In the 2011 paperback edition of The 100 Best Business Books of All Time, author Todd Sattersten included a new sidebar of the best books on using visual thinking in business because, to play off an old saying, sometimes a picture is worth more than 1000 words. The list of recommended titles included Dan Roam’s Back of the Napkin, Cliff Atkinson’s Beyond Bullet Points, and Dona W. Wong’s Wall Street Journal Guide to Information Graphics.
The fourth book included in Todd’s overview was Resonate by Nancy Duarte. Todd describes her book this way:
Duarte and her company have produced presentations for renowned product launches and speaker presentations, such as Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth. Anyone can tell a story, but how it’s told–visually, sonically, physically, and linearly–is the key to true resonance, which in turn transforms your audience into active participants.
Resonate is a beautiful book packed with photographs, drawings, graphs, charts, diagrams, and even poetry, making it not only a truly enjoyable reading experience, but a book emblematic of the author’s message that storytelling is an essential component to the success of a presentation.
Now the magic of Resonate is available in a Multi-Touch format that brings this beautiful book to life on your iPad. And it is the first interactive business book built in Apple’s iBooks Author.
Here is a little taste of what this iBook can do:
In an increasingly cacophonous world, visual presentations can cut through the noise. Resonate steps you through the Sparklines or “the story flow of several speeches in the interactive sparkline widget,” introduces you to Nancy Duarte and the many behind the scenes stories she includes to support and illuminate the lessons, and provides you with the ability to “take notes and build your next presentation as you move through the book” via a Note Card feature. Chapter review test questions make remembering key ideas easy. Gorgeous imagery and provocative quotes keep the information lively.
The stories you create with the help of Resonante can help change your business, and even change the world, because stories put ideas into common language and ignite the imagination. Start by downloading Resonate to your iPad. Not only will you be in awe of the product before you and at your finger tips, you’ll learn that presentations don’t have to be boring, your great idea doesn’t have to die before it sees the light of day, and your audience won’t be texting surreptitiously under the conference room table while you present.
