Digital Design Tools: Documentation and Presentation Course Instructor: Rajavel

Manoharan Module 4 © All Rights Reserved. This document has been authored by Course
Instructor: Rajavel Manoharan and is permitted for use only within the course "Digital Design
Tools: Documentation and Presentation" delivered in the online course format by IIM
Bangalore. No part of this document, including any logo, data, illustrations, pictures, scripts,
may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any
means – electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise – without the prior
permission of the author. Presentation Delivery Hi. We are getting into module 4 of this
course. So in this module, we will primarily focus on the tools for presentation design. But
before we get into the tools, I want to kind of focus on some of the presentation delivery
principles, how you deliver. So we have discussed a lot about how to prepare the content,
how to format it, how to lay out it, essentially visual aspects of it. We will look at how to
deliver this content in an effective way along with how the visual is going to support that
delivery. Okay, so we are getting into three aspects of this. We will go one by one. So the
first part is storytelling in slides or your presentation. Now don't consider your presentation
as a, as a presentation. Okay. Consider it as a story. You're going to tell a story to your
audience, so you'll have to build a narrative arc. When I say narrative arc, it essentially
transforms the data into a journey. You start by establishing status quo in, in terms of you tell
what is happening so that people start you know, relating to what's going on and get a
footing of the context. Then you go into introducing a conflict or a problem that demands a
change or a solution or a, or a, or a kind of behavioral modification. Once that is established,
the you know, you kind of explore the possibilities, the struggles, what, what are the probable
solutions, and then you go into a proposed solution. And then finally you get into the new
reality where, you know the audience envision a successful and transformed future. So to
simply put, to reiterate, we are not talking about a presentation. We are talking about a story.
You know, I, I talked about three things, status quo, conflict, and new reality. This can be
whatever you want it to be. It can be four stages, it can be five stages, but you build a
narrative. You, you are taking them on a journey that is important. I've given this just another
example, that you are setting the context, then introducing the problem. Then looking at the
possible solutions and then the final solution that you're proposing, take them through that
arc. Digital Design Tools: Documentation and Presentation Course Instructor: Rajavel
Manoharan Module 4 © All Rights Reserved. This document has been authored by Course
Instructor: Rajavel Manoharan and is permitted for use only within the course "Digital Design
Tools: Documentation and Presentation" delivered in the online course format by IIM
Bangalore. No part of this document, including any logo, data, illustrations, pictures, scripts,
may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any
means – electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise – without the prior
permission of the author. The next point is the big idea focus. Okay. This is something you'll
have to establish at the outset of the start of the your presentation. Okay. So your big idea is
the north star of your presentation. If you cannot summarize your message in one clear,
punchy sentence, your audience won't remember it. And you know, they should be there in
every slide or every sequence of storytelling, your narrative, every frame of it. If you are, if
you are having packing more than one message, there'll be conflict and it'll be lost. So every
slide must either prove, illustrate, or defend your core takeaway. The point doesn't support
the big idea. It's just noise. Okay. Delete it to maintain clarity, you'll have to go through your
presentation slide by slide and line by line in your slide, delete them brutally. You know, this
might sound dramatic because it is. And this is why you see some of the most impactful,
successful presentations have just one image, one phrase, one line, and that's it. So while
that is there, up there presented, or to see the actual narrator weaves the story around it,
Okay. That is the point of a big idea, focus. Okay. Then the third aspect of storytelling is, is
having to have emotional anchors. Okay. A lot of time emotional anchors are used to, you
know, kind of jump over the hurdle of a logic. It bypass the logic, the it, it appeals to the heart
and the mind. Now, of course, you can't just blindly appeal to the heart, ignoring the mind.
This is a layer on top of your logic, Okay. So that the logic is immediately taken up. So
potentially you can start with a hook, you know, it can be shocking statistic or a very you
know, kind of a vulnerable claim. And a what if question, you know, to create a immediate
kind of a chemical reaction that kind of triggers curiosity and it kind of triggers empathy in the
first 60 seconds. It kind of holds them to, it kind of holds your audience to your narrator and
moment they're held, they're mentally invested in your narrative that is most of the, you
know, you know, you, you convince them a long way there, even before you start showing
your data and you start showing your solution. So essentially how to get them to your side
emotionally and then keep them there. The next point is who is the hero of the story? Okay.
Digital Design Tools: Documentation and Presentation Course Instructor: Rajavel
Manoharan Module 4 © All Rights Reserved. This document has been authored by Course
Instructor: Rajavel Manoharan and is permitted for use only within the course "Digital Design
Tools: Documentation and Presentation" delivered in the online course format by IIM
Bangalore. No part of this document, including any logo, data, illustrations, pictures, scripts,
may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any
means – electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise – without the prior
permission of the author. And what is the journey? Please remember, your audience is the
protagonist, Okay. They are facing a problem or they are facing a challenge or they are
undergoing a transformation. You are not the hero. You're just there as a guide or you're just
there as a narrator. You in. In fact, you, if you can downplay you as a individual in the entire
narrative and then bring the focus on the audience as individuals or people or groups, then
that is, that is the ideal positioning. Tell them the hero of the story, the narrative arc is the
audience. Now your product or your idea or your message is merely a tool for them to
succeed. You will have to tell them they are here and they have to go to the next stage, and
this is how you are enabling. Shift the focus from your greatness or your potential, or your,
you know, smartness to their advantage, their success, and their story. Tell them what is in it
for them rather than talk about what is that you are actually giving them. One other point is
about in, in impacting, impactfully, telling a story is creating a conflict and then resolving it.
Okay. You know, you, you kind of tell this is what is happening. Okay. And in a subtle way, or
if required in a more direct way, tell what is wrong with what is happening. So what is is very
important. And then what could be, what is the possibility the moment you say that it, it kind
of creates a gap between now and future and then shows how your idea is going to help
your audience cross that gap. There's a kind of a cognitive tension that keeps the audience
engaged and then naturally seek the resolution that your solution is going to provide. They,
they look forward to, okay, now that, now that this problem is there, tell me how, how are you
going to solve it? So they kind of go back and then lean into your narration. Coming to, you
know, in your, in your story we have already discussed this several times. We are, we are
saying that there's going to be data, you know, and data, probably it's numbers, and we said
how to present those numbers effectively. One more way of doing that well is, you know,
bringing the human centricity to data. Digital Design Tools: Documentation and Presentation
Course Instructor: Rajavel Manoharan Module 4 © All Rights Reserved. This document has
been authored by Course Instructor: Rajavel Manoharan and is permitted for use only within
the course "Digital Design Tools: Documentation and Presentation" delivered in the online
course format by IIM Bangalore. No part of this document, including any logo, data,
illustrations, pictures, scripts, may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system or
transmitted in any form or by any means – electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording
or otherwise – without the prior permission of the author. You know, the moment human
centric data is presented, it transforms abstract statistics into kind of lived experiences. You
know, numbers provide scale, it, it provides, it appeals to your logic. But stories built around
those numbers actually provide them meaning. So instead of reporting, say a 20% profit
with, you know, all the visual tips and tricks that we talked about, introduce a image of a
person who's affected by that poverty. The moment that you know, image is attached to that
statistics, it triggers the empathy and it makes the evidence kind of memorable. They, they
won't forget it. Now again you know, it's, it's not about just throwing an image in there. It has
to be done effectively in a way it appeals in the right way. Another way of bringing story or
ensuring that there is a story along your slides is to use what is called as the so what test.
This also can be done kind of as the final you know, final check before you complete your
process. You go through the slides. Every slide must pass a simple interrogation. Why
should they care? You know, is that we also said, you know, be brutal and remove
information that doesn't support. This is another way of ensuring that happens. Why should
they care for whatever you're presenting or you're talking about in that slide? Okay. If the
slide doesn't kind of solve their problem, save time or offer a clear benefit, or at the least
advance their understanding towards, you know how it is going to solve the problem? Or
how it's going to save the time? It's just a filler, Okay. Don't tell what you're going to do. Tell
them how it is going to impact them. Tell them, this is what I'm going to do, but this is why
you should care. So that should be embedded in every sentence that you speak and every
point that you make. Another way of you know, appealing to your audience as, as a part of a
storytelling technique is using analogies and metaphors. So we talked about numbers and
appropriate images. Right. Now you can take that not just to images to ensure that emotional
connect and that empathy try to map the technical aspects of what you're talking about to
lived experiences. Digital Design Tools: Documentation and Presentation Course Instructor:
Rajavel Manoharan Module 4 © All Rights Reserved. This document has been authored by
Course Instructor: Rajavel Manoharan and is permitted for use only within the course "Digital
Design Tools: Documentation and Presentation" delivered in the online course format by IIM
Bangalore. No part of this document, including any logo, data, illustrations, pictures, scripts,
may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any
means – electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise – without the prior
permission of the author. They essentially, these analogies and metaphors actually act as
cognitive bridges essentially, it kind of decreases the cognitive loads. So when you kind of
present complex or complex ideas or abstract data, anchor it with something that is familiar
that, you know, we talk about mental model. I know for example you, you know how, how
you have to wait in a restaurant for a table, you know, that is something you relate to. You
either book a table, you get it immediately else, you'll have to wait. So that's, that's
something a model of that is there. Now there is a technical concept of latency. Now latency
is a very abstract word. So instead of, while you're saying latency, compare it with waiting in
for a, waiting for a table. You know, this kind of quickly bypasses getting stuck in jargons or
technical confusion and allows the audience to in instantly grasp. Probably the scale, the
function, and the importance of your message. They'll be able to relate it. You, you'll kind of
see your audience nodding or smiling and relating to what you're saying. Another way of
gorging or testing whether your, if your narrative is working is the simple blink rule or blink
test. We have talked about this in context with other aspects also in terms of layout, blur
tests and so on and so forth. But it's essentially, you know, look showing your visual aid to
you know to someone and ensure that they're able to get it along with your voice in terms of
you know, your, your visual aid, your slide is coexists with what you're talking about. They
have to listen to you and then project it onto what is there on the screen and then make, you
know, kind of connect them. You are saying a story and what is there on the slide is kind of
evidence, and that is what the, your audience should take away. What you're talking about
adds the emotion, it adds the story. The slide is just the bare minimum evidence. Finally, you
know, when you present and then complete, usually you kind of say just thank you or at the
best you know, we are open for questions or Q&A the slide says. What would be a better
way of doing that is don't say thank you, but tell exactly what the audience is supposed to
do. Digital Design Tools: Documentation and Presentation Course Instructor: Rajavel
Manoharan Module 4 © All Rights Reserved. This document has been authored by Course
Instructor: Rajavel Manoharan and is permitted for use only within the course "Digital Design
Tools: Documentation and Presentation" delivered in the online course format by IIM
Bangalore. No part of this document, including any logo, data, illustrations, pictures, scripts,
may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any
means – electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise – without the prior
permission of the author. Let's say you are, you are pitching to angel investor and, you know,
join us in our adventure. You can say that, okay. I, I don't know. I, I mean, I might not be the
best script writer. You might be much more invested in your story. You will know exactly what
to tell. Just don't say simply a thank you. Thank you is not going to create any productive
impact for you. Tell them what to do. You know, ask them money or if you want a change in
behavior, ask them what the change in behavior is. Essentially provide a specific immediate
task for the audience. Let them go and do that, or let them at least leave with that thought
instead of just saying thank you. Okay. Whether it's signing a proposal or changing a habit, a
clear instruction, you know, converts their emotional investment. Now, now they're, they are
with the, with your story throughout. Okay. So convert that into actual action so that there is
real world result. So, as we wind up this component of our module, I want to quickly
summarize, you know, tell a story. Don't just make a presentation. Okay. And have a big idea
that the user, the audience should take away, okay. And anchor your story, story with
emotional anchors. Not just data is good, yes, but the data should support the emotional
anchor. Make your user the hero of the journey. Make your audience the user hero of the
journey. Make the presentation or the entire story about the, about the user, what they're
going to get, not about what you are going to give them or how good you are. Try to tell your
story by telling them how bad it is and how good it could be. Then whenever you show data,
focus it around or make it accessible by giving it a human connect to it. Use analogies and
metaphors to you know, simplify technical and abstract data so that your audience connect
to it. And then finally, don't just leave them with a thank you. Tell them what exactly they can
do or what, what exactly they should do in order to get the benefit of what you are just
conveyed to them.
Digital Design Tools: Documentation and Presentation Course Instructor: Rajavel
Manoharan Module 4 © All Rights Reserved. This document has been authored by Course
Instructor: Rajavel Manoharan and is permitted for use only within the course "Digital Design
Tools: Documentation and Presentation" delivered in the online course format by IIM
Bangalore. No part of this document, including any logo, data, illustrations, pictures, scripts,
may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any
means – electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise – without the prior
permission of the author. Presentation Delivery Principles - 2 So the next point about you
know, principles about delivering a presentation is on pacing and rhythm of your
presentation, of your delivery of presentation. We will look at some principles in terms of how
to, how fast or how slow and how, how to maintain a, a comfortable rhythm in our
presentations. Okay. One of the things that we will start with to reiterate and I will talk about
a specific aspect, why it is important here is we always talked about one big idea, one
punchline and so we will, we'll call it one thought rule for the spacing. Okay. It essentially
when you put a slide or a, or a presentation artifact out there, if you can isolate it to a single
concept, it'll be great. Okay. So you control the audience on focusing that, and then you kind
of avoid them from wandering about other points that is return on the slide and other so you,
you are talking about something and they're reading something else. Nothing will be
conveyed effectively. Let it be just one thought. Okay. Now remember, the number of slides
doesn't really matter. You know, your, your, your entire story can be, can have a 100 frames.
It all depends upon how you transition between these. Okay. You build a narrative, build a
story, and go from tuck, tuck, tuck you keep moving. That is much better than cramming a
slide. Just so that, oh, my presentation should have only 10 slides. Let me put you know, 20
bullet points per slide. No, it's not going to work. Okay. Let it have many slides and each
slide with one thought, and then, you know, you keep cruising through them effectively. That
is point number one. Don't worry about the number of slides, but worry about the number of
ideas per slide per frame. One broad thumb rule that you can kind of think of is, yeah, I just
mentioned, but I'm going to re mention it. Maybe 10 slides is, is long enough. Okay. And
probably 20 minutes is a long enough presentation and then give a good 30 minutes of
discussion time. Okay. Digital Design Tools: Documentation and Presentation Course
Instructor: Rajavel Manoharan Module 4 © All Rights Reserved. This document has been
authored by Course Instructor: Rajavel Manoharan and is permitted for use only within the
course "Digital Design Tools: Documentation and Presentation" delivered in the online
course format by IIM Bangalore. No part of this document, including any logo, data,
illustrations, pictures, scripts, may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system or
transmitted in any form or by any means – electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording
or otherwise – without the prior permission of the author. And you know the point here is
brevity in what you are, you are speaking and what is there on the slide. And then let the
audience engage with you. Okay. By finishing your core content early, you create a kind of a
breathing room for meaningful interactions and ensuring audience drive the final discussion.
Let them ask questions, Okay. And then you can, that will be much, much more effective
than you telling them whatever you want to say. Again, we have talked several times about
being consistent about in your presentation style, your slide layout, in your font and so on
and so forth. But we have also talked about how within the guardrails of your you know,
templates, you have to be creative. Now, one of the reasons to be creative is to bring a
rhythm to your presentation. Okay. And so that you know, you are, you're not just, just keep
going on and on and on. What you need to do is you need to break a little bit from your set
pattern and transition two, another pattern, Okay. 3 or 4 slides, maybe 5, and you one aspect
of your entire frame changes. Maybe, maybe a icon or maybe a element that is continuing in
the last 3 slides or maybe the, the kind of image that you're using. Some pattern breaks.
Okay. Now, why do we do that? You know, the moment it's, it's like if the pattern continues,
it's like droning. If someone talks to you at the same flat tone, you'll kind of disengage and
everything blurs out. It's very similar for visual presentation too. If you keep seeing heading
10 bullet points, heading 10 bullet points, heading 10 bullet points, you are going to lose your
audience's attention. So you'll have to keep slightly varying it so that they kind of reboot and
then start focusing, okay, something has changed now what? And that kind of that kind of
rhythm. If it's there, then you kind of rehook your audience's attention. Another way of
breaking pattern, while this is visual breaking pattern, another way of breaking pattern of
delivery is to, you know, kind of aided by visual micro summaries. Okay, we said 3 to 5 slides
change the pattern. Digital Design Tools: Documentation and Presentation Course Instructor:
Rajavel Manoharan Module 4 © All Rights Reserved. This document has been authored by
Course Instructor: Rajavel Manoharan and is permitted for use only within the course "Digital
Design Tools: Documentation and Presentation" delivered in the online course format by IIM
Bangalore. No part of this document, including any logo, data, illustrations, pictures, scripts,
may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any
means – electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise – without the prior
permission of the author. Similarly, 3 to 5 slides. Do you want to, you'd like to consider, do
you want to kind of, okay, this is what we said in the last 4 slides. Maybe you're building up
a, building up a argument, maybe you're building up a narration and then say, this is what we
arrived at. Okay. You know, every major section should conclude by kind of recapping the
key takeaway before transitioning to the next. Okay. This kind of clarifies the structure and
provides a natural pause even if you want to take questions in those pauses, that will be
great. Okay. And if someone's attention had drifted, they're kind of, okay, let me come back.
Here's a summary. Maybe I missed the last 2, 3 slides. Here is the summary, and then they
again move forward with you. So that is the function of micro summaries. Just like we have
these breaks in patterns, introducing a kind of up and down and rhythm in your delivery
style, you should use white spaces to, it's, it's kind of silence for the eyes. Okay. It's a
breather. Okay. And it pauses. You, you can have a slide, which is, which is a image or a
point and a, you know, data visualization then the next slide can be almost empty, just
saying, yeah, this is what we said. So going to that kind of pattern breaking and rhythm
building. Then, you know. We said break your patterns, give your summaries. Now this is
almost like a cycle, right. You build up, pause, build up, pause, how long are you going to go
on? Do the audience know you know where this is going to do the audience know how long
they'll have to kind of sit through this? It would be great if you kind of incorporate progress
indicators. You know, a, a simple progress indicator almost boring is slide number 9 of 22.
Okay. Maybe you think that'll scare your audience by saying, oh, you are going to have 22
slides. But imagine not knowing what is the end of it, right. So you'll have to figure out a
creative way to show the audience what is, how much more is coming there. You know, there
are interesting ways in which we can build this in. We talked about narrative arcs, in the
narrative arc, you, of course, you may not actually say, you know, your what is the status
quo, what is the conflict, and so on and so forth. Digital Design Tools: Documentation and
Presentation Course Instructor: Rajavel Manoharan Module 4 © All Rights Reserved. This
document has been authored by Course Instructor: Rajavel Manoharan and is permitted for
use only within the course "Digital Design Tools: Documentation and Presentation" delivered
in the online course format by IIM Bangalore. No part of this document, including any logo,
data, illustrations, pictures, scripts, may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system or
transmitted in any form or by any means – electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording
or otherwise – without the prior permission of the author. But you can say our, you know, for
example, our what is a project that can be won? Then you, you can show a process
diagram. I have finished this, I have finished this, I have finished this, and here are the 3, 3
other steps or you can show how you have structured your presentation and how much you
have done. There are many different ways to kind of build a breadcrumb or a discreet tracker
either at the bottom of your slides or top right corner or even a graded bar. It eliminates
anxiety. Okay. When people know exactly where they are in the journey, overall journey,
they're mentally present and instead of kind of just wandering away, wondering how much
longer the presentation will last, they're saying, okay, I think we are going to conclude. Let
me listen to this. So that is very important. Give them a progress indicator. Okay. Now, we
talked about you know, your micro summaries. Another way of kind of pulling back your
attention is don't reveal before you speak about something, and this is another reason why
you shouldn't fill your slide with multiple bullet points and allow your audience to read ahead
of you. Your delivery, your narration of the story and the evidence and the data and the
imagery on the screen should be perfectly in sync. Okay. Try to use your you know, slight
transition tools or time yourself well practice yourself well and check on the beat points.
Okay. Beat points, kind of, you'll have to synchronize your delivery with your visuals. You
know, it's like, it's like just as a comedian you know, waits for the punchline. They'll pause
and then boom, they reveal something big. You should just that way you should trigger your
slight change just after kind of setting the stage verbally, just as the audience anticipated,
you open it up. You know, this alignment kind of prevents the audience from you know,
reading the reveal before you speak it. It also you know, ensures your slide is you know,
amplify your impact rather than spoiling it. Instead of aiding you, it shouldn't tell its own story.
That is the importance of beat points. You know, another important aspect of pacing and
rhythm is, you know, we talked about this going Digital Design Tools: Documentation and
Presentation Course Instructor: Rajavel Manoharan Module 4 © All Rights Reserved. This
document has been authored by Course Instructor: Rajavel Manoharan and is permitted for
use only within the course "Digital Design Tools: Documentation and Presentation" delivered
in the online course format by IIM Bangalore. No part of this document, including any logo,
data, illustrations, pictures, scripts, may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system or
transmitted in any form or by any means – electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording
or otherwise – without the prior permission of the author. in, in ups and downs and having
breaks, summaries, beat points overall don't expect a attention span that is more than 10
minutes. Okay. After 10 minutes of passive listening it kind of, it just becomes a noise. Okay.
You will have to reset the clock. Okay. You must break your presentation. You should, you
should do something to shift the gear. Okay. Maybe you, you, you like to plan and crack a
joke Okay or you'll take a pause and play a video or, you know, just, just introduce a
interactive poll, you know, ask a question. Okay, raise your hands. Well, who, who does this
or who doesn't do this? Engage them. Engage them in a very, very conscious way that kind
of resets the clock, gets the people into the presentation, and then you move on. So that is
so unlike our earlier you know beat points or pattern breaks or even pauses. This is a slightly
longer, very, very specific break where probably your audience will physically move or
physically engage with you. Okay. So that kind of times out at 10 minute remember that. The
next point is about information layering. Okay. Now we said about beat points, right. One is
about actually synchronizing your delivery. Okay. But there it is, just plain information, Okay.
Now, information layering is almost like progressive disclosure. You're building a story, Okay.
You are revealing clues after clues. Okay. And then there'll be the big reveal. You, you have
to, you know, you, you'll have to prevent the read ahead, which is, which was there earlier
also. But you know, you'll have to use simple builds or animations to introduce one bullet
point at a time and keep the audience locked onto your current sentence, your current
narrative. This kind of control delivery eliminates the them splitting or getting distracted,
ensuring the process, each layer of information exactly when they have to, and they're not,
you know, distracted or kind of influenced by what is coming ahead. Digital Design Tools:
Documentation and Presentation Course Instructor: Rajavel Manoharan Module 4 © All
Rights Reserved. This document has been authored by Course Instructor: Rajavel
Manoharan and is permitted for use only within the course "Digital Design Tools:
Documentation and Presentation" delivered in the online course format by IIM Bangalore. No
part of this document, including any logo, data, illustrations, pictures, scripts, may be
reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means –
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise – without the prior permission
of the author. Another way of you know, avoiding intellectual drift, you know, kind of zoning
out is in, in your sentence delivery very much like your comedians or great orators. You have
to plan deliberate process for reflection. And these should probably synchronize with your,
you know, information layering and your beat points stop, your audio also stops. And then
look into the eyes of people, you know, connect with them and then it kind of brings them
back into the, into the focus and they feel included. They don't feel left behind. And
particularly if it is a complex concept, they kind of pause process what has been said,
solidifying their understanding, and then before you layer one more information that kind of
you know completes or, or the highlights of how you pace and rhythm. So just to summarize
that quickly we have, we start with, it started with one thought, you know, just one point per
slide or per visual. Then we talked about how your slides probably should be just 10 slides
and maximum 20 minutes. And there should be ample amount of time for interaction. And
your slides themselves should be brief. We said you have to use a pattern, but there will be,
there should be subtle disruptions to these patterns so that your, your mind rechecks in.
Then there should be micro summaries so that you are catching up again and again so that
your audience are moving along with you. There is deliberate pause in your presentation.
We show progress indicators saying this is how, this is where we are in the entire
presentation or entire storyline, and this is how much we have covered. This is what we are
going to cover. And then we have this big process based on this 10 minute rule where you
don't have to, you'll have to really engage almost physical interaction with your audience.
Layer information so that you don't, your audience, don't read what they're supposed to read
before you set them up for that information. And then finally, give them check-in points. Take
them pause, let them absorb, and then move ahead. So all that kind of will help you to pace
and rhythm, bring rhythm to your presentation.
Digital Design Tools: Documentation and Presentation Course Instructor: Rajavel
Manoharan Module 4 © All Rights Reserved. This document has been authored by Course
Instructor: Rajavel Manoharan and is permitted for use only within the course "Digital Design
Tools: Documentation and Presentation" delivered in the online course format by IIM
Bangalore. No part of this document, including any logo, data, illustrations, pictures, scripts,
may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any
means – electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise – without the prior
permission of the author. Figjam Boards – Part-1 Hi, welcome back. So we have gone
through a lot of concepts, theories, principles in terms of creating, and we have done some
amount of prototyping you know, paper prototyping. What I'm going to do in this session is to
kind of help you, or identify work with a tool which helps you to go from chaos to clarity.
Okay. The tool that I'm going to take is incidental. As I keep saying to all my you know,
cohorts, the tool ecosystem right now, digital tools that is online based is extremely fast
evolving, okay. So don't get locked yourself to tool, understand the process and you'll find
the best tool that suits you. So this tool that I'm going to walk you through in this session is is
called Figjam and particularly the boards and Figjam Boards. Why this tool and what are we
going to do in this session? See, a lot of you might you know, might see yourself, observe
yourself or previously just straight jump into a design tool like Google Slides or PowerPoint
or a doc or Google Doc, whatever that is, whatever kind of artifact that you're trying to
create. The thing is you open it and then you are just staring at a blinking cursor or blank
canvas. The reason why that happens is these are formatting tools. These are not thinking
tools. These are not the tools where you formulate a idea and create. We did use the paper
prototyping technique to kind of come together to some kind of high level idea. But what we'll
do in this session is going to almost like a pre-production studio mode. Okay. I'll demonstrate
my workflow for this personal work for, for, for this and then we'll, look at it. Okay. So the first
thing that we will do is collating. Okay. Collating is when we pull in disparate data, images,
texts, links, everything into, into a space without kind of losing track or losing, where did I
miss it, kind of thing. Okay. Now, why do you need such a tool? Digital Design Tools:
Documentation and Presentation Course Instructor: Rajavel Manoharan Module 4 © All
Rights Reserved. This document has been authored by Course Instructor: Rajavel
Manoharan and is permitted for use only within the course "Digital Design Tools:
Documentation and Presentation" delivered in the online course format by IIM Bangalore. No
part of this document, including any logo, data, illustrations, pictures, scripts, may be
reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means –
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise – without the prior permission
of the author. If you remember, we have gone through exercise of talking about empathizing
with your user, understanding your topic, creating images, creating, you know, identifying a
font, identifying a colour, and there are multiple things that you'll do. And also when, when
we say empathizing with your user, it's, it's, it's a process in itself. You know, you, you, you'll
be creating personas and what they will look for in your communication artifact and so on
and so forth. All that we will be able to do in a simple way. And then stitching all this data,
how do we stitch it? So you kind of, how to find the connective tissue, you know between all
these random, not random, really all these ideas, which is related to your core goal of
creating a communication artifact, but in a very, very multifaceted way. Okay. You kind of
stitch that together. And then comes the creative narrative arc, the storyboarding part where
you kind of sequence them and then figure out a flow. So by the end of the session maybe,
you know, you, you probably won't know all the features of Figjam but you'll have a
repeatable framework for building any piece of communication from ground, ground. Okay.
So I'm starting with Figjam. So this is a free tool, like I said, and this is the canvas. Okay.
This is a, like we said, this is the infinite canvas. You, if you see that dots, that gives a sense
of scale. So you can go here and then as you keep zooming out, it, it gets closer and closer.
So it kind of is a really big canvas. Okay. So let's go back to our standard scale. Now, the
first thing that I want you to notice the number of tools or features that are here. So the most
important feature is the sticky note feature. Okay. Now if you noticed, I dragged it from here.
Now you can choose multiple colours for this. Why is the colour there? Maybe to categorize
the notes, maybe to give thematic meaning to the notes. As you use it, you'll get comfortable
with these things. Don't worry about that. So this is the most important tool. So what, what
essentially you do is you, you keep on adding stuff here. As you see, you see my name
here. Digital Design Tools: Documentation and Presentation Course Instructor: Rajavel
Manoharan Module 4 © All Rights Reserved. This document has been authored by Course
Instructor: Rajavel Manoharan and is permitted for use only within the course "Digital Design
Tools: Documentation and Presentation" delivered in the online course format by IIM
Bangalore. No part of this document, including any logo, data, illustrations, pictures, scripts,
may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any
means – electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise – without the prior
permission of the author. That's because this is a collaborative pool and you know, you can
work with multiple people on the same board where they can add you know, add their
thoughts, their ideas, their contributions to the, to your project. Okay. Now going zooming out
a little bit. So what is the you know, why do we use, so, I'm, I'm, so, first step I'm doing is I'm,
I'm going to note down, okay, who are I users in this hypothetical project that I'm doing which
is a pitch to runners club. I'm going to say you know, completely new users. Okay. New
runners. Okay. And another is, let's say, you know, data driven you know, very goal oriented
runners. And another is, I'm going to say, so any, any product or any service should have its
own niche or should try to have its own niche. I'm going to say my niche is I'm going to
create a space where you know, people who are otherwise feeling judged or feeling not
included, they can feel at home. So you know, runners are want to be runners who are, who
have inhibitions. Okay. Maybe another category of user can be retired senior citizens who
want to maintain active life style. Okay, so I'm, I'm just you know, kind of throwing ideas out
there. See if you remember when we started we said we are going to be, we are going to
empathize with our user, kind of using the design framework and understand what they
would want to see in a communication artifact and how they want, would want it to be
communicated to them. Okay, so these are the things you probably will start noting down
here, and as, as a, as a owner of this idea or owner of the solution, you might have other
things to note, let's say now, ideally when you create your own personas and your own
categories of audience, you would've done, or you'll have certain ideas in terms of what they
want. Now I'm going to just be hypothetical and say so if you notice I used a different colour.
So this is. I'm just saying, no, this is not user categories. This is something else. So I'm just
using a different colour. Later we can make actual sense of it. It's just now another colour.
Now what am I going to put in here? Digital Design Tools: Documentation and Presentation
Course Instructor: Rajavel Manoharan Module 4 © All Rights Reserved. This document has
been authored by Course Instructor: Rajavel Manoharan and is permitted for use only within
the course "Digital Design Tools: Documentation and Presentation" delivered in the online
course format by IIM Bangalore. No part of this document, including any logo, data,
illustrations, pictures, scripts, may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system or
transmitted in any form or by any means – electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording
or otherwise – without the prior permission of the author. Why would and be or why would
potential runner be motivated? Now this is a question. Okay. Now, what could be the
answers to this question? Let's, you know see, we said this is a dump yard. Okay. Where
you, you collect everything. So you are searching and let's say you're asking Gemini saying
exactly the same question. What, why would a potential runner be motivate? Okay. Now,
Geminis, Gemini just gives you a condensed answer. Maybe you get inspired by these and
you can just put it here. See, if you look at it, I didn't use a physical note, but I just used the
text. So that is another medium you can use. Look at that. So low barrier to entry. So maybe
that is connected to this category of this is what it'll motivate for runners who want to be
runners with, with some who have some inhibitions. Okay. This is not the only way in which
you'll collect data. You'll, you'll ask the same question. Let's say who? The search engine.
Okay. There is a, no, I think this is probably a local report here in Bangalore. Oops. See you,
you, you get the idea, right. You, you kind of, oh, okay, entry barriers and why they're so
popular. You, you want to remember this? Okay. You copy the URL and it comes here, if you
notice it, it kind of created its own style of sticky note. I just pasted the URL. It came up as a
thing. Now you can create the connectors. Okay. You can say, hey, this is connected to this,
and this is connected to this. You can also, you can also go and use your sketch too. Let's
say you just got an idea what my you know, focus should be. Okay. I will start in location A
and I will radiate to, radiate out as, as my club grows or as my membership grows, this is just
an idea. Okay. You say that and you know, you want to create that as a image. There you
go. It's, it's just an idea. It's there. I'm, I'm, you need not judge, or you may not you know,
categorize it immediately. You're, you're collecting things. You can collect videos, you can
collect you know, maybe audio files if you're listening to a podcast, and so on and so forth.
Everything comes here. Digital Design Tools: Documentation and Presentation Course
Instructor: Rajavel Manoharan Module 4 © All Rights Reserved. This document has been
authored by Course Instructor: Rajavel Manoharan and is permitted for use only within the
course "Digital Design Tools: Documentation and Presentation" delivered in the online
course format by IIM Bangalore. No part of this document, including any logo, data,
illustrations, pictures, scripts, may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system or
transmitted in any form or by any means – electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording
or otherwise – without the prior permission of the author. Now, the, now the thing is, this is
just a few minutes of hypothetical research that has created this. Now, what will happen in
reality is you will start having ideas like this, and this will grow. It'll just be there. Okay. There
is no there'll be other links. I just, there'll be other contributors. Your canvas is kind of
becomes messy. It becomes large, it becomes exciting and becomes very, very rich. Okay.
There is lot of lot of ideas here, lot of ideas, lot of inputs. Don't worry about why I'm doing
this copy pasting. And these are just placeholders for what will happen in reality. Now see, I
can keep growing this. I can keep growing this canvas. It can grow endlessly. Of course, you
won't be doing this endlessly and just saying it, it'll grow like this. And just given a small
sample of what kind of you know, rich data, it can collate. Now what do you do from here?
What you do from here is say you have to organize this in some way. Okay. There are tools
for that in Figma to do that. So a very simple tool list stamp. Okay. Let's say you like certain
ideas. You say, okay, I like this idea. I like this idea. I like this idea. Now, the, the beauty of
this is you, if particularly if you're collaborating, others can do this, Okay. Others, let's say
you want to do a decision on what are the top three things that you want to do. Let's say
these are ideas on your primary vision and your co-founders of this are voting here, so each
one can start voting here, Okay. In their own colour, in their own way and then you get a
sense of quick sense of what's going on here. The o other things that you can do is you can
say, okay, this idea is great. This idea is great. You are deciding this. There are multiple
ways in which you can think and work around the information that is here. Okay. The next
step will be to organize this, Okay. This is about selection, prioritization, collation all that is
happening here. You give some time and then this is done.
Digital Design Tools: Documentation and Presentation Course Instructor: Rajavel
Manoharan Module 4 © All Rights Reserved. This document has been authored by Course
Instructor: Rajavel Manoharan and is permitted for use only within the course "Digital Design
Tools: Documentation and Presentation" delivered in the online course format by IIM
Bangalore. No part of this document, including any logo, data, illustrations, pictures, scripts,
may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any
means – electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise – without the prior
permission of the author. Figjam Boards-Part-2 Okay. So you know, just, just so that we have
a structure to progress. I'm going to assume certain things have happened and let's say how
it goes forward. So we did all this ideation and all that put together the data. So from the
hypothetical problem or the presentation that we said we are going to do let's say we have a
bunch of you know, information which is on you know, the logistics of the run club. So
essentially what I'm trying to say is, you, you have all this, right. I mean, when I say all this, it
sounds like it's a lot, lot. It's supposed to be lot, a lot here in this example it's less, but all this
is there. You used this various voting methods or you know, plus one and so on and so forth,
and you collated them, categorized them and said, you have a bunch of selected ideas for
logistics of the run club. Okay. And then you have a bunch of let me use another colour,
bunch of ideas for, personas of the audience. Okay. Then we have you know, let's say for
each of this audience, you have identified the requirements of Persona 1. Okay. Now
essentially I want you to imagine a lot of these sticky notes inside some of these links
whatever ideas you collated that is here. Okay. Now you have this based on this, you're
going to kind of stitch your overall you know ideas together. Okay. Now you, you have
logistics, you have personas and their requirements. You can, let's say, just, just so that you
know it, it makes better sense as an example. I will add a few more here. This is
advantageous of joining us. Our, let's say, uniqueness of our program. Okay. Just for the
sake of it. Now if you see your entire Figjam board, there is this imaginary era where you
collate. Okay. Then it moves on to this era of making sense. Okay. Then what we will do
about the next one is we'll be stitching these together in a narrative arc. Okay. Now, when we
go into stitching these together, we can still be in a messy mode, so you can ideate on
Figma itself. Should I put uniqueness first or should I put logistics first? How should, how,
how do I start? Digital Design Tools: Documentation and Presentation Course Instructor:
Rajavel Manoharan Module 4 © All Rights Reserved. This document has been authored by
Course Instructor: Rajavel Manoharan and is permitted for use only within the course "Digital
Design Tools: Documentation and Presentation" delivered in the online course format by IIM
Bangalore. No part of this document, including any logo, data, illustrations, pictures, scripts,
may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any
means – electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise – without the prior
permission of the author. Okay. How do I close? How do I you know, articulate the bulk What
is in the middle? Okay. All this you will have to think. Now, from this, let's say you, you have
your ideas here. And then from here we'll say, okay, because of this idea, I have my first, you
know, initial setting up of my communication. Your presentation or your document, what is
my context? Okay. What is the big problem? I am solving. Okay. Now, if you see this answer
doesn't come directly from any of this, okay. It potentially is a combination of several things
from the requirements of your each person has and uniqueness of your program. So you
know, I, I don't want you to get too much into this problem that we are thinking about. You'll
have to think about the exercise that you're going to do, the, the, the, the artifact that you're
going to create. Essentially, what we are saying is you, you are making sense of these
information in a certain way but that may not be the same way you have, you are kind of
stitching your narrative, Okay. You put it together and then come to a stage where, okay, this
is how I want to present it. Okay, so the first component is, what is my context? Okay. Then
you say, answer that question, how am I solving it? Now from here, if we move, how am I
solving it? There, there can be two components to it. One is, you know, the logical part of it,
the actual execution part of it. The other more important, more primary one is the emotional
value proposition part of it. You talk about it first and then you go into the components of it.
Okay. I don't know what those are. I'm not going to put it there. It's probably, you know, you
can say, this is how I'm going to you know, this is, this is, this is the onboarding to my
program. It's very, very simple. This is, this is how the weekly program is going to be. It is,
again, simple and is solving certain problems. And this is the feel or the vibe of my program
and it's going to solve. So, you know, like I said earlier, each of, each of these can be drawn
from various requirements of personas and uniqueness of your program and you know,
logistics, how it is run, and so on and so forth. Once that is done, what is your final
conversion? Digital Design Tools: Documentation and Presentation Course Instructor:
Rajavel Manoharan Module 4 © All Rights Reserved. This document has been authored by
Course Instructor: Rajavel Manoharan and is permitted for use only within the course "Digital
Design Tools: Documentation and Presentation" delivered in the online course format by IIM
Bangalore. No part of this document, including any logo, data, illustrations, pictures, scripts,
may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any
means – electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise – without the prior
permission of the author. Once you have this narrative here, you say you have your call to
action, which is join us and say how, how much. And probably summarize why again. Okay.
Now, this is a, is a, is a kind of a mid-fidelity content for your narrative. Okay. Don't confuse
making sense of the information into your, your content of the narrative, making senses just
all that messes there you're collating it and organizing it. That's it. That is the base. Okay.
Then you come here, you try to actually stitch it longer story. Then finally, where you would
probably stop using Figma is, so this is your you know. Okay. Okay, so a content narrative.
Now finally, you go into what we did in using your paper prototyping, you can do it in a much,
much more structured way in Figma, you can use these shapes. Okay. Now these are very
organized shapes. You can say my, let's say we are doing a presentation. Okay. Then if you
remember, we talked about developing your own alphabet and language. You start doing
that here. It's a little difficult in the digital domain, but yeah, you can fill it up with colour
saying this is image. Now you start building your, what can potentially be called as a
skeleton of your narrative. Okay, now here. Okay, this is my slide 1. Okay. Again, you can
move your sticky notes, not necessarily move. Essentially copy those sticky notes and then
paste it here, or paste it as a, as a, okay, where, where is my content for this coming from? It
is coming from sticky note. Let me put it, put as new ones. Okay. So this is my inspiration for
title. This is my inspiration for the image. This is, this is my inspiration for the content of the
slide. So what comes here? You get an idea. You build this entire thing, you, we did kind of
note based, hand sketch based prototyping that probably should have happened somewhere
in this transition. Okay, you are doing quick and dirty prototyping. Here it's a little bit more
solid where your content is getting mapped, that I'm going to put this content here, this
content here, and then you build the entire you know sequence. Digital Design Tools:
Documentation and Presentation Course Instructor: Rajavel Manoharan Module 4 © All
Rights Reserved. This document has been authored by Course Instructor: Rajavel
Manoharan and is permitted for use only within the course "Digital Design Tools:
Documentation and Presentation" delivered in the online course format by IIM Bangalore. No
part of this document, including any logo, data, illustrations, pictures, scripts, may be
reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means –
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise – without the prior permission
of the author. You can say what image goes here. You can say what you know, data
visualization source happens here. What insight is thrown out somewhere, all this can be
done. So probably this part is your, you know, context setting and how am I solving. Then
you go to another set of you know, slides where it talks about your narrate your, your own
programs and so on and so forth. And then finally, your call to action. Okay. So then you
sequence it. And remember this is, this can be potentially a collaborative tool, Okay. So
people can see this live, this is happening. If they are contributors to this, they can contribute
to it. If they are, if they are you know, people who are just helping you to fine tune this,
maybe your boss, maybe your peer. They can give comments. Okay. I don't know what, what
they'll say. Okay. Oops. Okay. There you go. It is there, it is there, there is one comment
here. I can go and see who has given that comment and what the comment is. Okay. So
again, we are going to this infinite canvas view. Your, I technically, your data collation will be
the biggest component here. Ideally you would've done a lot of things and then you, you
have copied from there and moved to kind of making sense of the data. You are classifying
it. You are hierarchy, you are giving it hierarchy, you are giving, you're giving prioritization to
that information. All that is happening here. And then after that logical grouping, you go into
a narrative arc, kind of a regrouping or reconceptualizing the same thing. So you can use the
same cards or the same cards re-return, what will go in which component. Here you have
your narrative arc, you're setting the context, you are giving the emotional pitch, then you're
giving the logical pitch. Then you're giving your call to action. And then once that is there, the
content is there. You can use the you know, you, you go through a process of doing paper
prototyping. Okay, this is how I'm going to be, this is the layout going to be, this is how the
font is going to be, and so on and so forth. And then you can make it a little bit more high
fidelity prototype on Figma and get feedback. Reorder them, rewrite them, and, and now
you're ready to get into a design tool. Thank you.
Digital Design Tools: Documentation and Presentation Course Instructor: Rajavel
Manoharan Module 4 © All Rights Reserved. This document has been authored by Course
Instructor: Rajavel Manoharan and is permitted for use only within the course "Digital Design
Tools: Documentation and Presentation" delivered in the online course format by IIM
Bangalore. No part of this document, including any logo, data, illustrations, pictures, scripts,
may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any
means – electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise – without the prior
permission of the author. Google Docs - Part-1 Hi, welcome back. In the last session, we
saw how we can use Figjam as a place to collate and think, bring everything together, you
know, some kind of chaos to clarity. Now we said Figjam is the place where we can think
about design, not start designing itself. What we are going to see today or in this session is
how to use Google Doc as a sample, as a example to create a document of one pager for
the same hypothetical problem that we took in a Figjam exercise, right. So, if you remember,
we started with Figjam saying when we look at you know, designing with some of these
formatting tools, it becomes very difficult and that is the reason why we start with Figjam. So,
yeah, just, just look at this. I, I'm here in Google Doc. This is Google Doc. You know, you can
probably go and give the document name saying, you know, Urban Running Club. We can
see single page. I don't know. You must have seen I just backspaced and then wrote again.
Now that is iteration, design iteration. This is not the right place to do it. So that is why we
used Figjam. Just to quickly refresh you on what we did in Figjam. I'm, I'm opening the same
file that we did. We said, we collated information, you know, all ideas collaboratively,
concepts, content that we want to put in, and then we kind of make sense, you know, use
those you know, same sticky notes or images or links. We group them saying, what is the
personas and what are the requirements? What are the logistics and what are the
uniqueness of the program? Hypothetically we said we will, we are organizing our content
that way. And then we said, from there we will go to how we will write the narrative for a
presentation. And then we said we will build a narrative in roughly, you know, kind of rough
prototyping with, with Figjam in terms of what, what the title is going to be and so on and so
forth. Now the same thing, let us use the same premise and same data to create a
document. Now, in the document I want to slightly change the narrative. Digital Design Tools:
Documentation and Presentation Course Instructor: Rajavel Manoharan Module 4 © All
Rights Reserved. This document has been authored by Course Instructor: Rajavel
Manoharan and is permitted for use only within the course "Digital Design Tools:
Documentation and Presentation" delivered in the online course format by IIM Bangalore. No
part of this document, including any logo, data, illustrations, pictures, scripts, may be
reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means –
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise – without the prior permission
of the author. That is because I have only one page and you know, I want to come to the
point quickly, so I'm going to just say you know, we have let's say a what, we have a what?
And then we have how, and then finally a call to action. Okay. Simple content. And that is,
that is all I'm going to be able to cover in a single page. Now, now that we have this narrative
in place, I want to you to think about some of the things that we you know, discussed in
terms of how we lay out the content and so on and so forth. So if you remember, we did this
in, in in the presentation, in the template, but now we are going to do a simple document,
which is going to be, let's say we are exploring, right. You're, you, are you ideally, or in the
real world scenario, you'll be exploring this with our crazy eight and some of those ideation
techniques. Now let's start with one exploration. This is my layout. I'm still not, you know,
detailing it out. I'm still conceptualizing. So I say, okay, I'm going to, do maybe the title here.
Okay. And then how comes here? It's a block. And then call to action here. Okay. Now is this
good enough? It's quite straightforward, right. There is one block of text for this. There is a
title here, and then there is a simple call to action. This is one idea. Now reflect back and
remember some of the things that we discussed in terms of how content has to be designed,
laid out. We talked about how users scan for content. So I'm going to you know, fast forward
and you know, remind you about the F shape scanning pattern. So going by that guidance,
I'm going to say, I'm going to have my title here. Okay. And then when I say F pattern. Next
comes my, so our narrative is this, what, how and called to action. So my how is here and
my call to action is here. Okay. Is this a valid layout? Maybe? We are still exploring. Now,
what, what happens to these spaces, empty spaces? Right. We can use them as images or
we can use complimentary content as we progress. So we do this sort of exploration in, in
our, in our designing document, which is Figma and then we go into our final kind of, we say,
yeah, this is what I'm going to do. We fix it here, and then progress to our final tool. Digital
Design Tools: Documentation and Presentation Course Instructor: Rajavel Manoharan
Module 4 © All Rights Reserved. This document has been authored by Course Instructor:
Rajavel Manoharan and is permitted for use only within the course "Digital Design Tools:
Documentation and Presentation" delivered in the online course format by IIM Bangalore. No
part of this document, including any logo, data, illustrations, pictures, scripts, may be
reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means –
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise – without the prior permission
of the author. So let's say you have done this. I'm going to kind of consolidate my layout
finally into something like this. So we have our page here. Full pages here, and we are going
to have one top bar, which is our title, and then we are going to have one left column, you
know, which, which is about our philosophy, let's say the, the three pillars. That's what I'm
going to call what our the running club's philosophy is. Then we have one more column,
which is some amount of detailing, you know but this is, if you remember, this is the boring
part. When only when the audience are interested, they will go into this. So this can be in a
place which is not immediately scanned. So our primary scan area is this, then this, which is
where we are kind of attracting our users. And then finally key focus area is the call to action
at the bottom. Okay, so I, I, I'm, I'm using this as an example to relatively exaggerate the F
pattern. But in order to get the attention, this is the flow that you might want to follow. So
through exploration, iterations, we have finalized that this is going to be my layout. Now you
have in your mind, you have explored and visualized how your final one pager is going to
look like. Once you have got that clarity, that kind of, vision is painted. Remember through all
this, you, you can be collaborating, getting feedback and getting inputs from your from your
collaborators, your boss, your peers, and so on and so forth. And also, design is not a linear
process. It's a iterative process. When people see these, they might as well give more
information that can go into your fundamental information. So they'll say, hey, this seems
nice. Why don't you use this? So you, you use your Figma as a living document and keep
progressing based on your ideation. So finally you have your layout. Once this layout is
done, now we go into our document. Now this is where we, you know, start actually putting
the final content and start seeing how things are beginning to look. You will, you know, you
can start with the template from, from Google itself, from Google Doc itself, but it's not
necessary. Digital Design Tools: Documentation and Presentation Course Instructor: Rajavel
Manoharan Module 4 © All Rights Reserved. This document has been authored by Course
Instructor: Rajavel Manoharan and is permitted for use only within the course "Digital Design
Tools: Documentation and Presentation" delivered in the online course format by IIM
Bangalore. No part of this document, including any logo, data, illustrations, pictures, scripts,
may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any
means – electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise – without the prior
permission of the author. You can start putting in your own design. So we are starting with
the header. Okay. It's a, it's a, it's the hook that we are having. What is the headline for this
document? If you remember this part? What is this part? Now here we will say, I, I'm going to
use some of the standard elements in Google Doc so that we get the understanding and get
the layout. Formatting can be done. Fine tuning of the formatting can be done in a much,
much more detailed and relaxed way. So, heading one, I, so this gives a lot of preset
formatting. I'm going to use title. Okay, now, what is the title? I'm going to use the Urban
Run-Club Ecosystem. I will just throw in a tagline saying more than just miles. So my hook is
created. This is, this is how it starts. I can now I, along with the hook, I want to give, let's say
a sub, subtitle. So if you, if you notice the moment I hit enter, when it comes here, Google
Docs takes me back to normal text. So every time you do this, it'll go back to normal text.
You can just go and say subtitle. Okay, subtitle. What do I want to say? Strategy for building
resilient empathy driven running communities in the heart of Bangalore. I'm personally, I, I'm,
I'm very fond of exclamation mark, so you might see me putting it again and again, but it's
actually not a good practice. So you, you need to go past your, some of your personal, you
know, biases and personal you know, quirks and get the document right. Okay, so there it is.
This is my this part, my heading part.
Digital Design Tools: Documentation and Presentation Course Instructor: Rajavel
Manoharan Module 4 © All Rights Reserved. This document has been authored by Course
Instructor: Rajavel Manoharan and is permitted for use only within the course "Digital Design
Tools: Documentation and Presentation" delivered in the online course format by IIM
Bangalore. No part of this document, including any logo, data, illustrations, pictures, scripts,
may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any
means – electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise – without the prior
permission of the author. Google Docs – Part-2 Now after this we have our the next section
in terms of we told here how, now how I'm splitting that into why, and then some details.
Okay. These, these are going to be the components of my you know, my F the second
stage. Okay. Now, so I'm going to start with a subtitle. Now, we saw there, this is going to be
two vertical columns, right. So I'm going to introduce a table here. Insert table. I'm going to
just say it's, it's going to be 2 columns. Okay. Two column table. Google does its own basic
formatting. You can go and change. So I, when I click on this, it gives several options. I'm
going to just go and say, this table doesn't have any borders. I am removing all the
background also, so it's, I'm just using the table as a layout tool rather than a formatting tool.
So, the first column, I'm going to say this, I, I'm going to use a different heading. So heading
2, the pain point, what is my pain point? When, so when I write this, I, I am, I'm writing this
based on the content, the persona. So if you remember, we did all this. This is where all this
text is coming from. You know, some of the requirements, uniqueness of the program, it
comes from there. So I'm going to say urban fitness is often lonely endeavour. you know,
people do their fitness on their own. So they at least try to and then what happens because,
so these are the problems. High dropouts, dropout rates in endurance sports, current cost by
a lack of physical ability, but by a lack of connectedness and clear pathways. So I'm going to
highlight some of this. These are the problems that I'm going to solve. Okay. So, so what
Now the next point is I'm going to add another headline, headline, heading 2, which is, what
is the insight? The insight is most run clubs focus on the run. We focus on the runner's
ecosystem. The recovery, the social, safety net, and the design of the experience. So again,
where, where am I getting all this from? If you remember, we said we will, we are collect, we
are collecting our information on how am I solving that is again, coming from all this
brainstorming that is there. Digital Design Tools: Documentation and Presentation Course
Instructor: Rajavel Manoharan Module 4 © All Rights Reserved. This document has been
authored by Course Instructor: Rajavel Manoharan and is permitted for use only within the
course "Digital Design Tools: Documentation and Presentation" delivered in the online
course format by IIM Bangalore. No part of this document, including any logo, data,
illustrations, pictures, scripts, may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system or
transmitted in any form or by any means – electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording
or otherwise – without the prior permission of the author. So, so you, you can keep referring
back to your you know, your idea board, which is this Figma board. And from there you start
building your document. So this is one part of the section. The next part of the section is, you
know, how am I going to deliver this? Okay. What are, what is my, what is my run club's you
know, big pitch. Okay. I am going to say here, I'm going to again go to the next title, the three
pillars. Again, I'm, I'm kind of hypothetically making these up, assuming that these are all
coming from our research. Okay. The three pillars. So this is how I'm going to create what is
my first pillar, data informed coaching. So if you see, see here. This and this matches this.
There's a problem. Now, you might want to go and change how it is done here, Okay. You
can change these formatting everything later, but as you go through, just use standard
formatting techniques so that when you change things, it changes across the document. You
know, data informed coaching, you know, using performance metrics to provide professional
grade training for everyday athlete. Next is the next pillar, empathy driven onboarding. We
have to use heading 2 designing the first 5K journey to reduce anxiety. You know, we said
when we you know, ideated this, we said we are going to help particularly retirees and
people who have, who are trying to get back or get into some kind of activity. We are saying
this is going to be the main one of the key pillars, okay. For beginners to reduce anxiety for
beginners through clear communication and mentor support. The next point is the hub
culture. Again, we will go back, we'll say this is heading 2, transforming you know, the place
where they belong, the place of action in from, from just a sidewalk into a hub for community
recovery, education, and shared goals. Now these are, I'm, I'm, like I said, I'm, I'm just
hypothetically putting these. I fundamentally, we said we will have our title here, our key
element here, and supporting element here and call to action here. Now, coming back here, I
say no, this is my key. Okay, so this is something you can do on the go. So I'm saying this is
key. Digital Design Tools: Documentation and Presentation Course Instructor: Rajavel
Manoharan Module 4 © All Rights Reserved. This document has been authored by Course
Instructor: Rajavel Manoharan and is permitted for use only within the course "Digital Design
Tools: Documentation and Presentation" delivered in the online course format by IIM
Bangalore. No part of this document, including any logo, data, illustrations, pictures, scripts,
may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any
means – electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise – without the prior
permission of the author. So I'm going to switch this to this point. Okay, and switch this here,
and maybe I can give a background colour, so as I go further, I will highlight things. I'm going
to just stick to basic formatting, just suggesting that what is more important and what is not.
Okay. So our F pattern is kind of forming. Now, what is the result of this? My table is over, so
I'm going to create bigger block here. What is the impact? What will be the result of all this
action? I'm going to again, go to heading 1 style. Impact. This is essentially what I am as, as
a run club owner. This is what I want to primarily communicate to anyone who is looking at
this one pager. Okay. Engagement heading 2 scalability. And data based success, or I don't
know, data driven success. We can, if you want, you can go ahead and write more about
this. We'll increase by at least 40%. I'm, I'm just claiming that. So we see that we are running
past one page, so we'll have to figure out how to keep it to one page. So I don't want to do
this and I don't want to make it headings or make it smaller. Okay. Or you know. So come
back here, say, hey, should I. Make this into one more block. Here, will this work iteration
again, you go into iteration. Now I'm going to go with that one more block and introduce
other elements to ensure that this happens. Okay. Now finally, I'm going to finish with my call
to action. Again, I'm going to introduce a table here so that my formatting looks good. My
layout is effective. Just a single table. I'm going to go and format this table. Call to action.
Join us for the pilot season, launch at Cubbon Park. Bangalore. Now this has to be really
large, so I'm going back to my title formatting for this. Okay. And then again, finally I'm going
to finish it by saying there is a data formatting issue, but we will just first get overall
formatting here. I'm going to go and say, as a subtitle, don't just run, belong. Now we have
our single pagers, so I want to see, see the entire thing in the in, in the page. So I'm saying
fit. So we, we were able to kind of go from a rough layout and then we get a more detailed
layout and we have the content in place. Digital Design Tools: Documentation and
Presentation Course Instructor: Rajavel Manoharan Module 4 © All Rights Reserved. This
document has been authored by Course Instructor: Rajavel Manoharan and is permitted for
use only within the course "Digital Design Tools: Documentation and Presentation" delivered
in the online course format by IIM Bangalore. No part of this document, including any logo,
data, illustrations, pictures, scripts, may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system or
transmitted in any form or by any means – electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording
or otherwise – without the prior permission of the author. We have much more to detail in
terms of design but we have a workable working one pager with, with which is kind of in line
with your FF scan pattern aligned. And we have key points in there. And, we know how this
is going to look. Now, you can call this a advanced prototype, and from there you can start
applying your much more nuanced formatting details, images, colours, font, variation, and so
on and so forth.

IIMB - Digital Design Tools for Business Communication

 MODULE 4

Tools for Presentation Design

Rajavel Manoharan

Compact Notes

What This Module Is About

Module 4 is practical. It takes the principles from earlier modules and gives you tools
and techniques to actually use them - in the moment, in front of an audience, with
real software. We cover three areas: how to tell a story through slides, how to control
pace and rhythm, and how to use FigJam and Google Docs as thinking and building
tools.

Three sections

Storytelling in Slides - the techniques that make presentations memorable

Pacing and Rhythm - how to keep an audience present and engaged

Tools - FigJam for thinking, Google Docs for building a one-pager

SECTION 1 - STORYTELLING IN SLIDES

​
Storytelling in Slides

Data does not move people. Stories do. The techniques in this section are not about
making things pretty - they are about making things stick. A well-structured narrative
means the audience remembers your idea after the slide has gone off the screen.

​ Narrative Arc

Every strong presentation follows a basic story structure: Status Quo - Conflict -
Resolution. Start by establishing the world as it is (something the audience
recognizes). Introduce a conflict or problem that demands change. Then show
the new reality your idea enables. This arc creates forward pull - the audience
wants to know how it ends.

​ The Big Idea Focus​

Every presentation needs one core message that the audience can remember
in a single sentence. This is the presentation’s north star. Every slide should
either prove, illustrate, or support that core takeaway. If a point does not
strengthen the big idea, it creates noise and should be removed.

​ Emotional Anchors

Logic persuades slowly. Emotion persuades fast. Use a hook in the first 60
seconds - a surprising statistic, a real story, a 'what if' question - to create a
chemical connection before the brain's skepticism kicks in. Once curiosity or
empathy is triggered, the audience is mentally invested and will follow you
further into complexity.

​
 ​ The Hero’s Journey

The audience is the protagonist, not the presenter. Your role is not to be the
hero but the guide who helps them move through a challenge. The idea,
product, or framework you present should be positioned as the tool that helps
the audience succeed. This keeps the focus on what is meaningful for them.

​ Conflict and Resolution

The most engaging presentations keep toggling between What Is (the current,
flawed reality) and What Could Be (the improved future your idea enables).
This gap creates cognitive tension. The audience naturally wants the tension
resolved - and your solution is the resolution. Keep returning to the gap. It is
what keeps people leaning in.

​ Human-Centric Data

Numbers give scale. Stories give meaning. Instead of reporting '20% poverty
rate,' introduce a specific person affected by it. By attaching a human face to
your data, you trigger empathy - and empathy is far more persuasive than a bar
chart. Lead with the person, follow with the number.

​
 ​ The “So What?” Test

Every slide should answer one question: why should the audience care? If a
slide does not help solve a problem, save time, offer value, or move
understanding forward, it is probably filler. Strong presentations focus on
outcomes and relevance rather than simply presenting information.

​ Analogies and Metaphors

When presenting complex or abstract ideas, anchor them to something familiar.

Instead of explaining 'latency,' compare it to 'waiting for a waiter.' The audience
instantly grasps the concept because they already have a mental model for it. A
good analogy is worth five slides of explanation.

​ Simplification – The Blink Rule

A slide should be understandable in just a few seconds. Slides are visual

support, not scripts to be read aloud. When unnecessary text is removed, the
audience stops reading the screen and starts listening to the speaker. The slide
should provide the evidence, while the story is delivered by the presenter.

​ Call to Adventure

Do not end with 'Thank You.' End with a specific, immediate action. Whether it
is signing a proposal, trying a new habit, or booking a follow-up, a clear
instruction converts emotional investment into behavior. Vague endings waste
everything you built in the previous slides.
​

The test of a good story is not whether it sounds impressive. It is whether the
audience can retell your core idea, in their own words, the next morning.

SECTION 2 - PACING AND RHYTHM

Pacing and Rhythm

You can have the best content in the world and lose an audience to poor pacing.
Rhythm is the invisible structure that keeps people present. It is about knowing when
to slow down, when to pause, when to break the pattern, and when to hand control
back to the room.

​ The One Thought Rule

One concept per slide. Full stop. When you put three ideas on a slide, the
audience reads ahead and stops listening to you. Slides are free - do not
sacrifice clarity to save slide count. A clean transition between single-idea
slides creates momentum. The 10/20/30 guideline (10 slides, 20 minutes, 30pt
font minimum) is a useful anchor for brevity.

​
 ​ Pattern Interrupts

The brain habituates fast. After 3-5 slides of the same layout, it stops paying
attention. Break the pattern - switch from a text slide to a full-screen image, a
bold single quote, or a blank slide with one number. This forces the brain to
refocus. It is not a stylistic choice; it is a neurological necessity.

​ Micro-Summaries

At the end of each major section, spend one slide or 30 seconds recapping the
single key takeaway before moving on. These 'bumper slides' orient the
audience, confirm they are still with you, and create natural transition points.
They also give people who drifted a clean re-entry point.

​ Deliberate White Space

After a complex or data-heavy slide, follow it with a minimalist one. A single

quote, a question, an image. This is silence for the eyes - it gives the audience
mental room to process what they just absorbed before you load them with
more. The pause is part of the content.

​ Progress Indicators

Audiences lose focus when they do not know how much is left. A subtle section
tracker, breadcrumb, or even a verbal 'we are halfway through' eliminates that
anxiety. When people know where they are in the journey, they stay present
instead of wondering how much longer this goes.
​

​ Beat Points

Synchronize your slide changes with your words. Trigger a reveal after you
have set it

up verbally - not before. When the slide changes before you finish speaking,
the audience reads ahead and stops listening. Control what they see and when
they see it.

​ The 10-Minute Rule

Attention drops sharply after ten minutes of passive listening - this is

physiological, not a personal failing of your audience. Every ten minutes, shift
the gear: run a live demo, play a short video, ask a question, run a quick poll.
This resets the attention clock for the next segment.

​ Information Layering

Use builds and reveals instead of showing everything at once. Introduce one
bullet at a time, one column at a time, one idea at a time. This keeps the
audience locked onto your current sentence instead of reading three points
 ahead. Simple animations used deliberately are not decoration - they are
pacing tools.

​ The Check-In Pace

After each major section, pause and check in. A targeted question, a show of
hands, a two-minute reflection. These 'rest stops' confirm the audience has
kept up and solidify understanding before you add the next layer. If you skip
them, you risk building on a shaky foundation.

Pacing is not about slowing down. It is about knowing when to slow down, when to
break the pattern, and when to give the room back to the audience. The best
presenters make this feel effortless - because they planned it.

SECTION 3 - TOOLS: FIGJAM AND GOOGLE DOCS

Introduction to the Tools

This section is about workflow - specifically the workflow that happens before you
open a slide template or a blank document. Most people start formatting before they
have finished thinking. These two tools fix that problem.

FigJam - for thinking, organizing, and storyboarding before you design

Google Docs - for building clean, structured communication artifacts from that
thinking
​

These tools are especially useful when designing communication artifacts such as
business reports, pitch decks, infographics, one-pagers, and business canvases.
The workflow helps turn unstructured thinking into clear and persuasive
communication outputs.

Why the order matters

Jumping straight into slides or a doc means you are formatting before you have a
structure. That is why people stare at a blank cursor. FigJam is your pre-production
studio. You use it to dump, sort, and sequence your ideas on an infinite canvas - with
no page breaks, no ratios, no formatting pressure. Then you move to Google Docs
with a clear blueprint and execute it cleanly.

FigJam - From Chaos to Clarity

FigJam is not a presentation tool. It is a thinking tool. The infinite canvas means you
can be as messy as you need to be - and mess is a feature at this stage, not a
problem. The goal is to get everything out of your head and onto the board before
you start worrying about structure.

The Three-Phase Workflow

​ Phase 1 - The Brain Dump

Open a blank board. Use sticky notes (shortcut: N) and markers to rapidly drop
every idea, data point, quote, question, and observation you have. Speed
matters here - do not filter. Import screenshots, CSVs, or web links. Use stamps
and highlighters to mark high-value items. Cluster similar stickies into rough
groups using the selection tool. The goal is a messy board, not an organized
one.
​

​ Phase 2 - Synthesis and Architecture

Now move from 'what' to 'how.' Use Sections (Shift + S) to create labelled
buckets for different themes. Use the Connector tool (L) to map dependencies
between ideas - this reveals which ideas lead to which. Use the Table tool to
organize raw data into structured comparisons. If you are working
collaboratively, use Poll or Voting widgets to prioritize ideas as a group.

​ Phase 3 - Storyboarding

Create a row of uniform sections or frames placed side by side to mimic your
slides or pages. Use the Shape tool as visual placeholders for where images or
video will go. Draw a single connector path through the sections to show the
narrative flow. Add draft copy or voiceover notes directly next to each frame
using the Text tool. By the end of this phase, your sequence exists - you are
just executing it, not inventing it.

The brain dump is Act 1. Synthesis is Act 2. Storyboarding is Act 3. By the time
you move to your final artifact, you are not creating - you are executing a blueprint
you already built.

​
​

The Run Club Example - What a Brain Dump Looks Like

To see this in action, the module uses a running club pitch as the working example.
Here is the kind of messy input you would start with in FigJam:

Logistics: meeting points in Bengaluru (Cubbon Park vs Indiranagar), 6 AM start

times, hydration station locations

User personas: the First-Timer (anxious, needs info), the Sub-2 Half-Marathoner
(data-driven), the Social Runner (there for the coffee after)

Inspiration: screenshots of Strava/Garmin interfaces, photos of community moments,

a 10K route map

The core problem: people drop off after week 4 - lack of clear communication and no
recovery guidance

That is a mess. That is the point. From that mess, you surface the structure:
Problem, Pillars, Impact. Then you sequence it. Then you move to the artifact.

Google Docs - Building the One-Pager

A one-pager is one of the hardest artifacts to get right. Too much and it is a doc. Too
little and it says nothing. The goal is a single page that someone can scan in 20
seconds and still walk away with the full picture.

The mistake most people make is starting in the doc. You end up writing sequentially
before you know your structure. Do the thinking in FigJam first. By the time you
move to Google Docs, you should have three things decided: the narrative spine, the
layout pattern, and the hierarchy of information.

A one-pager becomes easier to build when the structure is already tested visually. In
FigJam, ideas can first be stitched into a logical flow such as Problem, Pillars, and
Impact. Once that sequence works on the board, the same structure can be
transferred into Google Docs with greater confidence and clarity.

Two Layout Patterns to Know

​ The Z-Pattern - for quick-scan artifacts

The eye naturally moves in a Z across a page: top-left across to top-right, then
diagonally down to bottom-left, then across to bottom-right. Use this for
one-pagers where you want fast comprehension. Place your headline top-left,
your main visual in the center, and your call to action bottom-right. If the story
does not flow on the FigJam board using this Z, it will not flow in the doc either.

​ The F-Pattern - for information-dense pitches

The F-Pattern follows how people scan text-heavy content: they read the full
top header, then a shorter line below it, then scan down the left edge. Use this
when your audience needs to absorb detail. Place your headline and
 sub-headline at the top (the full read). Use bold numbers or icons along the left
edge to anchor their scan. Put supporting descriptions to the right of each
anchor.

The Run Club One-Pager - Anatomy

Using the run club example, here is what a well-structured one-pager looks like
broken into its components:

​
 ​ Header - The Hook

Headline: 'The Urban Run-Club Ecosystem: More Than Just Miles.'

Sub-headline: 'A strategy for building resilient, empathy-driven running
communities in the heart of Bengaluru.' The header does one job - it earns the
next ten seconds of attention.

​ Section 1 - The Problem (The Why)

Pain point: Urban fitness is often a lonely endeavor. High dropout rates are not
caused by lack of physical ability - they are caused by lack of connectedness
and clear pathways. Insight: Most run clubs focus on the run. We focus on the
runner's ecosystem - the recovery, the social safety net, and the design of the
experience.

​ Section 2 - The Three Pillars (The How)

Pillar 1 - Data-Informed Coaching: performance metrics providing

professional-grade training for the everyday athlete. Pillar 2 - Empathy-Driven
Onboarding: designing the 'First 5K' journey to reduce anxiety through clear
communication and mentor support. Pillar 3 - The Third Place Culture:
transforming the assembly point from just a sidewalk into a hub for community,
recovery education, and shared goals.

​ Section 3 - The Impact (The Result)

Engagement: 40% increase in long-term retention compared to solo training.

Scalability: a modular framework adaptable to any neighborhood or corporate
 campus. Success metric: moving beyond finishing times to measuring
community health and sustained participation.

​ Footer - The Call to Action

The Ask: Join us for the pilot season launch at our new assembly point. Tagline:
'Don't just run. Belong.' The footer closes the loop - it takes all the emotional
and logical investment built above and converts it into a single, concrete next
step.

The transition from FigJam to Google Docs is not a copy-paste. It is an execution.

By the time you move, the structure is already decided. You are not writing - you
are assembling a blueprint you already validated.

The Short Version

Module 4 comes down to three principles applied in sequence.

Story first. Before you design anything, know the arc: Status Quo - Conflict -
Resolution. Know your hook, your gap, and your call to action. Everything else is
arrangement.

Pace deliberately. One thought per slide. Break the visual pattern every few slides.
Pause after complexity. Reset attention every ten minutes. These are not stylistic
choices - they are how brains work.

Think before you format. Use FigJam to dump, sort, and storyboard. Use Google
Docs to execute. Never start in the artifact. Start on the canvas.
​

A presentation is not a document you read aloud. It is a designed experience. The

slides are the set. You are the story. When both are doing their jobs, the audience
does not notice either - they just remember the idea.

Tell the story. Control the pace. Build the blueprint first.

Module 4 - Digital Design Tools for Business Communication - IIMB