Duarte Design's Five Rules for Making Presentations that Don't Suck

Everyone on some level must hate PowerPoint, because it evokes the image of endless hours slide boredom and train wreck presentations. PowerPoint first appeared in the mid-1980s and became the De facto standard for business presentations competing against early players like Aldus Persuasion and Harvard Graphics. Over the years it's become one of the most abused pieces of software because, in essence, it's a design tool for presentations and not everyone is good designer. But there are people out there who are trying to make a change and save the world from "Death by Powerpoint". Garr Reynolds and Nancy Duarte are two that come right mind as they have built their businesses and brands on creating inspirational presentation designs.

Nancy Duarte is author of slide:ology: The Art and Science of Creating Great Presentations, and CEO of Duarte Design, the firm that was created Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth presentation. This video, Duarte’s Five Rules for Creating World-Changing Presentations, expands on the trailer that was included in the release of Microsoft Office 2010 Public Beta last fall and was created using PowerPoint 2010.

Rather than look at this video as a marketing tool for Duarte Designs (which it does a great job at doing) – consider this as a public service announcement.

Nancy Duarte shared the 5 Rules in a guest post, 5 Tips on Getting PowerPoint to Sing! on the The PowerPoint Team Blog:

"The foundation of the script came from the Manifesto: The Five Theses of the Power of a Presentation from our book slide:ology which are:

1. Treat Your Audience as King: They didn’t come to your presentation to see you. They came to find out what you can do for them. Make it clear what they are to do.
2. Spread Ideas and Move people: Communicate your ideas with strong visual grammar to engage all their senses and they will adopt the ideas as their own.
3. Help The Audience See What You’re Saying: Guide your audience through ideas in a way that helps, not hinders their comprehension. Appeal not only to their verbal senses, but to their visual senses as well.
4. Practice design, Not Decoration: Don’t just make pretty talking point. Instead, display information in a way that makes complex information clear.
5. Cultivate Healthy Relationships: Display information in the best way possible for comprehension rather than using slides as a crutch." - from The PowerPoint Team Blog : 5 Tips on Getting PowerPoint to Sing!

Related:

• Larry Kless' Weblog: VizThink Webinar: Creating Powerful Presentations with Nancy Duarte
• Duarte Blog » Blog Archive » 5 Ways to Make PowerPoint Sing! (And Dance!)

VizThink Webinar: Creating Powerful Presentations with Nancy Duarte

How many of you out there create presentations for yourself or others? Can I see a show of hands? If you're not raising your hand then please stay tuned for the next blog post. Or if I've peaked your interest please read on.

A reoccurring theme in this blog is the "Death by Powerpoint" syndrome and the challenges that are faced in meeting rooms all over the world. How do we create an engaging presentations to get our messages across? The easy way out is to open Powerpoint and start typing using the basic black and white template. But that method doesn't take into account any design elements, visual theory or storytelling, you're only writing the presentation. It's a one dimensional approach that ultimately bores your audience. There's been so many humorous videos like the one from the other day that illustrate the pain that audiences must endure sitting through poorly crafted presentations.

But there's hope in the form of design experts who share their tips, tricks and best practices on creating better presentations. This is a recording of a recent webinar hosted by VizThink featuring, Nancy Duarte, principal of Duarte Design the firm that was created Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth presentation, who discusses how to create powerful presentations. If you don't have much time to watch it from the start I suggest you jump sections #4 and #5.

Creating Powerful Presentations

Hint: Use the Full Screen Button to see this video in greater detail.

They used GoToMeeting as their webinar platform which is now cross platform on Mac and PC. Robin Good just posted a review of the new version here. There's also some helpful information in teh comments about how they captured and deployed the webinar recording.

Suggested reading:
Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery
By Garr Reynolds

Read an excerpt Make Presentations That People Will Remember

Nancy Duarte recommended this slideshow by jbrenman:
Shift Happens




Related blog posts:

• Life After Death by Powerpoint
• More Death By Powerpoint
• The Power of the Slideshow
• Have You Met Henry?
• Create and share your Slideshows on Slide.com
• Mashable - Forget PowerPoint: 13 Online Presentation Apps

The Power of the Slideshow

This topic has kept coming up for me and was punctuated by a discussion last month at Streaming Media West called, "TV's Last Gasp, How Broadcasters Are Making The Move To The Web." The panel was moderated by Jose Castillo, President, thinkjose LLC. and included speakers from SNL Kagan, FOX Sports, Associated Press and Online Studio, Current TV. The panel focused mainly on what the TV networks were doing (and need to do) to move their traditional TV content models to the online world.

The main take home message was that there's a huge on-line market for super-niche content. Web-only content that's not just an upload of an existing TV shows but a unique experience that offers Web 2.0 "lean forward" features (UGC, mashups, folksonomy, tagging, comments). I've seen some of that already in the form of web-only webisodes, but there's not a lot people in the traditional TV space creating content specifically for the web. Video quality is also still an issue for sports and some entertainment genres due to low video compression data rates.

A great example of the shift from fast action and movement to a more simple approach is the of traditional photo essay with narration. It's a different way to tell stories than full motion video because photographers have different aesthetic. The power of the single image capturing that frozen moment in time, compelling wide angles, rich saturated color or stark black and white. Audio narration adds depth and a layer of truth making the pictures come to life. Much like how Ken Burns revolutionized the documentary genre, this format is catching on as Slideshare and Flickr become extensions of how we tell our stories. Not with full motion video or even animation, just pictures, words and sound.

Garr Reynolds recently shared an example from the NY Times in his blog, Images, narration, text: the power of the slideshow which I've featured here The slideshow is from Free and Uneasy: The First Year Out. Garr sums it up by saying, "This is very simple—nothing fancy or high-tech—and yet how powerful... This is a technique that storytellers, such as documentary film makers, often use. And powerful images, plus thoughtful narration and maybe even a bit of text, can help you tell your story in ways that bullet points never could."

It's that single image frozen in time. A compelling moment captured by the eye of the photographer. Whether it's a famous image like this* or one taken with your own camera, it's the power of the still photo that creates an open space of emotion for the viewer to explore.

There are a bundle of tools you can use to create your multimedia slideshows. In my department at work, the graphic arts, web and video departments have collaborated to create wonderful photo essays with narration. One series in particular documented a group of employees who volunteered in the rebuilding process after Hurricane Katrina. They captured audio and photos in the field and emailed them back to the office hundreds of miles away. The final project was compiled in Flash. You can view the Gulf Coast Volunteer Project here.

A few other colleagues in other departments have suggested trying Soundslides, a rapid production tool for still image and audio web presentations. I know there are a whole slew of other products and audio tools to create these type of presentations but more on that for another post. If you have any you'd like to share, please let me know.

*"Migrant Mother [Oklahoma, 1936] by Dorothea Lange

Life After Death by Powerpoint

When I first had the idea to start this blog I thought about posting this video right away. A colleague of mine had sent me this a few months ago and I crack up every time I watch it, because I see these mistakes on a daily basis at my job.


Life After Death by PowerPoint

Don McMillan | MySpace Video

The video is from one of his comedy sketches and you can view more of his video on his MySpace page.

Here's another must-see slideshow created by presentation consultant Alexei Kapterev called “Death by PowerPoint (and how to fight it)”. He describes the slideshow as, "Fighting death by PowerPoint... How to make a presentation and not to bore your audience to death"

| View | Upload your own

If you want some advise on creating better Powerpoints for video, I've included a link below to a document I created a number of years ago for my videoconferencing clients called, "Designing Effective Graphics for Videoconferencing."


DivShare File - designing_ppt.pdf


You can also check Garr Reynolds' web site for his Top 10 Slide Tips. His blog Presentation Zen also offers a wealth of professional design and presentation tips.

Finally, if you can't get enough of Powerpoint you can also check out Master Views International.





The web site is devoted to "Information Design and Powerpoint Skills, Tools and Resources: For International Presenters." I highly recommend it but be warned, if you're not careful you could spend hours there.