Question: PowerPoint use = Fail?
The only reason people use PowerPoint is because they have no power and they have no point.
Erin Korogodsky from Lithium, shared this quote with me during our Art of Presentation workshop last week in San Francisco.
Erin's abundant charm made me laugh. Her reference to the quote also reminded me of another quote that I read in the article “DoesPowerPoint Make You Stupid?” from Presentations magazine March 2004 issue.
The article focused on an essay by Edward Tufte, who many consider to be a thought leader in how to present information visually. Tufte posits that PowerPoint as a tool tends to make people lazy and ineffective in delivering cogent, meaningful presentations.
Don Norman, a professor of art and design at Northwestern University and author of The Design of Everyday Things and Emotional Design, is a frequent user of PowerPoint who disagrees with Tufte’s assertions.
"Tufte is correct in that most talks are horrible and most PowerPoint slides are bad – but that’s not PowerPoint’s fault. Most writing is awful, too, but I don’t go railing against pencils or chalk … What Tufte misses completely is the fact that PowerPoint slides are meant to be used within the context of a talk. Talks are by their very nature superficial. You can’t pack a tremendous amount of dense information in them, because then they become deadly dull" …
What Tufte conveniently overlooks is that, unlike the publications against which he compares it, PowerPoint is not primarily a textual medium, like a newspaper or magazine – PowerPoint is a visual medium. As Don Norman points out, “Text is the last thing people should put on a PowerPoint slide. In fact, I would argue that supporting visuals – charts, diagrams, illustrations, photos and video – are the only things that should appear on a slide.”
I've spoken several times in this blog about effective use of PowerPoint but also understand this idea- that the tool is to blame for it's own misuse.
Here are some resources to help you design better more effective PowerPoint slides:
- Presentation Zen, a terrific blog by Garr Reynolds, another leader in the field of presenting with effective, compelling visuals.
- Our post about Cliff Atkinson's book, "Beyond Bullet Points", a terrific and detailed How-To guide to create good PowerPoint slide decks.
If your PowerPoint slides are:
- Loaded with text
- Lacking in imagery and visual metaphor
Don't blame the tool. As my family used to say in describing a problem with an automobile: "It's the nut behind the wheel." In the parlance of the connected age: "user error".
photo credit: notionscapital
Leave a Comment