It’s been a hectic summer crisscrossing the Atlantic on planes. I enjoy catching up on reading during long flights but hate schlepping books, so the iPad is a Godsend.  One of my favorite resources is WIRED Magazine’s app developed by Adobe Digital.

The app lives up to its hype of providing an immersive, highly interactive experience.  Gorgeous images and crisp typography rotate with the device, and the layout is sexy.  Apps like this are transforming the way we experience information, and we ought to be mindful of that.  The implications are enormous.

This isn’t an app review, but rather an observation and a suggestion that digital publications like WIRED Magazine are having a profound impact on our aesthetic sensibilities. “The iPad effect” is changing the way we experience information and there are implications for all of us interested in connecting with our audiences.

Death by and of PowerPoint

Curiously, the idea for this piece came not from something I viewed on an iPad, but on a conference room screen where PowerPoint slides were presented by a software vendor.  The salesman, “Frank” (not his real name), was trying to convince my colleagues and me to buy his company’s well-known, hosted CRM software.

The slides were mind-numbingly predictable. An “agenda” slide was followed by seemingly endless “features and benefits” in bullet form, followed by the predictable “next steps” which, thankfully, signaled the end of the ordeal.  Sound familiar?  I remember looking at my watch and thinking, “Forty-five precious minutes lost forever.”

Of course Frank’s intent was to convince us of his “value proposition,” but I came away with the impression that his company is out of touch. His pitch created doubt in my mind about the brand.

Sadly, I’ve endured countless corporate slide decks like that before, but I don’t recall ever feeling such aversion. The contrast with the sleek tablet apps I’d been seeing made Frank’s presentation seem like a relic from the Industrial Age. The starkness of the contrast is the “the iPad effect”.

Design-forward apps are exposing us to more compelling images and interactive features, and we who rely on presenting information to influence audiences ought to take notice.

Redesigning Design

The need for rethinking our presentations isn’t new.  Edward Tufte and, more recently, Garr Reynolds (the Presentation Zen guy) have been preaching — often to the converted — about how and why our presentations need a makeover. The “information architecture” movement has been raising awareness about design literacy for decades.

But old habits die hard. Despite the consciousness-raising, ‘Death by PowerPoint’ still takes a heavy toll in business. Now comes the iPad to show us what’s possible. A new visual design zeitgeist is emerging and there’s no going back.

This is just the beginning — this is the first generation of iPad apps. The designers are figuring out how to make the next iteration sleeker and more interactive. Subsequent generations of apps with more alluring layouts are on the horizon.

What are the implications? It’s time to put the old paradigm to rest. Design is the next frontier, and that’s good news for those of us craving a change.

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What do you think? As always, I’d love to hear your views on this subject.

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Want more info?

Some brilliant ideas concerning the “design behind the design” are found on Boxes and Arrows. Related: design thinking helps us to radically re-imagine the way we solve problems in business. The design firm, IDEO, has some terrific resources.

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