examples
Presenting to Inspire
April 26, 2008 Filed in: Links
Presentation Zen: chi-nichi issho: Each
day is a lifetime
Here's another great piece by Garr Reynolds that starts with Dr. Randy Pausch Last Lecture presentation and goes on to examine the way we can inspire others through our words and actions. It's a great read.
(Also, look through the comments for more stories of inspiration!)
…Inspiration does not come from mere words, it comes from actions and behaviors. Words matter and words and speeches inspire and stories can change the world. However, it's not only the stories we tell, it's really about the stories we live.
Here's another great piece by Garr Reynolds that starts with Dr. Randy Pausch Last Lecture presentation and goes on to examine the way we can inspire others through our words and actions. It's a great read.
(Also, look through the comments for more stories of inspiration!)
Visual Clutter and the Loss of Intent
October 29, 2007 Filed in: Graphics &
Images |
Text &
Fonts
Over at Presentation Zen, Garr Reynolds writes about Lewis Black going
off at TV executives during the Emmys regarding
the sheer amount of clutter on the screen these
days. Here's a quote from the rant:
(Head over to Presentation Zen for a video of the whole thing.) This reminds of when the wife and I went out to see The Simpsons Movie. At one point during the movie, a mock ad for FOX programming appeared along the bottom of the screen. It recieved knowing laughter from the audience, but I remember hearing some other audience members expressing moments of bafflement – wondering if the studio had in fact resorted to plugging itself during its movies.
Mr. Reynolds goes on to speculate that this visual bombardment reinforces much of the bad PowerPoint design we see in presentations today.
The same is true of several websites. The main content seems to take a back seat to the self-referencing links and advertisements splattered across the page. I took these screenshots of a couple popular websites and blacked out everything that wasn't article content.
x
The noise ratio on these pages is very high. Contrast this to a couple of (in my opinion) good blogs: Daring Fireball and Cabel's Blog.
x
On both of these pages, there is much more signal than noise. Daring Fireball has two ads and a simple menu while Cabel's Blog has no ads. Both sites feature very clean layouts and priority is given to content – a practice that I think respects the reader more than those corporate sites.
As Mr. Reynolds points out, these same principles apply to our slides. We can follow a traditional corporate approach to our visuals that contains a lot of clutter that overwhelms our audience with graphics and information, or we can take a simpler, more basic approach. Here are a couple of mockups based off Apple's recent fourth-quarter quarter financial results.
The first slide indeed has more information on it, but is that information presented effectively? It is conventional, but does it respect your audience? It took me a lot longer to create that first mockup, but I think the second is actually the better slide. It presents the most important fact clearly and succinctly. The touch of humor adds a human element without detracting from the overall package or insulting the audience's intelligence. It allows your audience to focus on you after the snapshot of information rather than forcing them to concentrate on deciphering small text among competing visuals.
Whatever your medium of communication, simpler is almost always better. Reduce the clutter. Eliminate visual noise, and allow the main focus of your content to shine through.
"Your job is to tell stories, it's not to tell us in the middle of the story what show is coming on next or which one is premiering two weeks from now! What do you want me to do, stop and get a pencil and write it down? Do you want me to stop watching and prepare myself for the next show?"
(Head over to Presentation Zen for a video of the whole thing.) This reminds of when the wife and I went out to see The Simpsons Movie. At one point during the movie, a mock ad for FOX programming appeared along the bottom of the screen. It recieved knowing laughter from the audience, but I remember hearing some other audience members expressing moments of bafflement – wondering if the studio had in fact resorted to plugging itself during its movies.
Mr. Reynolds goes on to speculate that this visual bombardment reinforces much of the bad PowerPoint design we see in presentations today.
When possible, put more "stuff" in there--more glitter, more boxes of info, more colors, more, more, more. Is this where "bad PowerPoint" comes from? Do we say to ourselves "Well, if CNN (FOX, MSNBC, etc.) does it I guess more text and lines and boxes, more logos and 3-D graphics in assorted colors must be how it's done. That's how serious presenters with serious tools do it," we say.
The same is true of several websites. The main content seems to take a back seat to the self-referencing links and advertisements splattered across the page. I took these screenshots of a couple popular websites and blacked out everything that wasn't article content.
x
The noise ratio on these pages is very high. Contrast this to a couple of (in my opinion) good blogs: Daring Fireball and Cabel's Blog.
x
On both of these pages, there is much more signal than noise. Daring Fireball has two ads and a simple menu while Cabel's Blog has no ads. Both sites feature very clean layouts and priority is given to content – a practice that I think respects the reader more than those corporate sites.
As Mr. Reynolds points out, these same principles apply to our slides. We can follow a traditional corporate approach to our visuals that contains a lot of clutter that overwhelms our audience with graphics and information, or we can take a simpler, more basic approach. Here are a couple of mockups based off Apple's recent fourth-quarter quarter financial results.
The first slide indeed has more information on it, but is that information presented effectively? It is conventional, but does it respect your audience? It took me a lot longer to create that first mockup, but I think the second is actually the better slide. It presents the most important fact clearly and succinctly. The touch of humor adds a human element without detracting from the overall package or insulting the audience's intelligence. It allows your audience to focus on you after the snapshot of information rather than forcing them to concentrate on deciphering small text among competing visuals.
Whatever your medium of communication, simpler is almost always better. Reduce the clutter. Eliminate visual noise, and allow the main focus of your content to shine through.
Learning from Bill & Steve
October 01, 2007 Filed in: Links
Presentation Zen: Learning from Bill
Gates & Steve
x
Garr Reynolds posts another great comparison between the presentation styles of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, focusing on the contrast between Bill Gates' formal tone of presentation and Steve Jobs' conversational tone as well as their visual styles. While the two presentations he's citing are very different, he shares some very useful insights (and be sure to read the comments for some good continued discussion).
x
Garr Reynolds posts another great comparison between the presentation styles of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, focusing on the contrast between Bill Gates' formal tone of presentation and Steve Jobs' conversational tone as well as their visual styles. While the two presentations he's citing are very different, he shares some very useful insights (and be sure to read the comments for some good continued discussion).
Merlin Mann on His Own Presentations
August 24, 2007 Filed in: Links
Did any of you feel like my last post was kind of
forced? Yeah, me too. Anyway:
43 Folders: How I made my presentations a little better
Merlin Mann of 43 Folders writes an excellent piece about his own experienced in preparing presentations. He cites some individuals I find very influential myself. He summarizes many good points, and I'll be bookmarking this link for future reference.
Here's a taste of the post:
43 Folders: How I made my presentations a little better
Merlin Mann of 43 Folders writes an excellent piece about his own experienced in preparing presentations. He cites some individuals I find very influential myself. He summarizes many good points, and I'll be bookmarking this link for future reference.
Here's a taste of the post:
I’m not suggesting your slides should undermine you, but consider sometimes showing images and text that make an orthogonal point to what you’re saying aloud to the audience at that moment. Let them discover the point (or the joke) without you leaning on it.
Let the slide serve your message, rather than letting you (and your personality and timing) be governed by the slide. That’s ‘death,’ and that’s “The Wørd.”
Frighteningly Friendly Fonts
August 06, 2007 Filed in: Text &
Fonts
Have you seen any of Hewlett-Packard's recent print
or web advertisements? These have been around for a
while, but I hadn't really paid too much attention to
them until two things happened: we got new HP's at
work, and I received one of their catalogues in the
mail.
In both cases, I kept getting distracted by their font selection. Here are a couple shots of their web ads to illustrate:
x
Why do I feel a sudden urge to watch The Nightmare Before Christmas?
We're in the heat of summer, and this whole campaign looks like Halloween. Even the colors reinforce that feeling. I don't know what feel they intended for this marketing, but "slightly creepy" was probably not the goal. ("They're creepy and they're cooky, the HP family...")
Font and color use contribute to the overall feel of your work – even in slide presentations. Sometimes, going with a default font is okay, but in other instances, you may want to pick and choose between fonts for the best results. I whipped these alternatives up in just a couple of minutes in Keynote, so they're far from perfect. However, I think they offer an alternate feel to the ads. (I'm partial to the laptop example, personally.)
x
How would you change these ads, or do you think they're fine how they are? Remember, if you are using visuals to communicate a message, every element is important, and this includes the font you choose. The wrong font can send your audience a mixed message, so take some time to browse those many fonts available on your computer.
In both cases, I kept getting distracted by their font selection. Here are a couple shots of their web ads to illustrate:
x
Why do I feel a sudden urge to watch The Nightmare Before Christmas?
We're in the heat of summer, and this whole campaign looks like Halloween. Even the colors reinforce that feeling. I don't know what feel they intended for this marketing, but "slightly creepy" was probably not the goal. ("They're creepy and they're cooky, the HP family...")
Font and color use contribute to the overall feel of your work – even in slide presentations. Sometimes, going with a default font is okay, but in other instances, you may want to pick and choose between fonts for the best results. I whipped these alternatives up in just a couple of minutes in Keynote, so they're far from perfect. However, I think they offer an alternate feel to the ads. (I'm partial to the laptop example, personally.)
x
How would you change these ads, or do you think they're fine how they are? Remember, if you are using visuals to communicate a message, every element is important, and this includes the font you choose. The wrong font can send your audience a mixed message, so take some time to browse those many fonts available on your computer.
The Self-Conscious Approach
July 10, 2007 Filed in: General Tips
| Delivery
To reach the broadest
possible audience with your message, you have to care
what others think of you. You are being judged by the
audience every bit as much as your content, and, if
the audience does not buy into you, they will
generally not buy into your material. Think of
political debates you or your family may get into as
well as when the media tackles issues. Inevitably,
the person behind the issues will be as much a
subject as the issue itself.
Whenever you present, it's important to wear as small a target as possible. To do so, you must be very conscious of self – your appearance, the way you dress, your mannerisms and idiosyncrasies that may distract your audience from your presentation. I've seen perfectly competent presentations fail in delivery (and some great deliveries of poor material) because the presenters seemed oblivious or unconcerned with the impressions they left with the audience.
A good presentation is essentially a small-scale production, and productions need good performers.
Take these presenters as positive examples:
left to right: Steve Jobs, Guy Kawasaki, Garr Reynolds, Al Gore
These individuals are great illustrations of good performers in presentation. They are very conscious of how they carry themselves, how they speak, how they dress. I believe "refined" would be a good word for it. They realize that they are every bit as much a part of the overall presentation as any notes, handouts, slides, or other visuals. They have roles to play in the delivery of their messages, and their presence is just as orchestrated as the technology involved. As a result, the presentations are very engaging and a cut above much of what we are used to seeing.
Being an individualistic society, we value the mantra of not caring what others think of ourselves, but, if we want people to accept what we have to say, we need to make sure we are not getting in the way of our own message. Do some presentations succeed despite the speakers' imperfections? Absolutely. However, giving ourselves as much attention as our notes or visuals will go a long way in removing obstacles between our presentation and our audience's attention.
Additional Viewing and Reading
Whenever you present, it's important to wear as small a target as possible. To do so, you must be very conscious of self – your appearance, the way you dress, your mannerisms and idiosyncrasies that may distract your audience from your presentation. I've seen perfectly competent presentations fail in delivery (and some great deliveries of poor material) because the presenters seemed oblivious or unconcerned with the impressions they left with the audience.
A good presentation is essentially a small-scale production, and productions need good performers.
Take these presenters as positive examples:
left to right: Steve Jobs, Guy Kawasaki, Garr Reynolds, Al Gore
These individuals are great illustrations of good performers in presentation. They are very conscious of how they carry themselves, how they speak, how they dress. I believe "refined" would be a good word for it. They realize that they are every bit as much a part of the overall presentation as any notes, handouts, slides, or other visuals. They have roles to play in the delivery of their messages, and their presence is just as orchestrated as the technology involved. As a result, the presentations are very engaging and a cut above much of what we are used to seeing.
Being an individualistic society, we value the mantra of not caring what others think of ourselves, but, if we want people to accept what we have to say, we need to make sure we are not getting in the way of our own message. Do some presentations succeed despite the speakers' imperfections? Absolutely. However, giving ourselves as much attention as our notes or visuals will go a long way in removing obstacles between our presentation and our audience's attention.
Additional Viewing and Reading
Making Over Mitt
July 06, 2007 Filed in: Slide
Makeovers
Right now, a set of bad PowerPoint slides is probably
the least of Governor Romney's public relations worries, but
every little bit helps I guess. Anyway, revising
slides is a good practice, so, regardless of how
you or I might personally feel about Governor
Romney, let's take a look at some slides on his
site and how we can improve them just a little.
(Quick note: I'm checking all political opinions
at the door for this post, and I ask you the
courtesy to do the same. This is merely an
academic exercise on improving some common
PowerPoint mistakes.)
From the first slide, it's possible to predict some of the issues we're going to run into while going through Mr. Romney's visuals. Too much text is on the slide. The planet graphic is obviously clip art, and overall, the slide is pretty hard on the eyes.
x
Even though the title slide is unnecessary in and of itself, using it sets a tone for the entire presentation. You want it to look nice. In this alteration, most of the text has been cut from the slide, focusing on two words: "values" and "freedom." I retained the global theme but used a higher quality image from Corbis. Also, I used a color scheme that suggests patriotism and bipartisan qualities. The text is a very classic-looking font called Cochin.
I had a hard time deciding what to do with the next slide (only partially because I couldn't read some of the text at all), but I think it would be appropriate to divide this single slide into multiple slides – taking a thematic approach rather than chronological.
x
A strong theme that I took away from this slide is Romney's desire to discredit Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. I retained the color scheme from the first slide and faded a common media image of Ahmadinejad into the background, focusing on one quote in particular. The presenter could keep this background intact while transitioning between facts and quotes rather than cramming tons of tiny text together. Font sizes on my version of this slide are 64 points and 96 points.
The final slide in this re-imagining contains a couple of quotes by Tony Blair. A similar approach to the preceding slide seems best, and this should be broken up into two slides because there are two quotes.
x
Because Tony Blair is placed in opposition to Ahmadinejad in this presentation, he is facing the opposite direction. Also, I removed "Marketing Values" as the title. Talking about war in terms of marketing just doesn't seem to fit in with the themes of freedom and values. I'm not sure what Romney was trying to communicate with that title, but I think it sends a wrong message.
Every aspect of your slides – from the graphics used to the font to the color scheme to the amount of text – creates a feel for your presentation. The visual aspects of your presentation can either be powerful tools that help create a memorable experience for the audience, or they can serve as mindless filler that facilitates the audience in filtering you and your message out. If you prepare slides, create visuals that enhance your message and that serve as an evocative backdrop to your own performance. If you are in politics, such attention to detail might even help your momentum.
From the first slide, it's possible to predict some of the issues we're going to run into while going through Mr. Romney's visuals. Too much text is on the slide. The planet graphic is obviously clip art, and overall, the slide is pretty hard on the eyes.
x
Even though the title slide is unnecessary in and of itself, using it sets a tone for the entire presentation. You want it to look nice. In this alteration, most of the text has been cut from the slide, focusing on two words: "values" and "freedom." I retained the global theme but used a higher quality image from Corbis. Also, I used a color scheme that suggests patriotism and bipartisan qualities. The text is a very classic-looking font called Cochin.
I had a hard time deciding what to do with the next slide (only partially because I couldn't read some of the text at all), but I think it would be appropriate to divide this single slide into multiple slides – taking a thematic approach rather than chronological.
x
A strong theme that I took away from this slide is Romney's desire to discredit Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. I retained the color scheme from the first slide and faded a common media image of Ahmadinejad into the background, focusing on one quote in particular. The presenter could keep this background intact while transitioning between facts and quotes rather than cramming tons of tiny text together. Font sizes on my version of this slide are 64 points and 96 points.
The final slide in this re-imagining contains a couple of quotes by Tony Blair. A similar approach to the preceding slide seems best, and this should be broken up into two slides because there are two quotes.
x
Because Tony Blair is placed in opposition to Ahmadinejad in this presentation, he is facing the opposite direction. Also, I removed "Marketing Values" as the title. Talking about war in terms of marketing just doesn't seem to fit in with the themes of freedom and values. I'm not sure what Romney was trying to communicate with that title, but I think it sends a wrong message.
Every aspect of your slides – from the graphics used to the font to the color scheme to the amount of text – creates a feel for your presentation. The visual aspects of your presentation can either be powerful tools that help create a memorable experience for the audience, or they can serve as mindless filler that facilitates the audience in filtering you and your message out. If you prepare slides, create visuals that enhance your message and that serve as an evocative backdrop to your own performance. If you are in politics, such attention to detail might even help your momentum.
Bullets Talking the Points
May 05, 2007 Filed in: Delivery
Even though Stephen Colbert is parodying Bill
O'Reilly during his The WØRD segments, he also
effectively improves on the format. Look at this
contrast.
x
O'Reilly's screen is much more visually distracting, completely ignoring the fact that a viewer's listening capabilities are impeded when reading. The bullet point is one long sentence, and this distration is compounded by a rotating Fox logo and an ever-present news ticker. This is opposed to The Colbert Report which has a pretty clean visual style (purposefully similar to that of O'Reilly's), no ticker, and brief bullets that add to the presentation without distracting from it.
In a recent post, Garr Rynolds quotes John Sweller on verbal-textual redundancies:
By putting too much information on our slides – like bullet points that restate our words – we actually place obstacles between our audience and their full understanding of our presentations. The less your audience has distracting them, the more they can focus on you and your content.
x
O'Reilly's screen is much more visually distracting, completely ignoring the fact that a viewer's listening capabilities are impeded when reading. The bullet point is one long sentence, and this distration is compounded by a rotating Fox logo and an ever-present news ticker. This is opposed to The Colbert Report which has a pretty clean visual style (purposefully similar to that of O'Reilly's), no ticker, and brief bullets that add to the presentation without distracting from it.
In a recent post, Garr Rynolds quotes John Sweller on verbal-textual redundancies:
"... It is not effective to speak the same words that are written, because it is putting too much load on the mind and decreases your ability to understand what is being presented."
By putting too much information on our slides – like bullet points that restate our words – we actually place obstacles between our audience and their full understanding of our presentations. The less your audience has distracting them, the more they can focus on you and your content.
The WØRD on Bullets
April 22, 2007 Filed in: Delivery
Bullet points can be very harmful to your
presentation, especially if you begin packing in too
many per slide. However, if you've ever seen The WØRD
on The Colbert Report, then you've seen a very
effective use of bullet points during a talk. Look at
these points and quotes below. Can you figure out
which bullet point goes with each quote?
images © Comedy Central
1. "... In 2005, the army fell 24,000 short of its recruitment goals ..."
2. "Republicans aren't even telling John McCain!"
3. "... Although I bet you anything if Yo-Yo Ma had 42DD breasts and had just given birth to a love child, they'd be all over it."
4. "Forget everything."
Use your mouse to highlight right after this sentence for the answers (1=B, 2=D, 3=A, 4=C). Really, though, you probably have a pretty good idea of which bullet accompanies each quote.
Here are some quick thoughts on why these bullet points are so effective.
They can't stand alone. If Colbert were to walk away and let his points keep running, it would make no sense. Colbert provides the context, and the bullets fit into the context he creates. This stands in stark contrast to typical bullet points that spell out every detail of the presenter's discussion to the point where they can serves as handouts or notes.
They are short. You can't read and listen well at the same time, yet bullet points often take too long to read – thereby detracting from the presenter. Mr. Colbert's bullet points take a split second to digest, and the audience doesn't miss a beat of what Colbert is saying.
They say what you are thinking. Chances are, you really weren't thinking these points ahead of time, but, as soon as you see the bullet point, you wish you had been. These serve to fill in the blanks of the presentation. Again, they cannot act as the presentation itself, but they enhance the overall delivery.
Even though this format is presented in a humorous manner, it really illustrates an effective use of bullet points. Your slides should rely on you, not vice versa, and keep any text on your slides short and to-the-point. Avoid overwhelming walls of text, and allow your presentation to reinforce you as the speaker – not supplant you. People tune in to see Colbert, not his bullet points. Likewise, make sure your audiences are tuned into you more than your slides.
For some short videos of Stephen Colbert in action, visit his category on Crooks and Liars.
images © Comedy Central
1. "... In 2005, the army fell 24,000 short of its recruitment goals ..."
2. "Republicans aren't even telling John McCain!"
3. "... Although I bet you anything if Yo-Yo Ma had 42DD breasts and had just given birth to a love child, they'd be all over it."
4. "Forget everything."
Use your mouse to highlight right after this sentence for the answers (1=B, 2=D, 3=A, 4=C). Really, though, you probably have a pretty good idea of which bullet accompanies each quote.
Here are some quick thoughts on why these bullet points are so effective.
They can't stand alone. If Colbert were to walk away and let his points keep running, it would make no sense. Colbert provides the context, and the bullets fit into the context he creates. This stands in stark contrast to typical bullet points that spell out every detail of the presenter's discussion to the point where they can serves as handouts or notes.
They are short. You can't read and listen well at the same time, yet bullet points often take too long to read – thereby detracting from the presenter. Mr. Colbert's bullet points take a split second to digest, and the audience doesn't miss a beat of what Colbert is saying.
They say what you are thinking. Chances are, you really weren't thinking these points ahead of time, but, as soon as you see the bullet point, you wish you had been. These serve to fill in the blanks of the presentation. Again, they cannot act as the presentation itself, but they enhance the overall delivery.
Even though this format is presented in a humorous manner, it really illustrates an effective use of bullet points. Your slides should rely on you, not vice versa, and keep any text on your slides short and to-the-point. Avoid overwhelming walls of text, and allow your presentation to reinforce you as the speaker – not supplant you. People tune in to see Colbert, not his bullet points. Likewise, make sure your audiences are tuned into you more than your slides.
For some short videos of Stephen Colbert in action, visit his category on Crooks and Liars.
The Simplicity of Steve
April 09, 2007 Filed in: Rhyme &
Reason
This picture has to be one of my all-time favorites
of Mr. Jobs:
While I understand and appreciate the character flaws in Steve Jobs, anyone who reads this blog regularly knows how much I admire his presenting skills. This picture really captures his stage presence in its simplicity and character. It is intriguing in that simplicity, and I think that quality is one of the main reasons Steve Jobs is such an effective presenter and marketer. His speech and his slides align in a clear and consistent message throughout his presentations that challenge the more conventional approaches most businesses take in public venues.
When Mr. Jobs introduces a new product, he does go through the obligatory slides that outline the features. (It is notable, though, that these slides are far less cluttered than one might expect.) However, it does not stop with the slides. More often then not, Mr. Jobs will physically show the product to the audience and demonstrate its functionality on the massive screen he always uses. The audience doesn't just see the specs. They also see the physical product, and they get to experience it in action. Regardless of the presentation topic, demonstration speaks louder than descriptions.
Here is one final picture of Steve in action. Again, he is visibly demonstrating a product (in this case, Microsoft Entourage for Mac). He seldom relies on screen captures, and he never uses his slides to explain how software works. He uses the software, and everyone is able to see the functionality on a screen that absolutely dwarfs the speaker – leaving nothing indistinct or unclear. (Don't you wish every venue had a screen like that?)
Whatever you think of him as an individual, Steve Jobs is a good presenter, and simplicity is at the core of his style. There are some exceptions to this, but it's hard to deny the way this simpler approach helps draw the audience in and enhance, rather than distract from, the overall presentation.
Good videos of his talks can be tricky to track down. Here are some places to look:
Note: These images and more come from All About Steve Jobs.
While I understand and appreciate the character flaws in Steve Jobs, anyone who reads this blog regularly knows how much I admire his presenting skills. This picture really captures his stage presence in its simplicity and character. It is intriguing in that simplicity, and I think that quality is one of the main reasons Steve Jobs is such an effective presenter and marketer. His speech and his slides align in a clear and consistent message throughout his presentations that challenge the more conventional approaches most businesses take in public venues.
When Mr. Jobs introduces a new product, he does go through the obligatory slides that outline the features. (It is notable, though, that these slides are far less cluttered than one might expect.) However, it does not stop with the slides. More often then not, Mr. Jobs will physically show the product to the audience and demonstrate its functionality on the massive screen he always uses. The audience doesn't just see the specs. They also see the physical product, and they get to experience it in action. Regardless of the presentation topic, demonstration speaks louder than descriptions.
Here is one final picture of Steve in action. Again, he is visibly demonstrating a product (in this case, Microsoft Entourage for Mac). He seldom relies on screen captures, and he never uses his slides to explain how software works. He uses the software, and everyone is able to see the functionality on a screen that absolutely dwarfs the speaker – leaving nothing indistinct or unclear. (Don't you wish every venue had a screen like that?)
Whatever you think of him as an individual, Steve Jobs is a good presenter, and simplicity is at the core of his style. There are some exceptions to this, but it's hard to deny the way this simpler approach helps draw the audience in and enhance, rather than distract from, the overall presentation.
Good videos of his talks can be tricky to track down. Here are some places to look:
- Apple – QuickTime – Macworld 2007 Keynote
- All About Steve: Steve Jobs Live
- Apple QuickTime Guide – Apple Events
Note: These images and more come from All About Steve Jobs.
Room to Stretch
February 11, 2007 Filed in: Slide
Makeovers
I was looking something up on Dell's website a couple
of months ago and came across this graphic below. I
don't remember the context, but I saved the image
thinking, "This slide needs a makeover."
© Dell
This slide falls into the same trap as many charts. There is too much in too little space, and the slide becomes indecipherable from a distance. What we have here is basically a Gantt chart, which is used to illustrate start and finish dates of projects – support for versions of Windows in this case. The problem is that Gantt charts really need more horizontal space than a typical PowerPoint slide provides.
If you are using Keynote 3, you may be able to account for this space by using a wide-screen theme, but I chose a different route that should be usable to all Keynote and PowerPoint users.
This is actually made from two slides.
What I did was simply make the chart span across two standard 1024x768 slides. The tricky part is getting things to line up across slides. To simplify this process, I made the first slide. Then I copied the slide and pasted it in the slide navigator. Then I just adjusted the onscreen elements to reflect the second half of the chart. I removed any information that did not specifically pertain to Windows as well as text blurbs that I could just verbally explain or include in a handout. For the best effect, use Keynote's push transition to smoothly move from one slide to the next, reinforcing the feel that these two slides are one visual.
You might choose to discard or keep different information than I did, but think about this next time you have a large chart to include in your slides. Ask yourself if the information can span multiple slides to give you more room to work with and allowing you to create less cluttered, more readable slides.
Note: This method is not original to me. As a matter of fact, I got the idea from a sample clip on Keynote Theme Park, advertising their Keynote theme, The Plan. You can view the clip and see this idea in action right here.
© Dell
This slide falls into the same trap as many charts. There is too much in too little space, and the slide becomes indecipherable from a distance. What we have here is basically a Gantt chart, which is used to illustrate start and finish dates of projects – support for versions of Windows in this case. The problem is that Gantt charts really need more horizontal space than a typical PowerPoint slide provides.
If you are using Keynote 3, you may be able to account for this space by using a wide-screen theme, but I chose a different route that should be usable to all Keynote and PowerPoint users.
This is actually made from two slides.
What I did was simply make the chart span across two standard 1024x768 slides. The tricky part is getting things to line up across slides. To simplify this process, I made the first slide. Then I copied the slide and pasted it in the slide navigator. Then I just adjusted the onscreen elements to reflect the second half of the chart. I removed any information that did not specifically pertain to Windows as well as text blurbs that I could just verbally explain or include in a handout. For the best effect, use Keynote's push transition to smoothly move from one slide to the next, reinforcing the feel that these two slides are one visual.
You might choose to discard or keep different information than I did, but think about this next time you have a large chart to include in your slides. Ask yourself if the information can span multiple slides to give you more room to work with and allowing you to create less cluttered, more readable slides.
Note: This method is not original to me. As a matter of fact, I got the idea from a sample clip on Keynote Theme Park, advertising their Keynote theme, The Plan. You can view the clip and see this idea in action right here.
Simplifying Cluttered Information
February 08, 2007 Filed in: Slide
Makeovers
We have to be careful
about how much information we load onto one slide. We
need to ask ourselves if our content is being clearly
illustrated or if the valuable information is being
lost in the clutter. I distinctly remember one
presentation where a presenter divided his slide into
four quadrants and then listed four detailed bullet
points under each quadrant. What irritated me more
was how an audience member was addressed when
complaining that the slides were difficult to read.
The presenter's response to this concern? "Get
better glasses." He then proceeded to turn around
and read
these slides to us.
x
Imagine looking at these slides from fifty feet away on a screen only six feet tall.
This is obviously a case of visual clutter. The presenter is trying to cram too much information on a slide. Some people think this looks impressive, but what are you trying to accomplish? Do you want your audience to say, "Wow! That's a lot of information to digest," or do you want them to say, "Wow! It's so clear to me now?"
In these slides, the y-axis represents the Bloom's taxonomy level of a task, and the x-axis describes how broadly-applicable a task is. Items in the A quadrant would have a low cognitive domain and narrow application while items in the D quadrant would require higher-level cognitive skills and have very broad application. This is good information, but the delivery leaves much to be desired. Here is one possible alternative.
x
Now no one will need new glasses!
This approach keeps the same basic approach as the example slides. The first slide retains the chart, but it is vastly simplified. I've eliminated the miniscule text that obscured the labels. Also, the numbers are gone. Simple, meaningful labels win over meaningless numbers any day. A simple gradient and translucent border was added to the circles to give the illusion of depth, and a soft white drop-shadow is applied behind the skill set we're going to cover next.
The second slide just highlights important verbs in the skills we're talking about, emphasizing what is done in higher-order, broadly-applicable tasks. The various steps do not need to be typed out word for word. Of course, if you wanted to include more verbs, build out those points you are finished with, and build in the new ones as you are ready. This simply helps to control slide clutter.
This is only one possible approach to this information. What would you do differently? How would you convey this information in your own style? One of the great things about having someone else look over your material and slides before you present is that they may suggest an entirely different approach to your material. However you organize your content, though, cluttered slides will either be distracting and frustrating to your audience, or they will be utterly forgettable because that's how so many other presentations look. Taking the time to illustrate your material uniquely and clearly will make your presentation stand out as something different.
x
Imagine looking at these slides from fifty feet away on a screen only six feet tall.
This is obviously a case of visual clutter. The presenter is trying to cram too much information on a slide. Some people think this looks impressive, but what are you trying to accomplish? Do you want your audience to say, "Wow! That's a lot of information to digest," or do you want them to say, "Wow! It's so clear to me now?"
In these slides, the y-axis represents the Bloom's taxonomy level of a task, and the x-axis describes how broadly-applicable a task is. Items in the A quadrant would have a low cognitive domain and narrow application while items in the D quadrant would require higher-level cognitive skills and have very broad application. This is good information, but the delivery leaves much to be desired. Here is one possible alternative.
x
Now no one will need new glasses!
This approach keeps the same basic approach as the example slides. The first slide retains the chart, but it is vastly simplified. I've eliminated the miniscule text that obscured the labels. Also, the numbers are gone. Simple, meaningful labels win over meaningless numbers any day. A simple gradient and translucent border was added to the circles to give the illusion of depth, and a soft white drop-shadow is applied behind the skill set we're going to cover next.
The second slide just highlights important verbs in the skills we're talking about, emphasizing what is done in higher-order, broadly-applicable tasks. The various steps do not need to be typed out word for word. Of course, if you wanted to include more verbs, build out those points you are finished with, and build in the new ones as you are ready. This simply helps to control slide clutter.
This is only one possible approach to this information. What would you do differently? How would you convey this information in your own style? One of the great things about having someone else look over your material and slides before you present is that they may suggest an entirely different approach to your material. However you organize your content, though, cluttered slides will either be distracting and frustrating to your audience, or they will be utterly forgettable because that's how so many other presentations look. Taking the time to illustrate your material uniquely and clearly will make your presentation stand out as something different.
How Long Do You Feel?
January 28, 2007 Filed in: Delivery
We've discussed the length of our presentations in a
couple
of
different posts now, but watching Stan Sigman
deliver his talk during the Macworld keynote got me
thinking again about length and audience attention
span.
Every sentence read adds an hour to each minute...
The saying goes that time is relative. We save time, waste time, borrow time, and spend time. The minutes spent waiting in a doctor's office can seem much longer than the minutes spent playing video games at home. Mr. Sigman was on stage for all of seven minutes – seven very long minutes. When I checked the time in the podcast, I was surprised. I had expected to see him onstage for fifteen or twenty minutes. His talk really did seem that long.
Contrast this to Steve Jobs' portion of the presentation. The entire keynote was 1:45 long, and Mr. Jobs was speaking for all but about twenty minutes of that. Yet his portion did not feel as drawn out as Mr. Sigman's.
"I could talk for days, and you'd hardly notice."
What's the difference? I think a lot of it comes from my previous post. Mr. Sigman's talk was stiff and formal. It was basically read right off his cards, and it was full of corporate jargon and buzzwords. Mr. Jobs, in contrast, spoke passionately about his company's products. Any notes he might have had were fairly transparent, and he spoke in clear, easily understood language. Also, Steve Jobs kept things moving and kept the audience anticipating the next revelation about these products.
Timing is a very important part of your presentation. Sometimes shorter is better, but other times you may have to spend some serious time giving your talk. In either scenario, don't just be aware of the literal time, but ask yourself how long your presentation feels to your audience. Do you look and sound like you actually care about your topic? Are you keeping the flow moving? Is the audience anticipating your next points? If you can positively answer these questions, then relative time will work in your favor.
Every sentence read adds an hour to each minute...
The saying goes that time is relative. We save time, waste time, borrow time, and spend time. The minutes spent waiting in a doctor's office can seem much longer than the minutes spent playing video games at home. Mr. Sigman was on stage for all of seven minutes – seven very long minutes. When I checked the time in the podcast, I was surprised. I had expected to see him onstage for fifteen or twenty minutes. His talk really did seem that long.
Contrast this to Steve Jobs' portion of the presentation. The entire keynote was 1:45 long, and Mr. Jobs was speaking for all but about twenty minutes of that. Yet his portion did not feel as drawn out as Mr. Sigman's.
"I could talk for days, and you'd hardly notice."
What's the difference? I think a lot of it comes from my previous post. Mr. Sigman's talk was stiff and formal. It was basically read right off his cards, and it was full of corporate jargon and buzzwords. Mr. Jobs, in contrast, spoke passionately about his company's products. Any notes he might have had were fairly transparent, and he spoke in clear, easily understood language. Also, Steve Jobs kept things moving and kept the audience anticipating the next revelation about these products.
Timing is a very important part of your presentation. Sometimes shorter is better, but other times you may have to spend some serious time giving your talk. In either scenario, don't just be aware of the literal time, but ask yourself how long your presentation feels to your audience. Do you look and sound like you actually care about your topic? Are you keeping the flow moving? Is the audience anticipating your next points? If you can positively answer these questions, then relative time will work in your favor.
Passion and Connection
January 14, 2007 Filed in: Delivery
This is one of a few
posts I have had gestating in my brain since watching
Steve Job's Macworld 2007 keynote. By now, you
probably know the products announced during the
keynote, and you've possibly seen and/or read
reaction to those products from various sources.
However, reading and viewing commentary just doesn't
have the same impact as watching Steve Jobs
speak.
Throughout his talks, Mr. Jobs will demo his own products, but he does so with an enthusiasm that's contagious. He doesn't just share facts, figures, and specifications about the product – he shares excitement. He connects with the audience at an emotional level. He doesn't just say, "This product is great." He says, "This is why I think this product is amazing, and let me show you! Don't you think this is great?" He exudes passion for the products he is presenting, and that passion is contagious.
"Unbelievable."
Who else can make scrolling through a playlist feel revolutionary? Who else makes Google Maps and HTML email feel fresh and exciting? People notice Apple products (and are polarized by them) partly because of the man who evangelizes them the most – CEO Steve Jobs. You can't ignore how much he cares about his pitch. His enthusiasm and passion demand reaction, whether its positive or negative. The one thing you can't do is remain passive when he speaks.
What about your own presentations? How does your audience see you? Are you viewed as someone just presenting material that is expected to be presented in a totally mundane, dispassionate, and predictable manner? Are you excited about your topics? Do you communicate that excitement in your presentation? Passion connects. Passion engages. Be passionate during your talks, and your audience will respond with greater enthusiasm for whatever topic you are presenting about.
Throughout his talks, Mr. Jobs will demo his own products, but he does so with an enthusiasm that's contagious. He doesn't just share facts, figures, and specifications about the product – he shares excitement. He connects with the audience at an emotional level. He doesn't just say, "This product is great." He says, "This is why I think this product is amazing, and let me show you! Don't you think this is great?" He exudes passion for the products he is presenting, and that passion is contagious.
"Unbelievable."
Who else can make scrolling through a playlist feel revolutionary? Who else makes Google Maps and HTML email feel fresh and exciting? People notice Apple products (and are polarized by them) partly because of the man who evangelizes them the most – CEO Steve Jobs. You can't ignore how much he cares about his pitch. His enthusiasm and passion demand reaction, whether its positive or negative. The one thing you can't do is remain passive when he speaks.
What about your own presentations? How does your audience see you? Are you viewed as someone just presenting material that is expected to be presented in a totally mundane, dispassionate, and predictable manner? Are you excited about your topics? Do you communicate that excitement in your presentation? Passion connects. Passion engages. Be passionate during your talks, and your audience will respond with greater enthusiasm for whatever topic you are presenting about.
Simplicity As a Standard
December 11, 2006 Filed in: Slide
Makeovers
One of the things that frustrates me about my new
cell phone is that it takes seven button presses to
tell it to dial someone in my address book. (No, I
have not set up my quick dial yet.) Seven presses –
exactly the same numbers of buttons I would use to
just dial the number. It's just too complicated. I
get it. I'm a technophile, so I understand how it
operates. It's just annoying.
Unfortunately, many slides trip down this same path. The audience gets it. They understand the meaning of the slides, but the slides are overcomplicated. Visually, they are as annoying as the cell phone's menus.
These Microsoft slides are favorites of mine. I honestly don't think I could design more visually complicated slides if I tried.
x
© Microsoft. How complicated can you get?
What ends up being the result? The speaker has to keep referencing the slide, pointing out various areas, and defining what the slide is explaining. It becomes tedious and exhausting. The slides do not support the talk. Rather, the talk is supporting the slides. This is the danger in overcomplicating your slides. You may accidentally let yourself become servant to the visuals.
In contrast, if you set simplicity as a standard in your design, clearer results happen. Many claim the iPod's runaway success is due, largely in part, to its simplicity of design. The same is true of the Nintendo DS. David Pogue spoke at length for TED 2006 about the "Cult of Simplicity." Simplicity sells – not just products but ideas as well. Keep your slides simple and clean, and your audience will be more likely to buy into your message because they are no longer distracted by trying to decipher complex visuals.
Here is one way to simplify the slides above:
x
Same message, different approach. (Windows screenshots from GUIdebook.)
It would be unfair to say that there is never a place for complex slides, but, more often than not, simplicity trumps the alternative. When preparing your presentation, have others look at your slides. Ask them if they easily understand the big ideas conveyed. How much reading is involved with your slides? Are they visually cluttered? Make simplicity a standard, and understanding will follow.
Unfortunately, many slides trip down this same path. The audience gets it. They understand the meaning of the slides, but the slides are overcomplicated. Visually, they are as annoying as the cell phone's menus.
These Microsoft slides are favorites of mine. I honestly don't think I could design more visually complicated slides if I tried.
x
© Microsoft. How complicated can you get?
What ends up being the result? The speaker has to keep referencing the slide, pointing out various areas, and defining what the slide is explaining. It becomes tedious and exhausting. The slides do not support the talk. Rather, the talk is supporting the slides. This is the danger in overcomplicating your slides. You may accidentally let yourself become servant to the visuals.
In contrast, if you set simplicity as a standard in your design, clearer results happen. Many claim the iPod's runaway success is due, largely in part, to its simplicity of design. The same is true of the Nintendo DS. David Pogue spoke at length for TED 2006 about the "Cult of Simplicity." Simplicity sells – not just products but ideas as well. Keep your slides simple and clean, and your audience will be more likely to buy into your message because they are no longer distracted by trying to decipher complex visuals.
Here is one way to simplify the slides above:
x
Same message, different approach. (Windows screenshots from GUIdebook.)
It would be unfair to say that there is never a place for complex slides, but, more often than not, simplicity trumps the alternative. When preparing your presentation, have others look at your slides. Ask them if they easily understand the big ideas conveyed. How much reading is involved with your slides? Are they visually cluttered? Make simplicity a standard, and understanding will follow.
It's All About the Visuals
December 03, 2006 Filed in: Rhyme &
Reason
We are very much influenced by our sense of sight. As
a rule, we are very visual beings, and imagery can
generate a large impact on people. Think of how often
you would rather someone show you how to do
something than tell you. Wouldn't you rather
see something fantastic than just hear it
being described? Why then do we create presentation
slides that merely reiterate our words and do not
visually reinforce our message?
In this case, I'm not talking about inserting Office Clip Art or "Screen Beans" (who deserve the same public flogging as Clippy). I'm talking about meaningful high-quality visuals your audience can connect with and be impacted by. Photographs and art can bring so much more to our talk than can simple sketches, bitmaps, and vector images. The right image can connect with people in ways words cannot, and that connection is an important part of your audience connecting with you.
x
What if Al Gore had used Clip Art? (Image from Apple Computer.)
Take Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth presentation as an example. What if Mr. Gore had taken a more "traditional" PowerPoint approach? What if he had used Clip Art and bullet points in place of photographs and satellite images? Would his presentation been as powerful? Would his message have gained as much momentum as it has? Even if the content were identical, I would say no. Part of the allure in Al Gore's material is the great use of images.
When we stick with bullet points and Clip Art on our slides, we are short-changing our own presentation. Slides are visual by nature. Your audience is visual. Use the slides to say things you can't, to make connections words alone are unable to. Go beyond what you are used to seeing, and use images in your slides that are meaningful to your content and create an impact on your audience.
In this case, I'm not talking about inserting Office Clip Art or "Screen Beans" (who deserve the same public flogging as Clippy). I'm talking about meaningful high-quality visuals your audience can connect with and be impacted by. Photographs and art can bring so much more to our talk than can simple sketches, bitmaps, and vector images. The right image can connect with people in ways words cannot, and that connection is an important part of your audience connecting with you.
x
What if Al Gore had used Clip Art? (Image from Apple Computer.)
Take Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth presentation as an example. What if Mr. Gore had taken a more "traditional" PowerPoint approach? What if he had used Clip Art and bullet points in place of photographs and satellite images? Would his presentation been as powerful? Would his message have gained as much momentum as it has? Even if the content were identical, I would say no. Part of the allure in Al Gore's material is the great use of images.
When we stick with bullet points and Clip Art on our slides, we are short-changing our own presentation. Slides are visual by nature. Your audience is visual. Use the slides to say things you can't, to make connections words alone are unable to. Go beyond what you are used to seeing, and use images in your slides that are meaningful to your content and create an impact on your audience.
Some Image Resources
- iStockPhoto - this is a great, inexpensive source for stock photography.
- stock.xchng - all images here are free, but pay attention to attribution if requested.
- morgueFile - loads of free images. Quality varies.
- yotophoto - free image search engine.
Al Gore Links (for the curious)
- An Inconvenient Truth - official movie website.
- Changing the Climate - an Entertainment Weekly story about Gore's documentary.
- Presentation Zen: Al Gore: Another Presenter Extraordinaire? - Garr on Gore.
- Duarte Design: New Model Science Teacher - the people behind Al Gore's visuals talk about the process.
Bullets Hurt Summations
November 21, 2006 Filed in: Delivery
Back in September, Garr Reynolds posted this image on
his blog without comment. Regular
readers knew what he was trying to get across.
Image by Zach Graham
One easy way to kill the momentum of our presentations is to bog the conclusion down with tedious bullet points. (The other way is by ending with your Q & A session, but we'll talk about that another time.) I remember the conclusion to a Jensen Harris presentation on Office 2007 where I noticed how excited he seemed about the product, but his conclusion slide seemed sterile and stoic. I wondered, "How can this be improved?"
x
Again, minimalism is my starting point, and I felt that these three words pretty much encapsulated the entire summary. ("Find the right feature" + "Be more efficient" = "Simplify" in my book.) The word "Create" is by far the largest because that is the driving point of Office – to create content that you are likely to share with others. Also, I arced the path of the builds to create a sense of movement and perspective.
Of course, as I look through some of my presentations that haven't been updated in a year or so, I'm finding some concluding slides I want to change. Here are some summations I like and others I don't from my own material. Which ones would you change? How would you give them more impact?
x
x
Of course, it can be hard to judge a summation without context of an entire presentation, but experiment with these slides and see how you can alter or improve them. Remember, your summation will be the final impression you leave on your audience. Don't let it be injured by stray bullets.
Image by Zach Graham
One easy way to kill the momentum of our presentations is to bog the conclusion down with tedious bullet points. (The other way is by ending with your Q & A session, but we'll talk about that another time.) I remember the conclusion to a Jensen Harris presentation on Office 2007 where I noticed how excited he seemed about the product, but his conclusion slide seemed sterile and stoic. I wondered, "How can this be improved?"
x
Again, minimalism is my starting point, and I felt that these three words pretty much encapsulated the entire summary. ("Find the right feature" + "Be more efficient" = "Simplify" in my book.) The word "Create" is by far the largest because that is the driving point of Office – to create content that you are likely to share with others. Also, I arced the path of the builds to create a sense of movement and perspective.
Of course, as I look through some of my presentations that haven't been updated in a year or so, I'm finding some concluding slides I want to change. Here are some summations I like and others I don't from my own material. Which ones would you change? How would you give them more impact?
x
x
Of course, it can be hard to judge a summation without context of an entire presentation, but experiment with these slides and see how you can alter or improve them. Remember, your summation will be the final impression you leave on your audience. Don't let it be injured by stray bullets.
Don't Be Afraid of Being Naked
September 28, 2006 Filed in: Delivery
In presentations, getting "naked" refers to giving a
talk without the aid of slides. This can be difficult
because so many of us have grown to use slides as a
crutch. (See this entry at Presentation
Zen for a great illustration of that fact.)
However, in many circumstances, abandoning
slides is a good idea.
One example of this comes from my obsessive downloading of featured TED Talks, one of which has Sir Ken Robinson speaking about how education can sometimes "educate" the creativity right out of the child. His speech is engaging and thought-provoking, but not one slide is shown during his talk. In fact, slides would have probably distracted from the overall feel of his presentation.
Slides can greatly reinforce of our content, and they can often help create connections between our material and multiple areas of our audience's brains. However, sometimes they are just unnecessary filler. If this is the case, leave the laptop at home (or in the hotel room), and present naked. Don't hide behind your slides. Just let your audience see you for who you are.
For more tips on presenting naked or nearly-naked, follow these links (all by Garr Reynolds):
One example of this comes from my obsessive downloading of featured TED Talks, one of which has Sir Ken Robinson speaking about how education can sometimes "educate" the creativity right out of the child. His speech is engaging and thought-provoking, but not one slide is shown during his talk. In fact, slides would have probably distracted from the overall feel of his presentation.
Slides can greatly reinforce of our content, and they can often help create connections between our material and multiple areas of our audience's brains. However, sometimes they are just unnecessary filler. If this is the case, leave the laptop at home (or in the hotel room), and present naked. Don't hide behind your slides. Just let your audience see you for who you are.
For more tips on presenting naked or nearly-naked, follow these links (all by Garr Reynolds):
Being Unexpected
September 11, 2006 Filed in: Delivery
One of the things that caught me off guard in the
video of David Pogue speaking at TED was
the fact that his talk began with him sitting
behind a piano, singing about tech support woes
in a parody of Simon & Garfunkel's "The Sound of
Silence."
In and of itself, Mr. Pogue's talk was pretty good. It was humorous and insightful, and it was delivered very competently. What made it stand out, though, was Pogue's use of songs throughout his presentation. Quite suddenly, he would just bolt to the piano, and regale his audience with a modified rendition of Simon & Garfunkel, Barry Manilow, and even Andrew Lloyd Webber.
See, David Pogue used his unique background as a musician to bring an element of surprise and humor to his talk. What unique abilities or insights do you have that can make your presentations unique and unforgettable? What is something that makes you uniquely you? Remember, your presentations don't have to merely consist of slides and droning. Allow your individuality to shine through, and you might find your talks more enjoyable for you and your listeners.
In and of itself, Mr. Pogue's talk was pretty good. It was humorous and insightful, and it was delivered very competently. What made it stand out, though, was Pogue's use of songs throughout his presentation. Quite suddenly, he would just bolt to the piano, and regale his audience with a modified rendition of Simon & Garfunkel, Barry Manilow, and even Andrew Lloyd Webber.
See, David Pogue used his unique background as a musician to bring an element of surprise and humor to his talk. What unique abilities or insights do you have that can make your presentations unique and unforgettable? What is something that makes you uniquely you? Remember, your presentations don't have to merely consist of slides and droning. Allow your individuality to shine through, and you might find your talks more enjoyable for you and your listeners.
Talking to the Screen
September 02, 2006 Filed in: Delivery
One speaker whom I've really begun to appreciate
(much to my own surprise) is Al Gore, self-described as having
"used to be the next president of the United
States." Recently, he has been evangelizing a
message of conservation and energy reform in
response to what he coins "The Climate Crisis."
Additionally, this presentation has been turned
into a documentary called An Inconvenient Truth.
Recently, I downloaded a video of Mr. Gore
giving a follow-up talk to his crisis
presentation at TED where he covers some
pragmatic ways in which his audience can make a
difference. (If you watch the video, please keep
in mind that he is speaking to an audience
consisting mostly of rather affluent people.)
However, I couldn't help but be distracted by
the amount of "back time" Mr. Gore was giving to
his audience – time he spent looking at his
slides rather than at his listeners.
I see this all too often during presentations where the presenter uses his or her slides as a crutch or as a substitute for notes. Unfortunately, if we spend too much time with our back to the audience, we will create a disconnect with them, and they will pay us less attention.
First and foremost, your talk is a conversation with your audience – not with PowerPoint. You should know your material well enough (and have good enough notes) that looking back at your slides is all but unnecessary. (I do check my slides periodically to see that things are running smoothly, though.)
Now, in Mr. Gore's defense, during the video, it does sound like this talk was prepared very hastily. This is probably a case where he has to lean on his slides some because of short preparation time. Still, when you know you have a talk coming, and you have ample time to prepare, prepare well, so your eyes can connect with your audience rather than remain glued to your slides.
I see this all too often during presentations where the presenter uses his or her slides as a crutch or as a substitute for notes. Unfortunately, if we spend too much time with our back to the audience, we will create a disconnect with them, and they will pay us less attention.
First and foremost, your talk is a conversation with your audience – not with PowerPoint. You should know your material well enough (and have good enough notes) that looking back at your slides is all but unnecessary. (I do check my slides periodically to see that things are running smoothly, though.)
Now, in Mr. Gore's defense, during the video, it does sound like this talk was prepared very hastily. This is probably a case where he has to lean on his slides some because of short preparation time. Still, when you know you have a talk coming, and you have ample time to prepare, prepare well, so your eyes can connect with your audience rather than remain glued to your slides.
This Slide Is Brought To you By...
August 31, 2006 Filed in: Slide
Makeovers
I'm not a fan of logos plastered over every slide in
a presentation. Imagine how much different an Apple
press event would feel if their slides looked like
this:
Just in case you forgot whose event you were at.
Even at talks given within my own school district, I've seen presentations where our township logo appears in the bottom corner of every slide. This is totally unnecessary clutter, and it makes your slides feel generic and impersonal. Besides, your slides are not a marketing avenue. Your audience should not feel they are watching a feature-length advertisement – even if you are pitching a product or service.
Now, don't get me wrong. Even Apple uses branding for their presentations, but it usually looks like this.
x
Before the presentation formally begins, a solitary Apple logo will be present, and in-your-face branding will pretty much remain absent for the remainder of the talk. You don't need to be reminded whose products you are learning about. The slides remain clean of marketing, and the whole experience is the better for it.
If you prepare slides for a company, business, or other organization, avoid bombarding your audience with your corporate identity. Yes, use the first and possibly the last slide to display your logo, but keep the rest of the slides clear of unnecessary clutter. your slides are meant to reinforce your talk. They are not an advertisement.
Just in case you forgot whose event you were at.
Even at talks given within my own school district, I've seen presentations where our township logo appears in the bottom corner of every slide. This is totally unnecessary clutter, and it makes your slides feel generic and impersonal. Besides, your slides are not a marketing avenue. Your audience should not feel they are watching a feature-length advertisement – even if you are pitching a product or service.
Now, don't get me wrong. Even Apple uses branding for their presentations, but it usually looks like this.
xBefore the presentation formally begins, a solitary Apple logo will be present, and in-your-face branding will pretty much remain absent for the remainder of the talk. You don't need to be reminded whose products you are learning about. The slides remain clean of marketing, and the whole experience is the better for it.
If you prepare slides for a company, business, or other organization, avoid bombarding your audience with your corporate identity. Yes, use the first and possibly the last slide to display your logo, but keep the rest of the slides clear of unnecessary clutter. your slides are meant to reinforce your talk. They are not an advertisement.
Text Overload
August 17, 2006 Filed in: Slide
Makeovers
Slides are often misused as a guided outline for
note-taking or as a substitute for our own notes. As
presenters, we let our slides become a crutch, and,
instead of our slides providing a visual
reinforcement for our topic, we let them simply spell
out exactly what we are saying word-for-word.
Below is a slide from a Intel business presentation. Now, I don't know the exact context of this slide, but it does provide a nice example of some of the traps we fall into when creating our own slides – creating walls of unreadable and overly detailed text.
Behold the wall of text.
Now I don't know about you, but I can't read those bullet points without really straining my eyes, and I imagine that anyone sitting in an auditorium or conference room would have the same problem. The slide is just overloaded with text, and I can just hear the presenter saying exactly what is on the slide verbatim.
How can we approach this differently? In this case, I think adding slides will actually help. I'm going to take a part of the second bullet point, and turn it into two independent slides. The first will introduce the Core 2 Duo processor, and the second slide will reinforce the fact that these processors are shipping ahead of schedule. (That struck me as an important point.)
x
The initial build shows the logo for Core 2 Duo, and the presenter can extoll the benefits of this advancement. Perhaps even some highlights appear next to the image. Then those highlights fade away, and the Core 2 Duo Extreme appears. Core 2 Duo may disappear, and highlights of the Extreme edition can appear to the left.
x
The second slide shows a desktop calendar with the date of July 27. That's when the Core 2 Duo was supposed to begin shipping. The date fades out, and the slide reveals that Intel is ahead of schedule.
While far less detailed, this second set of slides succeeds at visual communication where the initial slide fails. Our slides do not have to serve as subtitles to our voices. Remember, slides are supplementary visuals to the presentation. They are not your notes. They are not the handout, and they are most certainly not the presentation itself You are the presentation. Your slides should serve to support you, not supplant you.
Below is a slide from a Intel business presentation. Now, I don't know the exact context of this slide, but it does provide a nice example of some of the traps we fall into when creating our own slides – creating walls of unreadable and overly detailed text.
Behold the wall of text.
Now I don't know about you, but I can't read those bullet points without really straining my eyes, and I imagine that anyone sitting in an auditorium or conference room would have the same problem. The slide is just overloaded with text, and I can just hear the presenter saying exactly what is on the slide verbatim.
How can we approach this differently? In this case, I think adding slides will actually help. I'm going to take a part of the second bullet point, and turn it into two independent slides. The first will introduce the Core 2 Duo processor, and the second slide will reinforce the fact that these processors are shipping ahead of schedule. (That struck me as an important point.)
x
The initial build shows the logo for Core 2 Duo, and the presenter can extoll the benefits of this advancement. Perhaps even some highlights appear next to the image. Then those highlights fade away, and the Core 2 Duo Extreme appears. Core 2 Duo may disappear, and highlights of the Extreme edition can appear to the left.
x
The second slide shows a desktop calendar with the date of July 27. That's when the Core 2 Duo was supposed to begin shipping. The date fades out, and the slide reveals that Intel is ahead of schedule.
While far less detailed, this second set of slides succeeds at visual communication where the initial slide fails. Our slides do not have to serve as subtitles to our voices. Remember, slides are supplementary visuals to the presentation. They are not your notes. They are not the handout, and they are most certainly not the presentation itself You are the presentation. Your slides should serve to support you, not supplant you.
Steve Jobs and the Introduction
August 12, 2006 Filed in: Delivery
I've seen way too many keynotes, seminars, and presentations now, and I've seen a ton of introductions. If you are at a keynote of some kind, the keynote speaker is usually somehow formally introduced. ("Our speaker today is known for..." or "Ladies and gentlemen, Insert Name!") If it is something smaller scale, you may get a one-sheet introducing your speaker, or you may have the speaker introducing him- or herself. ("...I want to wish you the best of mornings and tell you how truly fortunate I feel...") Once in a while, you get a presenter who wants to play some kind of get-to-know you game, but those shall not be spoken of here.
The video mentioned in my prior post has Steve Jobs being introduced by another speaker, and it distracted me because this is so unusual for Mr. Jobs. The usual Steve Jobs intro goes something like this: Lights dim; Steve Jobs walks out, says, "Good morning. Thanks for coming. We have a lot of great announcements today, so let's get started," and the presentation begins. That's it.
Your introduction will make an early impression on your audience. In my experience, respectful but concise is a good idea. You've acknowledged your audience and have expressed appreciation for their presence, but you're not going to waste their time either. There's not much more an audience appreciates than a presenter who avoids wasting time.
Steve Jobs, Microsoft, and One Hostile Audience
August 10, 2006 Filed in: Delivery
Days then were dark for Apple. They were bordering on irrelevancy and financial failure, but the momentum began to change when Steve Jobs reclaimed the MacWorld stage in the summer of 1997 to immense enthusiasm, but he brought a very unwelcome announcement in his wake.
Apple would have a $150 million investment from none other than Microsoft. In recent history, with the friendly (and sometimes less than friendly) barbs Apple shoots at the Redmond giant, it's hard to imagine a time when Apple would need to turn to the company that seemed to symbolize everything that was wrong with the technology industry, yet it happened. In August of 1997 Microsoft purchased $150 million of non-voting Apple stock; the two companies entered into a cross patent agreement; Microsoft committed to at least five more years of Mac Office, and Apple made IE the default browser on Macintosh computers.
The audience went wild ... but not with enthusiasm.
In the video, the developers in attendance actually began jeering and booing while Steve Jobs was talking about the partnership. The man who could barely introduce himself among the cheers that greeted his arrival onstage now had problems getting two sentences out of his mouth without some form of hostile reaction from his audience.
Through it all, Steve kept his cool. His tone was very matter-of-fact. He was not messing around, but neither did he shoot back at his now hostile audience. Presenters sometimes end up in front of hostile audiences such as this, but the important thing is to, like Steve, keep our cool. Remain professional. Stay on task, and do not let yourself be derailed into justifying yourself or firing back at the nay-sayers.
Check the video out. It's about 40-minutes long, and you can find it right here.
Semons in 10-20-30
July 25, 2006 Filed in: General Tips
In my last post, I touched upon the fact that
preachers should try to follow the 10-20-30 Rule as much as
possible. Now, Mr. Kawasaki's rule is
specifically geared toward business pitches, and
he lays out a simple 10-point list of how your
slides should flow in this setting.
Whether you want to think of it this way or not, sermons are very similar to pitches. You usually start with a problem (i.e. divorce rates). You propose a solution that typically includes scripture references, and you conclude with a call to action.
In this post, I'm going to put together a sample 10-slide sermon as a model for what a 10-20-30 sermon presentation might look like. This lesson is about divorce, and it will follow a "3-point" outline with an introduction and summation.
x
While the lesson is being generally introduced, slide 1 is visible. I would start without the text and have it appear while I'm working up to the problem. Slide 2 is very simple, clearly pointing out the problem that about half of US marriages end in divorce. Now, I can list some other relevant statistics if I wish (like trending, broken home violence, etc.) , but they don't all need to be enumerated on the slide because they are all secondary to that figure.
The solution is presented upfront. The way to handle the problem of divorce begins and ends with respect: respect for marriage, respect for one another, and respect for God's word. At this point, I don't build all three of those points onto the slide. The slide merely opens with "The Answer?" and I build in "Respect" once I am ready. I don't want the congregation to get ahead of me. Details should not be revealed until the speaker is ready.
x
The first point of our sermon focuses on respecting the institution of marriage. We start with Genesis 2:24 (on slide 4) where a married man and woman are described as one flesh. From here, I can refer to related scriptures about oneness such as Deuteronomy 6:4 and briefly compare it to Ephesians 5:31, but the slide remains focused on Genesis 2:24. Slide 5 centers around Hebrews 13:4 describing marriage as honorable. At this point, it might be wise to glance at Matthew 19 where Jesus says God joins the couple together.
The main point of these two slides is that God created marriage honorable and holy, and we should should respect what God has created.
x
Slide 6 emphasizes the adultery that can result from divorce. The one initiating divorce is guilty of adultery, and he/she may have laid the path for his/her former spouse to commit adultery. Slide 7 talks about violence as the result of divorce, and I could speak a moment here about the numerous individuals affected negatively by a divorce. (Again, there is no need to list them on a slide. The congregation does not need to be spoon-fed information.)
The main point: If we really respect ourselves and others, we will sincerely seek other alternatives before divorce.
x
Slide 8 remains with Malachi 2:16 and the fact that God hates divorce. That alone should be enough for us. On slide 9, Jesus is referenced as pointing out that there is no good reason for divorce (except for adultery by one's spouse).
The main point: As Christians, we should respect God's view of divorce and avoid it if possible.
Slide 10 merely serves to review the big points of the lesson and encourage the congregation to take marriage seriously rather than view it as something easily disposed of. If we have the proper respect for marriage as God made it, for each other, and for God's views on the matter of divorce, then we should work diligently to maintain the solidarity of our marriages.
Now I drafted this outline and these slides from scratch especially for this post. I even went to my favorite stock photography sites to find some new images, and used eBible for looking up scriptures and commentary. This took about three hours in all. I don't think thats an unreasonable amount of time.
Whether or not you agree with the doctrine of these slides, I hope you can learn something from this model. Our sermon presentations do not have to be derivative and mundane. With a little work, our slides can be a strong reinforcer of our message at an intellectual and an emotional level.
Whether you want to think of it this way or not, sermons are very similar to pitches. You usually start with a problem (i.e. divorce rates). You propose a solution that typically includes scripture references, and you conclude with a call to action.
In this post, I'm going to put together a sample 10-slide sermon as a model for what a 10-20-30 sermon presentation might look like. This lesson is about divorce, and it will follow a "3-point" outline with an introduction and summation.
Slides 1 & 2: Introduction & Statement of Problem
xWhile the lesson is being generally introduced, slide 1 is visible. I would start without the text and have it appear while I'm working up to the problem. Slide 2 is very simple, clearly pointing out the problem that about half of US marriages end in divorce. Now, I can list some other relevant statistics if I wish (like trending, broken home violence, etc.) , but they don't all need to be enumerated on the slide because they are all secondary to that figure.
Slide 3: The Solution
The solution is presented upfront. The way to handle the problem of divorce begins and ends with respect: respect for marriage, respect for one another, and respect for God's word. At this point, I don't build all three of those points onto the slide. The slide merely opens with "The Answer?" and I build in "Respect" once I am ready. I don't want the congregation to get ahead of me. Details should not be revealed until the speaker is ready.
Slides 4-9: Details and Scripture
xThe first point of our sermon focuses on respecting the institution of marriage. We start with Genesis 2:24 (on slide 4) where a married man and woman are described as one flesh. From here, I can refer to related scriptures about oneness such as Deuteronomy 6:4 and briefly compare it to Ephesians 5:31, but the slide remains focused on Genesis 2:24. Slide 5 centers around Hebrews 13:4 describing marriage as honorable. At this point, it might be wise to glance at Matthew 19 where Jesus says God joins the couple together.
The main point of these two slides is that God created marriage honorable and holy, and we should should respect what God has created.
x
Slide 6 emphasizes the adultery that can result from divorce. The one initiating divorce is guilty of adultery, and he/she may have laid the path for his/her former spouse to commit adultery. Slide 7 talks about violence as the result of divorce, and I could speak a moment here about the numerous individuals affected negatively by a divorce. (Again, there is no need to list them on a slide. The congregation does not need to be spoon-fed information.)
The main point: If we really respect ourselves and others, we will sincerely seek other alternatives before divorce.
x
Slide 8 remains with Malachi 2:16 and the fact that God hates divorce. That alone should be enough for us. On slide 9, Jesus is referenced as pointing out that there is no good reason for divorce (except for adultery by one's spouse).
The main point: As Christians, we should respect God's view of divorce and avoid it if possible.
Slide 10: Summation
Slide 10 merely serves to review the big points of the lesson and encourage the congregation to take marriage seriously rather than view it as something easily disposed of. If we have the proper respect for marriage as God made it, for each other, and for God's views on the matter of divorce, then we should work diligently to maintain the solidarity of our marriages.
Wrap-Up
Slides: 10. Practice run: 25 minutes. Fonts: 48-288 points. I also made sure the slides were in line with my previous post. We have built-in, emphasized text, no bullets, and no walls of text at any point. All images are high quality (and any image that had text atop it was reduced in sharpness to maintain the readability of the text), and our background is a heavy paper texture that looks similar to what you might see for a wedding invitation. Finally, the font is simple yet formal and easy to read.Now I drafted this outline and these slides from scratch especially for this post. I even went to my favorite stock photography sites to find some new images, and used eBible for looking up scriptures and commentary. This took about three hours in all. I don't think thats an unreasonable amount of time.
Whether or not you agree with the doctrine of these slides, I hope you can learn something from this model. Our sermon presentations do not have to be derivative and mundane. With a little work, our slides can be a strong reinforcer of our message at an intellectual and an emotional level.
One Presentation. Two Approaches.
July 12, 2006 Filed in: Slide
Makeovers
As noted in my last update, I've uploaded a new
version of my crusty old presentation on Reactive
Attachment Disorder. The RAD presentation was given
long before I began studying presentation design or
discovered the blog Presentation Zen, and it is a
fine example of average (read: poor)
presentation design.
The original presentation was 29 slides long, and some slides had up to eight bullet points on them. I can't even begin to count how many bullet points there were in that original slideshow. The new presentation is only 14 slides, and, while there is still a lot of reading in some areas, the text has been simplified and streamlined in many slides.
x
These two slides above have the same purpose. They demonstrate an attachment theory grouping of children into three categories. This presentation focuses on the second – detached – and the behaviors associated with that group. In the revised slide, imagery is much more important to the message. Notice how the faces compliment the headings above them. The middle image fades blue while the other two go out of focus, reinforcing the emphasis of this presentation.
I went on to outright omit several slides in the previous presentation that went into detail about the other categories. That information distracts from the focus. Unnecessary or peripheral information should never be included on your slides.
x
The points made on the first slide are summarized on the new slide. (This in turn allowed me to combine two slides into one slide for the revision.) When inserting text points onto a slide, look for redundancies and restatements. How can your points be made more succinctly? With the new slide, I can still say everything I did with the first, but the visual emphasizes a simplified view of the whole message.
It's worth noting that, because the "bullets" do not match my words exactly, I chose to build each column in as a group rather than by point. In most cases, though, you don't want your points to ever get ahead of you.
As far as other differences go:
Understanding RAD is the result of discovering that there is no one absolute way to prepare presentations. The original is exactly what someone might expect to see during a "typical" PowerPoint lecture. However, I hope that revising the slides will provide a fresher, more engaging experience when I give this presentation agan. Presentations don't have to settle for average. Challenge yourself when creating your slides, and see how you can improve your presentation.
The original presentation was 29 slides long, and some slides had up to eight bullet points on them. I can't even begin to count how many bullet points there were in that original slideshow. The new presentation is only 14 slides, and, while there is still a lot of reading in some areas, the text has been simplified and streamlined in many slides.
x
These two slides above have the same purpose. They demonstrate an attachment theory grouping of children into three categories. This presentation focuses on the second – detached – and the behaviors associated with that group. In the revised slide, imagery is much more important to the message. Notice how the faces compliment the headings above them. The middle image fades blue while the other two go out of focus, reinforcing the emphasis of this presentation.
I went on to outright omit several slides in the previous presentation that went into detail about the other categories. That information distracts from the focus. Unnecessary or peripheral information should never be included on your slides.
x
The points made on the first slide are summarized on the new slide. (This in turn allowed me to combine two slides into one slide for the revision.) When inserting text points onto a slide, look for redundancies and restatements. How can your points be made more succinctly? With the new slide, I can still say everything I did with the first, but the visual emphasizes a simplified view of the whole message.
It's worth noting that, because the "bullets" do not match my words exactly, I chose to build each column in as a group rather than by point. In most cases, though, you don't want your points to ever get ahead of you.
As far as other differences go:
- Slide numbers were removed. Never number your
slides.
- The background was simplified, and no pre-made
slide designs were used.
- Text color is now used sparingly, and color in
general is very regulated. Many images are
grayscale or tinted blue. The only full-color
picture comes on the last slide.
- It is now impossible for me to use my slides as a crutch and just read off of them.
Understanding RAD is the result of discovering that there is no one absolute way to prepare presentations. The original is exactly what someone might expect to see during a "typical" PowerPoint lecture. However, I hope that revising the slides will provide a fresher, more engaging experience when I give this presentation agan. Presentations don't have to settle for average. Challenge yourself when creating your slides, and see how you can improve your presentation.
A Case of Overshadowed Text
July 12, 2006 Filed in: Slide
Makeovers
Earlier today, Macintalk posted an article
regarding web browser performance on Mac OS X.
The write-up is an interesting read, and you can
find it right here. I couldn't help but
notice that their graphs were created using
Keynote's excellent Storyboard
theme. However, one of the graphs distracted me,
and I've reproduced it here.
This theme makes liberal use of Keynote's high quality shadows, and the shadows are enabled by default when you insert a table like the one seen above. It looks very pleasing, but a serious issue comes up when one tries to read the text below the graph. The shadow is obscuring the text. Now, Macintalk is not entirely to blame here. The author was not preparing an actual presentation, and this is the default location for the shadow.
Still, if I was going to present this at a technology conference or tradeshow, I would not want these shadows getting in the way of making my point. Fortunately, the solution is very easy. Using Keynote's Inspector palette, I can simply disable the shadow, or I can change its placement. Additionally, setting the text below the graph to bold will make it easier to read since it is smaller than 30 points.
In the image below, I tried to replicate the Macintalk slide as best I could quickly, and I made two changes. First, I set the text below the graph to bold. Second, I altered the shadow – decreasing its offset and changing the angel. The result?
Our table is still very attractive, and now everyone can read our text. We could still make some tweaks, but those two easy adjustments make the slide much more readable (and, if I worked for the OmniGroup, that would make me a very happy camper).
The basic lesson is this: Form is important in giving a presentation. Good slides make a good impact. However, do not let the aesthetic touches get in the way of your slides conveying your intended meaning. Look for confusing graphics and obscured text, and, if you find troublesome spots, simply fix them. After all, you don't want you audience squinting as the result of overshadowed text.
This theme makes liberal use of Keynote's high quality shadows, and the shadows are enabled by default when you insert a table like the one seen above. It looks very pleasing, but a serious issue comes up when one tries to read the text below the graph. The shadow is obscuring the text. Now, Macintalk is not entirely to blame here. The author was not preparing an actual presentation, and this is the default location for the shadow.
Still, if I was going to present this at a technology conference or tradeshow, I would not want these shadows getting in the way of making my point. Fortunately, the solution is very easy. Using Keynote's Inspector palette, I can simply disable the shadow, or I can change its placement. Additionally, setting the text below the graph to bold will make it easier to read since it is smaller than 30 points.
In the image below, I tried to replicate the Macintalk slide as best I could quickly, and I made two changes. First, I set the text below the graph to bold. Second, I altered the shadow – decreasing its offset and changing the angel. The result?
Our table is still very attractive, and now everyone can read our text. We could still make some tweaks, but those two easy adjustments make the slide much more readable (and, if I worked for the OmniGroup, that would make me a very happy camper).
The basic lesson is this: Form is important in giving a presentation. Good slides make a good impact. However, do not let the aesthetic touches get in the way of your slides conveying your intended meaning. Look for confusing graphics and obscured text, and, if you find troublesome spots, simply fix them. After all, you don't want you audience squinting as the result of overshadowed text.