From the Audience's Perspective

This is just a little reminder to make sure you always take the time to look at things from the audience's perspective...

My wife and I are expecting our first child in January. So, yesterday we were baby shopping and I zeroed in on the mobiles. From my perspective they looked beautiful. Floating, multi-colored zebras, origami swans, dancing alphabet letters... but they're all two-dimensional (or near 2-D) and facing profile. So, from the baby's perspective, they look like a bunch of meaningless, thin shapes (as in, hold a 2-D teddy bear in front of your face. It looks great. Now, hold it directly above your head and look up at it. Not very stimulating).

This metaphor is a reminder to see things from the audience's perspective. What we're presenting may look awfully meaningful to us, but the audience may be seeing it from an entirely different angle.

P.S. After some intense web searching last night, I ended up finding a mobile I'm totally thrilled with... lots of contrast and geometric shapes!