Ruth Marcus apparently is a legal affairs reporter for the Washington Post. Google her name and you will find transcripts of interviews with her on The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer as well as numerous Washington Post articles and Op-Eds. Apparently, in addition to her other credentials, Ms. Marcus is also a presentation expert who has concluded that…. (you better sit down for this)…. PowerPoint presentations are a form of torture.
“Like all forms of torture”, she writes, “PowerPoint degrades its practitioners as well as its victims.”
In an article published yesterday with the very un-original title, PowerPoint: Killer App?, Ms. Marcus mostly parrots Edward Tufte’s work. No new information is presented in this article. No new insights. Just watered down, death-by-PPT Kool-Aid.
I have an innovative thought for Ms. Marcus. PPT presentations aren’t the only communication medium that can be “boring” and “tedious”. Even newspaper writers can be “intellectually inept at organizing their thoughts”, and be “seduced” by their word processing software to copy and paste the words of others, thereby “eliminating nuances and encouraging the absence of serious thinking”. PowerPoint: Killer App? is proof positive that it isn’t the communication tool that is the problem, it is the communicator!
(thanks Linda)
Posted by Robert Befus at 1:24 PM .
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Move over Dilbert. The Boardroom Bunch provides wry, yet apt, commentary on the state of our industry in this 2002 strip (full-sized version):
Posted by Lee Potts at 9:34 PM .
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I remember pretty clearly the day that the February 2000 issue of Presentations Magazine arrived in our Raleigh, North Carolina office. It contained the results from a Presentations/3M study on the effectiveness of multimedia presentations. Prior to this, I had heard rumblings of “data” from the 1980s studies but had never actually read those research reports. For the next few years, I confidently told audiences and clients that “multimedia presentations could increase comprehension 78% over static visuals.” Like many others, I was eager to use any data that seemed to validate the services we were offering to clients.
So what did this study really tell us about the effectiveness of PowerPoint multimedia presentations? Unfortunately, the answer is: Not much at all. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Robert Befus at 10:42 AM .
1 Comment »
I like to maintain a fifty-fifty balance between writing and consulting/training, but lately I’ve been doing the former and I need to get out more.
Fortunately last week I had a three hour session with about 30 attorneys – a group I have been targeting for some time. (I always hear that attorneys use PowerPoint a lot, but every attorney I ask says they never use it). So finally I found a live audience and there were some very interesting developments.
First I made the mistake of assuming that they actually knew PowerPoint. Many did but in a group of this size I had to go back to some basics, Layout, Task Pane, Animation, etc. Then they played Stump the Professor and had me figuring out how to animate a single data series in a chart with an Emphasis Effect. At the break one attorney set me straight.
“Look,” he said, “everything I do is about telling a judge or jury what I intend to prove, proving it, and telling them that I just proved it. I need tools for that.”
“So you use tables a lot,” I replied, insightful as ever.
“Bingo,” he said, “And I put a checkmark in there when I’ve proved it. But I need to learn how to use pictures and video to make the case.” Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Tom Bunzel at 1:32 PM .
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Okay, I have to admit… I don’t have a clue what that title means… but once I wrote it I just couldn’t bring myself to change it. And I know you probably need to hear about another presentation skills book about as much as you need one more email offer to shrink your mortgage or enlarge your body parts.
But please bear with me a moment because “Why business people speak like idiots” by Brian Fugere, Chelsea Hardaway and Jon Warshawsky is really worth your time. From the dedication (dedicated to Mr. T who said “Don’t give me any o’ that jibba-jabba!”) to the Bull Spotter’s Guide at the end, Idiots is a thouroughly entertaining read. Better than that, it is full of unique ideas about improving both your written and spoken communication.
Fugere, Hardaway & Warshawsky’s premise in Idiots is that there is a big disconnect between the authentic, engaging and often interesting conversations of our real lives, and the artificial, overhyped corporate-speak we are bombarded with daily in email, memos, newsletters, press releases, meetings and presentations. Their advice is to avoid the four traps that lead to vague, impersonal business communication that is loaded with empty, useless calories.
Idiots is loaded with great examples and ideas… and you don’t have to wait for the movie because it really is a very quick and easy read (only 166 pages).
So if you are the kind of person who is into:
synergistic, customer-centric, upsell-driven, out-of-the-box, customizable, strategically tactical, best-of-breed thought leadership that will help your clients track true north….
maybe you should just cut the bull@#$% and read this book.
Posted by Robert Befus at 9:10 PM .
5 Comments »
Given that Visual Being is going to celebrate its six month anniversary in a couple weeks, I thought it might be a good idea to turn up the house lights, as it were, and find out a little about our audience. The idea occurred to me while reading Joi Ito’s description of an activity that took place at this year’s Foo Camp and I’m pretty much using the same questions with a minor alteration and an addition.
1) What do you make?
2) What is your favorite tool/toy?
3) Who are your presentation industry heroes?
4) What post category should Visual Being have that it’s missing now?
Please answer in the comments section. When we started this blog, we wanted to do what we could to gather a community of presentation professionals. I hope that providing Visual Being readers with a chance to learn about other readers will help to foster that sense of community.
Thank you in advance for participating.
Posted by Lee Potts at 12:03 PM .
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I recently purchased The Visual Display of Quantitative Information and Envisioning Information by Edward Tufte. As I read through both of the book s there were key take aways and ideas that we are incorporating into our consulting. I’ve highlighted about of these for ya’ll. I hope you enjoyed them as much as I did.
1. The use of small multiples
“Small-multiple rational graphs are effective when showing the difference between various scenarios under the same conditions or comparison. These Illustrations of postage-stamp size are indexed by category or label or sequenced over time like the frames of a movie.
Information slices are positioned within the eye span, so that viewers make comparisons at a glance. Consistency on the design puts the emphasis on the changes in the data, not changes in the data frames. ”
Keys to Small Multiples:
• Scale MUST be same in all graphs.
• Graphs MUST be the same size.
• Comparison bars/columns the same color scheme through out.
2. Displaying information in Tables (charts & graphs are not always the best!)
3. The importance of how you order your information in your Tables. The Vietman Veterans Memorial Example is extremely powerful.
“…chronological order listing was essential to her design. War veterans would find their story told, and their friends remembered, in the panel that corresponded with their tour of duty in Vietnam. Locating specific names with the aid of a directory would be like finding bodies on a battlefield…Some initially disagreed. If 58,000 names were scattered along the wall, anyone looking for a name would wonder around for hours and then leave in frustration. One solution seemed obvious: list everyone on alphabetical order. But when a two-inch-thick Defense Department listing of Vietnam casualties was examined, thinking changed. There were over 600 Smith’s; 16 people named James Jones had died in Vietnam. Alphabetical listing would make the Memorial look like a telephone book engraved in granite, destroying the sense of unique loss that each name carried…”
4. Context is essential for Gaphical Integrity
When presented with data, we are asking additional questions to make sure we are presenting the information in the most accurate context.
Posted by Julie Marie Irvin at 10:15 AM .
4 Comments »
Ever since I read Vogel’s description of the message learning approach to persuasion, I have been looking for additional sources of information about the subject. The components of message learning are 1) attention; 2) comprehension; 3) yielding or agreement; and 4) retention. All of these are necessary in order for action to result… and action is the proof that persuasion has occurred.
A few weeks ago, I ran across Robert Cialdini’s book “Influence“. In this book, Cialdini describes what he calls the “6 Weapons of Influence”. His weapons are actually 6 categories of triggers that have a tendency to start “fixed-action patterns” in us humans. Cialdini attempts to alert us to the ways in which “compliance professionals” try to trigger automatic responses from their audiences. The six categories these devices fall into are:
Reciprocation - How a free gift makes us vulnerable to undue influence
Commitment and Consistency - Even a small commitment makes us act consistent with that committment
Social Proof - How we look to others when we are uncertain
Liking - The unsettling power of attractiveness
Authority - How we tend to obey perceived authority
Scarcity - Everything seems more valuable when there is less of it available
Part of Cialdini’s purpose is to alert readers to the ways in which unscrupulous people attempt to exploit these triggers for their own purposes.
There are of course also legitimate uses of these principles when attempting to persuade an audience.
This is one of the best researched books I have read in a while, and Cialdini provides complete documentation for all the information he presents. All his claims are backed up with studies… many of them at the same time amazing and disconcerting.
Posted by Robert Befus at 1:08 PM .
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I have been following Bob Befus’s great hunt for the ever elusive “Presentation Facts” and am most impressed with his passion in this area. Here is a bold proposal for all you presentation professionals out there. Let’s take Bob’s interests to the next level. Rather than simply analyzing past research (apparently precious little such research exists), I suggest we actually plan and implement a series of peer-reviewed studies focused on important presentation-related issues.
I am about half-way through my degree in Educational Technology at the University of Arizona. In lieu of a thesis, I have permission to conduct a formal research project centered on a subject of my choosing. Would any of you like to assist me in designing a presentation-based study?
There are so many questions needing answers. We can’t possibly address them all in one study. So I think developing an outline of the most pressing questions will be a first step. Perhaps we can lay the groundwork for an initial study and several follow-up studies. My particular fascination is with interactive visual communication.
In terms of timing, starting in January I begin an independent study devoted entirely to literature review. During that time I also will begin exploring funding sources. An actual project is probably about a year away. Now, however, is the time for planning. Interested? Email me at research@aspirecommunications.com
Posted by Robert Lane at 11:45 AM .
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Could the runaway success of the J.K. Rowling books hold the secret to successful media-enabled presentation?
Wouldn’t it be swell, really swell, if all your presentations were as well received as the latest Harry Potter? People stood in line for days waiting to buy one. Security guards accompanied shipments to bookstores the way bodyguards ushered Michael Jackson to court. The series has enchanted an estimated 265 million people thus far. The latest book sold 6.9 million copies in the U.S. in its first 24 hours. So lucrative is the franchise, I hear some South American drug lords are getting out of pushing heroin and into pushing Harry.
So, what does Harry Potter have that your presentations don’t? Why are people not selling their kidneys to see your latest PowerPoint creation?
The answer is obvious, of course. Harry Potter has magic. Not the hyperbolic magic often associated with presentation tools, websites, books and laundry detergent. (Serious Magic; REALmagic; PresentationMagic.com; Presentation Magic; “Mr. Clean cleans like magic.”) Harry Potter has the real thing.
MAGIC: an extraordinary power or influence seemingly from a supernatural source; something that seems to cast a spell; something that has the power to enchant. ENCHANT: to attract and move deeply; to influence by or as if by charms and incantation.
Arthur C. Clarke once said, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” He also said, “Any smoothly functioning technology will have the appearance of magic.” Mr. Clarke was speaking objectively about the subjective quality of technology.
Every technology is magic before it happens, and every technology is magic when it reaches its fullest realization. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Robert L. Lindstrom at 1:48 PM .
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One of the problems with the 1986 UM/3M study was that it used overhead transparencies and slides for visual support. It is a little hard to know which of the 1986 findings (if any) might be generalized to the way most presentations are given today. It might be reasonable to think that the positive findings in comprehension and retention would still hold true. What about the significant improvement in the audience’s perception of the speaker however? Vogel hypothesized that the improvement in persuasion was predominately mediated through this heightened positive perception of the speaker. Would someone viewing a typical presentation with PowerPoint support today perceive the presenter as positively as the 1986 subjects viewed the speaker with overhead transparencies?
In 1996, Doug Vogel, who was an associate professor in the MIS department at the University of Arizona at the time, joined forces with Joline Morrison, an assistant professor in the MIS department at the University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire, to submit a research paper for publication entitled “The Impacts of Presentation Visuals on Persuasion”. After a revision in 1997, the article was accepted and published in a 1998 volume of Information & Management.
This article did two things. First, it re-presented the data from Vogel’s 1986 research, and secondly, it added new results from an interesting 2nd study on the use of electronic presentation of computer visuals rather than the overheads and slides he had used previously. The 1986 study was covered in the posts linked above, so this entry will only be concerned with the 1996 extension.
The purpose of this extension study was to “investigate the impact of screen-show effects (animation and transitions) on presentation persuasiveness.” Vogel saw animation and transitions as another characteristic of visuals just like colour vs. B&W or text only vs. the incorporation of graphics. Prior to conducting this extension study, Vogel hypothesized that the use of animations and transitions would enhance attention as well as the audience’s perception of the presenter. Both of these were expected to have positive effects on persuasion. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Robert Befus at 8:28 PM .
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I recently purchased my second hard case from Porter Case. 
I have yet to see anything as useful and diverse as my little Porter Case. It’s one of those things that always prompts a question or observation of coolness and wow. Equipment bags and cases always get my attention like some women are drawn to purses and shoes. I have turned to Wenger (Swiss Army Knife) for my everyday soft bags but Porter is by far my choice for small hard cases. Every once in a while I’ll see someone with a Porter Case. They are usually technicians and photographers and we smile like we know the “secret.” The unique feature is how the case can be used as a cart carrying up to 200 lbs. It fits in all but the smallest of airline overheads. 
I think it was an Embraer RJ145 where it fit like a glove. I have my Elite model configured to hold mostly cables, connectors, power supplies, and other small electronics. It usually gets a bit of interest from the TSA folks. When I arrive at my destinations I just load everything on the little Porter Case and roll away. Porter Case recently came out with a new rolling soft bag called the Multimedia 22 Backpack. 
I hope to have one of these at PowerPoint Live next month. It might be able to hold my number one wish list item….Newtek’s TriCaster.
Posted by Todd Dunn, CTS at 3:43 PM .
2 Comments »
The question asked in this FastCompany article is nauseatingly old. The answer may be one of the more reasonable I have seen. This comment intrigued me though:
But I agree that we’re obsessed with it, too. When executives see PowerPoint — or any technology, for that matter — as obligatory rather than helpful, it becomes a crutch, which is no good for anyone.
I believe PPT has dramatically changed many types of business communication….not just the presentation. Prior to PPT, I wonder if Dr. Kerry J. Sulkowicz (or anyone else) saw the slide, the overhead, the typewriter, the pen, the pencil or even paper itself as obligatory technologies that had become crutches?
Posted by Robert Befus at 8:50 AM .
1 Comment »
