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.

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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.

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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.

Tags: makeover, readability, slide count, examples

Expressionist painter Vincent van Gogh is not considered a great artist because he adhered strictly to rules of perspective, texture, or color balance. His bold, provocative works are the result of creativity usurping the rules or art classes everywhere. Van Goh didn't just break rules in his paintings randomly, however. He seemed to have a intuitive grasp of knowing just when and how to defy convention in order to gain maximum effect.

This same principle carries over to effective presentation design. Most good presenters are aware of Guy Kawasaki's 10/20/30 Rule of PowerPoint – that is your presentation should be no more than 10 slides, 20 minutes long, and contain no font smaller than size 30. By and large, I can say I closely adhere to two of those three rules most of the time. Most presentations I have made for church have been 10-15 slides. My fonts tend to size in the high twenties to low thirties (the rule I'm not so good at), and, when rehearsed, most last twenty to thirty minutes.

In contrast to these, my presentation at ICE 2006 was 37 slides long. Why did I so fragrantly break the 10-slide rule? Quite frankly, the rule did not fit the situation. In this circumstance, it was appropriate to break a rule for the sake of impact. Was the presentation overly long? Not counting the Q & A section, I talked and demonstrated for roughly 30 minutes, and I had a 45-minute budget. Many slides flashed by in seconds to demonstrate an effect, and, in all, the entire presentation (in its final form) has only eleven "bullet points" (though no bullets are used).


Photo by Mylerdude on Flickr

Take one of my favorite presenters for example – Apple CEO Steve Jobs. A typical Seve Jobs Keynote (aka Stevenote) will last around two hours and contain roughly 150 slides. In fact, Kawasaki says Steve follows a 125+/90/60 Rule. Despite this, Mr. Jobs is practically the paradigm of good tradeshow presentation. His visuals are effective. Most of his demonstrations are carried out flawlessly – no BSODs here – and he uses text minimally but effectively. The 10/20/30 Rule is not entirely applicable to the situations he typically presents in, and he breaks the rule in a way that has an impact on his audience.

Even Guy Kawasaki, proponent of 10/20/30 used around 50 slides in his recent Art of the Start presentation at TieCon 2006. Why? The situation and style of presentation merited the additional slides. Despite the rather large deck of slides, at no point does Mr. Kawasaki feel longwinded or drawn-out in his speech. Even Garr Reynolds has a story of a time he used 285(!) slides in a presentation he gave about the Art of Presentations. If you are using your visuals effectively, your audience will not be aware of the number of your slides or how many or few of them remain. They will simply be engaged.

In this post, I've specifically tackled one rule of presentation design, and that is intentional. To go beyond this would create far too long of a post, but I may revisit this idea of rule breaking in the future. However, in order to break rules, we must first understand and respect the rules. I recommend reading Presentation Zen and the Presenting & Speaking category of Guy Kawasaki's blog for more tips. Additionally, you can see a small sampling of Steve Jobs' presentations right here. Anything worth presenting at all is worth presenting well, so take the time to learn some guidelines for creating your presentations. After that, you can find creative and meaningful ways to break those rules.

Tags: conventions, slide count, guy kawasaki, garr reynolds