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DEATH BY POWERPOINT (and how to avoid it)

Carolyn Guertin, PhD Digital Research Methods

Last updated July 2009

Some slides are used and/or adapted from Alexei Kapterev’s “Death by Powerpoint” © 2007

There are 300 million PowerPoint users

in the world*

*estimate

They do 30 million presentations

each day*

*estimate

50% of them are unbearable*

*conservative estimate

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LOTS of people are killing each other

with bad presentations right NOW

This is a vicious cycle. It does NOT have to be like this.

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The solution is plain enough.

The screen is superceding the page as the dominant mode in our time.

Why are you driving your points home with BULLETS?

Images, or images combined with text, convey your meaning far more effectively.

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Instead of snoring through the hail of bullet points, your audience will be listening.

Research shows

Bullet points inhibit intelligence. Bullet points are barriers.

Uniform slides are monotonous.

The best vehicle for information is a story.

This is important

Most slide shows fail due to a lack of…

Significance

Structure

Simplicity

Rehearsal

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Significance (and how to make it visually apparent.)

Why do you present?

To ‘pass on information’? It’s an occupational hazard? To make meaning?

What’s the subject matter and why does it matter to you? How can you conceptualize your material

so your audience follows your meaning?

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How Presentations Work

Significance creates interest.

Interest creates attention.

Attention leads to involvement. Are you passionate about what you do?

Have an insatiable curiosity?

Dream big?

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Outstanding in your field? All those things comprise the passion you need to succeed.

This does NOT.

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Structure (Chunk your information visually.)

How do you choose a structure?

Convincing

Memorable

Scalable

Your criteria should be, make it:

The major ways to structure are…

Lists

Trees

Maps

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The List

Orders basic information.

Shuffles variables.

Simple, additive structure.

The Tree

Identifies causal relationships, genealogies and other connections.

Top-down structure for existing knowledge.

Bottom-up structure for problem- solving.

The Map

Brainstorming tool.

Identifies complexity visually and spatially.

Infinite.

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Our capacity to receive, perceive, process and remember is LIMITED.

Demonstrate complex concepts VISUALLY

Give 3 to 4 reasons to support your points.

Most listeners will be overwhelmed by more.

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Simplicity (The achievement of maximum effect with minimum means.)

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Apparently, being simple is not that simple.

Here are some examples.

Too many presentations, like websites, are crowded with irrelevant, distracting information.

A PowerPoint presentation by Steve Jobs of Macintosh http://www.bnet.com/2422-13722_23-192173.html?tag=nl.e713

A PowerPoint presentation by Bill Gates of Microsoft

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“…beauty, grace, and visual elegance are achieved by elimination and omission” ~ Garr Reynolds

PowerPoint helps

Visualize complex ideas

Structure an argument

Make you a better teacher

People read faster than you talk, so you are redundant *

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Do NOT use PowerPoint as a:

Data Dump

Handout

Prompter

*

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Simple design rules*

One point per slide.

Few matching colors.

Very few fonts.

Photos, not clipart.

*pun intended

Images make it MEMORABLE.

If you need to SEND or PRINT your presentation…

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Create a document

Inform with little text*

*yes, you can

Rehearsal (Practice makes perfect.)

It will never work perfectly the first time.

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Feedback. Go get some.

TEST your equipment

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All this leads to…

Contact: Carolyn Guertin, PhD Director, eCreate Lab Department of English University of Texas at Arlington carolyn dot guertin at gmail dot com