How to Avoid Suislide

8/8/2019 How to Avoid Suislide

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1How to avoid suislide

Ruth Benny: www.confidentspeaking.asia

How to avoid suislide


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How to avoid suislide

Contents

Introduction ............................................................................................................ 3

Dual Coding Theory ............................................................................................. 4

Hatred of Powerpoint .......................................................................................... 5

The right tool for the job ...................................................................................... 5

Visual thinking ...................................................................................................... 6

Design & Delivery .................................................................................................... 7

Planning & producing .............................................................................................. 7

Design: planning .......................................................................................... 8

Design: producing ................................................................................................ 9

Pictures are powerful .................................................................................... 9

Less is more ................................................................................................ 11

SNR=Signal-to-noise ratio ........................................................................ 11

Colour ................................................................................................... 14

Font ....................................................................................................... 15

Animation .............................................................................................. 16

Use high quality images .............................................................................. 17

Creative Commons .......................................................................................... 17

Use full-bleed photos ....................................................................................... 18

Live Doodles ................................................................................................... 18

Delivery: 4 tips for delivering with slides ............................................................. 19

Position, position, position ......................................................................... 19

Keep the focus on you ............................................................................... 20

Make the structure explicit ......................................................................... 20

Use presenters view .................................................................................. 21

Present different .................................................................................................... 22

Connect with me ................................................................................................... 22

References ............................................................................................................. 23


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Introduction

(slide + document = slideument = suislide)These terms are from Garr Reynolds

(www.presentationzen.com).

Many excellent slideware applications are available. The

two most popular:

Microsoft Powerpoint

Apple Keynote

Others:

OpenOffice Impress (http://www.openoffice.org/product/impress.html)

Sliderocket (http://www.sliderocket.com/)

Prezi (http://prezi.com/my/)

Slidewareused effectivelyis a powerful tool. If it isnt:

Blame the fool, notthe toolAlthough slideware is

used for a number of

purposes, Im

approaching it as avisual aid to support areal life human speaker.

The slide to the left is

nota visual aid.

Source:www.siliconforestforum.com/2001.SessionTwo.BillRodoni.ppt
http://www.presentationzen.com/http://www.presentationzen.com/http://www.presentationzen.com/http://www.openoffice.org/product/impress.htmlhttp://www.openoffice.org/product/impress.htmlhttp://www.openoffice.org/product/impress.htmlhttp://www.sliderocket.com/http://www.sliderocket.com/http://www.sliderocket.com/http://prezi.com/my/http://prezi.com/my/http://prezi.com/my/http://c/Documents%20and%20Settings/hkpu/My%20Documents/EDC%20workshop/www.siliconforestforum.com/2001.SessionTwo.BillRodoni.ppthttp://c/Documents%20and%20Settings/hkpu/My%20Documents/EDC%20workshop/www.siliconforestforum.com/2001.SessionTwo.BillRodoni.ppthttp://c/Documents%20and%20Settings/hkpu/My%20Documents/EDC%20workshop/www.siliconforestforum.com/2001.SessionTwo.BillRodoni.ppthttp://c/Documents%20and%20Settings/hkpu/My%20Documents/EDC%20workshop/www.siliconforestforum.com/2001.SessionTwo.BillRodoni.ppthttp://prezi.com/my/http://www.sliderocket.com/http://www.openoffice.org/product/impress.htmlhttp://www.presentationzen.com/


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Dual Coding Theory

A typical slide looks something like this. The speaker will read aloud the words on the

slide. The trouble is, human beings cant listen and read at the same time.

Presentation

I have so much to tell you, that Im going to

write it all down and hope you get it

Just to be sure, Im going to read it to you at the

same time that you read it to yourself

Little do I realise that your auditory and visual

channels will be competing with each other, so you

probably wont get any of this at all

I might as well have sent you an email and stayed at

home.

Dual-coding theory (Paivio, 1986) states that we process verbal and visual informationthrough functionally independent (although interacting) subsystems.

recall/recognition is enhanced by presenting information in both visual and verbal

form. A typically text heavy slide is creating a traffic jam in our brains.


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Hatred of Powerpoint

Critics of Powerpoint are aplenty and vehemently vocal in their hatred of it.

This criticism is, I believe, directed at a particular style of using Powerpoint. In his now

famous essay, Edward R.Tufte (2003) says Powerpoint disrupts, dominates and

trivialises content and is intellectually

thin.

The style he criticises is what he calls

The Cognitive Style of Powerpoint.

This is a style borne of a desire to

extend slideware beyond its intended

useto use it as a 3 in 1 tool. I suggest

this is not the most effective use of

sideware in terms of the audiences levelof interest, recall and learning.

The right tool for the job

Powerpoint cannot fulfil the 3 in 1 role so many presenters try to force it to do:

Teleprompter (so the speaker can use the text as their script)

Visual aids (to complement what the speaker is saying)

Handouts (for the audience to take home and read later as an aide memoire)

Powerpoint = 3 in 1

notes

handouts

visual

aidsPPT


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Visual thinking

If we agree to abandon The Cognitive Style of Powerpoint, a more visual approachis the obvious one.

Image used under Creative Commons from jonny goldstein

Dan Roam (2009) has an interesting take on using pictures. This is highly relevant to

Powerpoint

Rethinking PowerPoint: Dan Roam interviewhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBgo9vZFias


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Design & Delivery

Planning & producing

We can learn a lot from Hollywood.

The Hollywood Model

1. Script

2. Storyboard

3. Screen

Many presenters in business and

academia have turned this model

on its head and reach

immediately for the PC when

preparing for a presentation.

A well-crafted presentation,

starting with a script that is thendeveloped into a storyboard

before finally being seen on screen can be worthy of an Oscar. Al Gore took a fancy

slide presentation on the road, filmed it and earned an Academy Award for An

Inconvenient Truth (2006).

Used under Creative Commons License Juampe Lpez


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Design: planning

Atkinson (2005) suggests an easy way of sending notes from MSWord to

MSPowerpoint.

He goes further and proposes a specific template to plan the content. Whether you

use the template or not, the method of sending a document to MSPowerpoint cansave time. The result is a solid basis on which to build visual slides. Your headings in

your MSWord document will become the titles of your sides.

Send Ms Word to MSPPT

To do this in Powerpoint 2007:

1. Save your MSWord file2. Open MS Powerpoint

3. Create a blank presentation4. Open -> files of type: select all

5. Select your MSWord file

6. Click open

You may also want to convert your MSPowerpoint files back to MSWord. See:

http://presentationsoft.about.com/od/powerpointinbusiness/ss/ppt_to_word.htm
http://presentationsoft.about.com/od/powerpointinbusiness/ss/ppt_to_word.htmhttp://presentationsoft.about.com/od/powerpointinbusiness/ss/ppt_to_word.htm


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Design: producing

Pictures are powerful

Naijar (1998) states that when we hear a piece of information, we will rememberonly 10% of it three days later. If a picture is added, well remember 65%.

So, a slide such as this:

can be represented more visually as:


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A table such as this is too much information to be squeezed onto a slide.

Price increase of consumer items 199X-200X

A graph may work better with relevant bits highlighted:


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Less is more

Four aspects of less is more:

SNR colour

font

animation

SNR=Signal-to-noise ratio

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signal-to-noise_ratio

Even Bill Gates himself is notorious for presenting with particularly noisy slides. Anoisy slide has too much going on; too many elements.

The solution is to simplify, simplify, simplify.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signal-to-noise_ratiohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signal-to-noise_ratiohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signal-to-noise_ratio


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Heres one message; three ways

This is very noisy. Using a

template with a sidebar, thisslide is difficult to understand for

a number of reasons:

patterned background

too many elements

too many colours

too much text

small text

inconsistency in labeling

47%

28%

18%

1%

5%

1%Nuclear electric power

Non-nuclear electric

power

Alternative energy

Agriculture & Forestry

Industry

Other

Carbon reductions 2000-2010

Source: DOE/ELA

This is the same information

presented in the same way, yet

with a simplified design.

the background is removed

the colours are muted

the legend is clearer

the title is shortened

This may work well if, and only

if, its essential to convey this

amount of data.

47%

If the point of the original slide

is to highlight the dominance of

nuclear electric power, this very

visual slide may work better.

An image such as this elicits a

more emotional response.

Emotion is memorable because

it is experienced.


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This slide is noisy for different reasons:

This is talking about four types of calibration. Why not chunk it down into 4 or 5

slides (including a title slide)? Slides are free!

Calibration

Four types of guage forchecking/calibrating

CMM

Block guage

Step guage

and so on with another two slides.


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Nancy Duarte

(2008) says,

presentationsare a glance

media just likebillboards.

She maintains

that you

should be able

to look at aslide and

understand its

message in 3

seconds.

Colour

Obviously, too much colour is distracting. Keep it simple. Or, you get adventurous

and create your own theme athttp://kuler.adobe.com/or www.colourlovers.com/
http://kuler.adobe.com/http://kuler.adobe.com/http://kuler.adobe.com/http://kuler.adobe.com/


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Font

Size

If a presentation becomes an eye-test, the strain becomestoo much and the audience will switch off.

Lots of rules have been prescribed as to the minimumfont size.

I use a simple test. View your slides in slide sorter view,

which is at 66% of their original size. If you can read the

text comfortably, it should be OK.

Of course, consider the size of the room, the size of thescreen and even the age of your audience.


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Font

Type

No consensus has been reached on the best font to use.

A good summary of the debate is at:

http://www.alexpoole.info/academic/literaturereview.html#part2

In general practice, most online media use sans-serif font. This is because the lesser

resolution can make very small serif characters harder to read than the equivalent

sans-serif characters with more complex shapes.

The most common sans-serif font is Arial.

If you accept Duartes assertion that presentations are a glance media, it also follows

that sans serif fonts are the way to go. Have a look at a few dozen billboards if yourestill unconvinced.

DONT UNDERLINE and DONT WRITE ALL IN CAPS.

Underlined text is most commonly a hyperlink these days. Underlining text may lead

people to think it is a link even if its not and wonder what they missed.

Writing in all capitals is considered shouting when in an email, so it follows that it

should be avoided in other media too.

Animation

Use animation with restraint. Although Powerpoint comes with many fancy features

that can make your text fly and swirl, it can also distract. A little animation can

certainly enhance.

See Duartes (2008) Chapter 9 Creating Movement.
http://www.alexpoole.info/academic/literaturereview.html#part2http://www.alexpoole.info/academic/literaturereview.html#part2http://www.alexpoole.info/academic/literaturereview.html#part2


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Use high quality images

Just five years ago, it was commonplace to useclipart.

In 2010, not only are many of these clipartimages pass, we have many more options.

Using high quality photographs is more

impressive. Images are easy to find online and

many are free to use under Creative Commons

licenses.

Creative Commons

Six main licenses exist. They are comprised of:

See:

http://hk.creativecommons.org/

http://creativecommons.org/

For high quality photos, search athttp://www.flickr.com/search/advanced/?

Credit each photo along the lines of Image used under Creative Commons from

[username]
http://hk.creativecommons.org/http://hk.creativecommons.org/http://creativecommons.org/http://creativecommons.org/http://www.flickr.com/search/advanced/http://www.flickr.com/search/advanced/http://www.flickr.com/search/advanced/http://www.flickr.com/search/advanced/http://creativecommons.org/http://hk.creativecommons.org/


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Use full-bleed photos

Lamma Winds

() is a wind turbine in

Tai Ling, Lamma Island, Hong Kong, where

the average wind velocity is 5.5 m/s.

5.5 m/s

The slide on the right has more impact than the one on the right. Ensure your image is

at least 500pixels wide for high enough resolution.

If you purchase images from a stock

library, the smallest size should be OK.

Do not attempt to use the previewthumbnail images. Not only is the

resolution too low, it communicates that

you (and your organisation) are cheap.

Live Doodles

An interesting blend of media is the trend of using live doodles in a presentation.When in slideshow mode (Powerpoint 2007), icons appear when you hover aroundthe bottom left corner.

If you have a remote mouse, you may be able to do simple highlighting and

annotations. But doodling would be a challenge.

A tablet makes it so much easier:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GeUp38UcbD4

http://www.ehow.com/how_4450554_use-tablet-pc-powerpoint-presentations.html
http://www.ehow.com/how_4450554_use-tablet-pc-powerpoint-presentations.htmlhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GeUp38UcbD4http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GeUp38UcbD4http://www.ehow.com/how_4450554_use-tablet-pc-powerpoint-presentations.htmlhttp://www.ehow.com/how_4450554_use-tablet-pc-powerpoint-presentations.htmlhttp://www.ehow.com/how_4450554_use-tablet-pc-powerpoint-presentations.htmlhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GeUp38UcbD4


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Delivery: 4 tips for delivering with slides

Position, position, position

Do all you can to set up the room to do you (and your slides) justice. Most rooms are

set up all wrong.

They usually have:

a podium or table that the speaker is expected to stand behind

a handheld microphone, sometimes bolted to the podium/table

a short cable to connect your PC to the projector/power (or no cable at all; just adesktop PC)

a screen at the back of the stage, set dead centre

Read more athttp://hongkongtoastmasters.blogspot.com/2010/04/who-moved-

furniture.html
http://hongkongtoastmasters.blogspot.com/2010/04/who-moved-furniture.htmlhttp://hongkongtoastmasters.blogspot.com/2010/04/who-moved-furniture.htmlhttp://hongkongtoastmasters.blogspot.com/2010/04/who-moved-furniture.htmlhttp://hongkongtoastmasters.blogspot.com/2010/04/who-moved-furniture.htmlhttp://hongkongtoastmasters.blogspot.com/2010/04/who-moved-furniture.htmlhttp://hongkongtoastmasters.blogspot.com/2010/04/who-moved-furniture.html


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Keep the focus on you

You are the presentation, not your slides. Turn on the lights and stand in the

spotlight.

As you deliver your slides, there will be times when you have finished talking about

one slide and you have something to say without visual support. If what youresaying is not directly related to the image being projected, turn it off.

Four ways to turn off the projector (temporarily; without turning it off at source):

1. Use the black out button on your remote clicker

2. Use the B button on the keyboard to make the screen black

3. Use the W button on the keyboard to make the screen white

4. Put a piece of paper in front of the light source (if on a table).

Make the structure explicit

Use title slides as advance organizers. This helps

your audience know where youre at, particularlyin longer presentations.

Youll see this in use on most good, larger websites

as in gov.hk.

use presenters view

deliver


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Use presenters view

A little known feature in MSPowerpoint

allows you to cheat and see your noteson screen. Of course, the audience sees

only the slide.

Microsofts instructions are pretty simple:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-

us/powerpoint/HA010565471033.aspx

Only for laptops.
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/powerpoint/HA010565471033.aspxhttp://office.microsoft.com/en-us/powerpoint/HA010565471033.aspxhttp://office.microsoft.com/en-us/powerpoint/HA010565471033.aspxhttp://office.microsoft.com/en-us/powerpoint/HA010565471033.aspxhttp://office.microsoft.com/en-us/powerpoint/HA010565471033.aspx


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Present different

Unfortunately, the bar is set pretty low when it comes to presentations, especiallythose that use slides.

If you can apply these techniques, you will be better than most of the rest.

More of Dilbert on Powerpoint at:

http://www.powerpointninja.com/for-fun/dilbert-on-powerpoint-presentations/

Connect with me

If your colleagues, staff or clients are interested in developing slide design skills and/or

public speaking skills, please get in touch:

Ruth Benny

Trainer/Speaker

Confident Speaking Asia

Tel: 9339 4749

Find me online at:

www.confidentspeaking.asia

http://www.linkedin.com/profile?viewProfile=&key=697952&trk=tab_pro
http://www.powerpointninja.com/for-fun/dilbert-on-powerpoint-presentations/http://www.powerpointninja.com/for-fun/dilbert-on-powerpoint-presentations/http://www.confidentspeaking.asia/http://www.confidentspeaking.asia/http://www.linkedin.com/profile?viewProfile=&key=697952&trk=tab_prohttp://www.linkedin.com/profile?viewProfile=&key=697952&trk=tab_prohttp://www.linkedin.com/profile?viewProfile=&key=697952&trk=tab_prohttp://www.confidentspeaking.asia/http://www.powerpointninja.com/for-fun/dilbert-on-powerpoint-presentations/


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References

Abela, Andrew V. Advanced presentations by design: creating communication thatdrives action 2008

Atkinson, Cliff. Beyond bullet points: using Microsoft PowerPoint to create

presentations that inform, motivate and inspire 2005

Duarte, Nancy. Slide:ology : the art and science of creating great presentations 2008

Gore, Albert, Guggenheim, Davis, David, Laurie, et al. An inconvenient truth 2006

Medina, John J., Soundview Executive Book Summaries and Books24x7, Inc. Brain

rules 2010

Najjar, L. J. Principles of educational multimedia user interface design 1998

Paivio, Allan. Mental representations: a dual coding approach 1986

Reynolds, Garr. Presentation zen design: simple design principles and techniques to

enhance your presentations 2010

Roam, Dan. Unfolding the napkin 2009

Roam, Dan. The back of the napkin: solving problems and selling ideas with pictures

2009

Tufte, Edward R. The cognitive style of PowerPoint 2003

Tufte, Edward R. The visual display of quantitative information 2001