The hammer. It’s a simple tool. How many centuries did it exist before humans figured out how to effectively use it? PowerPoint is also a simple tool. Will audiences have to wait centuries before presenters figure out how to use it effectively?
There are some outliers who have found an incredibly effective way to use slides. Here’s a great example of how Steve Jobs did it (pay particular attention to slides 38, 61, 62). And this is just a great tutorial on how to design slides. But far too many presenters still rely on PowerPoint to be the presentation, while the presenter does little more than provide voiceover talent for the slides.
I recently watched this short video that was put together by Will Thalheimer and was struck around the 4:30 mark by the research that implies that a learners’ mind eventually gets trained to ignore and avoid certain features on slides they deem to be superfluous (like a logo). Putting your logo on slides can actually train your learners to ignore your logo.
[youtube=https://youtu.be/nyvQf3cuPEs]
It’s PowerPoint week on the Train Like a Champion blog. On Wednesday, I’ll pick up on Will Thalheimer’s plea to avoid using slide templates. On Friday I’ll highlight five of the most impressive PowerPoint presentations I’ve ever seen.
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