I’ve managed to blog this far and largely avoid commenting on the best and worst thing to ever happen to communication: PowerPoint. But in the lineup of C-level presentations I saw the other day, after the refreshing PPT-less opener, it was DBP (Death By PowerPoint). Overall the message was clear and one that could be connected with, but I found the PPT less than helpful in several places.A few of the 7 Deadly PPT Sins that were committed (in the same presentation):
- 12-point fonts and paragraphs of information
- Graphical display of information with wild shapes and colors (more later)
- Superflous animations
There was one slide with pretty colored balls and lines scattered all over the page. The presenter opened the slide discussion with “let me tell you what matters and what doesn’t on this slide“. My first thought was, “why are you showing me things that do not matter?” Turns out the color and position of all that art was just art. Let’s find another way to present the data, whatdayasay?At another point the presenter uttered the quote “I think this is where PowerPoint fails me” when an animation went awry. If you know things aren’t working, there really isn’t much reason to draw attention to it (or use it?!).PowerPoint was developed as a class of visual aid.
A visual aid is supposed to AID. Don’t let it detract from your message.
