PowerPoint can contribute significantly to a talk; in fact, a PowerPoint presentation can improve the quality of a talk by allowing the audience to see visual aids or take away from the talk if organized poorly. Many articles and websites have been created to help presenters make the best of this program; improving the quality of the presentation and increasing the aesthetics to evoke emotion have been keys points discussed in such articles. Two articles, Really Bad Power Point - and How to Avoid It and Top Ten Slide Tips, both discuss the ability of a PowerPoint presentation to evoke emotion from the audience by using certain color schemes and powerful pictures. For example, one suggestion provided in the first article was to include a picture that provides the same message as using multiple bullets. These articles were great reminders for me that when making a presentation, it is the audience who I should be thinking about. The presentation has to help convey to the audience why a topic is important, and these articles help everyday people succeed in doing so.
I have seen many PowerPoint presentations that were anything but effective. Five guidelines that I have learned from being in different audiences and from making my own presentations are:
1. Do not have complete sentences on slides. Paragraphs should not be included unless the presenter gives the audience time to read a specific quote or excerpt that is relevant to the talk. Words clutter the slide and usually confuses the audience, who cannot listen completely if they are trying to read.
2. Do not distract the audience with animations. Animations can ruin a presentation if used excessively. However, it is important to note that some animation is very effective if used to hide a section of text or a picture while the presenter is talking.
3. Make sure the presentation is a supplement to your talk. The audience should not get bored because the slides are being read to them.
4. The slide order and organization is key. One must arrange the slides so that there is a logical flow. The purpose of a presentation is to communicate, and illogical flow will likely confuse the audience, who normally will not have as much knowledge about the subject matter.
5. Be aware of the aethetics of the slides and how these factors relate to the message trying to be conveyed. Color and sounds evoke emotion, and such things are not trivial.
Disregard of any of these guidelines would result in a presentation that could possibly annoy or bore an audience. I know that I will be more careful when making future presentations so that this will not happen. In addition, a nice presentation that is well organized and looks great will most likely help the presenter be more confident in his/her ability to deliver an excellent talk.
0 comments:
Post a Comment