At WiscNet’s 2007 Future Technology Conference I presented an Internet2 end-of-year review as Co-Chair of their Internet2 K20 Workgroup. My presentation was modeled after Edward Tufte’s approach to PowerPoint called The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint. The New York Times calls Tufte “The Leonardo da Vinci of data” and even NASA has asked for his assistance with visual analysis of space shuttle data from both Columbia and Challenger.
His research is really amazing. While re-reading his excellent 2005 brief The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint I wanted to make sure my presentation was right on the mark and tuned for the best possible visual reception.
As we are all aware, PowerPoint emerged (okay it was bundled with Word and Excel in the Office suite back in the day) as the most used slideware program regardless of location: conference room, classroom, gallery or boardroom. We all use this tool yet many presenters do not realize how PowerPoint actually kills your messages.
Can you imagine The Gettysburg Address as a PowerPoint presentation? Click here for an example of how a powerful message gets lost in a bad slideware program. So how is PowerPoint killing your messages?
If you care how you communicate, this is simply a must read. Tufte’s lessons are so important to learn and implement. He challenges you to communicate as effectively as possible while living in a dull, boring slideware world. For the most part our messages miss the mark and our audiences are bored … could there be anything worse?
PowerPoint is built in such a way that your behind the curve before you even start your slides. Ever feel your swimming upstream while building a presentation? God-awful templates are installed … templates that are visually appalling:
You already know your going to be bored watching any presentation using Balance.pot as the template. Branded templates from your company are just as bad.
How does PowerPoint (structurally) kill you presentation? Bullets. There is nothing more frustrating than attending a presentation with slides displaying 10 to 15 bullet points … on a single slide!
And what does your audience do while your speaking to bullet point #1?
They are reading your next three to four bullets … and more importantly — they are not listening to you. Tufte states in order to effectively communicate — use no more than six words per slide with NO bullets!
This was the focus of my presentation. This lesson forces you to be very clear with your message. Follow this rule with your next presentation. You will see how this rule sharpens your thinking about exactly what your adding to each slide. Forget about slide count. I would rather sit through a 40 slide presentation that hits the mark than 13 slides that overload you with too much data.
FYI: One of the great lessons about knowing your material occurred last year when I was preparing to address the faculty senate at MIAD. While the laptop was connected (and I was reviewing prepared slides) the projector died — literally 1 minute before I was to speak. So I simply closed my laptop and spoke extemporaneously. Prepare your material beforehand AND be prepared for delivery without power, notes or text.