Modern Presentation Design?

I was challenged to write about modern presentation design. The challenge was intended to focus on slide design. I choose to relate that to the overall presentation purpose and delivery.

PowerPoint MVP, Ellen Finkelstein orchestrated this challenge to a group of presentation specialists. I was one of several who accepted her challenge. You can find the links within this article. If you’re planning to use PowerPoint slides in the next year, be sure to follow each link and read these posts. It could make the difference between grief and joy for your next presentation.

The concept intrigued me because I wondered about the use of the word modern as applied to presentations. I normally associate modern with fashion – particularly for clothing, home design and automobiles.

Modern seems to be about style, image and novelty. I was tempted to dismiss the subject as trivial.

How might modern design apply to presentation? Let’s remember that the goal isn’t to be modern. The goal is to deliver an effective presentation that persuades the listeners of the value of the message and to act accordingly. Could modern design be a valuable tool for presenters?

The relevant question is, “Might modern design enhance the effectiveness of the presentation?”

I believe the answer is yes.

Novelty

Novelty in design and delivery can help to attract and hold the attention of the audience. It doesn’t take much to achieve this because we’ve suffered through too many boring same old presentations.

Troy Chollar predicts more effective use of eye-catching transitions with Morph.

Image

A presenter wants to project an image of confidence, credibility and commitment. Modern design can contribute to that powerful image because it demonstrates awareness, resourcefulness and extra effort.

Craig Hadden offers a unique tip about displaying your Twitter account on your slides to stimulate social media interaction.

If you’re wondering “should you go wide screen?” Anug Malhotra addresses that question along with 16 other practical suggestions on his list of 17 Tips for 2017.

Style

Each presenter should follow proven presentation principles and adapt the relevant techniques to their own personal style. When they do that, they appear natural, comfortable and more trustworthy.

Ellen Finkelstein offers 10 suggestions of modern style including thin fonts and borders.

Ken Molay reminds us that modern design can make it more challenging to use the software. Modern doesn’t always mean better.

Mike Parkinson reminds presenters that it’s imperative to connect the dots for your listeners. One way to do that is with the use of the PowerPoint Zoom feature which is an adaption of Prezi.

Should you modernize your presentation slides?

Yes – if you want better results from your presentations.

What are your questions and ideas about modern presentation design?

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6 Ways to Quit Bullet Points with Style

Practical tips from this slideshow and well illustrated.

6 Ways to Quit Bullet Points with Style from Podium Wisdom

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Four ways to reach the visual learners in your audience

The majority of people are visual learners. This means they need to see it before they understand your message and believe it.

In my experience most people need to see some part of your message to make it stick. The question is “How do they see it?”

Three important clarifications

1. Visual means the images that we process in the visual cortex of the brain. 
2. The eye is only one source of visual input. 
3. Not everything seen by the eye is processed in the visual cortex.

Here are four ways to convey visual messages to your audience.

Display images on the screen
Use PowerPoint or other software to display photos, drawings, diagrams, charts, sketches, cartoons or video.  These are images.

Warning!
The most common mistake is putting text on a slide and believing that is visual. Text on a slide is not a visual. It’s simply text which is processed in a different part of the brain (Wernicke’s Area).

Some speakers don’t really care if it’s visual. They blatantly use text slides as their notes – not to help the audience.

Tell Colorful Stories
I believe that this is the most effective way to convey visuals. Tell your stories effectively and you plant strong visuals into the minds of your audience. Test the effectiveness of your stories by asking people what they saw. Tell colorful stories and people will always see your message.

Your Body Language
The most important visual in the room could be you. Your dress, posture, movement and gestures transmit powerful messages about your passion, credibility and confidence. Those feelings are the foundations of persuading your audience to act. Your audience will often remember an image of you that either supports your message or destroys it.

Use Props
Steve Jobs pulled the MacBook Air out of an envelope for the visual imagery. Magicians use props to misdirect attention. You might use a model to illustrate your project. I admired a presenter as he bounced a basketball to transition to his talk about computer animation.  An abstract concept can often be clarified with the help of a simple prop.

When preparing your presentation, plan how you will visually convey the most important message.

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How to Make Stats More Interesting

Watch this video to discover:
1. how to take stats from boring to brilliant and
2. how to make charts on your slides more entertaining and instructive.

This video is from a TED talk by Hans Rosling. When I first heard the topic and saw the typical chart displayed I expected a boring lecture. I was delightfully suprised. I enjoyed the presentation and understand his message.

If you thought that a presentation packed with statistics has to be boring, watch this and enjoy.






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Save Us From Ugly PowerPoint Slides

How can you change this ugly PowerPoint typical bar chart slide ...

...into this simple and more visual pleasing PowerPoint slide?

Notice that the second slide is more visually pleasing. It's also much easier to understand the key point - that Australia leads the world in this study.

If you are ready to display better PowerPoint Slides with your next presentation and you would like to learn how to create these slides faster yourself - then check out this guide:

Slides Made Simple

There's no need to spend thousands of dollars hiring a design company to create your slides.

There's no need to embarrass yourself by using boring and ugly slides.

There's no need to waste day's learning how to be a graphic designer.

Download this practical guide to creating simple and effective visual slides and you will immediately start re-programing your brain to design better slides every time.

Click here to grab your copy of Slides Made Simple

PS: It comes with a money back guarantee.


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Worst PowerPoint Slides Contest - Worst of the Worst

Here are the "winners" of the Worst PowerPoint Slides contest sponsored by InFocus.

Laugh at these designs then quickly to look at some of your PowerPoint slides.

If you don't laugh when you see these slides, then you better get help for your PowerPoint slides - fast. Who knows what it could be costing you.

Click this link to view the Worst PowerPoint Slides



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Eye Movement for Your PowerPoint Slides

Eye Flow Test

Check the design of your slides with the eye flow test.

1. Where is the first place the eyes of your audience will go when the slide appears?

2. After a few seconds where do the eyes go next? 

3. With a well designed slide you should know the third place their eyes go to.

If you are not sure where the eyes go when the slide comes up – then you don’t know where your audience is looking or what they might be thinking. How can you be on their wavelength if you don’t know their wavelength?

If your slides don’t pass the eye flow test, go back and redesign or remove that offending slide.

How do you know where the eyes go? Test yourself. Look at advertisements in magazines. Notice where your eyes stop first. Ask yourself “why?” Eye flow is easy to predict because of important principles that determine how our eyes move.

Some things to understand about our eyes

• They jump from point to point.
• They are attracted to light.
• They are attracted to motion.
• They tend to start at the top left of the screen/ page because of the way we learned to read.
• They look to images before text.
• They seek familiar patterns.
• They notice the unusual.

You can learn more about simple graphic design from the book, "The Non-designers Design Handbook" by Robin Williams. This book explains four fundamentals of graphic design which are essential to creating effective visuals.

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