Presentation Zen 3 simple ideas on presentation design and delivery by Garr Reynolds
Introduction
One of my favorite books is Daniel H. Pink’s best-seller, A Whole New Mind (Riverhead Trade). Particularly valuable in A Whole New Mind are the “six senses” or the six “right-brain directed aptitudes,” which Pink says are necessary for successful professionals to possess in the more interdependent world we live in. The six aptitudes are design, story, symphony, empathy, play, and meaning. Mastering and leveraging these aptitudes has become necessary for professional success and personal fulfillment in today’s world.
Design
The best designs, however, are so well done that the observer never even consciously notices them. We take note of the messages that the design helped make utterly clear, but not the color palette, typography, concept, etc.
Story
The best and most effective professors are the ones who tell true stories and give real examples. From my students’ point of view, the best professors don’t just go through the material in a book. They put their own personality, character, and experiences into the material in the form of a narrative, which is illuminating, engaging, and memorable. Stories can be used for good—for teaching, sharing, illuminating, and, of course, honest persuasion.
Symphony
What we need are people who can recognize the patterns and are skilled at seeing the nuances and simplicity that may exist in a complex problem. Symphony is about applying our whole mind—logic, analysis, synthesis, intuition—to make sense of our world (that is, our topic), find the big picture, and determine what is important and what is not before the day of a talk. It’s also about deciding what matters and letting go of the rest.
Empathy
Empathy is about putting yourself in the position of others. Empathy allows a presenter, even without thinking about it, to notice when the audience is “getting it” and when they are not. The empathetic presenter can make adjustments based on his or her reading of a particular audience.
Play
In the Conceptual Age, says Pink, work is not just about seriousness, but about play as well. While each presentation situation is different, in many public speaking situations playfulness and humor can go a long way toward making a presentation palatable
Meaning
Communication is about getting others to adopt your point of view, to help them understand why you’re excited (or sad, or optimistic, or whatever else you are).
First, make slides that reinforce your words, not repeat them. Create slides that demonstrate, with emotional proof, that what you’re saying is true, not just accurate.
Second, don’t use cheesy images. Use professional stock photo images.
Third, no dissolves, spins, or other transitions. Keep it simple.
Fourth, create a written document. A leave-behind. Put in as many footnotes or details as you like. Then, when you start your presentation, tell the audience that you’re going to give them all the details of your presentation after it’s over, and they don’t have to write down everything you say. Remember, the presentation is to make an emotional sale. The document is the proof that helps the intellectuals in your audience accept the idea that you’ve sold them on emotionally.
Today, we need a higher degree of visual literacy and an understanding of the great power that imagery has for conveying important messages.
Like a Japanese bento, great slide presentations contain appropriate content arranged in the most efficient, graceful manner without superfluous decoration. The presentation of the content is simple, balanced, and beautiful.
Presentation Zen is an approach, not an inflexible list of rules to be followed by all in the same way. There are many paths to designing and delivering presentations.
The key principles of Presentation Zen are: Restraint in preparation. Simplicity in design. Naturalness in delivery. These principles can be applied to both technical and non-technical presentations.
The dull, text-filled slide approach is common and normal, but it is not effective. The problem is not one of tools or techniques—it is a problem of bad habits. Although some tools are better than others, it is possible to present effectively with the aid of multimedia tools.
In the Conceptual Age, solid presentation skills are more important than ever before. Presenting well is a whole-mind skill. Good presenters target people’s left-brain and right-brain sensibilities.
Live talks enhanced by multimedia are about storytelling and have more in common with the art of documentary film than the reading of a paper document. Live talks today must tell a story enhanced by imagery and other forms of appropriate multimedia.
We’ve learned some ineffective habits over the years. The first step to change is letting go of the past.
Preparation
An effective presentation is made of three component parts: the story (p1), the supportive media (p2), and the delivery (p3) of these. The value of a presentation is the product of these three factors—the p cubed value. Don’t let your media (p2) get in the way of your delivery (p3). Complex information should be provided as a handout, not on the screen.
www.pechakucha.com. PechaKucha is an example of the changing attitudes toward presentation and a wonderfully creative and unconventional way to make a presentation with the aid of slides. The PechaKucha method of presentation design and delivery is very simple. You must use 20 slides, each shown for 20 seconds, as you tell your story in sync with the visuals. If nothing else, the PechaKucha method is good training and good practice. Everyone should try PechaKucha—it’s a good exercise for getting your story down even if you do not use this exact method for your own live talk.
Preparing, designing, and delivering a presentation is a creative act, and you are a creative being.
Creativity requires an open mind and a willingness to be wrong. Approach the task with the beginner’s mind.
Restrictions, constraints and limitations are not the enemy; they are a great ally and can lead to greater creativity.
Consider the PechaKucha method at least as a form of exercise to help you refine your message. You can find a PechaKucha Night event near you at: www.pechakucha.com.
As you prepare a presentation, exercise restraint and always keep these three words in mind: simplicity, clarity, brevity.
Planning Analog
The presentation would have been greatly improved if the presenter had simply kept two questions in mind while preparing for the talk:
What is my point?
Why does it matter?
Projected slides should be as visual as possible and support your points quickly, efficiently, and powerfully. The verbal content, the verbal proof, evidence, and appeal/emotion come mostly from your spoken word. But your handouts are completely different.
Slow down your busy mind to see your problem and goals more clearly.
Find time alone to see the big picture. Take a “forest bath.”
For greater focus, try turning off the computer and going analog.
Use paper and pens or a whiteboard to record and sketch out your ideas.
Key questions: What’s your main (core) point? Why does it matter?
If your audience remembers only one thing, what should it be?
Preparing a detailed handout keeps you from feeling compelled to cram everything into your visuals
Crafting the story
The Heath brothers were interested in what makes some ideas effective and memorable and others utterly forgettable. Some stick, and others fade away. Why? What the authors found is that “sticky” ideas have six key principles in common: simplicity, unexpectedness, concreteness, credibility, emotions, and stories. And yes, these six compress nicely into the acronym SUCCESs.
Basic elements to include in your story:
Identify the problem. (This could be a problem, for example, that your product solves.)
Identify causes of the problem. (Give actual examples of the conflict surrounding the problem.)
Show how and why you solved the problem. (This is where you provide resolution to the conflict.)
Kamishibai is a form of visual and participatory storytelling that combines the use of hand-drawn visuals with the engaging narration of a live presenter. The origins of kamishibai can be traced back to various picture storytelling traditions in Japan.
Here are five tips from kamishibai that we can apply to our presentations today:
Visuals should be big, bold, clear, and easy to see.
Allow graphic elements to fill the frame and bleed off the edges.
Use visuals in an active way, not a decorative one.
Aim to carefully trim back the details.
Make your presentation—visuals and narration—participatory.
Make your ideas sticky by keeping things simple, using examples and stories, looking for the unexpected, and tapping into people’s emotions.
A presentation is never just about the facts.
Brainstorm your topic away from the computer, and chunk (group) the most important bits. Identify the underlying theme, and be true to that theme (core message) throughout the creation of the presentation.
Make a storyboard of your ideas on paper—and then use software to lay out a solid structure that you can see.
Show restraint at all times, and bring everything back to the core message.
Design
The Zen aesthetic values include (but are not limited to) the following:
Simplicity
Subtlety
Elegance
Suggestion (rather than literal description)
Naturalness (i.e., nothing artificial or forced)
Empty space (or negative space)
Stillness, tranquility
Eliminating the nonessential
All of these principles can be applied to slide design, Web design, and so on.
(What it comes down to, in personal endeavors, is four basic principles: learn from everyone; follow no one; watch for patterns, and work like hell.)
Simplicity is powerful and leads to greater clarity, yet it is neither simple nor easy to achieve.
It’s not about making it easy for us, it’s about making things easy for them.
Simplicity can be obtained through the careful reduction of the nonessential.
As you design slides, in addition to simplicity, keep the following concepts in mind: subtlety, balance, and understated elegance.
Good designs have plenty of empty space. Think “subtract” not “add.”
Although simplicity is the goal, it is possible to be too simple. Your job is to find the balance most appropriate to your situation
Presentation Design: Principles and Techniques
A few interconnected design principles that are fundamental to good slide design. The first two—signal-to-noise ratio and picture superiority effect—are broad concepts with practical applications to slide design. The third—empty space—helps us look at slides in a different way and appreciate the power of what is not included to make visual messages stronger. The final four principles are grouped together as they are fundamental design principles and especially important to know for people new to design. These basic principles are: contrast, repetition, alignment, and proximity.
One way to achieve cinematic slides is to have your images fill the screen. A full-screen image gives the illusion that the slide is bigger than it is. Another effective technique is to use visual elements that bleed off the screen out of frame. Our brains will naturally fill in gaps, or complete shapes that are partially out of frame.
Quotes can indeed add credibility to your story. Weave a simple quote into your narrative to support your point, or as a springboard from which you can launch your next topic.
Eye gaze in presentation visuals may have similar influences on the viewers’ attention.
Contrast is one of the most powerful design concepts because, really, any design element can be contrasted with another. You can achieve contrast in many ways—for example, through the manipulation of space (near and far, empty and filled), through color choices (dark and light, cool and warm), by typeface selection (serif and sans serif, bold and narrow), by the positioning of elements (top and bottom, isolated and grouped), and so on.
The principle of repetition simply means the reuse of the same or similar elements throughout a design. Repetition of certain design elements in a slide or among a deck of slides will bring a clear sense of unity, consistency, and cohesiveness. Where contrast is about showing differences, repetition is about subtly using elements to make sure a design is viewed as part of a larger whole.
Alignment is about obtaining unity among elements of a single slide. Even elements that are quite far apart on a slide should have a visual connection, something that is easier to achieve with the use of grids. When you place elements on a slide, try to align them with an existing element.
The principle of proximity is about moving things closer or farther apart to achieve a more organized look. The principle says that related items should be grouped together so they will be viewed as a group, rather than as several unrelated elements.
Sans serif is often the preferred typeface style for billboards and a great deal of the signage we see around us. Similarly, sans serif typefaces are best for projected slides, although this is a big generalization.
Design matters. But, design is not about decoration or ornamentation. Design is about making communication as easy and clear for the viewer as possible.
Keep the principle of signal-to-noise ratio in mind to remove all nonessential elements. Remove visual clutter. Avoid 3D effects.
People remember visuals better than bullet points. Always ask yourself how you can use a strong visual element—including quantitative displays—to enhance your narrative.
Empty space is not nothing; it is a powerful something. Learn to see and manipulate empty space to give your slide designs greater organization, clarity, and interest.
Use high-quality photos that make an impact and are easily seen and understood. Consider using full-bleed images and layer-type elements on top in the simplest, most balanced arrangement possible.
Use the principle of contrast to create strong dynamic differences among elements that are different. If an element is different, make it very different.
Use the principle of repetition to give your slides unity and organization by making sure certain elements recur throughout your slides.
Use the principle of alignment to visually connect elements on a slide. Invisible gridlines are very useful for achieving good alignment. Using a grid gives your slides a clean, well-organized look.
Use the principle of proximity to ensure that related items are grouped together. People tend to interpret items together or near to each other as belonging to the same group.
Sample Visuals: Images & Text
A good rule of thumb when judging your own visuals is to ask ourselves:
(1) Does the visual get attention or bring the eye of the viewer in to the screen?
(2) Is the visual easy to understand quickly, and does it help the viewer understand your verbal message?
(3) Does the visual—including the display of data—help the viewer remember your message?
(4) Will the visual help your audience not only to understand and remember your message, but will it even help to change the thinking or behavior of your audience long after your talk is finished. Number (4) may not apply in every case, but numbers (1)–(3) are crucial in almost every situation.
Here are seven techniques for being more effective and engaging in a webinar.
1. Be Relevant.
Webinar audiences want information and education. they come for solid take-away value they can use to tackle their questions, challenges, problems, and aspirations.
2. Use More Slides.
In an in-person presentation, your slides are a visual aid; in a webinar, they are the visuals. Use more slides than you normally would, so you can keep viewers’ interest and provide visual reinforcement. It’s very tempting for webinar attendees to multitask (by listening to the audio in the background while checking email or doing other work), so keep the visuals changing frequently.
3. Build Your Slides.
Build complex slides as you’re talking about them. If you’re showing a graph, start with the axes, then labels, then the bars or lines, then the highlighted points. If you’re showing a model, build it up step by step. It’s easy to do this in PowerPoint using the Animation tool
4. Signpost Your Content.
Insert “signpost” slides into your slide deck to clearly explain the structure and flow of your content. Start with an overview slide, then one slide before each main point, then finish with a summary slide. This helps your audience mentally grasp the webinar progress and flow, which reduces the risk of confusion and distraction.
5. Make Them Active.
Make your webinars active and interactive. Your audience is attending a live event, so involve them in it. Early in your webinar, ask them to do something simple. This makes them take notice, involves them right from the start, and demonstrates that this isn't just another boring presentation. For example, you could conduct a poll, pose a puzzle, ask them to write something, or ask some people to speak out loud.
6. Shift Energy.
As with any other presentation, design segments that shift energy during the webinar
7. Start Before You’re Ready.
Webinars can be unsettling and nerve-wracking, even for experienced presenters. The only solution to this is practice. Take the pressure off yourself by starting small. Start with small groups, not large audiences.
What you design your slides or other visuals to look like depends completely on your unique situation, content, and audience, but keep the following in mind:
Create visuals that are simple and feature clear design priorities and elements that guide the viewer’s eye.
Design for the back of the room. Make it easy for everyone to see all elements on your visual no matter where they may be sitting in the room.
Use a visual theme, but avoid tired, overused software templates.
Use images and text in interesting ways, but always remember to balance your elements.
Limit bullet points or avoid them completely.
Use high-quality graphics.
Build (animate) complex graphics to support your narrative.
Think “maximum effect with minimum means.”
Learn to see empty space, and learn to use it in a way that brings greater clarity to visuals.
Delivery
Like a conversation, presentation requires your full presence at that time and place.
Like a master swordsman, you must be completely in the moment without thoughts of the past, the future, winning, or losing.
Mistakes may happen, but do not dwell on past mistakes or worry about future ones. Be only in this moment, sharing and conversing with the audience in front of you.
You will make it look easy and natural by preparing and practicing like mad. The more you rehearse, the more confident you’ll become, and the easier it will seem to the audience.
Although you must plan well, being fully in the moment also means that you remain flexible, totally aware, and open to the possibilities as they arise. The goal is not necessarily to be perfect, but rather to make a sincere contribution in the moment for those who have come to hear you.
You need solid content and logical structure, but you also have to make a connection with the audience. You must appeal to both the logical and the emotional sides of your audience members.
If your content is worth talking about, then bring energy and passion to your delivery. Every situation is different, but there is never an excuse to be dull.
Don’t hold back. If you have a passion for your topic, then let people know it.
Make a strong start with PUNCH. Include content that is personal, unexpected, novel, challenging, or humorous to make a connection from the beginning.
Project yourself well by dressing the part, moving with confidence and purpose, maintaining good eye contact, and speaking in a conversational style but with elevated energy.
Try not to read a presentation or rely on notes.
Remember the concept of hara hachi bu. It is better to leave your audience satisfied yet yearning for a bit more, than to leave them stuffed and feeling that they have had more than enough.
Curiosity Is Infectious
Do you see that?
Look here!
This is amazing!
What do you think happens next?
Wasn’t that surprising?
This is the kind of language that engages the listener.
Engagement involves tapping the audience members’ emotions.
Keep the lights on; the audience must always be able to see you.
Remove any barriers between you and the audience. Avoid podiums and lecterns, if possible.
Use a wireless mic and remote control for advancing slides so you can move around freely and naturally.
Be positive, upbeat, humorous, and develop rapport with the audience. You must believe in your content or you cannot sell it.
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