From Death By PowerPoint To Life By PowerPoint - Ellen Finkelstein

How can the content of apresentation be irrelevant tothe audience? Let me count theways: It doesn’t address theirneeds It’s too technical It’s too simplistic It doesn’t contain enoughdataToo much text, full sentences,focusing on presenter’s needsnot audience’s.Too much text, too muchdetail on the points and lotsof unnecessary backgroundinformation on the topic and theinstructor.SLP, Montpelier VTToo much text, didn’t understandthe needs/expectations of thetarget audience.Portland, OROverly technical.Lack of OrganizationOnce the goal of a presentationis determined, the presentercan include appropriate contentand organize it to achieve thegoal. A very common error is tostart with an overview of thepresenter’s company, instead ofstarting with issues that concernthe audience. And a clearconclusion is a rare thing indeed.There were 96 slides for afour hour time period. Everyslide was full of bullet pointsand complete sentences.Organization of material wasvery confusing.Too much wording and not wellorganized.CS, Kansas City, MOSlides arranged with no narrativeor organisational thread.PL, United KingdomLack of supporting data orexamplesErrors in punctuation,grammar, spelling, andusageOf course, errors make thepresenter look unprofessional.Lots of credibility is lost thisway! Not long ago, I attendeda presentation in which thepresenter used “it’s” insteadof “its.” One error mistakemight have been overlooked,but unfortunately the incorrectstatement was repeated as aslide title several times. Later, Imentioned the presentation toanother attendee as an exampleof an excellent coverage of thetopic. She replied, “Yes, but heused ‘it’s’ incorrectly. That blewit for me.”Mixed languages, mixed style ofthe slides, typos, examples thepresenter couldn’t explainSpelling and grammar errors,does not cite sources. LJ,Baltimore, MDPresenters often don’t take thetime to research ways to showthe proof of their claims. Theaudience is not likely to believesuch claims.Too few examples of what theresults should look like if you dothe process correctly.DB10

Too much contentMost presentations are simplytoo long. Many people think,“I have 30 minutes to speak,so I’ll time my talk for 30minutes.” They forget about theintroduction, set-up time, anda Question & Answer period. Intruth, a 30-minute presentationmeans you should speak for 20minutes.Too much content, badorganization, CM, MunichGermanySpeaker had 20 points (in onehour) - all text and bullet points.LH, Houston, TXPeople have trouble listeningnon-stop for more than 15-20minutes. They start to get tiredand bored unless the speaker isriveting. This is probably due tothe way modern technology hasreduced our attention span to30-second bytes, but it’s a fact oflife these days.Too many slides PERIOD. Over200 per day. Too much text perslide. WAY WAY too much textthat was overwhelming andimpossible to cover in the timeallotted.Columbus, OHToo many bullet points.Unclear overall organization/presentation of companychanges. Speaker was readingfrom the on screen slides. Manyslides were too “technical” for acompany-wide meeting (didn’tfocus content to meet audienceneeds). Too long (it was a threehour meeting that could havebeen summed up into fiveminutes).Chicago, ILToo much text, too complicated,too long, too much text on eachslide, too many slides, too muchinformation, too little time.SLP, Montpelier VTToo much small, unreadabledata that could have beensummarized.EMR, Buffalo, NYOften, presenters simply createtoo many slides and spend toomuch time on each slide. It’simportant to cover the contentmeaningfully in the timeallowed, without rushing.Some of these comments abouttext-only slides also relate todesign problems, which arecovered in the next section. Butoften the problem simply startswith too much content.Text only slides. Far too manyof them for a 1 hr presentation.Presenter constantly told us thatshe would normally deliver thismaterial over 4 hours - but sheobviously hadn’t produced areduced version of the talk forus. RM, Dublin, IrelandPresentation was 246 slides, allfull page text.RA Columbus, OH11

Death by DesignSlides are a visual aid, but theyoften hurt rather than aid. Andsometimes they aren’t veryvisual. Your audience is forced tosit there looking at your slides,so they shouldn’t be painful. Themain symptoms of this silentkiller are: All-text slides Illegible text Silly clip art/inappropriateimages Illegible charts Distracting, ugly background Inconsistent graphics Poor use of animationI’ll discuss each symptom in briefand provide examples.There was nothing wrong withthe design, THERE SIMPLYWASN’T ANY.WC, Seattle. WAAll-Text slidesA common complaint by surveyrespondents was all-text slides.Whether the text is bulleted orfull sentences, it’s deadly.Way too much text. All bulletpoints. It was barbaric.CU Wall, NJLet’s have a heart-to-heart talkabout bullet points. Bullet pointsare lists. Since when was a lista good way of organizing thecontent of a presentation? A talkshould lead to a conclusion, notbe a bunch of lists.Full sentences are just asbad, because the presenter ispractically forced to read themword for word. Audiences simplyread ahead, and tune out thepresenter. Why? Because peoplecan’t read and listen at the sametime.A few years ago, Dr. MarcelJust, co-director of the Centerfor Cognitive Brain Imaging atCarnegie Mellon University inPittsburgh, published a studythat was widely used to justifylaws banning people from usingcells phones while driving.This was the first study usingmagnetic resonance images ofbrain activity to compare whathappens in people’s heads whenthey try to do two tasks at atime. The study revealed thatbrain activity does not double.Instead, the brain activitydevoted to each task decreases.People performing two taskssimultaneously do neither one aswell as they do each one alone.Performance always suffers.The two tasks used in the studywere chosen because they usedifferent parts of the brain.Interestingly, the tasks were thefollowing: They listened to complexsentences like, “The pyramids were burial placesand they are one of theseven wonders of theancient world,” and had tojudge them true or false. They were shown pairs ofthree dimensional figuresand asked to rotate themmentally to decide whether they were the same.Does that sound familiar? In apresentation, you are askingyour audience to listen to your(probably complex) sentencesand judge whether what you’resaying makes sense. At the sametime, you’re asking them to lookat a slide, a much more visualtask.Putting the text that thepresenter speaks out on theslide divides the listeners’ mindsby making them attend to thespoken words, and the slide text,both at the same time, or backand forth constantly. What aheadache!12

Too many people try to limitthe number of slides to telltheir story. In doing so, theysometimes LOAD so muchinformation on each slidethat the audience finds itoverwhelming and uninteresting.TH, Chicago, ILI was running the slideshow, Thepresenter had a delivery a littleless energetic than Ben Stein. Hisslides were jam-packed with 1012 point type in several differentcolors and fonts. I thoughtsomeone had dropped LSD in thecoffee pot. Each slide was like a4-part, 8-hour mini-series.Sometimes presenters typeon the slide, word for word,what they say. This is alwaysunbearable for the audience.They read ahead and then sitand wait for the presenter tocatch up. They’ve already readthe content and don’t want tohear it again.Whole speech written out onscreen.People often read theirpresentation or if you areexpected to deliver the dataeverything is printed on theslide like it is intended to beread. Many presentations don’tengage the audience and havenothing to hold their interest.LHResearch shows (Richard E.Mayer, Multimedia Learning)that people learn better whentext or narration is accompaniedby nearby, meaningful images.Slides with no images are hardfor the audience to understandand remember, effectivelyderailing the best efforts of thepresenter.Slides full of text put the slidebetween the presenter andthe audience. The connectionto the audience is lost orinterrupted. This impacts ondelivery, because the presenteris presenting to the slides, not tothe audience.No images, no charts - evenwhen presenting numerical datathat CRIED OUT for a chart, nodiagrams. A few text-crammedtables - with major legibilityproblems again.RM, Dublin, IrelandIllegible TextA major complaint in the surveywas that the text was toosmall to read, or was illegibledue to poor contrast with thebackground. To some extent,this is an issue of content, butit would be easy to divide upthe text onto several slides.Therefore, this is also a matter ofdesign.There was so much text on theslide that it was unreadable. KC,Orlando, FLMany slides consisted ONLY ofsmall text that was difficult toread.Columbus, OHUsed a PowerPoint template.It was clear that when thepresenter was adding content,PowerPoint had resized text tofit, so text on some slides wastoo small to read.Chicago, ILIllegible text (size 12 font), notenough contrast.TG, SingaporeSilly Clip Art / InappropriateImagesImages can be helpful, butthey can also be silly, irrelevant(think, logo on every slide), oroverwhelming. Images shouldaid understanding and memory.They can do this in two ways: Illustrate a point Elicit emotions (which aidsmemory and the ability topersuade)Big logo taking up room on thebottom-right corner of eachslide.RM, Dublin, Ireland13

Bartsch and Cobern publishedresearch (Computers & Education,41, 77-86) concluding thatPowerPoint slides with irrelevantpictures were detrimental tolearning.Too many clip-art type ofpictures - distracting.Illegible Charts, Diagrams,or DataOver and over, people complainabout charts and diagrams thatare so busy or small, that theyare incomprehensible. What isthe point of including a chart ordiagram if the audience can’t readit?WAY TOO MUCH. Horribly busy,a conglomeration of Visio, Worddocs embedded on screen, thelist goes on.If an audience can’t understandthe graphic quickly, it’s toocomplex. Very complex datashould be provided in a handout,where people can study it atleisure. A slide doesn’t offer thatbenefit; it’s too far away andpasses by fairly quickly.Too small. Spreadsheets made upsome slides.LHSlide design consisted of textualand graphic material clearlydesigned originally to appear inExcel and Word, not PowerPoint.Font and graphic sizes too smalland detailed to be readable asslide material.PL, United KingdomCharts were too focused onmaking the company look smartas opposed to educating theviewer.JF, Phoenix, AZPoor BackgroundWhy use a background inPowerPoint? It’s not clear that abackground is necessary at all,but some people like the colorfullook. However, backgroundsbecome a liability when they’redistracting and make the textillegible. Sometimes they takeup so much space that thereisn’t enough room for text orimages. Certain backgroundssimply give a poor impression ofthe presenter because they’reunprofessional. Choosing astandard PowerPoint templatetells the audience that they’renot important enough for acustom background.Busy background; hard to seewriting.Bradshaw (Journal of VisualLiteracy, 23, 41-68) found thatstudents got lower test scoreswhen they viewed slides withinterference (pink background,ornate font, transition sounds)compared to when they viewedslides without interference (highcontrast color, easy-to-read textand graphics).Distracting AnimationAnimation can be a greatboon to presentations, butonly when used appropriately.Animation can show growthand development of processes,for example. It can also helppeople focus on certain text orimages. A little lively animationcan simply inject a sense of funor theatricality. But constantmovement gives people eyestrain and is very distractingfrom the message.Dark background, Grey smalltext, no images at all, and use ofanimation so silly that it madepeople motion sick. They all flewin from the right and a gunshotwent off with each point!Horrible and inappropriateanimation.Portland, ORToo many different transitions.Animations that make you boband weave, worried about wherethe next bullet point will comefrom. Text that expands out untilit looks like it will land in yourlap.CP TexasUgly. Just plain ugly.Poor template; little useablespace; odd font sizes.NB, Atlanta, GA14

Death by DeliveryGreat content and design can beruined by poor delivery. On theother hand, great delivery canovercome all sorts of contentand design problems. Duringdelivery, the presenter connectsto the audience and makes his orher case.Many people are nervousspeaking in front of an audience.Jerry Seinfeld said it best:“According to most studies,people’s number one fear ispublic speaking. Number twois death. Death is number two.Does that sound right? Thismeans to the average person, ifyou go to a funeral, you’re betteroff in the casket than doing theeulogy.”In addition, many people aresimply not experienced inpublic speaking. Whether CEOs,accountants, or scientists, theymay be good at their job, butnot at speaking. Yet speaking is acrucial skill in many professions.More generally, communicationskills are essential forprofessional success.George Bernard Shaw said,“The greatest problem ofcommunication is the illusion ithas been accomplished.”Death by delivery comes inseveral varieties: Reading the slides No interaction with theaudience Poor speaking skills Lack of practiceReading the SlidesPresenters tend to read theirslides if they consist of all text,especially full sentences. Evenbulleted text is read mostlyverbatim. As discussed earlier,audiences hate this, and itelicited some of the strongestcomments in our survey.The presenter read, word forexcruciating word, each andevery slide. We were disengagedby the second slide.MRD Columbus, OhioWhy do presenters read theslides? Perhaps they don’t knowthe effect it has on the audience,but mostly because they haven’tpracticed. They use the slides asa teleprompter.Reading the slides becausepresenter was not familiar withcontent.CS, Kansas City, MOREADING!!!!JF, Phoenix, AZSpeaker droned on and on,looking at and reading from theprojected image.WC, Seattle, WAI think presenters use PowerPointslides for their own comfort level- not as a communication devicefor the audience. I have probablybeen guilty of doing this myselfearly in my career. I wonderhow much modern academiais reinforcing this bad habit. Iam working on my masters andhave been given assignmentsthat dictate the misuse ofPowerPoint. If students considerthe text-based communication tobe the norm, they will continuethe pattern when they get intothe workforce. I really despisesomeone flashing bulleted listsand then reading the lists to me.How insulting!KC, Orlando, FloridaWhile presenters might havethe slides visible on a laptop, forsome reason, they tend to lookat the slides on the screen. Inthis scenario, they often face thescreen rather than the audience.15

Presenter read from theslide with their back to theaudience.in a monotone.Couldn’t be heard.SWT, WashingtonVery typical presentation stylewhere presenter spent most ofhis time talking to the screenbehind him, even though he hada view of his presentation on alaptop in front of him.EMR, Buffalo, NYThe result is the slides becomethe presentation, rather thanwhat the presenter is saying. Theaudience feels disrespected.Reading every bullet to theaudience and rarely addingany extra information. Whenhe was told by the conferencemoderator to speed it up he didnot. He then went overtime intothe next presenter’s time slot. I’llnever forget it!Reading slides, no explanationabout the graphs and charts,talking in monotone.This was a slide-u-ment not apresentation. They read to usfrom the slide. It was horrible.Read the slides out word forword. Apologised constantly.Zoomed through material,constantly saying “I’ll have towhiz through this, even thoughit’s very important. I’d normallyhave much longer to deliver thisinformation”RM, Dublin, IrelandNo Interaction with theAudienceIt should go without saying thatthe audience is the reason forthe presentation. Therefore, thepeople in the audience shouldfeel as if the presenter is talkingto them. They don’t want to feelas if they’re being ignored. Yetmany presenters seem to pay noattention to the audience; theyact as if the audience isn’t eventhere!People need to address theaudience, not the screen behindthem! It’s all too common. Iwould guess that 95% of thepresentations I’ve witnessedover the last 5 years featurea speaker with his back to theaudience over most of thepresentation period. Go aheadand point your laser at thescreen to make a point to theaudience if necessary, but speakto the audience, and make someeye contact with them once in awhile as well.BMR, Buffalo, NYIgnoring the audience while sheread her slides!A presentation should includesome interaction with theaudience and not be just a oneperson show.Not enough interaction.MRD, Columbus, OHPoor Speaking SkillsPresenting with PowerPoint hasbecome so common that peoplehave forgotten that publicspeaking is a skill they need towork on. Many presenters throwsome bullets on a slide, and thenget up and read them, withoutany practice.Bad word usage: Trying to useBIG words, um, um, um, um, um,aah.KAGPresenter had the personalityof a cardboard box, the topicwasn’t exciting to start off withso not at least having a sense ofhumor made it an extremely longpresentation/session.DB16

Sentences too long; presenterput it all up at once so theaudience ended up readingahead of him, and as someof the content was meant tobe a surprise, that spoiled thesurprise.Atlanta, GAToo much talking, reading fromslides, and “ya knows”. Plusthere were 2 presenters whowere talking over one another.Barbarism.CU, Wall, NJLack of PracticeIt’s not possible to deliver apresentation well withoutpractice unless you’ve done itmany times before (in whichcase, you’ve practiced). Technicalglitches occur; these could beavoided by checking out theequipment in advance. Butmostly, the presentation comesacross as amateurish.This presenter didn’t make sureahead of time that her laptopwould talk to the PowerPointprojector, and when it didn’t,she didn’t know how to fixit. Someone in the audiencehad to come and initialize theequipment so the PowerPointpresentation could be seen. Thissomewhat threw her off andthe rest of the presentation wasspent catching up to where sheshould have started from. Veryembarrassing for both presenterand audience.CS Kansas City, MOSlides had timing built intothem and presenter becamedisoriented when the slideschanged by themselves becauseof the timing.Dallas, TXI provide support for livecorporate events. Nowadayspeople constantly are producingPPT late, like on the plane to anevent. Planning time is very shortand creates weak presentations.Dallas, TXWithout practice, the presenterhas little idea of

Professional) title for PowerPoint since the last 9 years. His Indezine.com site attracts nearly two million page views each month and has thousands of free PowerPoint templates and other goodies for visitors to download. Geetesh runs another PowerPoint related site at ppted. com—this site provides designer PowerPoint templates.