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Air Cover
| 11.20.2005
I was hanging with a friend the other day and he needed some help in convincing others on his point of view. Some people call it "tag-teaming." Others call it "ganging up." I call it "Air Cover." In other words, helping fortify a cause or point of view. It reminded me of a past post I had written under the same name. When I and other members of my company present to a client, we typically have lots of air cover or support for each other. We typically have a roles and responsibilities meeting before we go in - who's going to lead, who's going to chime in and who's going to flag particular questions as them come up. This air cover helps in supporting and justifying what we're about to present. Below is a past post that talks about a particular "case study" that came up regarding presentation protocols and the use of air cover.
Whether you’re pitching a potential client or presenting your first round of creative, it typically involves a lot of show-‘n-tell. In the print world, creative presenters are usually well armed with piles of brochures, catalogs, folders, stationary, etc. These pieces are either free-floating or mounted on black presentation boards. In the past, this was the norm and seemed to work well enough. The creative lived on paper and paper is what you showed. It could be touched, smelled and passed around the table below the quiet din of critique. Since the inception of web and interactive design, there has been much confusion about presentation styles and protocols. It seems pretty clear—the "creative" lives in pixels and pixels are what you show. This involves having a projector, laptop and yes, you guessed it, an Internet connection. However, on your best day, it always seems to feel a little sterile and lackluster. While technology has pushed design into new and exciting mediums and formats, the way in which clients interact with the work during presentations has not been so quick to change. I think a natural human response to something unknown, is to touch first. Touching makes it more real and substantial. Ever notice how you’re drawn to those beautifully colored glassware at Crate&Barrel, but quickly need to touch and pick them up before you can determine how much you like them?
At a past web agency, we initially presented pixels only. We won our fair share of jobs, but we always seemed to get a large number of requests for paper copies of the presentation and almost always asked for something extra to leave behind. In other words, presenting in a dim room via projector never seemed like enough. It felt analogous to getting together with an old (or new) friend, and then going to a movie–little dialog, little interaction and little narrative. The lights come on, you say how good it was and then go home.
As a test, I created 15 web/interactive case studies on 24” X 30” laminated Gator Board. These were mostly oversized screen shots with corrosponding captions. They looked beautiful. At $225/per, they should look pretty darn sweet! I still used a projector for all future presentations however, I had my new bevy of eye-candy boards acting as "air cover." In other words, they added a physical and tangible dimension to the same projected presentation and experience. This dichotomy provided the perfect collaborative balance. People would walk up to the boards, pick them up, bring them back to the table, pass them around to other colleagues and even present back to us - what they liked/disliked about a particular concept or idea. They would say things like “I like the navigation in this one.” or “Can we change the color of the banner ads on this one?” What was fascinating was the fact that people were interacting with tactile objects (boards) while viewing the same work on the screen. It was now real to them.
posted at 5:44 PM
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3 Comments:
yes. people do like to pickup and touch items.. look closely at them.. i think it
is a big advatange to leave things behind for people to look at. and not people
are the same.. some may be fine with your presentation but others may perfer to
have the boards.. so you need to provide for different people. good post.
ok check this out. some new ways to get around HTML text. Usually the only way is to create graphics which is the standard. This does some interesting things. It combines javascript, css, and flash. This new way isnt needed in all situations but if you have a content managed site, or have to give clients PSD templates to create graphics this will eliminate that.
Check this out.
http://www.mikeindustries.com/sifr/
I am still in research mode with this so I am getting ready to test it with our CMS. But overall this is some smart technology.
-Dave
and yes..
http://usabletype.com/articles/2004/how-and-when-to-use-sifr/
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