Power Pointing You In The Right Direction
As we all have experienced, sitting through a bad power point presentation can be excruciating. The limit of one’s will to remain conscious can truly be tested by a seemingly never ending barrage of blue slides containing robotic, bullet-ed text. These presentations are often inhuman and inhumane, leaving the listener as uninformed as he or she was before being subjected to such torture. I know what you are thinking in the depths of your subconscious, “I too have subjected fellow humans to unbearable power point!”. Not to worry, we have all used power point and failed. The key to success is using strategies which can transform this tool into a powerful mode of instruction. For instance, let’s review, as an example of a successful power point, the following presentation on the Sustainable Food Laboratory. You can imagine that a power point on world hunger might throw a bunch of numbers and statistics at you in an extremely dry and depressing way. Thankfully, this slide show presents the information in a much more creative way. Take a look at the power point through the link below paying close attention to several examples of some wonderful slides which I will describe:
Slide 1: note the use of the human face. it is imperfect and your attention is drawn to it immediately. I was intrigued right off the bat. I like how the face is offset to the left as well.
Slide 7: this slide is really powerful. we have a great image which almost tells a story on its own. The use of text is minimal, and the use of font size and boldness is very deliberate. Your eyes are drawn to the important info. Also, the text is not just listed from top to bottom, left to right. It is offset and staggered.
Slide 22: just a quick comment. I love the close up shot of these bananas. a very appealing image. the yellow really grabs you.
These are just a few examples of slides which I really liked. The entire presentation is really nice and effective. You can tell that the presenter used the pictures as a backup to his words. The pictures and text within the presentation just aided the presenter in making salient points. I think most importantly, the presenter didn’t just write we he/she was going to say on the slides. The presenter made a point to keep the listeners engaged and focused on the information through using really clear, vibrant photos. Just looking through this power point made me want to actually hear the presentation.