Rethinking PowerPoint Design

Abraham Lincoln

b a c k n e x t h o m e

11/19/1863

Gettysburg Cemetery

Dedication

Abraham Lincoln

b a c k n e x t h o m e

11/19/1863

Agenda

Met on battlefield (great)

Dedicate portion of field - fitting!

Unfinished work (great tasks)

b a c k n e x t h o m e

11/19/1863

Not on Agenda!

Dedicate

Consecrate

Hallow

(in narrow sense)

Add or detract

Note or remember what we say

b a c k n e x t h o m e

11/19/1863

Review of Key Objectives

& Critical Success Factors

What makes nation unique

– Conceived in Liberty

– Men are equal

Shared vision

– New birth of freedom

– Gov’t of/for/by the people

b a c k n e x t h o m e

11/19/1863

Organizational Overview

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-87

Years

Now

New Nations

b a c k n e x t h o m e

11/19/1863

Summary

New nation

Civil war

Dedicate field

Dedicated to unfinished work

New birth of freedom

Government not perish

PowerPoint Run Amok

Battling Bullets

What is your reaction to this format?

The standard format is mentally exhausting!

Visuals, with limited text, are easier to process

Limit use of bullets to actual lists

• Your agenda items

• A summary

• A short list of important details

What should we use instead of bullets?

The Assertion – Evidence Model

What should we use instead of bullets?

The assertion-evidence model leads to increased recall

How could we fix this slide?

Visual evidence will keep your audience engaged

What do the slides highlight as important?

Presentation Zen

Presentation Zen Examples

Seth Godin on Making a Difference

Garr Reynold on Being Like Bamboo

Graphical “Outlining”

Lessig Style

Lawrence Lessig

Lessig's Talk on Free Culture and Copright

•Fast transitions, many slides

•Single word or short phrase

•Text can:

•Mirror

•Augment

•Contradict

Non-PowerPoint Options

There are more options than PowerPoint

Prezi

Kinetic, Topological Presentations

– Storytelling Techniques Explained

– Ron Gutman Explores Little-Known Benefits of Smiling

Consider using a screen-capture utility to make a video of non-local software

Hans Rosling Makes Stats Interesting

Sources

• Gettysburg Address Spoof from norvig.com • Afghanistan Stability from New York Times • Assertion-Evidence examples from Michael Alley at engr.psu.edu • Lessig image from fastcompany.com • All other images from presentationzen.com

• Laurence Lessig talk available at

http://randomfoo.net/oscon/2002/lessig/free.html

• Title font is WolfredNelson available at fontspace.com – Want to use a cool font in your PowerPoint? Be sure to embed the font

when you save it. Go to Save As… |Tools |Save Options to embed the fonts. (Won’t work if there are licensing restrictions (rare); it’ll tell you if there’s a problem.)