Slides for Presenting V’s Slides for Reading
Olivia, One of my regular readers posted a comment on my last post regarding the issue of slide design in relation to whether the slides are meant to be a backdrop to a presenter or are meant as an online presentation to be read without any audio component, here is my reply
“Thanks Olivia you make a very valid point.
Often one of the reasons (excuses!) people give for wordy PPT slides is that the power point presentations they write most of the time are are internal information dumps designed to be read rather than presented.
They get so much in the habit of writing those type of wordy, bullet point laden, information dense, slides that they cannot break out of the mould when they have to design for a “real” presentation.
My challenge to them is to create interesting and visually stimulating power point slides that can stand on their own without too much data. Think about it! The way a book or a text document designed for reading is laid out, including use of diagrams and pictures, has a huge impact on its readability. If the slides are dull and boring will anybody read them anyway and, if they do, will they remember what they read? let’s not limit good design to presentation slides? Lets transform the way we use power point in all arenas
Why not tell me what you think –
My cousin recommended this blog and she was totally right keep up the fantastic work!
Thanks so much for taking the time to comment. If there are any topics related to presentation skills, publics speaking, influence or sales that you would like me to cover please leave nother comment or email me.
Gavin
Very helpful. I love the way you write. Do you have an RSS feed?
as far as i’m concerned,Power point slides are rarely usful in my presentations,as they limit my potential as well as being spontaneous,but there are unhidable merits as you may know.