Picking up on the theme of the difference
between Microsoft's design ethic and Apple's, here's an analysis of the difference in
the presentation styles of Bill Gates and Steve Jobs. It's very interesting in that it outlines for me what I'm
really starting to reject, which is information overload. As with its software, Apple's presentations tend towards simplicity; single words or phrases. Microsoft's is a barrage of bullet points and concepts, ostensibly intended to appear impressive. Unfortunately, more often than not I find I simply turn off with that much information coming at me.
All is not lost, however. As Jensen Harris has been reporting on his blog regularly, a huge amount of thought is going into the user interface of Office 2007, with one of the main goals to be reducing the amount of options and buttons the user has to look at. For one, I can't wait. Information overload is happening in our inboxes and RSS readers, but it's also happening on our screens and in our presentations. Let's reign it in!
