Before

Snore.

Apart from the pleasant background color and graphics, this quotation is about as florid as a wet dishrag. This font, Verdana, works well when you’re after a clean, corporate look, but it’s a total flop when used for this particular quotation. I think that this slide could really benefit from a picture, don’t you?

After

Now we’re talkin’!

The addition of the violin and sheet music evoke feelings of romance and beauty and speak directly to the words in the quotation. I’ve also used a more playful font.

Look how I can change the mood by using a different image and font:

It’s not likely that you’ll have to illustrate Shakespeare any time soon, but you can use these ideas the next time you include quotes in your presentations. You could use a picture of the person you’re quoting or images suggested by the quote. And play around with how the type is positioned; for this style you want to break away from the template, if just for a little while.

But you don’t want the whole presentation to be a downer, so you need to temper the bad news with some good news:

“Yes, sales are down 4% this quarter, but we have hired a sales mentor who is working with our team to bring their numbers back up.”

“We received some negative feedback on Twitter about our widget, so we contacted every unsatisfied customer and fixed their problems.”

“Fund X did not perform to expectations, so we are diversifying our holdings.”

You should address bad news but you don’t have to lead with it. Here’s what I mean.

I recently met with a medical product client who showed me his “Pitch Deck,” the presentation he gives to venture capital firms and other groups when he seeks funding for his company. One slide showed a table that compared their company’s product against similar products being developed by two competitors. My client had a lot of great things going for him:

• His company already had products in the marketplace
• These products were making money
• They had big-name partners

This product also had a slight problem: it causes a medical condition in 85% of its users.

The slide looked a bit like this (The data have been changed to protect proprietary information.):

I asked him about it, and he said that it is a common side effect for this kind of medication and that it is easily treated during outpatient surgery with great results. So the story he’s trying to tell is Great News, Great News, Great News, No Big Deal. But when I look at this table as a member of the audience might, I see this story: Great News, Great News, Great News, Slam-on-the-Brakes Major Problem!!!

While it’s important for investors to have all the facts, it’s crazy to present the data in a table that doesn’t stress the positive and provides any relief for the negative.

Here’s how I would redesign this slide:

This slide focuses on the positive by including a well-known partner logo, making the yearly profits stand out with large type, and showing the product name, which has been trademarked and is on the market. The first panel is green, which implies “go” and “cash,” and the competitors’ panels are drab by comparison. Look at how they lag behind! Who wouldn’t want to fund this guy?

But it would be unethical to withhold the bad news, so here it is:

Here, I’ve emphasized the fact that the side effect won’t kill patients and can be corrected fairly easily. The presenter would discuss the side effect and its treatment in greater detail when he’s in front of the audience.

Your Turn

Have you ever had to give bad news during a presentation? How did you do it and how was it received?

Before

This slide took me a little while to figure out. I can tell that the four data points are supposed to add up to 100% and that they have changed from last year to this year. And I know that the diagonal lines that connect data points indicate whether percentages have increased or decreased from one year to the next. But what’s up with the table underneath the graph?

If there are two different types of charts the assumption is that there are two different data sets. In this case, however, the two charts present the same data. It took me a while to figure this out, and I didn’t even have a presenter talking to me at the same time. Imagine what the audience would be going through.

The color choices are not good because they are too bright and don’t harmonize with the background. It’s the default color set, and it shows.

Adding to the confusion are the grid lines and the vertical title at right.

All in all, this slide requires way too much work on the part of the audience to figure out what’s going on.

After

A pie chart is a much better way to show how percentages add up to 100%. Because it’s easy to see what wedges have gotten larger or smaller I have eliminated the comparison lines.

Notice the colors I’ve chosen? These are the colors of the vegetables in question. Not all data lends itself so well to obvious color choices, though, so when in doubt use the palette that comes with the template you’re using.

Because I have added titles to the wedges there’s no longer any need for a legend. I’ve also removed the vertical text because it was completely redundant.

But what if you wanted to reduce the text even further? In this case, using photographs as fills is a great solution:

Now it’s obvious which vegetables are being charted!

Up-and-comer Prezi brings its A-game to the fight. It’s nimble and dynamic. You can do lots of cool presentation effects with it. Your presentation lives in The Cloud. You don’t need to buy any software. It isn’t PowerPoint.

Grizzled veteran PowerPoint is putting up quite a fight, though. With its robust animation and multimedia tools, it’s possible to create presentations that look like movies. It has some great drawing and photo manipulation tools. You can output decks as video files or, using a site like Brainshark, create standalone presentations with sound and animation.

Is it possible to create dynamic, kinetic presentations in PowerPoint? Absolutely.

• Duarte Design′s Five Rules for Presentations
• M62 PowerPoint demo reel

And here are two examples of some killer Prezi shows:

• Intro to Prezi training
• Academy: Inserting Animations in Prezi

PowerPoint and Prezi do have something in common, though. You have to approach each project with a solid foundation, whether it be an outline, a storyboard, or a script. With all of the whiz-bang effects that each tool offers, it’s easy to focus on the medium rather than the message, which is absolutely the wrong approach. Sometimes Prezi shows move so much I have to shut my eyes to keep from getting motion sick. And if I have to sit through another PowerPoint deck that uses Bounce animation to bring in bullet points…

So, which is better, PowerPoint or Prezi? It’s simple: the better product is the one you’re most comfortable using and which helps you to be a better communicator. If you’re used to PowerPoint and can use it to create strong presentations, then PowerPoint is better. If the bold swoops, zooms and pans that are the hallmark of a Prezi show drive home your message, then Prezi is better.

Keep your eyes on the prize — audience engagement and acceptance of your message. Don’t get carried away with needless special effects and make sure your message is the most important thing that audiences get from your presentations. That’s the knockout punch.

Well, imaginary artistic hissy fit aside, I did tell her that she was doing things backwards. Most creative endeavors start with rough drafts and/or sketches. You use these to build a solid idea then work through a number of changes before arriving at a finished product. Think of an artist’s sketchbook, a reporter scribbling notes, a photographer taking test shots with a portable phone, or a songwriter noodling around on a piano trying out different melodies.

“What does this have to do with PowerPoint?” you’re probably wondering. It has everything to do with PowerPoint, because with forethought, planning, and creativity you can make each deck a strong part of your company’s marketing mix. If you start from the ground up, you can make decks that do a better job of communicating your messages. If you start with the design first and develop the message afterwards, then to quote Foghorn Leghorn, “You’re doin’ it all wrong, boy!”

Start with an outline

An outline is a great tool for getting your thoughts in order, organizing them into a logical progression, and exploring ideas. It’s how I started every paper I ever wrote for school, and it’s how I start all of my PowerPoint presentations to this day. You can create the outline right in PowerPoint, either in the Outline view or right on the slide.

All of what you’re trying to say — the facts, your story arc, examples, whatever — goes into the outline. Think of the outline as the core dump of your brain.

Now, a lot of folks do that then say “Done!”, slap their laptops shut, and call it a day. Wrong wrong WRONG!

Now do the visuals

The outline is only the beginning. You don’t want to be the schlub who reads bullet point after bullet point to an increasingly bored audience, do you? Of course you don’t!

The outline goes into the Speaker Notes so that you can reference it to keep on script, but the slide is where the magic happens. The slide is where you add the photos, graphics, words, video, and charts that support your message.

Use the slide to do what words cannot. Choose images instead of descriptions, videos instead of still photography, graphs instead of tables, brief sentences instead of paragraphs.

And don’t forget that you as a presenter will be there to guide your audience along the path of knowledge that you lay out. Whether you are presenting live, using cloud technology like Brainshark, or conducting a webinar, you yourself are a very important part of your presentation. You are there to tell the audience what you want them to know; the PowerPoint deck supports you, not the other way around.

I don’t know if that woman took my advice. It must have seemed harsh since she’d spent so much time on the slides by the time she called me. I wish she’d called me at the very beginning so that I could have spared her hours of work. But at least she gave me the idea to write this post so that I could help you!

Your turn

Do you use an outline to form your presentation ideas? If not, what method do you use?

Yesterday I officially became a thought leader.

Become a PowerPoint Ninja in 2012 is an article on the Brainshark blog about how to use industry best practices to improve the way you look at PowerPoint and how you can make better use of this amazing tool. I am cited as a presentation thought leader among such experts as Nancy Duarte and M62. I didn’t expect it, but really it’s what I’ve been working towards ever since I restructured my business to focus mainly on PowerPoint design and training. All the blogging, commenting, and contributing to well-known websites has paid off, and now I am known as a presentation thought leader.

Can you do the same thing for yourself? Sure, if you want to work for it. Here’s how I made it happen:

1. Focus!

When I first became a graphic designer, I did all kinds of work: prepress, newspaper layout, corporate identity development, Web designer, icon developer, marketing materials, catalog design, etc. etc. etc. I was one designer among millions. What set me apart from the rest in my own mind were my skills, my strong work ethic, and my ability to deliver on time. But what set me apart from the crowd as far as the marketplace was concerned?

Nothing. To everyone else, I was just another Joe Schmoe graphic designer.

In 2009 I decided to become the best, most sought-after PowerPoint designer in the world. Aim high, right? Concentrating on one thing I’m good at, something that gives me great pleasure to accomplish made it easier to reposition myself as an expert.

I came up with a catchy phrase for what I do — Cheating Death by PowerPoint — to define my business to myself and others.

2. Ramp up the social media machine

After I refocused my business, it was time to tell the world.

• I removed references on the Laura M. Foley Design website to work that didn’t have anything to do with PowerPoint.
• I started tweeting as @LMFDesign primarily on the topics of PowerPoint, presentation skills, and graphic design.
• I created a Laura M. Foley Design Facebook page.
• My monthly newsletter, the Design Dispatch, now features a before-and-after slide redesign and links to…
• …this blog.

I spend about a half an hour on social media pursuits every day, except on blog and newsletter days, when I might spend an hour or so preparing new articles or issues.

3. Share the wealth

After my repositioning, it was time to prove to the world that I know what I’m talking about and that what I have to say can help people improve the way they communicate with PowerPoint and achieve the results they want. As they say in BNI, “Givers gain,” so I do this by:

• Answering PowerPoint questions I come across in Twitter
• Commenting on blog posts
• Writing guest blog posts
• Providing a free slide makeover to newsletter subscribers (<shameless_plug> Want a free slide makeover? Subscribe to the Design Dispatch today and find out how! </shameless_plug>)
• Offering free 30-minute consultations to people regardless of whether or not I think we’ll be working together
• Providing free Cheating Death by PowerPoint tutorials on Brainshark

I won’t lie to you; it’s a lot of work doing all of this in order to position oneself as a thought leader. But if you’re passionate about what you do and want to help others to be as good at it as you are, then that’s half the battle won already.

Your Turn

Is being seen as a thought leader important to you? If so, what have you done or will you do in 2012 to become one?

Before

Wow.

This slide has it all: a tiny title, densely packed text, misaligned bullet points, and an eensy-weensy little footer with today’s date and slide number. And the first line of text contains the same information as the title.

After

blank

blank

That’s right; I’ve eliminated this slide completely.

This presentation was given to a group of his peers, live, at their place of business. Mr. Smith has already been vetted by the people who invited him to speak, so there’s no need to display his credentials in such minute detail. Of course, Mr. Smith could touch on his career highlights when he introduces himself at the beginning of his presentation, but there is no need to go into this level of detail.

On the other hand, if this had been presented as a Webinar, showing a photo of the presenter could build rapport. Here’s a redesigned slide for that purpose:

While this slide is on screen, Mr. Smith could talk a little bit about his credentials. He could also include a link to the more detailed résumé at the end of the presentation.

Transitions

Transitions are the animations that occur when you advance the slides in a deck. Change the transitions by highlighting slides in the left sidebar of the Normal View or in the Slide Sorter View then clicking on the appropriate effect in the Transitions ribbon:

Ordinarily, I’ll select Fade as the standard transition for an entire deck because it’s less jarring than None and Cut and doesn’t call attention to itself. But PowerPoint 2010 tempts the unwitting presentation designer with some pretty out-there transitions, such as Glitter, Vortex, and Cube. These can be used to great effect if you are creating an online presentation or a video but hugely distracting if the deck is being used by a presenter in front of an audience. Use your common sense. If you’re presenting to a bunch of geeks at Comic-Con then maybe the more flamboyant effects would be appropriate. If, on the other hand, you’re teaching Socratic reasoning at a university, then you probably want to exercise a little restraint.

You might notice that on the right side of the Transitions ribbon is a place where you can specify a sound effect for the transition. For the love of all that’s holy, don’t use sound effects for every slide transition. Your audience will hate you. A lot.

Animation

There are too many animation effects to go into great detail in a blog, but I did want to touch on a couple of highlights.

Fade

As with transitions, Fade is a good choice for animating things without calling too much attention to the effect. I use this when clients want bullet points to appear (if I’ve been unable to convince them to eliminate their bullet points) or when graphic elements appear in a sequence. Check out this animation sample:

In the first example, the elements fade into view, allowing you to read what’s in the box. The “Grow and Turn” and “Bounce” effects in the second example are distracting and unpredictable and so call too much attention to themselves.

Motion Paths

As the name implies, Motion Paths enable you to create an animation where elements follow a path that you create. The only preset paths I use are Lines, because I’ve never found a reason to use paths such as Trapezoid, Curvy Right, or Football. Here’s an example of motion paths in use:

As you can see, you can portray either realistic motion (the first example) or random, spazzy motion (the second example). Choose what’s right to communicate your message.

Wipe

The Wipe effect is great for comparing data in a chart because you can have data seem to grow or shrink. Here’s what I mean:

At first, the numbers seem OK, but then the red bars zoom up, showing that nearly half of all customers are dissatisfied. After the red bars grow, the statements appear. In this case, the Zoom effect for the first statement creates a sense of urgency.

Less is More

As I stated in a previous blog post, less really is more. Or, in the case of animation, the appearance of less. Make your PowerPoint animations as complicated or as simple as they need to be in order to effectively communicate your message. Don’t choose a Transition or Animation effect because it’s cool, choose it because it helps you to tell your story.

Your Turn

Do you use animation in your slide presentations and has anybody ever commented on it? Or, as an audience member, has any presenter you’ve seen included animation effects that you didn’t like or that distracted you?

• PowerPoint is not a print medium. How many times have you watched TV and seen a counter ticking down the minutes until the end of the program? Answer: never. Since PowerPoint is primarily a visual, on-screen medium, calling attention to the passage of time by including sequential slide numbering is pointless. To the audience, PowerPoint presentations are measured in the length of time it takes to deliver them, not the number of slides they contain.
• Animations can inflate the size of the deck. It is often easier to break animations across a series of slides so that elements can be edited easily. To the audience it looks exactly the same as if everything’s on the same slide…except if the slides are numbered. In this case, slide numbers can be confusing (“How did we start on slide 3 and end up on slide 10? Did I miss something?”).
• Slide numbering is distracting. How would you feel if you were at a presentation when suddenly you noticed that the speaker was on slide 110? Would you think “Boy, this presenter sure has a lot of knowledge to impart!” or “Holy cow, 110 slides? How much more of this do I have to endure?” By numbering slides, you bring your audience out of the moment and give them an opportunity to speculate on how many slides they’ve seen and how many are yet to come. Don’t distract your audience (Squirrel!); allow them to focus on the most important part of your presentation: you.
• PowerPoint already keeps track of slide numbering. All slides in a PowerPoint deck are numbered in the Outline, Slide Sorter, and Notes views. So my clients can tell me “Please change the image on slide 5″ and I know exactly where to go in the document.

So if slide numbering detracts from visual, kinetic storytelling, makes it look as though the audience might have missed something, is distracting, and doesn’t help during editing, why do it?

Your turn

You know where I stand on slide numbering, now I’d like to hear from you. Do you number your slides? Why or why not?

Before

After

I have eliminated the extra text at the top of the slide because I don’t want the audience to spend any time reading. Instead, I present a graph that clearly shows that the company needs to do better. Animation and color have been used to highlight the fact that over half of the OAS Agreements are late.

The colors were selected from the palette that I developed for this template, which harmonizes with the main aqua color. The first figures that you see, originally shown in green, are now a neutral grey. The data on late OAS Agreements are red, the color of danger and negativity.

After the animation plays out and the audience has had a chance to let this information sink in, the presenter would then talk about “rethinking Assurance Services delivery.”