Avoiding "Death by PowerPoint"
Updated: Aug 9, 2023
Written by: Sarah Bailey | Professional PowerPoint Design | PowerPoint Design Specialist | PPT Solutions | Creative PPT design
Lets face it, we have all at some point had to endure boring and frustrating PowerPoint presentations. Whether its poor use of or confusing graphics, far too much text, or presenters who think its a great idea to read aloud what is presented on each slide. Sound familiar? There is actually a term for these types of presentations "Death by PowerPoint".
In a recent survey of 2,000 office workers, 49% admitted it takes them less than 10 minutes to drift off during a PowerPoint presentation and a whopping 58% claimed to have fallen asleep or felt drowsy. With the first 10 minutes being the most critical, it is important that you engage the audience from the very start of the presentation in order to help them remain focussed. The solution? Make better presentations!
Make it about them Given that the first few minutes of any presentation are the most crucial, it is important that you engage with your audience from the beginning by demonstrating that you understand them, their issues and how you can help them. However, most PowerPoint presentations start with presenting background slides from the organisation which will ultimately help put your audience to sleep or drift off. If they want to talk about you and your organisation, they can ask you during scheduled breaks or refer to this to end of the presentation.
Keep it simple It may seem like an obvious one, but avoid slides with lots of text and use plenty of white space so your messages have chance to breathe. Two to three words per slide are optimal (Seth Godin recommends only 6!). In his words, slides should reinforce your words, not repeat them! Your audience don’t have to see everything you’re going to say, so make sure you only use key points to reinforce your message leaving the lengthy text for the notes section, handouts or appendix (if you must!).
Interact with your audience You want your audience to go away having learned something right? The most important thing to remember is that you need to grab your audience’s attention straight away and maintain that attention throughout!
One solution is the use of interactive presentation software that maximises the visual experience and helps engage the audience. Incorporating live polls help people to think critically about what they hear and urge them to share their own opinions and expertise. There are many polling tools out there that you can use to collect responses, including Polleverywhere.com and AhaSlides which are popular apps that collect and broadcast poll results using smartphones or laptops in real-time. Go on, give them a try in your next presentation and watch the audience interact!
Target the presentation to the intended audience If you have a presentation that includes sub presentations or sections chosen from a menu slide then custom shows help simplify the navigation and allows you to target your presentation to the needs of the audience. Clearly signposting sections also ensures they get the right amount of information, and that their cognitive expectations are being met.
Tell a story to boost engagement Everyone loves a good story right? That's because, stories are a powerful form of communication that translates ideas and move people to action. People take in information better when the narration is informal and conversational, rather than formal. Therefore, storytelling can be very effective in presentations as it engages the audience on a more personal level. Creating a narrative by clearly defining the topic and presenting a road map which tells them what’s coming and how they are going to get there.
Display a black (or white screen) During the course of a presentation, someone may ask a question that's unrelated to the slide onscreen or your audience may simply be ready for an impromptu break. In these situations, all you need to do is display a black (or white) screen. One of PowerPoint’s secret weapons is the b or w keys on your keyboard. Hitting b will turn your screen black, w will turn the screen white and when you press for a second time the slide show resumes from where you left of. Temporarily switching to a black display or slide is an effective way of changing focus in PowerPoint, move to audience interaction, or to handle discussions or content not related to the current slide in a presentation. Genius yes?
Contrast Contrast controls our focus. If you ensure good contrast and show content each time, you can control where people are looking, like a cat when chasing a laser.
Additionally, the black background with clear letters greatly favours the contrast and gives special emphasis to the slide's content, especially on projected screens. although many companies still prefer it, the white background is unpleasant to the eye and detracts from the content.
Not convinced? Create two slides as below and place them in full screen slide show mode. If you switch between the two you will notice your eyes relaxing when the slide with a black background is displayed.
Key takeaways
It's not about you, engage the audience from the off by making it about them
Have a focused message that you want your audience to retain
Create a consistent look and feel throughout
Avoid slides with lots of text, let you slides breath
Use simple photos and icons that enhance meaning
Use storytelling to deliver your messages
Final words
It is easy to fall prey to "death by PowerPoint" and hopefully putting these ideas into practice will help avoid the most common mistakes when creating your PowerPoint presentations. To leave you, I want to share this great comedy sketch by Don McMillan in his video "Life after Death by PowerPoint." that goes down a treat in my PowerPoint Essentials Training to demonstrate what not to do with PowerPoint. Enjoy :)
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