10 minute "death by powerpoint" test

Death by PowerPoint

10 Minute

Test

Presented by

Open up one of your presentation decks and ask the

following questions:

Internet Users and News 46% go to a national TV news website

39% go to web portals like Yahoo or Google

32% go to local daily newspaper web sites

4% frequently use blogs as a source for news

7% use cell phone as a source for news

Do  any  of  your  slides  have  mul2ple  bullet  

points  like  this  example?      

0   10   20   30   40   50   60   70  

2006  

2007  

2008  

2009  

Product  3  

Product  2  

Product  1  

Do  use  bar  charts  ?      

We  are  Growing  

6  

Jan  ‘08:  6.3  million  

Jan  ’09:  8.3  million  

+32%  

Dec  ’09:  10.3  million  

+63%  

Or  graphs  like  this?  

Do  you  use  Pie-­‐charts?    Do  your  charts  look  like  this?  

Is  your  type  size  less  than  36  point?    

Do  use  the  same  background  template  

on  every  slide?      

Logo

Do  any  place  your  logo  or  your  name  on  

every  slide?      

Do  use  any  type  of  clip  art?    

WHY DO PEOPLE USE ALL CAPS IN THEIR PRESENTATIONS?

Do  use  ALL  CAP’s  in  your  body  copy?    

If you answered yes to any of those questions, your presentation

could use some help.

If you answered yes to three or more questions, your audience may look like this.

Death by PowerPoint has a cure.

Here are some tips

Does your audience care about every point in your slide.

One thought per slide!

Not one CONCEPT per slide.

One thought per slide!

Look at your slides and count to 7. If you can’t get your main point in that amount of

time, you will loose your audience.

Treat your content like a billboard message. Make your point quickly.

Ask yourself: Can a 10 year old understand my slides?

Try not to use less than 36 point type

Verbal Material People learn better when words are

presented as narration rather than text.

Visual Material People learn better from narration &

graphics rather than narration, graphics, & text.

People learn better when extraneous visual material is excluded.

You don’t need your background, your logo and ugly clip art.

THE AVERAGE PERSON CAN READ upper and lower case type, FASTER THAN

TYPE IN ALL UPPER CASE.

Can’t change everything at once?

Pick two issues and make improvements on your next

presentation.

Keep tweaking one slide at a time. Before you know it, you’ll have

transformed your presentation into something useful, engaging and

valuable to your audience.

“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” - Steve Jobs

If you ever need help with your presentations, ping me – I’m happy

to review what you’ve done and give you some suggestions.

Oh, and of course if you like the tips you see here, you can always

subscribe to my blog!.

785-­‐856-­‐0421  albonnerconsul2ng@gmail.com  

Al  Bonner  Presenta2ontransforma2ons.com