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    The Art of Explanation: Making your Ideas, Products, and Services Easier to Understand

    The Art of Explanation: Making your Ideas, Products, and Services Easier to Understand

    4.5 2

    by Lee LeFever


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    $27.95

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      ISBN-13: 9781118417317
    • Publisher: Wiley
    • Publication date: 11/08/2012
    • Sold by: Barnes & Noble
    • Format: eBook
    • Pages: 256
    • File size: 6 MB

    LEE LeFEVER is the Chief Explainer, illustrator, and voice of Common Craft, and is widely credited for inspiring the video explanation industry. Since 2007, the company has won numerous awards and has created explanations for the world's most respected brands, including Intel, Google, Dropbox, and Ford. Its online videos have been viewed more than 50 million times. Today, Common Craft's mission is to make the world a more understandable place to live and work by inspiring and equipping professionals to become explanation specialists.
    Lee can be found in Seattle, Washington, with his wife and business partner, Sachi, and their dog, Bosco, a fine swimmer.

    Table of Contents

    Preface xi

    Author Note xv

    Introduction xvii

    PART 1 Plan 1

    Chapter 1 Learning to Run 3

    Chapter 2 What Is an Explanation? 7

    What Is Not An Explanation 8

    Defining Explanation 9

    Explanations Require Empathy 10

    Act and Art 11

    Look at Your Fish 12

    Explanation Lowers the Cost of Understanding 13

    An Explanation Is a Way to Package Ideas 14

    Explanations Answer the Question ‘‘Why?’’ 16

    Explanations Make People Care 16

    Chapter 3 Why Explanations Fail 23

    All About Confidence 24

    Assumptions Cause Failure 24

    Words Can Hurt 26

    We Lack Understanding 27

    We Want to Appear Smart 28

    The Direct Approach—No Context 30

    Summary 32

    Chapter 4 Planning Your Explanations 33

    Identifying Explanation Problems 34

    PART 2 Package 43

    Chapter 5 Packaging Ideas 45

    Stepping Outside the Bubble 46

    What Goes into the Packaging? 48

    Chapter 6 Context 51

    Forest then Trees 53

    Solving the Context Problem 56

    Context in Explanation—We Can All Agree 61

    Context and Pain 63

    Example: Google Docs 63

    On the Explanation Scale 65

    Summary 66

    Chapter 7 Story 67

    Stories Versus Facts 68

    But I’m Not a Storyteller 69

    Common Craft and Stories 71

    The Simple Ingredient: People 73

    Using Stories in Explanation 74

    Basic Story Format 75

    When Does Storytelling Not Work? 77

    Personification and Story 79

    On the Explanation Scale 81

    Summary 81

    Chapter 8 Connections 83

    Connecting Your Long Lost Uncle—Old Versus New 84

    Building-on Versus Establishing 87

    Analogy 89

    Common Craft Videos 90

    On the Explanation Scale 92

    Summary 92

    Chapter 9 Description 93

    Explaining Web Browsers 95

    Explanation Is Not a Recipe 97

    On The Explanation Scale 99

    Summary 99

    Chapter 10 Simplification 103

    Chapter 11 Constraints 113

    Common Craft and Constraints 115

    Constraints and Your Explanations 117

    Summary 119

    Chapter 12 Preparing for and Writing an Explanation 121

    The Common Craft Writing Process 122

    Big Ideas 123

    Research and Discovery 123

    Script Writing 125

    The Real Thing 128

    Chapter 13 Bringing an Explanation Together 131

    PART 3 Present 147

    Chapter 14 Common Craft’s Lessons Learned 149

    Common Craft Gets Started 149

    Ten Lessons Learned from Common Craft Explanations 151

    Chapter 15 Right Medium for the Message 157

    A Transformation 158

    Media Options 159

    Presentation Modes 161

    Recording and Distribution Options 164

    Constraints Come to the Rescue 165

    Summary 171

    Chapter 16 Visuals 173

    You Can Use Visuals 178

    Dan Roam’s 6 × 6 Rule 178

    Common Craft Visual Metaphors 186

    Noise and Simplicity in Visuals 188

    Infographics 191

    Creating Digital Visuals 193

    Summary 193

    Chapter 17 Emma and Carlos 195

    Epilogue 202

    Chapter 18 Explanation Culture and Your Life as an Explainer 203

    Your Life as An Explainer 206

    Acknowledgments 209

    Links to Common Craft Videos 211

    About the Author 215

    Bibliography 217

    Index 219

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    Your guide to becoming an explanation specialist.

    You've done the hard work. Your product or service works beautifully - but something is missing.  People just don't see the big idea - and it's keeping you from being successful. Your idea has an explanation problem.

    The Art of Explanation is for business people, educators and influencers who want to improve their explanation skills and start solving explanation problems.

    Author Lee LeFever is the founder of Common Craft, a company known around the world for making complex ideas easy to understand through short animated videos. He is your guide to helping audiences fall in love with your ideas, products or services through better explanations in any medium. 

    You will learn to: 

    • Plan: Learn explanation basics, what causes them to fail and how to diagnose explanation problems.
    • Package: Using simple elements, create an explanation strategy that builds confidence and motivates your audience. 
    • Present: Produce remarkable explanations with visuals and media. 

    The Art of Explanation is your invitation to become an explanation specialist and see why explanation is now a fundamental skill for professionals.

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