Rick Linder, president of Linder Management Consultants, suggests what
he calls a six-by-six rule: There should be no more than six lines of
text on each slide, and no line of text should have more than six words
in it.
Larger audiences require more time to absorb what
you say and take in the information on your slides. ... It
could take a minute or so for the people in the back of the room to
catch up.
Your audience always wants to connect with you.
Doug Whipple has an even simpler rule: "Don't put anything up on a slide if you can make your point without it".
Linder suggests using handouts only if you
want feedback as you go along or are trying to teach your audience,
since they allow the audience to take notes. But if you're giving more
of a "pep rally" speech, you want all attention right up front at all
times.
"Get the audience's attention first -- share
information, get involved, and give them an incentive to listen," he
says. "They need to know that you're not wasting their time."
"The audience really is cheering for you," he says. "They want you to be comfortable and do well."
Make sure you bring backup copies of
the presentation on disk and in hard copy. Bring extra light bulbs for
overhead projectors. And, of course, make sure you can do the speech
without the slides, if necessary. "You should be able to give your
presentation even if you have a power failure," Warfield says. Who
knows? The audience may even like it better that way.
Fifteen words should be the maximum on any slide! Only a few words or a phrase to emphasize or
reinforce an idea are all that is needed.
Veranda and Arial (emboldened) are favorite fonts due to high screen
legibility. Minimum font size should be 18pt but my average font size is
40pt to allow for easy reading in the back of the room. Also, keep the fonts
consistent throughout the presentation and use no more than two different
font types.
Use a custom template to make your presentation look
different right from the start.
List the agenda (what will be covered), key
points, use topic headers at the top of your slides, use thematic clipart
for each subject area, use full screen titles to announce major presentation
transitions, include a conclusions slide (what was covered).
Streaming video, flash demos, and other multimedia images can be quite powerful if used judiciously.
"Fonts are like donuts: you really shouldn’t have more than three at a time".
Design should be the last step in the presentation creation process. In this aspect, content is truly king. For your audience, it would be more acceptable to watch a presentation with a simple white background and black Times-Roman text with a clear, concise message, than the slickest PowerPoint with all the bells and whistles and no clear message.
Understanding what colors look good together is of great benefit when designing a presentation. Understanding the psychology behind colors is important as well.
Three is a good number to keep in mind when adding bullet points to a slide.
Practice good effect management.
The audience will still want to hear what you have to saywhether the computer is working or not.
Develop presentationsthat you would find inviting and easy to understand. If you’re developing for in-person delivery, think about how the people in the back of the room will be viewing your creation. If you’re developing on-line presentations, think about how the person onslowest connection imaginable will be able to view your work.
Patrick Crispen, points out that there is quite a
difference between a business PowerPoint presentation and a classroom
PowerPoint presentation. Notes Crispen, "The primary goal of any
classroom PowerPoint presentation isn't to entertain, but rather to
teach."
In his book, Multimedia Learning (Cambridge University Press, 2001),
Mayer states that people learn better from words and pictures
than from words alone. In addition, people learn better when words
are near corresponding pictures and there is no extraneous information
nearby to distract attention.
Some lines Gladys disagrees wtih:
"You want to grab your students intellectually, not necessarily emotionally."
I believe no learning can take place unless students ARE emotionally involved.
"students are tested on facts and processes, not on the images."
I believe this can only be true in traditional education, where verbal-linguistic students are favoured over other kinds. Testing based on images can be as good as any other kind of testing.
"Asking students to listen without taking notes works best when your
lecture covers basic concepts. But if the lecture consists mostly of
facts students will need to recall later, having them take notes is the
better strategy."
In my experience, if they're taking notes they cannot "enjoy" the slideshow (how can sb keep their eyes on the screen and on their notebooks at the same time?). My suggestion: have moments for watching and moments for taking notes... Do not use powerful visuals if they're just an "entertaining background curtain" to your words.
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