think-cell technical report TC2003/01 A GUI-based Interaction ...

2.1 Qualitative Aspects FIELD STUDY
Therefore, any PowerPoint presentation gets back to the pool for Correction
and Update at least once.
In the case of simple typing errors or numbers changing in a way that does not
affect the slide layout, the consultants tend to do the necessary refinements
in PowerPoint at their own desk.
A Visual’s Day
The workflow of a visual assistant (Fig. 2) is more specific and uniform than the
consultant’s workflow. Work is received by the production pool in batches of slides,
typically by telefax. Entirely new slides are created as freehand sketches. Alterna-
tively, consultants use printouts of slides (not uncommonly from a range of different
presentations) and modify them manually with pencil and correction tape.
First Review
Collect Materials
Create New File
Rearrange Slides
Create / Edit
Slides
Print / Review
Deliver
Story Line
Dummy Master
Split Batch
Numbers / Charts
Production
Merge Batch
Figure 2: The visual’s workflow as part of the consultant’s workflow
A. The first step is to Review the batch of paper in order to get an idea of the
type and amount of work. If there are a lot of very difficult slides, a relatively
unexperienced worker might give the batch to a more experienced one.
B. Next, all required Materials are Collected into a local working folder. This
includes PowerPoint files, Excel files, images and so on.
C. An existing presentation or template is opened in PowerPoint and the Save As. . .
feature is used to Create a New File.
D. If the new presentation is based on an existing one, then at this stage the
Slides are Rearranged to match the new presentation. Slides that are no
longer needed are removed and existing slides from other presentations are
copy-pasted to their destination.
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Updates