that I started to think about what it might be that I was doing. I think it comes down to this. When I provide feedback I tend to focus on the thing itself and on helping making it the best that it can be. I show interest, I am genuinely curious about what the designer’s goals are and what they are trying to achieve, and then I try to work with them to make the thing better. I focus less — if at all — on the designer, their process, and the choices they’ve made up to this point.

This approach is unthreatening and non-judgmental. People quickly feel that you are working in the same direction. It signals respect, shared goals, and a wish to collaborate. The person receiving feedback does not have to defend themselves, or their self-image, and can focus their energies on achieving their design goals.

10. Do the right thing

In general people are reluctant to give feedback and are not very good at providing useful insights or questions. This is a great shame, holding us back from growing and improving. This is especially sad when the context is one in which we are led to believe feedback to be forthcoming (such as a design review, or a performance management session). When we don’t receive true and useful feedback in these situations we are erroneously led to believe that all is well and dandy.

This is even more appalling when it is clear that someone should have received feedback a long time ago, but that people before you have avoided doing so due to the slight discomfort of telling the truth. To me this is like letting someone walk around all day with a huge and revealing hole in their trousers and not alerting them to the fact.

Since I know the value of feedback, and know some constructive ways of providing it, I feel that the onus is on me to give it, especially in those contexts in which I know others will fail to do so. Giving people true and useful feedback that will allow them to see things more clearly, to come unstuck and to grow, is for me a moral imperative. How do you feel about this? Needless to say, it is generally better to give your feedback one to one and not in front of an audience.

What will you try next?

Did any of these ways of thinking about feedback resonate with you? If you were to pick one idea to try out, which one would you pick?

How will you remember to try it out? Will you write a post-it and stick it on your monitor? A note in your note app? A comment in the meeting invitation or in your calendar? Or perhaps it’s time for a new tattoo?