Monday, June 29, 2009
The Creepiest PowerPoint Design Trend of 2009
architecture.
revolutionary.
relationships.
re-contextualize.
Those were four words on four slides in a 15 minute PowerPoint presentation I witnessed last month. The remaining 700 slides in the presentation each had one word on them, as well.
OK, I'm exaggerating. There couldn't have been 700 slides in that presentation.
But it seemed like it.
In the presentation I saw, random buzzwords that the speaker used in his narrative kept fading in-an-out of the PowerPoint slides projected behind him. Oh-so-slowly.
After a few minutes, I blinked, shook my head, and looked away. I was getting too mesmerized by the slow word parade.
I was looking for meaning in those words. I was looking for context. There wasn't any.
After looking off to the right for a few moments, I focused on merely listening to the speaker while I stared at a blank wall. The presenter was telling a story about a problem his customers had, and how his product helped solve it.
It wasn't a half-bad story, so I turned to look at the speaker.
Then, I saw it.
synergy?
I grimaced. I had to look away again.
Since this presentation, I've seen a few other slow-word-parade style presentations. I suspect presenters create this style as something of a mood board to set the tone for the presentation. It can be easier and cheaper to toss word salad at people than to craft a story and work on polishing the delivery.
Personally, I find this word-mood board style of presentation design distracting and disturbing. It was hard for me to focus on connecting with the speaker or his story. I found myself thinking that he would have been much more effective with absolutely nothing in the background.
I've seen this technique a number of times this year. Let's hope this a trend that will, uh -- fade quickly!
What are better ways to set the mood for your presentation?
architecture.
revolutionary.
relationships.
re-contextualize.
Those were four words on four slides in a 15 minute PowerPoint presentation I witnessed last month. The remaining 700 slides in the presentation each had one word on them, as well.
OK, I'm exaggerating. There couldn't have been 700 slides in that presentation.
But it seemed like it.
In the presentation I saw, random buzzwords that the speaker used in his narrative kept fading in-an-out of the PowerPoint slides projected behind him. Oh-so-slowly.
After a few minutes, I blinked, shook my head, and looked away. I was getting too mesmerized by the slow word parade.
I was looking for meaning in those words. I was looking for context. There wasn't any.
After looking off to the right for a few moments, I focused on merely listening to the speaker while I stared at a blank wall. The presenter was telling a story about a problem his customers had, and how his product helped solve it.
It wasn't a half-bad story, so I turned to look at the speaker.
Then, I saw it.
synergy?
I grimaced. I had to look away again.
Since this presentation, I've seen a few other slow-word-parade style presentations. I suspect presenters create this style as something of a mood board to set the tone for the presentation. It can be easier and cheaper to toss word salad at people than to craft a story and work on polishing the delivery.
Personally, I find this word-mood board style of presentation design distracting and disturbing. It was hard for me to focus on connecting with the speaker or his story. I found myself thinking that he would have been much more effective with absolutely nothing in the background.
I've seen this technique a number of times this year. Let's hope this a trend that will, uh -- fade quickly!
What are better ways to set the mood for your presentation?
Labels: design, PowerPoint Presentation
¶ 6/29/2009 03:32:00 PM
Comments:
Links to this post:
<< Home
Haha, I actually laughed out loud when I saw the slide that just said "synergy". Why is it that business people think that a presentation isn't complete unless the work synergy is thrown around a few times?
I too have seen the one word per slide technique and also find it distracting. You miss the next few sentences that they say after a new word slide is put up because you are too busy thinking about why they chose that specific word to emphasize.
I think the actual layout and color of the slides set the mood, and of course the presenter's demeanor themselves.
I too have seen the one word per slide technique and also find it distracting. You miss the next few sentences that they say after a new word slide is put up because you are too busy thinking about why they chose that specific word to emphasize.
I think the actual layout and color of the slides set the mood, and of course the presenter's demeanor themselves.
Thanks for stopping by, Vallie.
I noticed that in a recent "30 Rock" episode, Liz Lemon made fun of GE's fondness for 'synergy'.
It's about time sitcoms tackled the sad subject of synergy!
Also noticed in an old "Malcolm in the Middle" episode that Hal had a "word mood board" playing in the background when he did a stint as a motivational speaker.
This was effective, because Hal was not a very good motivational speaker -- and the words fading in-and-out behind him were ridiculously cliched.
Funny stuff!
I noticed that in a recent "30 Rock" episode, Liz Lemon made fun of GE's fondness for 'synergy'.
It's about time sitcoms tackled the sad subject of synergy!
Also noticed in an old "Malcolm in the Middle" episode that Hal had a "word mood board" playing in the background when he did a stint as a motivational speaker.
This was effective, because Hal was not a very good motivational speaker -- and the words fading in-and-out behind him were ridiculously cliched.
Funny stuff!
I agree that this is a creepy and frightening PowerPoint design trend and I've seen it done several times as well.
Another PPT design trend I see is when conference organizers make every speaker use their ugly, branded PPT template for their presentations. After the first two or three presentations, the design looses it luster and the speakers are stuck with even more boring and put-me-to-sleep visuals. Everyone's presentation beging to look alike and uniform. Conferences organizers, stop this! Let the presenter put one or two slides at the beginning and end of their presenttation and let them keep their own flavors, flair and designs. If not, you're helping lull our eyes to never-never land.
Another PPT design trend I see is when conference organizers make every speaker use their ugly, branded PPT template for their presentations. After the first two or three presentations, the design looses it luster and the speakers are stuck with even more boring and put-me-to-sleep visuals. Everyone's presentation beging to look alike and uniform. Conferences organizers, stop this! Let the presenter put one or two slides at the beginning and end of their presenttation and let them keep their own flavors, flair and designs. If not, you're helping lull our eyes to never-never land.
Hi Laura, (We just connected on Twitter) - I don't know about the graphics, but as a content person, I'm turned off immediately by the use of "revolutionary" and "synergy". Those words are so overused, as Vallie already noticed!
No matter how eye catching the graphics, without imagination catching words the presentation will fall flat.
No matter how eye catching the graphics, without imagination catching words the presentation will fall flat.
I think they're trying to copy styles that work well, but not copying very well.
(You may well know all of what follows, but I don't know you well, so I'll say it anyway. :) )
Larry Lessig's style was touted for a while because he's a good speaker -- a storyteller, really -- and he uses his slides in three ways: to emphasize words (or highlight what he's talking about), to let people read longer quotes, and to provide images of the things he's talking about. Note that he doesn't use them as notecards -- his slides force him to know his presentation flow better than if he didn't have them. Presentation Zen talks about "Lessig's Method" here and other places.
Done well, it's very good (see here). See also Dick Hardt talking about Identity 2.0 here.
Done badly, of course, it's awful. :)
I just found your blog on Twitter and really like it. I'm @jdfreivald. See you out there.
(You may well know all of what follows, but I don't know you well, so I'll say it anyway. :) )
Larry Lessig's style was touted for a while because he's a good speaker -- a storyteller, really -- and he uses his slides in three ways: to emphasize words (or highlight what he's talking about), to let people read longer quotes, and to provide images of the things he's talking about. Note that he doesn't use them as notecards -- his slides force him to know his presentation flow better than if he didn't have them. Presentation Zen talks about "Lessig's Method" here and other places.
Done well, it's very good (see here). See also Dick Hardt talking about Identity 2.0 here.
Done badly, of course, it's awful. :)
I just found your blog on Twitter and really like it. I'm @jdfreivald. See you out there.
On the other hand, I have seen individual slides, and even short sequences of one word slides used effectively to focus the audience on a concept.
It sounds like in your example, they were background that were supposed to describe what they were talking about, which does sound really distracting.
It sounds like in your example, they were background that were supposed to describe what they were talking about, which does sound really distracting.
This is NOT a PowerPoint problem; it is a speaker/designer problem. At some point, we as a community of presenters, conference attendees and people who sit through presentations/lectures, have to face the fact that PPT has not created bad presentations, people have. I am so tired of hearing about bad PPT. The problems lie with the speaker who does not fix the poorly designed slides, the designer who thought of these bad ideas in the first place and the audiences who do not speak up.
Post a Comment
# posted by 
: 9:45 AM, July 21, 2009
: 9:45 AM, July 21, 2009Links to this post:
<< Home
