Humans are visual creatures so there are certain dos and don’ts to avoid what is known as ‘Death by PowerPoint’.
When we say PowerPoint these days we are including all the other presentation software packages that are out there, but they all have the same thing in common. They are tools, and like all tools in the wrong hands they do the job badly.
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Slide after slide, bullet point after bullet point, yet it boils down to one simple thing – are you holding the attention of your audience?
Advertising guru David Ogilvy once quipped, “Most people use PowerPoint like a drunk uses a lamppost – for support rather than for illumination.”
So what is generally wrong? Let’s start with too much information, thoughtless clip-art, tiny (or huge!) lettering, reading verbatim from the slides – it’s bad… all bad.
According to research, 90% of information transmitted to the brain is visual. In addition, visuals are processed 60,000 times faster in the brain than text. That means that your presentations need to be visually captivating.
However, what happens when we tell people to aim for more visuals and less text? – yes, just more clip art!
‘Death by PowerPoint’ can be avoided if the speaker uses the technology as a visual aid to enhance their message, instead of relying on the technology to serve as the focus of the presentation.
Professional presentation designers understand this, they know how to inform an audience visually and when to leave things out. They know the presentation is a tool and to use it effectively they have a three step mantra –
- Add High Impact Visuals
- Bullets Kill Presentations
- Edit Words, Add Images
To find out how to get more out of your PowerPoint presentation Omnia Creative will do a free three slide makeover for you. Just follow this link to find out more.
