You Are Not a PowerPoint Monkey

In Brian Dusablon's and Judy Unrein's recent 'The Toolbar' podcast they talked about the features of their dream elearning authoring tools, and I was really struck by the point that most elearning authoring tools aren't designed for 'designers'; they're designed for people who aren't designers. Think about it: most of today's popular tools and learning web apps are marketed with the message that the tools can be used to equip SMEs and other non-designer types with the ability to easily convert their existing content (usually PowerPoint) into (amazing, brilliant, life-changing) elearning. While tools that better equip businesses for training their employees aren't a bad thing, the lack of emphasis on design as being a valuable, let alone necessary, component of the process is more than a bit troubling.

It's also troubling to me when I read about how many of us, out of practical necessity, are eschewing standard, broad-based design practices like storyboarding elearning courses. Instead, we head straight to prototyping or even to alphas - all in an effort to meet today's more aggressive development time lines. Does that mean I'm against prototyping? Of course not, but I do think that every little productivity shortcut should be carefully weighed in the context of its impact on the end design - and something tells me that design is rarely a consideration.

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I've often described myself as being a 'PowerPoint Monkey' because historically, my PowerPoint skills doomed me to being the go-to person for making presentations look nice for busy SMEs and executives. And while this work served a good purpose and I can take pride in having saved many others from a certain death by PowerPoint fate, it wasn't exactly the future I had in mind when I began my instructional design career - and I know I'm not alone.

A good number of you in the corporate training world may also see yourselves, not as 'designers' of instruction but as 'designers' of presentations - in effect PowerPoint Monkeys - whose daily grind consists of converting presentations into elearning while occasionally trying to sneak 'design' past SMEs and executives who are more than happy for you to simply drop some nice graphics into their presentation and post it on the LMS.

If you're like me, sick of having your skills presented in the context of the tools you use, or if you're tired of business leaders, elearning authoring tools, and industry vendors insisting that your design skills aren't needed here, it's time to stand with me now and say:

"I am NOT a PowerPoint Monkey. I am a designer."

Yes, there's a lot of confusion about who we are and what we do in our industry and that confusion feeds a lack a status that allows our contributions to be marginalized by others. But first and foremost, I think we need to refocus the conversation on our value in terms of design.

Let's first start with the word 'design'. Design is a widely used and broadly defined term, but for our purposes, let's try to sum it up from a corporate elearning perspective. Here's my attempt at a definition (feel free to improve upon or rewrite it in comments)...

A set of skills applied to a process wherein specific outcomes (learning and performance) have been planned in support of related business or organizational goals. The designer applies their skills by strategically balancing practical, aesthetic, technical, and human requirements.

Notice that I italicized the words 'planned', and 'strategically balancing'. I did so because I think that those words speak to the essence of what we can bring to the table. We're able to plan interventions that increase the odds of learning and application. As designers we're also able to to think creatively and strategically, balancing practical requirements with aesthetic, and technical with human to best support the desired outcomes. These are skills that cannot be usurped by tools because they're too dynamic, too human. (This, of course, also makes them difficult to quantify, but that's another blog post...)

The bottom line is that we are members of the creative class and the going is tough for us right now. If we're to maintain our relevancy we need to own, appreciate, and articulate our identity as designers and speak clearly and emphatically about the value of design in the business world. To successful companies like Apple or Ikea the value of design resonates throughout their brand, and as I see it, it's the very thing that will make or break our collective brand as an industry.

That means we need to recognize and champion the fact that we are not our tools. We breathe context, creativity, nuance, authenticity, and order into content in much the same way that graphic designers transform words or vague concepts into a logo and, ultimately, a brand. We are designers in the same way that fashion designers use their tools to transform a bolt of fabric into a red carpet evening gown. We are designers in the same way that architects look upon vacant lots with lengthy lists of zoning requirements and see beautiful, functional spaces.

We are designers - period. Got it? Now go spread the word.