Lullabot Ideas

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The Art of Presenting

Blog by Matt WestgateSeptember 3, 2010 - 4:50pm

How to create presentations that entertain & inform.

I had the opportunity to present to a local organization in Salt Lake City on the techniques Lullabot uses for making kick ass presentations and how we streamline our presentations so they're reusable amongst our teaching staff. Watch the video below and download the slides.

  • Ditch PowerPoint. PowerPoint prefers boredom, repetition and information fatigue.
  • Do a cold open and talk about something relevant: the weather, the setting, world news.
  • Kill the bullet points. People don't retain bullet points. They retain the story.
  • Don't apologize for a demonstration not working as expected. Either figure it out together with the audience or simply move on.
  • Simple, but not simplistic. You're audience is smart. A one-by-one reveal of bullet points is simplistic. A large photo with a brief message is simple (and brilliant).
  • When creating reusable slides, use learning objectives and outlines to supplement the presentation while leaving room for each presenter to share their stories.
  • Make it fun! Connect the presentation to what you're passionate about.

Comments

Ryan (not verified) on September 5, 2010 - 2:45pm

Awesome, Matt. I tend to suck

Awesome, Matt. I tend to suck at preparing sessions and default to hyper-energetic demonstrations / walkthroughs. I think it works for me b/c I get lucky and avoid most technical difficulties, but I do enjoy all the Lullabot presentations I hit up at Camps / Cons and will try to apply this presentation to my next go-round. : )

John Kirkilis (not verified) on September 6, 2010 - 2:30pm

Another Resource

Thanks for this reminder.

Here's another resource that shows how bad PowerPoint presentation can get. Engineer turned comedian, Don McMillan's "Life After Death by Powerpoint 2010"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbSPPFYxx3o

Anonymous (not verified) on September 7, 2010 - 8:18am

Irony!

Ironically the video is showing one of the big no-nos in presentation ;) Standing in front of the projection.

Jason John Wells (not verified) on September 12, 2010 - 12:02am

Irony?

I'm not sure about the Laws of Big No Nos.

I was very impressed with this and shared it with my Toastmasters club.

This has really helped me back away from the bullet points.

Thanks to the Lullabot who posted this.

albertpaul68 (not verified) on November 3, 2010 - 1:08am

The Art of Presenting

The way to make sure that a slide is well designed is to follow what designers call the “squint test.” Squint at your slide, so that none of the text is legible. Can you still tell what the slide is about? Is it about a linear process, a cyclical process, a convergence of events? If the layout alone gives the viewer an idea of what the slide is about, then the slide will pass the squint test. In order to create a slide that passes the squint test, identify the overall point of the slide, and then lay out the slide in a way that visually reinforces that main point.

We don’t know for sure, but the strong hypothesis is that when a slide passes the squint test, the viewer, upon seeing it, has some idea of what the slide is about and is therefore willing to listen testking 350-001 to the presenter. A slide with just a list of bullets, by contrast, gives you no idea what it is about, and so the viewer automatically starts to read the bullets, which distracts from what the presenter is saying.

To paraphrase Edward Tufte, what we’re trying to achieve on each slide is simplicity of design and complexity of detail. The detail provides the content that is necessary to persuade the client to do what you are asking them to do, while the squint test ensures that your slide’s design is simple enough to enable the detail to be understood clearly