The Guide to Gaming With Your Kids

The Guide to Gaming With Your Kids is designed to help grown-ups who are not gamers learn enough to get started and bond with their kids over videogames. The piece starts with the benefits of gaming, shares some common lingo, examines all of the major gaming platforms, offers guidance for online safety and then suggests a few hot games that are family friendly (these were my choices, not any sponsor’s). I received a lot of positive feedback on this article (which turned into a slideshow). I really hope it helps a lot of parents find common ground with their kids and, potentially, enjoy games for themselves.

Hilarious Gifts for Male Friends and Coworkers

Hilarious Gifts for Male Friends and Coworkers is basically just a gift guide, but one that is intended more to provide laughs than actual guidance on presents to buy. Some of the items are exorbitantly priced, a few are really gross and I’ve had reports that a couple items are already sold out indefinitely. But, again, that’s not the point. Just knowing that these things exist was enough for me (well, except for the plush Portal turret – we really did buy one of those to guard the Christmas tree!). I basically scoured the Internet for products that made me laugh, and then wrote up descriptions that I hoped would extend the laughs even further. The assignment actually morphed from one that was a general guide to funny gifts for guys to one targeted specifically at coworkers, so I had to make a few edits to make it work. One of my favorites, the toilet mug, had to be altered most. My original caption was written from the point of view of a spouse or live-in mate, not a fellow employee:

Sure, this thing is pretty disgusting, especially when it’s filled with his favorite dark brown beverage. And, if you’re his significant other, he’ll definitely bring it out when your parents are in town. If you’re really lucky, he’ll delegate it to the bathroom and let the dog drink water out of it. (That never gets old!)

You’re right, there’s no really upside to this present after the initial peals of amusement wear off. You’ll have no other recourse but to destroy it and blame the dishwasher. Again.

It’s worth noting that both of these are slideshows, and both have lengthy intros and captions. I wrote as long as I felt was needed to tell each story – or in the case of the gift guide, make it entertaining. I typically write much shorter copy (headlines and captions, mostly) in my everyday work, but I left the topics dictate length here and made it modular enough that the editors could easily cut elements without damaging the whole if they felt it didn’t fit the space. I was actually surprised at how little changed from my final drafts.

1. Don’t create eye charts. The goal of your presentation should not be to test your audience’s eyesight – yet that is a common issue in PowerPoint presentations. Five to six top-level bullet points, plus a header, is plenty for one slide. If you are including illustrations, think three to four bullets. Better to have multiple slides covering the same topic than to have a slide no one in the audience can read. Speaking of which…

2. Let the audience listen. Another common mistake is to use a script to build the slide. Your audience will naturally read whatever is on screen – which means they are not paying attention to you. Pull out the very high-level points you will be touching on for the slide, and leave the details in your script. You want the audience to focus on you, not your slides. 

3. Limit fancy transitions. We’ve all seen the fancy dissolves, flying sentences and spinning text functionality of PowerPoint. Animating the text is a fun way to break up the monotony of writing a presentation, and it can be effective – for the right audience. It can also slow your presentation down, throwing your slides out of sync with your speech. Worse, it distracts the audience. Use the regular slide transition for presentations unless you have something really big to reveal, preferably at the end of your presentation. 

4. Follow a set style guide. Major corporations typically have a style guide, including approved background(s), font style, point size and capitalization rules for presentations. Check with your admin or manager – odds are they will know if such a thing exists. If not, create one for yourself. You will need:

• A neutral slide background. There are a number of standard professional backgrounds available in PowerPoint. If you have a group or corporate “style,” ask if you can hire (or borrow) a design resource to create a template for you.
• A readable font. Choose a professional, readable font. Good starter fonts include Arial, Calibri, Verdana, and Times New Roman. (Note: this holds true whether you are creating a work presentation or one for the PTA. Papyrus is never a good choice for presentations.)
• A set of point sizes. “Point” refers to how large your text appears. You should have a set point size for headers, another for top-level bullets, and a third for secondary bullets. They should be reasonably close in size. For example:
  • Header: 24 point Calibri
  • Top-level bullet: 20 point Calibri
  • Second-level bullet: 18 point Calibri

Keep your style guide close by as you create your PowerPoint. You’ll also need it when you’re done so you can…

5. Check your work – and check it again. Proper spelling, good grammar, a consistent flow and consistent style will lend a professional air to your presentation. Don’t assume you got everything right the first time – everyone makes mistakes, especially when developing long PowerPoint presentations. After you have finished your draft, set it aside for a few hours to clear your head. Then go back and review. Ideally, you should do a pass to review for each specific issue. Realistically, you will review once. So do so carefully, and if possible, ask a friend or colleague to take a look as well. A second pair of eyes is always helpful.

 Here’s what to watch for while you review:

• Proper spelling: Spell Check will catch a lot, but not everything. Keep an eye out for words that are misspelled, AND words that are spelled correctly… but not the word you wanted use.
• Good grammar: Same rule: use Grammar Check as a tool, but don’t rely on it.
• Consistent flow: Don’t jump around topics – finish thoughts and move on. Also, ensure that any fact or comment you reference (”As you saw on a previous slide…) is paid off earlier. In other words, make sure it actually appeared on a previous slide.
• Consistent style: This includes the point/font/template styles mentioned earlier, but also encompasses capitalization (initial caps or sentence caps?), bullet style (square, round, diamond, etc.), font color, and any other visual queue you will use in your presentation.

Follow these five simple rules and your presentation slides will keep the focus where it belongs during your next presentation: on you.

• GAIN – improved nutrition through food fortification
• The GAVI Alliance – immunization
• The Global Fund - prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis
• PEPFAR - HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment and care
• USAID – promote global health

Jacqui did all but the GAIN article, but we wrote in the same voice and edited each other’s work. We have more work for The Gates Foundation in the pipeline.

The key to good headline writing is to have a clear call to action in mind, the more immediate the better! Then think about what the customer wants to get out of the transaction. This generally requires both research (I often spoke to key players to gain insight) and customer empathy (really get inside a particular audience’s head).

You may write a dozen headlines that you toss out before you hit that winning concept. It’s also important to track clickthrough data (and, if you can, end actions) to see what performs well and analyze why. This feeds a cycle that can really improve your headline writing over time, particularly if you’re addressing multiple audience segments – as I was here. Over time, I really learned what each segment responded to and used that to shape my headlines.

You don’t have to be a professional scribe to encounter writer’s block—you don’t even have to be writing. It can be present in brainstorming sessions, project planning and yes, even tests. (I’ve been out of school for 20 years, and have taken many skills tests since then.)

Every writer develops a ritual for ridding themselves of the dreaded block—and they love to share them. The most common ones I’ve heard are exercising (”I think best when I walk”) or bathing (”I do my best thinking in the shower.”) Then, there are the unconventional ones.

A college professor once advised me to just start typing something I know by heart. His favorite was the nursery rhyme “Mary Had a Little Lamb.” (Seriously.) He believed that if you just start typing, the words will come. This was particularly impressive because back then, he used a typewriter. He would write his piece, change paper and then re-type it on a clean sheet. Eccentric, but it worked. I can only imagine how happy he was when computers came around.

My Mom, an extraordinary copywriter with a wall full of awards, has kept a copy of “A Whack On The Side of the Head: How You Can Be More Creative” in her office drawer for as long as I can remember. It’s like a grown-up version of those activity books parents get for kids before a long trip, except instead of connecting the dots and coloring, it offers puzzles, brainteasers and other exercises to get you thinking outside the proverbial box. Or just thinking, period.

I recently inherited the well-thumbed book, and I can see why she kept it close by. Not only does it stimulate the mind, it’s pretty fun, too. (I don’t remember her ever mentioning that part.) I’ve found myself thumbing through the book in the evenings just for enjoyment. But honestly, I haven’t used it much to unblock myself. When I need a whack on the side of the head, I go to Facebook and play Bejeweled Blitz.

The Bejeweled games are basic match three games (match three, get points) with a few twists. Match four-in-a-row, get a bomb. Match five-in-a-row get a power gem that eliminates all gems of the same color when you use it.

The Facebook app, which I believe is number 10,432 in the PopCap Bejeweled family, is the perfect brain stimulus for a videogame fanatic like me. It’s quick, has a built-in time limit (1 minute per game) and requires the brain to make fast decisions. An ill-placed bomb can take out a power gem before you can use it. Match three too fast, and you might miss a match four or five opportunity. Just finding matches can set your brain into overdrive, and by the way, the 10-second countdown is on.

As an added bonus, PopCap has weekly drawings for multiple prizes. Earning high scores, and more importantly, getting friends to play and earn scores, is the key to reaching the milestones required to enter. Prizes range from games to the Holy Grail, a PopCap laptop. (Good luck reaching that milestone, kids.)

But that’s all just bonus. The real value here is that I have easy access to something that stimulates my brain, has a built-in time limit and is there when I need it. Just like my mom’s book.

Although last time I looked, the book wasn’t giving away laptops.

Here is the first profile, which went live last month:

Grantee Profile: Rotary International 

Dave and I are working on several more right now, due to be posted in May or June.

So we have relaunched this site as a blog where we can tell you some of what we’re up to and share the unique insights we’ve uncovered to help you navigate the stormy waters of Web 2.0 and beyond.