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Dan Roam’s “The Back of the Napkin” invites its readers to give up slides altogether, and use flipcharts and blackboards instead. The central idea is visual thinking, drawing graphics as you explain them, rather than taking audiences through endless bullet points. The book is full of practical advice for doing this. A must read. Garr Reynold’s “Presentationzen” is a plea for preparing your presentation offline. Rather than a method, it introduces a presentation philosophy, heavily influenced by Asian culture. The central idea is simplicity. While obviously influencing many of today’s speakers, the concept of presentationzen is relatively unproven for complex subjects, such as science or technology. Nevertheless, a must read.

According to research published last week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences by Antonio Rangel of the California Institute of Technology, appreciation for a product's intrinsic qualities is subject to a type of information we receive -- pricing.

Take a deep breath and relax; building a widget isn't rocket science. But in this nascent world of distributed content, where standards are not yet established, understanding your options along with some generally accepted best practices will help you make smart design and development choices for your project.  So how do you determine what's right for your widget? From timing to technical specs, here's a how-to for budgets large and small, whether you have in-house designers and developers or are looking to outsource, and anything in-between