You may have heard of ‘death by PowerPoint’, but how do you avoid becoming a perpetrator of this?
Just in case this is a term you haven’t come across before, I can almost guarantee that you’ve been on the receiving end! Essentially, it was coined to describe a presenter who has far too many slides and too much information on each slide.
If you’ve every been in the audience where the presenter read great tracts of text from the screen, you’ll know what I mean.
When PowerPoint introduced lots of bells and whistles, excited slide deck creators grabbed them and their audiences had to suffer through text that spun into place, sound effects and images appearing from all directions.
Good presenters realised that less is more and that the slides are a support act, not the headliner!
Slides are a VISUAL aid
It can be tempting to use your slides as an aide memoire, but too much text on slides makes it harder for the audience – and harder for you too.
Put yourself in one of the audience’s seat. A slide appears with a lot of text, what do you do? Most of us start reading.
While you’re reading, you’re not really listening to the presenter, so you may be missing key information. Now comes the next stumbling block, if that slide stays on the screen, a good percentage of the audience will read it again! If the presenter moves on a chunk of the audience will have missed the bus!
Our brains react differently when it’s just an image. It doesn’t take up the same kind of brain space as text.
Less is more
I once was given a presentation to deliver on behalf of someone else – it was a 15 minute presentation – with 83 slides!
I defy anyone to maintain concentration when the screen is whizzing by faster than you can digest what’s on it!
Only use slides when you need a visual to help people understand what you’re talking about. Things like:
- Before/after images
- Graphs and charts (but keep them simple)
- Models
- Diagrams
- Stand out quotes (not yours!) that help you to make a point
- Pictures that help to demonstrate what you’re talking about
When you’ve finished talking about the current slide – turn it off. If you haven’t got another slide yet, click the B key on your keyboard (some remote clickers have the option for ‘blank screen’). B = black – so this will turn your screen black, click B again to return to your presentation. W turns the screen white, but them you become a black silhouette against a massive, square, bright background!
Remember you’ve been asked to make a presentation – so the spotlight should be on YOU, not on your slide deck. You’re not there simply to read the slides.
