The Top 7 PowerPoint slide designs

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The PowerPoint revolution has sparked the evolution of different styles of PowerPoint design.  I’ve identified seven different styles to inspire you  - do add others in the comments.

If you’re just getting started with creating non-bullet point slides, I recommend the assertion-evidence or PresentationZen style. Then start mixing and matching between styles to provide variety for your audience.

The assertion-evidence slide

Professor Michael Alley is most often credited with this style. The slide is composed of two parts:

1. A short sentence headline that states the main assertion of the slide
2. Evidence of that assertion presented in a visual manner.

Here’s Alley’s example of a bullet-point slide make-over using the assertion-evidence style:

This format is also similar to Cliff Atkinson’s Beyond Bullet Points approach. It’s the only format which has consciously taken into account Mayer’s multimedia learning principles. It’s also one of the easiest to put into practice. I recommend it as the easiest way to transition away from bullet-point slides.

Ellen Finkelstein has created a slidecast on the assertion-evidence style, that she calls the Tell ‘n’ Show method.

How to use the assertion-evidence style

1. Identify the main points (called assertions in this method) you are making in your presentation.
2. Put each assertion on a separate slide.
3. Create visual evidence for each assertion. This could be in the form of photos (real or metaphoric representations), diagrams, charts or flowcharts.

If you’re short on time, leave the assertion unadorned on the slide - in a white font on a black background. Al Gore used a slide like this in his 2006 TED presentation:

Classic PresentationZen

The Presentation Zen style developed by Garr Reynolds has many elements in common with the Assertion-Evidence format but approaches slide design from a design perspective rather than a learning perspective. Garr teams high-quality photos with single words or short phrases or quotations:

Garr’s style has been widely copied. A Presentation Zen disciple won the recent SlideShare Credit Crisis contest with this slide deck:

For more examples of Garr’s slide design style see his sample slides on Slideshare.

How to copy the style

1. Find high-quality photos (istockphoto is a good choice).
2. Use subtle gradients and fades across the slide. Use a san serif font. Play with font colours and font size to make keywords stand out.
3. And of course, buy the book, Presentation Zen.

The Lessig method

Professor Lawrence Lessig is possibly more famous for his slide methodology than his causes (first copyright and now political corruption). Lessig flashes on the screen a few words punctuated with an occasional photo as he’s talking. To get the full effect of his method watch a few minutes of this recent video (if you’re reading this in your RSS feed, you may need to click through to the blogpost to see the video).

The Lessig method relies on super-accurate synchronisation between you and your slides. That’s something that you’ll only achieve after hours of rehearsal, so it’s not for the lazy. The tight choreography makes it more like a performance - a poetry reading - than a presentation.

Lessig’s method is unquestionably great branding. But is it effective? Does it help the average audience remember what he’s saying? The research into multimedia learning (which is the closest thing we have to research into learning from PowerPoint) would suggest not. I find myself focusing on the method rather than the message.

How to copy the method

First, only use the Lessig method if your priority is to dazzle your audience. If you still want to go ahead;

1. Script your talk.
2. Pick out the keyword or key phrase for each sentence and put it on a slide - white font on black background.
3. Then work hard to get your choreography perfect!

Lessig 2.0

A number of people have taken Lessig’s concept and run with it. The most famous is Dick Hardt of Sxip. But there’s another one you may not have seen from Adam Savage:

These presentations are like a 35mm slideshow on speed. The audience is not going to get bored - but what do they absorb and learn? There’s  a tendency for the photos to take over the presentation and for the message to get lost.

How to replicate Lessig 2.0

1. Have lots of photos.
2. Put them in sequence and then practice, practice, practice till you’ve got a smooth seamless delivery integrating your narrative and the slides. The synchronisation is not quite as critical as when you’re synching with words but it’s still lots of work.

Duarte Design Diagrams

The designers at Duarte are experts at converting concepts, ideas and facts into visuals. Check out their portfolio. Notice the iconic graphics, the restrained colour palette and the subtle but highly effective animation. I’ve reproduced a couple of screenshots of slides here (with Nancy Duarte’s permission) but these shots don’t do them justice:

These types of slides help us understand and grasp complex concepts - this should be one of the prime functions of PowerPoint and other slideware.  Yet - they’re under-utilised. When Slideshare ran the Credit Crisis slide contest I thought that we might see some great conceptual diagrams - but there were few and those I saw were badly executed.

How to create a diagram like Duarte Design

1. Start with a piece of paper in front of you.
2. Sketch visual expressions of your concept. Show relationships, processes, and changes over time.
3. Once you’ve got something on paper, then start building it in Powerpoint.
4. And for more inspiration read the Slide:ology blog and buy the Slide:ology book.

Ethos3 story-telling style

Scott Shwertly of Ethos3 tells stories with PowerPoint. In this clip below Scott creates contrasting characters and uses them to introduce his message:

To see the slides by themselves click through to the slideshare version of Meet Henry. Here’s another example of this stye from Bill746 (sorry that’s all I know):

I think this is a fun and lively way of making a point. But I wouldn’t want to sit through an entire presentation constructed this way.

How to construct story-telling PowerPoint slides

1. Decide on the point you want to get across.
2. Create your story and characters - you’ll note that both the examples above contrast good guy with bad guy.
3. Flesh out your characters with key details. You want your audience to relate to your characters.
4. Implement with high quality photos.

Comic style

Comics are the original combination of text and pictures. And now many people and organizations are experimenting with online comic presentations.

Garr Reynolds has used elements of this style successfully in his online presentations. He creates a host who guides us through the presentation with humour:

How to adapt the comic style to live presentations

To use this style in a live presentation needs some adaptation. In a live presentation most of the text that you normally see in an online comic presentation will be spoken by you and so should not be on the slide.

But you can still make use of some of the elements of an online comic presentation.

1. Have a character (or two) that runs through your visual presentation. Your character can be represented by a photo or be hand-drawn.
2. Have them occasionally comment on what you’re saying through a call-out.

Here’s a simple example from one of my presentations that I use as a demonstration on our courses. The presentation was about a government savings scheme and explained that anybody up to the age of 75 could open a savings scheme - with the exception of the family dog:

What other slide styles are there?

I’ve covered seven different slide design styles. What have I missed? Add them in the comments.

New research: warning about story-telling

The guru of multimedia learning Richard Mayer has just published a new paper that all presenters should take note of. The paper is called “Increased interestingness of extraneous details in a multimedia science presentation leads to decreased learning”.

The research

Students received one of two PowerPoint presentations about how a cold virus infects the human body.

Both PowerPoint presentations included interesting but irrelevant details about viruses. In the first presentation the details were of high-interest eg: the role of viruses in sex and death. In the second presentation the details were of low-interest eg: health tips about viruses.

Note that these details are topically relevant (eg: related to the topic of viruses) but not conceptually relevant (eg: related to the explanation of how viruses infect the human body).

The research studied how well students did on both retention (how much they remember) and understanding (how well they can apply what they have learnt).

The results

The students who received the second presentation (low-interest details) did much better on tests that measured understanding. However retention was not significantly different between the two groups. So as the interestingness of details increased, understanding decreased. Mayer concludes:

Results are consistent with a cognitive theory of multimedia learning, in which highly interesting details sap processing capacity away from deeper cognitive processing of the core material during learning.

Two competing theories

This research further supports the cognitive theory of multimedia learning.

But most presentation books and blogs are enthrall to arousal theory: the idea that people learn better when they are emotionally aroused by information (for references see Multimedia Learning). Therefore they emphasise telling stories as a way of emotionally engaging the audience. But Mayer says in Multimedia Learning:

In spite of its commonsense approach, arousal theory is based on an outmoded view of learning as information acquisition - the idea that learning involves taking information from the teacher and putting it into the learner. In contrast, the cognitive theory of multimedia learning is based on the view of learning as knowledge construction - the idea that learners actively build mental representations based on what is presented and what they already know. It follows that seductive details may interfere with the process of knowledge construction.

What does this mean for you and your presentation?

Don’t include a story that is interesting and emotionally engaging but not 100% conceptually relevant. Though in the short-term you’ll keep the attention of your audience, it will sacrifice focus and understanding of your core message.

15 ways to improve your presentations in 2009

This is a big meaty post with 15 ways to improve your presentations.  These ideas are designed to challenge you to stretch yourself. With each idea I’ve pointed you to further resources from fellow presentation bloggers or from my own archives.

Choose one or two to work on at a time. Bookmark this post, so that once you’ve implemented those, you can come back and work on some more during the year.

1. Customise your presentations for each audience

Don’t be satisfied with rolling out the same presentation time and time again. Customising your presentation makes a difference. It gets noticed by your audience - and you go up in their estimation. Christophe Harrer from the Empower Your Point blog says:

The real gain comes from your audience’s reciprocity. If they can feel and recognize all the hard-work and extra attention you have put in the presentation for them, they will feel the need to reciprocate. They will listen carefully, ask more questions and probably agree more.

2. Brand your Key Message

Your key message is what you want your audience to do or remember from your presentation. Your key message can be a branding statement for your presentation. Doug Stevenson has a great podcast on how to do this - he calls it mental Velcro. Here’s a quote from Doug:

Branding is about having one consistent message, one consistent imprint that is repeated so often and so consistently that it sticks to the brain of the intended audience like mental Velcro.

3. Switch the focus from yourself to your audience

In a pitching or selling presentation, it’s easy to get caught up in telling your audience about you and your organisation - rather then focusing on them and their needs. John Windsor tells of a construction executive who wanted to show off his firm’s safety award. John coached him to switch his focus to his prospective client:

“We share your concerns about safety on this project and here is how we’re going to manage it.” [then detail three specific aspects] “And as evidence of our commitment and results, we were recently recognized for having the best safety record in the nation for a firm of our size.”

Do you have a section on the credentials of your company - before you get to what your prospective client is really interested in - their own problems and how you can solve them? Leave the credentials out. Once the prospect is interested in what you have to offer they’ll ask questions to ensure that you have the ability to effectively deliver.

4. Delete or explain the jargon in your presentations

Have you been guilty of using jargon without explaining it. M J Plebon of the Presenting Your Point blog talks of the dangers of jargon. He relates his experience with presenting on the topic of “oil/water emulsions”:

Claiming your technology treated an oily water emulsion could have two completely different meanings based on the audience’s background.  Not knowing the difference in the meaning could damage your professional credibility and communicate a confusing message.  One way to remain safe was to define the term oil/water emulsion every time the presentation was made.  This would put everyone on the same page and reference point.

So if you use jargon - assess whether it’s the only way to express your concept succinctly. If it is (and I accept that there are times when it’s the best way) the first time you use it take a few seconds to explain it so that every person in your audience understands you.

5. Increase the percentage of evidence in your presentations

I define evidence as anything that backs-up your points. It includes examples, anecdotes, case studies, statistics, endorsements, testimonials and quotes. I’ve done an analysis of   presentations by Seth Godin, Al Gore, and Malcolm Gladwell : 

Using evidence in your presentations enhances both your credibility and audience engagement. Analyse the percentage of evidence in your presentations - do you reach the level of Gore, Godin and Gladwell?

6. Incorporate dialogue into your stories

Incorporating dialogue into your stories draws the audience in and invites them to identify with the characters in your story. Anytime a story has more than one person you have an opportunity to add dialogue. Steve Boyd has a couple of posts on using dialogue Conversations in Presentations and Add Spice to your Speech with Dialogue. He tells a couple of traditional dialogue-based stories, but then explains how you can add dialogue to spice up any story:

The dialogue could even be a way of giving information, such as relating a case study that involved two or three people. You simply report on what they say. For example, a new employee was part of a question and answer session with the CEO of the company. He asked, “What is the skill you have that has meant the most in getting to be president of this company. His answer was, “I have learned to listen.”

7. Pay attention to staging

Andrew Dlugan says this about staging:

Staging your speech means utilizing the 3-dimensional space around you in the most effective way possible.

• Novice speakers will chain themselves to the lectern or stand in one spot on the middle of the stage.
• Intermediate speakers will meander randomly around the speaking area. Body movement appeals to the audience and keeps attention.
• Great speakers move around the speaking area with purpose. Every time they take a few steps, they are doing so with a distinct purpose in mind.

Are you ready to move to the level of great speakers? Check out my post 9 ways to use space in your presentation.

8. Take questions throughout your presentation

When you’re just starting out presenting, it makes sense to take questions near the end of your presentation. It’s more manageable and there’s less risk that you’ll go off track. But from the audience’s point of view, being able to ask a question at the time that it occurs to them is ideal. So challenge yourself to take questions throughout. A half-way place is to break your presentation into modules - and take questions at the end of each module. Check out my post 8 tips for encouraging questions in your presentation.

9. Refresh your attitude to hostile questioners

It’s easy to get on the defensive when somebody questions you aggressively. Terry Gault of Speak Fearlessly has a great post on dealing calmly with provocative people.

10. Give your slides a facelift

Have you been using the same slides for some time? Chances are they’re looking a bit dated. Give them a face-lift. This will be much easier if you’ve updated to PowerPoint 2007 (see below). Here are some things to do:

• If you’re using a standard PowerPoint template - throw it out. Read Laura Bergell’s post Now entering the Post-template, PowerPoint design era.
• Have any of your stock photos become cliched - see the slideology post series on cliched images. If so, search for new images or take them yourself.
• Update your design - rounded corners, drop-shadows, graduated shades of the same colour for charts - see my post on adding elegance to your PowerPoint slide design.

11. Upgrade to PowerPoint 2007

The drop-shadows in PowerPoint 2003 are so bad, I would be embarrassed to use them. Powerpoint 2007 enables you to go another level in terms of your Powerpoint slide design.  Check out this post from Robert Lane of Aspire Communications reviewing PowerPoint 2007.

12. Add a flipchart to your visual aids

Providing variety is a simple way of keeping an audience engaged. Mixing up your powerPoint with a flipchart does just that.

Hand-drawing on a flipchart is dynamic and real. As I describe in my post The Power of the Flipchart it provides an energy that PowerPoint can’t match.

13. Improve your drawing skills

Yes, I did this and you can too. I can now draw a better stick figure. Check out Dave Gray’s How to draw a Stick Figure to get you started.

14. Think like a designer

You may think that you’re not a designer. But design is no longer just for designers. If you’re presenting with Powerpoint, you need to develop your sensitivity to good and bad designs and what makes them so. Check out Garr Reynolds’ post on design books and listen to his webinar on How to think like a designer (you have to enter your name and e-mail address to listen - but it’s worth it).

15. Rehearse before each presentation

I’ve blogged before on the benefits of rehearsal. So has just about every other public speaking/presentation blogger (see my post on rehearsal for links). It’s probably the single most powerful thing you can do to improve the quality of your presentation.

Hey, that’s it. 15 ways to improve your presentations. What would you add to this list? What do you plan to do to improve your presentations in 2009? Tell us in the Comments.

And don’t forget to bookmark this post so that you can come back to it through the year and choose another aspect of your presenting skills to work on.

What would you like to see in PowerPoint slide design in 2009?

I’ve invited a number of bloggers to write a post on their own blogs on the theme “What I’d like to see in PowerPoint slide design in 2009″.

This is a Group Writing Project (see www.groupwritingprojects.com/about for more information) and you are welcome to contribute. Here’s how you can take part:

If you’ve got a blog:

Write a post on your own blog and publish it by 12th January. The post doesn’t have to have the title I’ve suggested - as long as it ties into the theme. Then send me an e-mail (olivia[at]effectivespeaking.co.nz) or write a comment on this post with a link to your post. I’ll need this by 12th January.

If you don’t have a blog:

You can still take part - just write a comment on this post by 12th January.

In the week following 12th January, I’ll publish a summary of all the contributing posts and comments with links to the full posts.

The idea for this project was sparked by a provocative post by Laura Bergells on her Maniactive blog. You might want to check it out to get your own ideas flowing.

I’m looking forward to your contribution and to a stimulating and creative flow of ideas.

Olivia

How to do an agenda slide like Garr Reynolds

Garr Reynolds’ slides from his recent webcast are now online. Garr has an innovative agenda slide. He’s transformed what is normally a boring bullet-point slide into something beautiful and effective. Check out slides 7 to 12 for the agenda slide sequence:

Here’s what I like about it:

1. It’s a visual representation of the presentation timeline. I can see how much time is going to be spent on each section of the presentation.
2. It reinforces the main theme of the presentation. I can immediately grasp that the most important part of the presentation is “How design thinking can help”.  Garr uses both size and colour to achieve this.
3. It looks beautiful. Notice in particular the trademark Garr colour scheme - varying shades of the same colour plus one stand-out colour for the most important section.
4. It’s an elegant solution. Horizontal timelines are intuitive but it’s sometimes difficult to fit the words in horizontally. By putting some above and and some below the line Garr has elegantly solved this problem.

It’s easy to make an agenda slide like this. Create one for your next presentation and your audience will find it both innovative and useful.

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