Is PowerPoint good or evil? This is the question that spurred the development of the distinction between Ballroom and Conference Room style presentations. . . . For our purposes, all you need to know is that the experts - and the research - are divided on whether PowerPoint helps or hurts communication . . . .He continues on:
I think that the reason the experts disagree is that they are talking at cross-purposes: they are talking about entirely different types of presentation. To understand this, it helps to understand the idea of presentation idiom. A presentation idiom is a form of expression with an associated set of design principles. I call the two main types of presentation idiom Ballroom style and Conference Room style. Ballroom style presentations are what most typical PowerPoint presentations are trying to be: colorful, vibrant, attention-grabbing, and (sometimes) noisy. They typically take place in a large, dark room—such as a hotel ballroom. Conference room style presentations are more understated: they have less color, with more details on each page; they are more likely to be on printed handouts than projected slides, and they are more suited to your average corporate conference room.
The biggest single mistake that presenters make—and the root cause of the PowerPoint debate—is confusing the two idioms, and particularly, using ballroom style where conference room style is more appropriate. Almost all PowerPoint presentations are given using ballroom style—yet most of the time presentation conditions call for conference room style. Ballroom style is appropriate for where the objective is to inform, impress, and/or entertain a large audience and where the information flow is largely expected to be one-way (presenter to audience). Conference room style presentations are more suited to meetings where the objective is to engage, persuade, come to some conclusion, and drive action. This covers any presentation where you want your audience to do something differently as a result of your presentation. It includes: making recommendations; selling; training; communicating the implications of research; and raising funds. Information flow in this idiom is expected to be two-way—it’s more interactive.
From this perspective, the critics of PowerPoint condemn—correctly—the use of ballroom style presentations in situations that need conference room style presentations, while its defenders uphold the use of ballroom style presentations in situations where they are appropriate. Therefore, in a sense, both are correct.
A conference room presentation should look more like an architectural drawing than something you’d see on television, and it is best delivered on paper. Paper has the advantage of allowing much greater resolution and therefore more information on each page; you can use font sizes as small as 9 point without difficulty, whereas in Ballroom style 24-point is usually the minimum safe size. More information on each page also facilitates more productive conversations, because it helps avoid the “turn back 2 slides – no, 3, what was that point there?”-type of confusion since all the information for the discussion of the moment is right in front of everyone on a single page. Paper delivery also allows people to write on the presentation, so that they can engage with your content better and communicate back to you any suggested changes.posted by Jasper Friendly Bear at 9:33 PM on July 6, 2011 [10 favorites]
Here are some examples from Tufte of what he thinks a good report looks like:
[Question] In your discussion you seemed to have a dislike for using Microsoft's Power Point. Is there an alternative software package for presentations?
[Answer by Tufte] In the first place, don't begin with the question "What presentation software should one use?" but rather with "What are the thinking-learning-understanding tasks that my displays and presentations are supposed to help with?" Answering this second question will then suggest technologies of information transmission.
. . .
Overhead projectors and PowerPoint tend to leave no traces; instead give people paper, which they can read, take away, show others, make copies, and come back to you in a month and say "Didn't you say this last month? It's right here in your handout." The resolution of paper (being read by people in the audience) must be ten times the resolution of talk talk talk or reading aloud from bullet lists projected up on the wall. A paper record tells your audience that you are serious, responsible, exact, credible.
[Tufte] Here's a clear technical report and press release, using a 4-page format (similar to A3 or 11" by 17", folded in half). If the report were printed as a 4-pager folded-in-half, then the June 2005/April 2006 images would fall somewhat closer together, which would facilitate comparison (although both images can be seen vertically adjacent simultaneously on, for example, a 30" monitor). From the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS):posted by Jasper Friendly Bear at 11:01 PM on July 6, 2011 [4 favorites]
http://www.isis-online.org/publications/southasia/newkhushab.pdf
. . . .
Here is a well-designed technical report:
http://evo.bio.psu.edu/printclock
It is about 7 pages long. Note the excellent illustrations, integration of text and images, documentation, careful citations, and different types of evidence. Note also the use of sentences and paragraphs and flowing text, not the grunts of hierarchical bullet points on slides.
This is a very high standard for a technical report, but why not start at that level?
« Older Shawn Thorsson makes costumes for his friends... | "As part of the DGA's 75t... Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
posted by The Whelk at 8:50 PM on July 6, 2011 [4 favorites]