Simplicity, explained in about ~145 slides. Simple is not simple.
A great addition to this explanation would be some discussion about modes.
A few examples they present include: a) a Microsoft Windows wizard experience, b) date choosers that use two separate month and year combo boxes instead of just one combined combo box.
In both cases, you take away control while introducing additional modes, which are invisible states that the user must divine through context clues around the implementation of the user experience. That's partially why engineers can make such truly awful UI -- but it makes sense to them because it matches their mental model.
Wizards encode modes into the fixed, rigid "choose-your-own-adventure" style of navigating seemingly disconnected questions that don't connect me with what is really happening. (GROSS!)
Ultimately the most telling slide is the one around progressive disclosure -- hide things where people will find them.
As an aside, I've been quite impressed with how Slideshare and Scribd have made Powerpoint docs super accessible. It's simply unprecedented how easy it is to absorb information in bite-sized chunks from such beautiful and well designed presentations.
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I don't really understand what you mean about modes. His point about wizards is interesting, but could be solved with simple extras like displaying a summary of the whole process at the top (like the Amazon checkout) so that the "story" is obvious.
The slideshow itself is a "wizard" -- and is only bearable because it tells us how many slides there are in total, and how many we've got through already. I hate opening PPS files because that information is hidden -- you don't know whether you're 1 minute away from the end of several hours.
The online slideshow is more powerful than video for getting points across -- I hope to see a rise in "slogging" in the future.
I've really struggled to get Slideshare working with Posterous in the past... what's the easiest way to do it? (I'd love it if PPTs that I email you went to Slideshare instead of Scribd, by the way.)
I use the bookmarklet for this -- but if there are URLs that don't expand, email us at help@posterous.com and we'll fix it. =)
-g
Slide 117 explained to me why I enjoy Twitter, but when you think about it, it seems like a boring too-simple application evolving around what you're doing.
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