10 minute "Death by PowerPoint" Test
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Death by PowerPoint 10 Minute Test
description
Does your presentation measure up? Are you contributing to "Death By PowerPoint?" Here is a quick test you can do on your current slides, along with some tips and next steps.
Transcript of 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!.
