a randall powerpresentations

Power Presentations for

Berkeley-Columbia MBAs

Andrew Randall

October 12, 2007

Confession: I Was a PowerPoint Junkie §  My PowerPoints used to be full of

§  Text §  14 point font, to squeeze in as much

information as possible onto each slide. §  I would frequently use full sentences so I

wouldn’t forget what I wanted to say. §  Detailed diagrams §  Cheesy clip-art §  Cool animations

§  I was not alone: they were just like those of §  My colleagues §  Almost everyone else in the entire world

§  Then I saw a presentation by Steve Jobs and started to read a bit more about the theory behind good (and bad) presentations §  Apparently, this might not be the only

way to do things

“PowerPoint has allowed an endless expanse of dimwit ideas to be dressed up with graphical respectability” – Wall Street Journal, 6/20/07

“PowerPoint is like an outdoor light that attracts moths, and then destroys them…”

– Paul LeRoux & Peg Corwin, Visual Selling

PowerPoint: Killer App? T U E S D A Y , A U G U S T 3 0 , 2 0 0 5

By Ruth Marcus

Did PowerPoint make the space

shuttle crash? Could it doom

another mission? Preposterous as

this may sound, the ubiquitous

Microsoft "presentation software"

has twice been singled out for

special criticism by task forces

reviewing the space shuttle

disaster.

Perhaps I've sat through too many

PowerPoint presentations lately,

but I think the trouble with these

critics is that they don't go far

enough: The software may be as

much of a mind-numbing menace

to those of us who intend to remain

earthbound as it is to astronauts.

A17

“The Columbia Accident Investigation Board found that the distinctive cognitive style of PowerPoint reinforced the hierarchical filtering and biases of the NASA bureaucracy”

Substance

Style

Specifics

Structure

Sizzle

Most Important

Least Important

“Whereof one cannot

speak, thereof must

one remain silent”

– Wittgenstein

Substance

Structure Content for Stickiness

Substance

Structure

“Good ideas often have a

hard time succeeding

in the world”

Think: SUCCESs

Use the Slide Sorter View as Your Storyboard

Style: Strive for Simplicity

Substance

Structure

Style

Track Record of Successful Transitions

§  680x0 to PowerPC (1994 – 1996) §  Radical new RISC architecture §  Team did a great job (even though I wasn’t here!)

§  Successfully migrated entire product line in less than 3 years

§  Mac OS 9 to Max OS X (2001 – 2003) §  “Brain transplant”

§  Classic mode emulation for back-compatibility enabled smooth transition §  Combined Mac simplicity with rock-solid UNIX operating system – the most

advanced operating system on the planet §  World’s most successful new operating system introduction – 10 million

users by 2004 §  Now we’re migrating to Intel processor architecture

§  Great performance and power consumption §  Will enable us to deliver more insanely great products §  Set for success – proven we can do this before

§  In fact, we’ve been running OS X on Intel internally for some time!

Typography (Fonts)

Simple

Elegant

Sans Serif

Different

Appropriate

Guy Kawasaki’s Font Size Rule

Minimum font size

Age of oldest audience member

½ =

×

Carefully Chosen Words and Images Promote Understanding

Substance

Structure

Style

Specifics

Readers:

230 – 800 words per minute

• This is my first text bullet and it’s very interesting

• It’s even got a sub-bullet • This is my second bullet and it adds a new thought

• This is the last bullet on this slide (phew, I kept it short!)

• This is my first text bullet and it’s very interesting

• It’s even got a sub-bullet • This is my second bullet and it adds a new thought

• This is the last bullet on this slide (phew, I kept it short!)

Speakers:

160 words per minute

Your Audience Can Read Faster Than You Can Talk

Cognitive Science Provides Theoretical Support: The Modality Principle

Visual

Verbal

Bad Reasons for Verbose Slides

“ I’m giving them as handouts to refer to later”

“ I won’t remember what to say”

“ My audience needs all the details on the slide”

“ My company always does PowerPoint this way”

Select salient, strong, quality images

If the design should be as

simple as possible, why add images

at all?

Picture Superiority Effect

8.6

11.212.4

Words Pictures Words +Pictures

K. Mills & H. McMullan, A Study Of Short-term Memory Recall Of Pictures, Words, And Pictures And Words Presented Together, 2006

“When emotions are considered above everything else, don't be afraid to add more ornament.”

– John Maeda (MIT Media Lab)

According to the UN, more than a billion people do not have access to clean water

“The goal of making

messages ‘emotional’

is to make

people care.”

Great Image Sources

iStockphoto

Fotalia

Shutterstock

Jupiter Images

Strive for Subtle Sizzle

Substance

Structure

Style

Specifics

Sizzle

Tip #1 – “Smoked Glass” Overlay

68% of Seniors Find Love Online 68% of Seniors Find Love Online

Tip #1 – “Smoked Glass” Overlay

Rectangle shape

Format " AutoShape §  50% black fill § No border

White text

Tip #2 – Image Fade

Overall Impressions

• Generally positive

• Building design connects audience with modern art

• Facility poorly maintained

• Staff does not appear to understand mission

Tip #2 – Image Fade

Overlay rectangle shape

Format " AutoShape §  Fill Effects § Background color §  From 0% to 100%

transparency

Adjust size to image

Tip #3 – Photo “Objects”

Can purchase online (e.g. photoobjects.net)

“Set transparent color” on picture toolbar

May need to edit/crop first in Photoshop

Tip #4 – Formatting Charts

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

1st Qtr 2nd Qtr 3rd Qtr 4th Qtr

Tip #4 – Formatting Charts

3D vs. subtle 2D shading

Explore options

Minimize ink (Tufte)

Do You Even Need Axes?

2027

40

64

1st Qtr 2nd Qtr 3rd Qtr 4th Qtr

Treat Animations Like …

Entry / exit

Motion

Emphasis

Transitions

Rel ate

Copyright © 2007 MetaSwitch, a division of Data Connection • Proprietary and Confidential • All Rights Reserved. 61

MG3510: Industry-Leading Hardware Design

"  Compact form factor

"  Low power (1500W), high capacity cooling

"  2 x 6:1 redundant universal card slots

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

17”

12U

17.2”


MG2510: Same Power, Even More Compact

"  Same carrier class design in more compact chassis

"  Lower power (800W)

"  5:1 card slots

17”

7U

17.2”

“The MG2510 establishes a new benchmark for rack-space efficiency” – Current Analysis


Universal Gateway Architecture

The industry’s only single blade universal gateway

Integrated digital signal processors for media server functions on every channel

Reduces spares, increases flexibility and scalability

Other Mini Tips

Keyboard shortcuts, e.g. § Ctrl-Shift-P § Ctrl-Shift-F § Underlined menu letters

Draw " Align or Distribute

Format " Line Spacing

Tools of the Trade

Remote pointer NXPowerLite Photoshop

Consider Using Keynote

“Cinema-quality presentations for everyone”

Further Reading

+ Seth Godin’s “Really Bad PowerPoint: www.ispi.org/pdf/BadPwrpt.pdf

Thank You… Now Go Make Beautiful PowerPoints!

But You Know It’s Not Over Until The Obligatory Dilbert Appears…

a randall powerpresentations

Presentations & Public Speaking