Presentation Tools That Go Beyond "Next Slide Please" - Nolan Browne. By Nolan Browne | 12:00 PM April 24, 2014 Data visualization luminary and Yale professor Edward Tufte famously suggested that PowerPoint would have been a presentation medium well-suited to a communist dictator.
The program’s linear nature, its tendency to discourage interactivity, its inability to easily share the information it contains, and its potential to limit communication with the audience can sometimes obfuscate rather than clarify. Indeed, Microsoft’s recent web-enabled improvements to the longstanding business application suggest that change is coming to presentation tools in a business world increasingly shaped by online collaboration and increasingly powerful internet applications. Today, users have unprecedented access to data at their fingertips and powerful applications to process them in real time. The best presenters tend to show rather than tell, creating opportunities to engage and persuade. Persuading with DataAn HBR Insight Center. The Right Colors Make Data Easier To Read - Sharon Lin , and Jeffrey Heer.
By Sharon Lin and Jeffrey Heer | 12:00 PM April 23, 2014 What is the color of money?
Of love? Of the ocean? In the United States, most people respond that money is green, love is red and the ocean is blue. Many concepts evoke related colors — whether due to physical appearance, common metaphors, or cultural conventions. Artists and designers regularly use semantically resonant colors in their work. Consider these charts of (fictional) fruit sales: The only difference between the charts is the color assignment. Now, try answering some questions about the data in each of these charts. If you answered the chart on the right, you’re not alone. The Case for the 5-Second Interactive - Scott Berinato. By Scott Berinato | 12:00 PM May 7, 2014 Watching a “cold read” of a data visualization is revelatory.
Try this: Hand some friends a printout of an infographic and ask what they think. Then, watch them. 7-things-to-do-when-you-have-to-give-a-short-speech. I once went to a small fundraising event for a nonprofit that I thought the world of.
They did so much good in my neighborhood that I truly thought they could do no wrong. Then one of the organizers asked someone to stand up "to say a few words," and her presentation turned into one of the longest, least organized, most lifeless talks I've ever heard. Those who were lucky enough to be standing near the back of the room slipped out. For the rest of us, the goodwill seemed to slip away. A Presentation Isn't Always the Right Way to Communicate - Nancy Duarte. By Nancy Duarte | 9:00 AM March 17, 2014 We rarely think about whether presentations are the best way to express our ideas; we just blindly create and deliver them.
By some estimates, 350 presentations, on average, are delivered every second of every day. Unfortunately, presentations can’t be the Swiss Army knife of communication. Though they’re one of the most powerful tools we have for moving an audience, even the most carefully crafted talks won’t be effective if they’re not delivered in the right context. Sometimes, a conversation is much more appropriate and effective. How do you know when that’s the case? The best conversations will happen when you’ve briefed everyone ahead of time on the information you’re going to discuss. Structure Your Presentation Like a Story - Nancy Duarte. By Nancy Duarte | 8:00 AM October 31, 2012 After studying hundreds of speeches, I’ve found that the most effective presenters use the same techniques as great storytellers: By reminding people of the status quo and then revealing the path to a better way, they set up a conflict that needs to be resolved.
That tension helps them persuade the audience to adopt a new mindset or behave differently — to move from what is to what could be. And by following Aristotle’s three-part story structure (beginning, middle, end), they create a message that’s easy to digest, remember, and retell. Here’s how it looks when you chart it out: And here’s how to do it in your own presentations. Craft the Beginning Start by describing life as the audience knows it. Do Your Slides Pass the Glance Test? - Nancy Duarte. By Nancy Duarte | 11:00 AM October 22, 2012 An audience can’t listen to your presentation and read detailed, text-heavy slides at the same time (not without missing key parts of your message, anyway).
So make sure your slides pass what I call the glance test: People should be able to comprehend each one in about three seconds. Think of your slides as billboards. When people drive, they only briefly take their eyes off their main focus — the road — to process billboard information. Similarly, your audience should focus intently on what you’re saying, looking only briefly at your slides when you display them.
Keep It Simple Research shows that people learn more effectively from multimedia messages when they’re stripped of extraneous words, graphics, animation, and sounds. Do Your Slides Pass the Glance Test? - Nancy Duarte. Create a Presentation Your Audience Will Care About - Nancy Duarte. By Nancy Duarte | 9:00 AM October 10, 2012 Generating ideas is the easiest part of creating a presentation.
The hard part is deciding what to keep. Many of your ideas may be fascinating or clever, but you can’t squeeze them all in — and no one wants to hear them all, anyway. The people in the audience are the stars of your show. If they don’t buy what you’re saying, it won’t go anywhere. Spell out the big idea: Your primary filter should be what I call your big idea: the one key message you must communicate. Try expressing your big idea in a complete sentence to make sure it’s fully baked. How to Present to Senior Executives - Nancy Duarte. By Nancy Duarte | 11:00 AM October 4, 2012 Senior executives are one of the toughest crowds you’ll face as a presenter.
They’re incredibly impatient because their schedules are jam-packed — and they have to make lots of high-stakes decisions, often with little time to weigh options. So they won’t sit still for a long presentation with a big reveal at the end. They’ll just interrupt you before you finish your shtick. It can be frustrating. Five Presentation Mistakes Everyone Makes - Nancy Duarte.
By Nancy Duarte | 2:00 PM December 12, 2012 We all know what it’s like to sit through a bad presentation.
We can easily spot the flaws — too long, too boring, indecipherable, what have you — when we watch others speak. The thing is, when we take the stage ourselves, many of us fall into the same traps. Here are five of the most common, along with some tips on how to avoid them. 1. To unearth the emotional appeal of your ideas, ask yourself a series of “why” questions. 2. 3. 4. 5. This is the seventh and final post in Nancy Duarte’s blog series on creating and delivering presentations, based on tips from her new book, the HBR Guide to Persuasive Presentations.