{"id":154,"date":"2020-05-26T19:09:24","date_gmt":"2020-05-26T19:09:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abjohnson.net\/teaching\/?p=154"},"modified":"2020-06-01T19:12:32","modified_gmt":"2020-06-01T19:12:32","slug":"slideware","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abjohnson.net\/teaching\/slideware\/","title":{"rendered":"On Slides and Presentations"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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I’ve been interested in what makes presentations work (and not work) since my early days of teaching, when I realized that sometimes my slides were actually getting in the way of my teaching and distracting my students from real learning. (I wrote this<\/a> about that.) There have been a lot of well-deserved critiques of what we call “PowerPoint,” including Edward Tufte’s The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint<\/a>, which makes a case that bad PowerPointing has literally cost people their lives. But there are also some terrific books about making slideware work well, like Garr Reynolds’s Presentation Zen<\/a> and Nancy Duarte’s Slide:ology<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the spirit of those more optimistic books (and with real respect for important critiques of “bad PowerPoint”), this page presents a few key ideas about how to present well with slides.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ten Basic Guidelines<\/strong><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Below are ten rules\/guidelines that you can violate, if needed, but that are a good starting point for stronger presentation design and delivery. In the sections further down the page, I’ll include some additional links that make the case for why these are good rules.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. One Idea.<\/strong> Typically, use one slide per big idea; question your approach if a slide is trying to express more than one big idea.<\/li>
  2. One Image.<\/strong> For simple, effective design, try to use one big, clear non-clipart image, corner to corner, on your slide; ideally, it will be related to your point and will vividly underscore what you’re saying. (For inspiration<\/a>.)<\/li>
  3. Few Words.<\/strong> Include approximately six words to focus your audience; sometimes you can use more, but stellar presenters often use fewer. An exception<\/strong> to this rule might be a block of text you hope to consider together with the group, but even in such a case, think twice before reducing the font size much below 30.<\/li>
  4. Big Text.<\/strong> The minimum font size for a typical presentation slide is 30 points (or, alternatively, 1\/2 of the age of the oldest person in the room). (This rule comes from Guy Kawasaki<\/a>.)<\/li>
  5. No Bullets.<\/strong> Completely avoid bulleted lists, if you can; if you do use them, consider reducing them to mind-focusing keywords, rather than putting a lot of text on screen.<\/li>
  6. Handouts.<\/strong> Highly technical information belongs on a handout, not a slideument<\/a>. (Credit to Garr Reynolds for the notion of a slideument. More links on this, below.)<\/li>
  7. Print.<\/strong> If we need a handout for highly technical information, we should print one; if we need a handout with further information of any kind, we should print one; if we need a handout containing a block of text to consider together, we should print one.<\/li>
  8. Interaction.<\/strong> It’s always good to interact with whatever you’ve put on the screen.<\/li>
  9. You.<\/strong> The presentation is in you, not on the slide. (If the slides can really replace you as a presenter, we should cancel the meeting.)<\/li>
  10. Presenter Notes.<\/strong> Key clarifying information for a slide that is to be archived or distributed can be included in the “presenter notes” field, or in a slide attached at the end but not meant for presentation.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    There are some common moments where you’d violate a number of the rules above, primarily because you’re not designing a slide as a part of a presentation about ideas but as a container for information. For example, a meeting agenda on screen might have a whole lot of words on it. But for presentations meant to move and explain, the guidelines above have the potential to raise your game a great deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The MOST valuable link below is the first one under “Presentation Zen,” linking to Garr Reynolds’s 2007 talk at Google<\/a>. The most important minutes of that video are probably minutes 36 to 56.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    Presentation Zen<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    For a start, I’m just going to link to the work of Garr Reynolds<\/strong>, whose book Presentation Zen is a very good introduction to effective presentation design and delivery. Especially in 2006 and 2007, as he was gearing up to publish the book, Reynolds was constantly posting big, useful, well-illustrated ideas. Here are a few key ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    (1)<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    In 2007, Reynolds did a talk for Google<\/a> about his core principals for design and presentation. It’s about an hour, and every minute is valuable, but if you’re short on time, the 20 minutes starting at minute 36<\/strong> are a great place to start.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    (2)<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    Reynolds\u2019s Top Ten Slide DesignTips<\/strong>: Here<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    (3)<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    On Slideuments<\/strong> and Avoiding Them: Here<\/a> and Here<\/a> and Here<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    (4)<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    Comparing Steve Jobs<\/strong> and Bill Gates: Here<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    (5)<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    A Deck Full of Sample Slides<\/strong>: Here<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    (6)<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    Reynolds on “The Takahashi<\/strong> Method”: Here<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    (7)<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    Reynolds on “The Lessig<\/strong> Method”: Here<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    (8)<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    On Bullet Points<\/strong> and “Delusional  Briefing Slides”: Here<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    (9)<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    Learning from Billboards<\/strong>: Here<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    Guy Kawasaki’s 10\/20\/30 Rule<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    This 3 minute video<\/a> contains advice for people looking for money from venture capitalists, but any presenter can learn from it. Note, especially, the “30” part of the 10\/20\/30 rule. Here’s a webpage<\/a> with a brief sketch of what he wants to see from presenters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    What to Read<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    Garr Reynolds’s Presentation Zen<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Nancy Duarte’s Slide:ology<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Robin WIlliams’s Non-Designers Design Book<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    More to Come?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    Probably. Probably. Yet knowing how way leads on to way…<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    Compiled\/Created by Fred Johnson. Last update: 8\/19.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    I’ve been interested in what makes presentations work (and not work) since my early days of teaching, when I realized that sometimes my slides were…<\/p>\n

    Continue readingOn Slides and Presentations<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,5],"tags":[10,6],"class_list":["post-154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-howto","category-slideware","tag-howto","tag-slideware","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abjohnson.net\/teaching\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abjohnson.net\/teaching\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abjohnson.net\/teaching\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abjohnson.net\/teaching\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abjohnson.net\/teaching\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=154"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/abjohnson.net\/teaching\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":201,"href":"https:\/\/abjohnson.net\/teaching\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154\/revisions\/201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abjohnson.net\/teaching\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abjohnson.net\/teaching\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abjohnson.net\/teaching\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}