Key points from this video: 2:32 Examples of bad slides. 3:46 "90% of what you said was gone in 30 seconds" if your slides looked like these bad examples. 6:15 One message per slide! 7:20 "1 + 1 = 0" -> "Redundancy Effect" -> If what you're saying (verbal script) is also written on your slides, your audience will get 0 info. 8:05 Purpose of your slides: short, sweet bit of text and an image. 8:36 Your eyes focus on moving objects, signaling colours (red/orange/yellow), contrasting objects, and big objects. 9:32 Slide title is often the biggest object, but rarely the more important. 10:26 The biggest parts of your slides should be the most important part of your presentation. 10:40 U S E C O N T R A S T to control your audience's attention. 10:46 Don't use light backgrounds. Use dark backgrounds and light text! Light background steal too much attention (e.g., from the speaker). 14:12 Your brain needs to "count" if there are 7 or more objects, but not if there are only 6 or fewer. Your brain can simply "see" the 6 objects. 14:42 Counting takes 500% more cognitive resources than just seeing. 15:40 The magic number is 6. The max number of objects per slide should be 6. 18:28 The number of slides is rarely the problem. The problem is often the number of objects per slide. Dang! I wish I had come across this video YEARS ago. Poorly designed slides are everywhere! Super useful info. David is amazing!
Just sent a link to the video to my two boys - and then followed it up with an email with your comment pasted into it, Many, many thanks for going to the trouble to create the list for us.
This is great, being in the military we're constantly bombarded with powerpoint presentations as well as producing our own, alot of the time there usually upto 100+ slides and the amount of infomation per slide is horrendous to say the least even though we have courses on presenting and using powerpoint as a visual aid which is similar to your TED talk, people still end up losing the audience within the first few minutes. From now on I shall be using your method and hopefully bring others to the fold. Thank you P.S it was nice not finding myself drifting off to sleep during this.
I came here to watch because Alex Hormozi mentioned "Death by PowerPoint TEDx Talk" in his video. This is a great video - very informative and entertaining. Thank you, David JP Phillips!
The massive problem with this approach, and I never saw it being addressed, is that in most companies powerpoint are not really used for presentations only, but really used to meet TWO objectives: 1) As a presentation method, as he was describing it, but also 2) As a self contained, self explanatory report, a repository of information, which can be read and understood on its own. And that is the problem!! These are two very different things which we try to accomplish with the same product. Most powerpoints are horrible because we build then as reports which can be sent beforehand by email to people and then understood by them just by reading it. There are clearly cases when a presentation is just a presentation, but 90% of the cases in big companies, if a powerpoint is built like he instructs in this video, it will be rejected by managers and coworkers simply because it cannot be read.
Simply create two. One as visual aid and one as Infodeck. Start with the info deck, make a copy, throw the 95% percent, add size, contrast, multiple slides etc.. bam you're done.
My teacher showed this to the class today since we are going to make presentations about strange organisms (Biology). After he showed us the video he removed the restriction of 5 slides to unlimited (now it's max 10 minutes instead). This video really did a lot for me and I will use this knowledge for all my presentations in the future! Thanks alot :)
+David Phillips Dear David, fantastic meta-presentation - I will definitely use your great tips in the future. One question: Why do you recommend 6 objects as the maximum, when in fact you show a slide containing 5 (without titles as a 6th object)?
@@DavidJPPhillips Aren't these tips targeted for PowerPoint used for corporate presentation? In particular, about the use of dark background, for teaching or lecturing purposes the teacher do not need to be the 'highlight' of the class, but the contents of his or her teaching do. So white background actually serves the purpose well. What do you think?
The speaker ... David JP Phillips gave the finest presentation I've ever seen. It's worth the 20 mins. I'm not talking about the presentation he showed on the screen in this video. I'm talking about his presentation and speaking skills
1- one message per one slide 2- simple pictures and small texts 3- The most important part is to be the biggest one 4- brightening and fading 5- A dark background is easier for your eyes 6- The magical number 6 7- don't disturb the audience with sentences if you want to speak
I was on your workshops some years back in Sweden. It was just great and much that you talked about just rubbed into my presentations for the coming years. With time everyone just develops their own style of presenting that they are comfortable with - sometimes the developed things work fine, and sometimes they do not. Just came by this now again and found out that a bit of a refresher is good for me too. Anyhow, my sincere thanks for helping me become a better presenter all those years back. That skill has brought good things with it during my career.
As a corporate trainer/instructor, I circle back around to this message a few times throughout the year....not only to serve as a reminder of how so many fall into these traps, but to make sure I don't get succumb to the dreaded "Death by PowerPoint". Thanks for this!
I came in with low expectations but was pleasantly surprised. The presenter, David JP Phillips did a good job highlighting how we can get better with our PowerPoint skills. Overall I am glad I spent 20 minutes on this TEDx Talks. Thank you again for sharing on RUclips. One constructive criticism I must offer is that the message could have been delivered in a shorter duration.
Same here, watching someone talking 20 minutes about Powerpoint presentation. Wasnt really paying attention first 5 min, and then saved this to my favorites. Glad that I stayed.
Just came across David while watching his fabulous interview with Nathanial Bibby on Monday Night Live and have now watched all his Ted Talks which are fantastic - this one is the best - I never understood why anyone used Power Point at all as it always seemed to make presentations all the more boring - now I understand!
More people really need to see this video. Not only did you highlight what makes a good ppt presentation, you also showed that your rules work at the same time.
Lovely! I remebered to have used 112 slides in a conference to finish my talk in eight minutes flat - very lucid. I think I had followed all these principles just by intuition! Hmmm feel proud.
I use it in the university course I teach. The best guidance for preparing presentations. Delivered in a witty way that my students remember the rules forever! 🙂
After I saw how long the video was I was going to move on, but he kept my attention the entire time and every word was of value! Can’t wait to apply these best practices.
Somehow with the lights in the background, it looks like Van Gogh is gonna explain one of his paintings but starts talking about power point instead. But seriously this is a really good video, i learned a lot from it. :)
It would certainly make a specific MSSQL instructor at SuperUSers in Denmark understand what I was constantly trying to communicate to him. Not that it was his fault - it was Microsoft's because the instructor was only going through preprepared slides.
should be required viewing for every corp. marketing team... and every one else who needs to impart important information.... thank you David JP Phillips
Wow!! this is so refreshing.. and can't agree more with the speaker when he says "organizations have this thing where they give you a limit of the total slide count" - very relatable.
I have never been so intrigued by a presenter like David. The way to present and really get the combination of total facts and experience is unbeatable.
David, I saw your presentation at 2am in the morning and only hours before submitting a final major presentation for a global conference. I watched your video once, then the second time took notes. It transformed my entire presentation which after I compared it to my other peer presenters, thought it was not as 'expert' as theirs. Well, low and behold!!!! The majority of the audience loved it because they could actually concentrate on what I was saying (the Presenter) and engaged them in meaningful listening. I have since passed it on to several of my colleagues as well as a few folks who attended the conference. Your presentation was fantastic! Thanks for sharing! More success to you!
+DF Guardian Thanks for your kind words! And well played - it takes some guts and skill to change something that close to the delivery. So happy it worked out brilliantly!!!
I like this TED talk because it comes in handy for my public speaking class! It's important to make sure the audience is interested and that you keep their attention until the end of your speech.
I have more often than not felt the "death by powerpoint" in several classroom and orientation settings. A breath of fresh air to have someone address this topic.
This talk changed not only how I teach undergraduates to use PowerPoint in our capstone history course but also how I use PowerPoint in my own teaching.
This was required viewing in my nurse practitioner doctorate program. I never knew there was a correct way of designing a PowerPoint. After listening to your talk, it all makes sense. Why allow the PowerPoint presentation to upstage the presenter? I have learned a lot in your 20 minutes TEDx Talk. Thank you.
Thank you for that amazing talk. I've just been through my latest presentation and trashed all the bad parts which actually took time to put in. I hadn't realised how many bad habits I had acquired from other presentations which you think are essential. So much easier to see the information now because it is no longer cluttered with rubbish. How did I not see how bad it was? Doh! A thank you from my future audiences.
If anyone's considering getting an MBA, don't. This guy provided more value in 20 minutes than almost any of my classes did in 6 weeks. Professor youtube knows all. Just gotta find content like this.
The dramatic title caught my eye but the contents are just magnificent! David explain it in an easily understand and in depth information needed for presentation way. It's so super helpful, thanks David!
This is one of the best and most insightful videos on visualization I've seen. Your presentation did not only exhibit mastery of PowerPoint Presentation, it made it difficult for anyone not to understand and focus on the presentation even if the person deliberately decided not to. Many thanks for enhancing my PowerPoint skills.
Great talk. In my experience, Powerpoint is no longer used just as a tool for creating presentations. It's also useful for brainstorming and collaboration since it lets you get ideas down quickly and refine them later. The danger comes when the two are mixed and work that was never intended to be presented ends up on screen.
@David I always hated the white background and always persisted with it thinking "what would people think otherwise?". I mean if we have blackboard with white chalk the best way to convey message, why should the powerpoint be different? After seeing your video, I have put all doubts to rest. Changed the color of my slides to black background. I am going for a major pitching of my product. Thanks for this video. I changed my slides from good to WOW.
🎯 Key Takeaways for quick navigation: 05:54 📝 *Use one message per PowerPoint slide to enhance audience understanding and retention.* 07:27 🤯 *Avoid speaking sentences simultaneously with text on slides to prevent the audience from retaining information effectively.* 09:36 🖼️ *Utilize the principle of size to highlight the most important elements; make crucial information the biggest object on the slide.* 10:41 🎨 *Control audience focus with contrast; emphasize important points by using contrast to guide the audience's attention.* 15:57 💡 *Limit the number of objects on a slide to around six for optimal audience understanding; excessive objects can overwhelm and lead to cognitive fatigue.* Made with HARPA AI
Finally, someone said something about the Powerpoint presentations that is of a use!!! Thank you so much David Phillips, I''ll definitely use these tips from now on.
As always (i have seen David before) the best presentation. There is nothing like this presenter and the skills he has in the subject. I recommend everyone to visit any of he's sessions.
mixing psychology with anything we do is always genius and i love it... i really enjoyed this and thank you for showing me how to implement these strategies.
David, I hope the message reaches every presenter in the World! This is the only knowledge anyone need. PowerPoint can't do the job. Love it when you state that PowerPoint is the VISUAL AID! Great presentation, David! :-)
Thank you! In Catholic theology, there are the Spiritual and Corporal Works of Mercy which guide a person to doing the good for others. This presentation should be added as one of the corporate works of mercy! I am sharing this talk as a good-will gesture to the world....or at least my facebook readers.
Hi, I would like to purchase his training on the site headgain(with the 110 elements) with 20 peoples (some of the content would be sent before payment as proof of purchase). Would you be interested in this ? :))
This is great, being in the military we're constantly bombarded with powerpoint presentations as well as producing our own, alot of the time there usually upto 100+ slides and the amount of infomation per slide is horrendous to say the least even though we have courses on presenting and using powerpoint as a visual aid which is similar to your TED talk, people still end up losing the audience within the first few minutes. From now on I shall be using your method and hopefully bring others to the fold. Thank you P.S it was nice not finding myself drifting off to sleep during this.
I can't thank you enough for this video. It came just at the right time for me. I was hired to do a presentation and wrote it. After watching your video I re-did it and it was much better, of course, and was extremely successful. Thank you.
My first time making a PowerPoint presentation in high school, and my teacher told us not to have sentences but only have pictures and a few words per slide. His teaching has never failed me yet :)
Hi David. Lovely, clear and simple illustration of why so many people mis-use PowerPoint, thank you. To fully understand the arguments you were making however I have some queries: 1) Why if SIX is the maximum number of points you recommend having on a slide, do you use an example of 7 vs 5 balls? Why not prove the point by showing 6 balls? What you’ve shown me is that 5 is easier to see than 7, which you rightly point out we need to count. 2) When discussing the real-life example slide of the features of the Supercar Exterior, you mention 16 objects. I can see on the slide either 12 items (13 if you include the heading) or a total of 23 words. To what were you referring when you mention 16? 3) When explaining the benefits of reducing the number of items, you drop it down to 4 (Flat free tires, Xenon lights, New material and Aerodynamic). Again, if SIX is to maximum, why didn’t you show that in action? Many thanks Meredith
I had just finished writing a Power Point before watching this. hangs head in shame All the more I have to say is that I hope the time I just spent re-doing the whole blasted thing is worth it.
🎯 Key Takeaways for quick navigation: 00:00 🧐 *The speaker questions why PowerPoint presentations often look boring and ineffective.* 03:45 🧠 *Overly complex and text-heavy PowerPoint slides result in 90% of the information being forgotten within 30 seconds.* 08:28 🖼️ *Effective PowerPoint slides should have short, meaningful text and use images to enhance the message.* 10:41 👀 *Utilize size and contrast to control focus, making important elements larger and using color contrast effectively.* 15:57 🔢 *Limit the number of objects on a slide to around six for better audience comprehension and engagement.* Made with HARPA AI
I’ve only just been introduced to you following a presentation skills course that was put together by my employer - you’re delivery explains everything of what you say and I will be watching more of your videos as motivation and inspiration. Thank you !!
Gotta agree with you on the darker bg and the smaller title.. Finally i was not killed by powerpoint at a TeD Ex presentation, Now that was interesting and well performed really goes to show that the tool is not the presentation u are.. well said mate! This was truly Soulful to all of us who suffer viewing and making that dreadful powerpoint on daily basis.
Here's my take aways: One main message slide Short text with image- (more than that than it's confusing) Size matters (text size) Contrast to control focus of viewer 6 objects or less per slide Dark background is superior
Given the fact that most of the presentations are occurring online these days, I am thinking about using a white background since I want to put the emphasis on the slides.
i fail to understand the context: being online does not remove the fact that the "presentation" is still the person, what they say, and what they know. the PPT is still just a visual aid. doing the presentation online hardly should change that... could you clarify why "online" changes this dynamic?
A copy of the summary: Messages per slide: One Steer focus by using: Contrast & Size What not to use while speaking: Sentences Preferred background: Dark Objects per slide : Six
Hi, I would like to purchase his training on the site headgain(with the 110 elements) with 20 peoples (some of the content would be sent before payment as proof of purchase). Would you be interested in this ? :)))
Thank you for this effective presentation on effective presentations! I plan to use the video in training my students in speech and visual aid usage here at National Chiao Tung University in Taiwan! (sister school to Chalmers in Sweden BTW) Great ideas get around!
I had just finished writing a Power Point before watching this. *hangs head in shame* All the more I have to say is that I hope the time I just spent re-doing the whole blasted thing is worth it.
Great advice but 95% of presenters are too lazy to even learn the content of their speech/talk so they'll never do this because they seem to think of PowerPoint as their cue cards.
Yep. That's the main problem: teachers don't really know their subject matter. Ironically, if they'd do some research, and put it in their powerPoint, then they'd actually KNOW the stuff, from just seeing it year after year.
That's one of the most brilliant speeches I've heard... Not even going into the main area of the topic I put the LIKE!!! Cause I'm sure it is definitely worth it.
A really good (slide-) show, but at 16:55 I'm failing because of my objection against "16 objects", the slide shows 12 objects. I make errors in my own slide shows, but I fix the problem with the slide when the pupils are complaining: it takes about 20-30 seconds.
I love this. I use slides for Purchasing Training and I have been trying to clean up my presentations, and give them a sleeker, more polished feel. Since lots of words are sometimes needed when teaching, I took my old slides and made them in to a manual that I handed out after my presentation. I used every one of these tips in my new slides and the feedback so far has been awesome.
Nice presentation! Ive already known some of these points and used them at school. My teachers really liked my presentations. Nevertheless they always taught us the wrong way to do presentations and did them wrong themselve... Strange
Pretty much covered some basic design principles in very simple way. Can't believe how many of my professors at college even after years of doing presentations still do all of these mistakes... white glaring backgrounds, more attention to titles than content, sentences, heck even paragraphs of text while professor is talking.. + almost no pictures most times. And this comes from a design college, and a professor who is like "design critic", yet he doesn't even understand basic concepts..
As someone who is horrible at lectures (I can never remember what people have said unless I make a lot of notes, but the moment I start writing a note I can't listen to the rest he's saying) I'm actually kinda glad college professors write entire sentences. Now I can look at the handouts when learning for the exams and figure out what I need to know. If they only use the PowerPoint as a visual aide, I would never be able to go back to something as easily as I can now... Unless the information they give is also written down somewhere, in which case I would strongly prefer this kind of presentation.
Different people use ppt differently. As a lecturer I show students the ppt in class but they know it's been designed as a conceptual overview and revision resource to be downloaded from the platform and perused at home: class showing is just a quick preview. Thus, some of these principles don't apply. My job is to map a territory and tell you the names of the places, so that you can dispense with me and just use Google from then on, and no self-respecting cartographer says "uh-oh, I've reached my limit of six place names to a map, better do a new map". We want to get a picture of the whole territory before zooming in on the detail.
I am a lowly Junior high school history teacher, and, perhaps because i have a challenging audience, my powerpoints are awesome. I'm the only teacher in my district that I know of that has 65'" big screens in his room. So that helps. I always use dark backgrounds, but, more than that, I try to not even use backgrounds. I use pictures as backgrounds. I use the picture first -- on the theory that people think in images -- and then, hit control + D and make a duplicate and then insert text and put in words on the image. One thing I require my students to do is to write down whatever words are underlined. The rest of the words are just for me to read, I try -- and succeed -- to write beautiful paragraphs for me to read, while they write down bits and parts of words that, when taken together, make a sentence that says the same thing, just with less words. Meanwhile, I use music. Mostly soundtracks from movies. War dramas seem to have the best music. Hans Zimmer for example makes anything seem important. Lots of images. Frequent changes. My typical chapter PPT has anywhere from 325 to 500 frames. Everyone is impressed with my PowerPoints. I've never seen anyone do them better. in fact, that's why I was on here hoping to find someone as good as me.
Robert Harrigan good job! Wish I had a teacher like you, and it in a good way, forces the students to focus in class because the presentation file will be too big to email! Brilliant!
Love this. But I really need some kind of tutorial just on the part he is describing starting at 11:00, contrast, animating. I saw in the comments David explained to someone but I still couldn't figure it iut. I have PowerPoint for Mac 2011. If I can just learn that technique I think I'll be golden.
It's even easier if you build the completed slide first, with all lines. Then just duplicate a bunch of times and work backwards, deleting a line on each previous slide. This way you avoid the problem of formatting (e.g. words moving even a tiny bit when you advance slides).
I was just playing around with this (Windows). First build the entire slide, then add animations. The easiest way I found to do this is to click on the box so that all of the items are affected, then select the animations tab, then choose "appear" as the type of animation. You'll see numbers appear next to each of the items in your list. Next (box still selected) select "add animations" and "transparency" as the type of animation. You'll see that there now appears to be another number box behind each one that was already there. Then I open the animation pane and rearrange the "transparency" items. You then set it for item 1 to switch to transparent when item 2 appears (the first item in each pair should be set to "on click" and second should be "with previous"), item 2 to switch to transparent when item 3 appears, and so on. I liked the affect best setting the transparency to 75%, but you can choose whatever amount works best for you.
![Felix "Unfair" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Oswujxm2Ag0/mqdefault.jpg)
Key points from this video:
2:32 Examples of bad slides.
3:46 "90% of what you said was gone in 30 seconds" if your slides looked like these bad examples.
6:15 One message per slide!
7:20 "1 + 1 = 0" -> "Redundancy Effect" -> If what you're saying (verbal script) is also written on your slides, your audience will get 0 info.
8:05 Purpose of your slides: short, sweet bit of text and an image.
8:36 Your eyes focus on moving objects, signaling colours (red/orange/yellow), contrasting objects, and big objects.
9:32 Slide title is often the biggest object, but rarely the more important.
10:26 The biggest parts of your slides should be the most important part of your presentation.
10:40 U S E C O N T R A S T to control your audience's attention.
10:46 Don't use light backgrounds. Use dark backgrounds and light text! Light background steal too much attention (e.g., from the speaker).
14:12 Your brain needs to "count" if there are 7 or more objects, but not if there are only 6 or fewer. Your brain can simply "see" the 6 objects.
14:42 Counting takes 500% more cognitive resources than just seeing.
15:40 The magic number is 6. The max number of objects per slide should be 6.
18:28 The number of slides is rarely the problem. The problem is often the number of objects per slide.
Dang! I wish I had come across this video YEARS ago.
Poorly designed slides are everywhere!
Super useful info. David is amazing!
THANKS FOR SHARING!! :-)
Just sent a link to the video to my two boys - and then followed it up with an email with your comment pasted into it, Many, many thanks for going to the trouble to create the list for us.
@@lydiaoehling705 No problem, Lydia! :)
@@AntoineMaloney Glad I could help, Antoine! :)
Great summary!
I lost my father to powerpoint last year and was so touched by your talk. Thank you for spreading awareness ❤
wait how tf does someone die by powerpoint
@catherinelin8548 It was a joke I was making a joke.
My dad is alive and well.
@@Skwuushi Brutally
@@Skwuushi I was wondering the same 😂
@@Skwuushi its possible, powerpoint overworked them to death
The 6 Principles
One message (per slide)
No text Sentences
SIZE
Contrast - to steer focus
SIX or less objects (per slide)
Dark background
your welcome
Wow thanks. Seriously good input.
Why aren't there more people like you in the world? I swear, thanks for listing the 6 principles, it saved me a lot of time for my midterm reflection.
Thanks man, I was looking through the video for those points to help my final, cheers!
Thank you! I did not want to spend 20 minutes waiting to hear these point.
No text sentences while you're speaking at the same time**
I have never been more inspired to make a PowerPoint
Cause of death: Power Point
This is great, being in the military we're constantly bombarded with powerpoint presentations as well as producing our own, alot of the time there usually upto 100+ slides and the amount of infomation per slide is horrendous to say the least even though we have courses on presenting and using powerpoint as a visual aid which is similar to your TED talk, people still end up losing the audience within the first few minutes. From now on I shall be using your method and hopefully bring others to the fold. Thank you P.S it was nice not finding myself drifting off to sleep during this.
lol
Guess you don’t get any real work accomplished.
@@thisguy2973ouch!
I came here to watch because Alex Hormozi mentioned "Death by PowerPoint TEDx Talk" in his video. This is a great video - very informative and entertaining. Thank you, David JP Phillips!
same
Didnt see anyone commenting on this, but the crossword game at the end was a great way to re-engage with the crowd and summarise all the main points.
Yeah but the fact that the vertical letter stacks didn't spell words (in English at least) really upset me :D
The massive problem with this approach, and I never saw it being addressed, is that in most companies powerpoint are not really used for presentations only, but really used to meet TWO objectives: 1) As a presentation method, as he was describing it, but also 2) As a self contained, self explanatory report, a repository of information, which can be read and understood on its own. And that is the problem!! These are two very different things which we try to accomplish with the same product. Most powerpoints are horrible because we build then as reports which can be sent beforehand by email to people and then understood by them just by reading it. There are clearly cases when a presentation is just a presentation, but 90% of the cases in big companies, if a powerpoint is built like he instructs in this video, it will be rejected by managers and coworkers simply because it cannot be read.
But if you receive the PPT with the accompanying notes...boom, problem solved. Or?
@@ytytboy in theory except no one does that
@@dddmmm21 thanks for your reply! If no one does that then we should educate them. The information is there, we just need to let them know!
Appendixes exist for this reason
Simply create two. One as visual aid and one as Infodeck. Start with the info deck, make a copy, throw the 95% percent, add size, contrast, multiple slides etc.. bam you're done.
I'm working as an instructor for 18 years- this presentation is epic- completely changed my perspective, i have to change all my presentations.
My teacher showed this to the class today since we are going to make presentations about strange organisms (Biology). After he showed us the video he removed the restriction of 5 slides to unlimited (now it's max 10 minutes instead). This video really did a lot for me and I will use this knowledge for all my presentations in the future! Thanks alot :)
+Rein Elliot I cant tell you how much that means to me! Thanks for the feedback!
+David Phillips
Dear David, fantastic meta-presentation - I will definitely use your great tips in the future.
One question: Why do you recommend 6 objects as the maximum, when in fact you show a slide containing 5 (without titles as a 6th object)?
@@DavidJPPhillips Aren't these tips targeted for PowerPoint used for corporate presentation? In particular, about the use of dark background, for teaching or lecturing purposes the teacher do not need to be the 'highlight' of the class, but the contents of his or her teaching do. So white background actually serves the purpose well. What do you think?
@@DavidJPPhillips haha, found you here
@@csystudio teacher here. I agree!!
The speaker ... David JP Phillips gave the finest presentation I've ever seen. It's worth the 20 mins. I'm not talking about the presentation he showed on the screen in this video. I'm talking about his presentation and speaking skills
1- one message per one slide
2- simple pictures and small texts
3- The most important part is to be the biggest one
4- brightening and fading
5- A dark background is easier for your eyes
6- The magical number 6
7- don't disturb the audience with sentences if you want to speak
I was on your workshops some years back in Sweden. It was just great and much that you talked about just rubbed into my presentations for the coming years. With time everyone just develops their own style of presenting that they are comfortable with - sometimes the developed things work fine, and sometimes they do not. Just came by this now again and found out that a bit of a refresher is good for me too. Anyhow, my sincere thanks for helping me become a better presenter all those years back. That skill has brought good things with it during my career.
This should be mandatory training at EVERY company.
Pimack and you expect every presenter to make their own slides.
It's mandatory in my business school but I do the extra work to make them perfect, maybe because I have my defense tommorow
Right!?!
I agree with you ;)
@@DavidJPPhillips I agree with you.
As a corporate trainer/instructor, I circle back around to this message a few times throughout the year....not only to serve as a reminder of how so many fall into these traps, but to make sure I don't get succumb to the dreaded "Death by PowerPoint". Thanks for this!
Very important information for my research design & methods course!!
I came in with low expectations but was pleasantly surprised. The presenter,
David JP Phillips did a good job highlighting how we can get better with our PowerPoint
skills. Overall I am glad I spent 20 minutes on this TEDx Talks.
Thank you again for sharing on RUclips. One
constructive criticism I must offer is that the message could have been
delivered in a shorter duration.
@5++++×8+
Same here :) So happy I stayed
I was listening to it while driving. Towards the second half I actually quit driving and now I am in a hospital. Huh.
...and then they lived happly ever after.
Same here, watching someone talking 20 minutes about Powerpoint presentation. Wasnt really paying attention first 5 min, and then saved this to my favorites. Glad that I stayed.
The more I hear him speak the more I love him! Absolutely amazing David Phillips!
I agree 💯 with that
Just came across David while watching his fabulous interview with Nathanial Bibby on Monday Night Live and have now watched all his Ted Talks which are fantastic - this one is the best - I never understood why anyone used Power Point at all as it always seemed to make presentations all the more boring - now I understand!
More people really need to see this video. Not only did you highlight what makes a good ppt presentation, you also showed that your rules work at the same time.
Yes! YOU are the presentation, the PPT is the visual aide.
This is
one of the best
video
provided by ted
on presentation.
Thank you David!
Very practical actionable tips indeed. Great job.
Sir Its you ,who recommeded this video for your us and now after your data science journey video ,I am here and glad to see you here.
I am here from your suggestions
And this helps me a lot
Thank you so much 🥰
I also came after watching your video... thank you for your suggestion
Lovely! I remebered to have used 112 slides in a conference to finish my talk in eight minutes flat - very lucid. I think I had followed all these principles just by intuition! Hmmm feel proud.
I use it in the university course I teach. The best guidance for preparing presentations. Delivered in a witty way that my students remember the rules forever! 🙂
I have never created a PowerPoint presentation in my life. Yet, I just watched this entire video, and absorbed the information. Well done, sir.
After I saw how long the video was I was going to move on, but he kept my attention the entire time and every word was of value! Can’t wait to apply these best practices.
Somehow with the lights in the background, it looks like Van Gogh is gonna explain one of his paintings but starts talking about power point instead.
But seriously this is a really good video, i learned a lot from it. :)
Imagine the akwardness of the next person to present with a powerpoint
Lol
Seriously, you feel like dying! And you can't do editing there and then! You know, i can ask for a reschedule! Or a different audience! Lol
It would certainly make a specific MSSQL instructor at SuperUSers in Denmark understand what I was constantly trying to communicate to him.
Not that it was his fault - it was Microsoft's because the instructor was only going through preprepared slides.
😂😂😂
Ironically that presentation was titled: 'Death By Awkward Embarrassment'.
should be required viewing for every corp. marketing team... and every one else who needs to impart important information.... thank you David JP Phillips
5 Principles (answers that were for my quiz)
One message
Working memory
Size
Contrast
Objects
thank u bro
Wow!! this is so refreshing.. and can't agree more with the speaker when he says "organizations have this thing where they give you a limit of the total slide count" - very relatable.
I have never been so intrigued by a presenter like David. The way to present and really get the combination of total facts and experience is unbeatable.
laughed more at my nans funeral mate
David, I saw your presentation at 2am in the morning and only hours before submitting a final major presentation for a global conference. I watched your video once, then the second time took notes. It transformed my entire presentation which after I compared it to my other peer presenters, thought it was not as 'expert' as theirs. Well, low and behold!!!! The majority of the audience loved it because they could actually concentrate on what I was saying (the Presenter) and engaged them in meaningful listening. I have since passed it on to several of my colleagues as well as a few folks who attended the conference.
Your presentation was fantastic! Thanks for sharing! More success to you!
+DF Guardian Thanks for your kind words! And well played - it takes some guts and skill to change something that close to the delivery. So happy it worked out brilliantly!!!
Best short talk about optimum PowerPoint presentations I have seen, and this too is my business!
I like this TED talk because it comes in handy for my public speaking class! It's important to make sure the audience is interested and that you keep their attention until the end of your speech.
I have more often than not felt the "death by powerpoint" in several classroom and orientation settings. A breath of fresh air to have someone address this topic.
Love the use of stories, ease with time and humour. David is a funny guy. It makes me eager continue listening to him! 💥
This talk changed not only how I teach undergraduates to use PowerPoint in our capstone history course but also how I use PowerPoint in my own teaching.
This was required viewing in my nurse practitioner doctorate program. I never knew there was a correct way of designing a PowerPoint. After listening to your talk, it all makes sense. Why allow the PowerPoint presentation to upstage the presenter? I have learned a lot in your 20 minutes TEDx Talk. Thank you.
Thank you for that amazing talk. I've just been through my latest presentation and trashed all the bad parts which actually took time to put in. I hadn't realised how many bad habits I had acquired from other presentations which you think are essential. So much easier to see the information now because it is no longer cluttered with rubbish. How did I not see how bad it was? Doh! A thank you from my future audiences.
If anyone's considering getting an MBA, don't. This guy provided more value in 20 minutes than almost any of my classes did in 6 weeks. Professor youtube knows all. Just gotta find content like this.
The dramatic title caught my eye but the contents are just magnificent! David explain it in an easily understand and in depth information needed for presentation way. It's so super helpful, thanks David!
The best part is that he was completely true to his word: his powerpoint was amazing
This is one of the best and most insightful videos on visualization I've seen. Your presentation did not only exhibit mastery of PowerPoint Presentation, it made it difficult for anyone not to understand and focus on the presentation even if the person deliberately decided not to. Many thanks for enhancing my PowerPoint skills.
Great talk. In my experience, Powerpoint is no longer used just as a tool for creating presentations. It's also useful for brainstorming and collaboration since it lets you get ideas down quickly and refine them later. The danger comes when the two are mixed and work that was never intended to be presented ends up on screen.
Yes, exactly! I can't believe this comment hasn't received more attention. You're 100% correct here and it's a problem.
Underrated comment!
I use this presentation every year with my middle school classes. I'd be lost without it!
@David I always hated the white background and always persisted with it thinking "what would people think otherwise?". I mean if we have blackboard with white chalk the best way to convey message, why should the powerpoint be different?
After seeing your video, I have put all doubts to rest. Changed the color of my slides to black background. I am going for a major pitching of my product. Thanks for this video. I changed my slides from good to WOW.
+rupam rupam Way to go! There is really such a big difference! Thanks for doing the change!
My personal preference is dark grey, i think it gives my slide more character (with contrasting colours like white & orange)
rupam rupam the change probably started when people use whiteboard and marker pen
You need to get into the 21st century and start using whiteboards. No one likes chalkboards anymore. Chalk feels gritty and horrible.
Dark mode 😳
🎯 Key Takeaways for quick navigation:
05:54 📝 *Use one message per PowerPoint slide to enhance audience understanding and retention.*
07:27 🤯 *Avoid speaking sentences simultaneously with text on slides to prevent the audience from retaining information effectively.*
09:36 🖼️ *Utilize the principle of size to highlight the most important elements; make crucial information the biggest object on the slide.*
10:41 🎨 *Control audience focus with contrast; emphasize important points by using contrast to guide the audience's attention.*
15:57 💡 *Limit the number of objects on a slide to around six for optimal audience understanding; excessive objects can overwhelm and lead to cognitive fatigue.*
Made with HARPA AI
Finally, someone said something about the Powerpoint presentations that is of a use!!! Thank you so much David Phillips, I''ll definitely use these tips from now on.
Thank you for your kind words Eva :)
I got more about public speaking than anything else from this. This guy is amazing to listen to and watch!
Not sure how he counts "objects" from 16:33 and onwards. I see only 12 instead of 16 objects...
You're forgetting to count the headline and the three "objects" at the bottom of the slide that are cut off in the close-up view (slide X of Y, etc.).
And that’s when you stopped listening to the presenter while counting the objects 🤣
GregorySpikeMD I was really confused too.
I was screaming "12" by the end.
we did not get to see the hole power point. He hade 3 more objects at the bottom.
One of the best business video I've see in my 40 year career.
He started slow but the finish is very strong. Thanks a lot for this, i learn a lot.
As always (i have seen David before) the best presentation. There is nothing like this presenter and the skills he has in the subject.
I recommend everyone to visit any of he's sessions.
Kul att se! .
mixing psychology with anything we do is always genius and i love it... i really enjoyed this and thank you for showing me how to implement these strategies.
David, I hope the message reaches every presenter in the World! This is the only knowledge anyone need. PowerPoint can't do the job. Love it when you state that PowerPoint is the VISUAL AID! Great presentation, David! :-)
Thank you! In Catholic theology, there are the Spiritual and Corporal Works of Mercy which guide a person to doing the good for others. This presentation should be added as one of the corporate works of mercy! I am sharing this talk as a good-will gesture to the world....or at least my facebook readers.
One of THE BEST presentations & Ted Talks I have ever watched! And practical to boot!
Hi, I would like to purchase his training on the site headgain(with the 110 elements) with 20 peoples (some of the content would be sent before payment as proof of purchase). Would you be interested in this ? :))
This is great, being in the military we're constantly bombarded with powerpoint presentations as well as producing our own, alot of the time there usually upto 100+ slides and the amount of infomation per slide is horrendous to say the least even though we have courses on presenting and using powerpoint as a visual aid which is similar to your TED talk, people still end up losing the audience within the first few minutes. From now on I shall be using your method and hopefully bring others to the fold. Thank you P.S it was nice not finding myself drifting off to sleep during this.
Literally one of the most useful videos I have encountered on improving a presentation.
And now he has a RUclips channel. Legend
Thank you for the heads up. I'm going to check it out.
This relaxing sounds so soothing. calming to my ears. Thanks for uploading this inspiring music.
I can't thank you enough for this video. It came just at the right time for me. I was hired to do a presentation and wrote it. After watching your video I re-did it and it was much better, of course, and was extremely successful. Thank you.
Cheers! "It came just at the right time for me." I got lucky to get this Gem at just the right time too. 👍😎🥳
This is what i love about TED! I keep learning something applicable vs normal school setting. Please keep maling these videos
My first time making a PowerPoint presentation in high school, and my teacher told us not to have sentences but only have pictures and a few words per slide.
His teaching has never failed me yet :)
I watched the first 30 seconds and was about to move on, BUT then I read some reviews and watched the video...WOW, GREAT information!!!!
It feels like Iron Man giving a presentation because of his stance and confidence.
The best PPT presentation I have ever seen. My work will never be the same. Thanks.
Coincidentally, I had to give a power point with a slide limitation of three just days ago. I should really forward this video to my professor.
Exactly. I have to do a presentation on a brand that I chose for a marketing module but it’s only 6 slides for the content!!!
I am so glad I watched this video before making my first PowerPoint presentation. I was about to start jamming information in every slide. Thank you,
Hi David.
Lovely, clear and simple illustration of why so many people mis-use PowerPoint, thank you. To fully understand the arguments you were making however I have some queries:
1) Why if SIX is the maximum number of points you recommend having on a slide, do you use an example of 7 vs 5 balls? Why not prove the point by showing 6 balls? What you’ve shown me is that 5 is easier to see than 7, which you rightly point out we need to count.
2) When discussing the real-life example slide of the features of the Supercar Exterior, you mention 16 objects. I can see on the slide either 12 items (13 if you include the heading) or a total of 23 words. To what were you referring when you mention 16?
3) When explaining the benefits of reducing the number of items, you drop it down to 4 (Flat free tires, Xenon lights, New material and Aerodynamic). Again, if SIX is to maximum, why didn’t you show that in action?
Many thanks
Meredith
Thank you for these tips 💕. I’m gonna be delivering a presentation in class that composes 50% of our midterm grade and this talk is a lifesaver 😄
I had just finished writing a Power Point before watching this.
hangs head in shame
All the more I have to say is that I hope the time I just spent re-doing the whole blasted thing is worth it.
🎯 Key Takeaways for quick navigation:
00:00 🧐 *The speaker questions why PowerPoint presentations often look boring and ineffective.*
03:45 🧠 *Overly complex and text-heavy PowerPoint slides result in 90% of the information being forgotten within 30 seconds.*
08:28 🖼️ *Effective PowerPoint slides should have short, meaningful text and use images to enhance the message.*
10:41 👀 *Utilize size and contrast to control focus, making important elements larger and using color contrast effectively.*
15:57 🔢 *Limit the number of objects on a slide to around six for better audience comprehension and engagement.*
Made with HARPA AI
I’ve only just been introduced to you following a presentation skills course that was put together by my employer - you’re delivery explains everything of what you say and I will be watching more of your videos as motivation and inspiration. Thank you !!
I started watching this as a pessimist but ended up enjoying myself like a child. Loved it!!
Gotta agree with you on the darker bg and the smaller title.. Finally i was not killed by powerpoint at a TeD Ex presentation, Now that was interesting and well performed really goes to show that the tool is not the presentation u are.. well said mate! This was truly Soulful to all of us who suffer viewing and making that dreadful powerpoint on daily basis.
very good. everyone should watch this before they prepare a powerpoint slideshow.
Here's my take aways:
One main message slide
Short text with image- (more than that than it's confusing)
Size matters (text size)
Contrast to control focus of viewer
6 objects or less per slide
Dark background is superior
David Phillips moves us because he attacks his subject with joy and wisdom. Great energy and comic timing. Thank you.
Time to really rethink what we are doing with our Powerpoint slides and the impact we want to have. This is a must watch.
Given the fact that most of the presentations are occurring online these days, I am thinking about using a white background since I want to put the emphasis on the slides.
makes sense
i fail to understand the context: being online does not remove the fact that the "presentation" is still the person, what they say, and what they know. the PPT is still just a visual aid. doing the presentation online hardly should change that... could you clarify why "online" changes this dynamic?
A copy of the summary:
Messages per slide: One
Steer focus by using: Contrast & Size
What not to use while speaking: Sentences
Preferred background: Dark
Objects per slide : Six
Thank you so much for this presentation, David! Hugely helpful and very thought-provoking.
This one of the most use full TedTalks ever. I have a presentation tomorrow and I had to revise my PowerPoint.
Hi, I would like to purchase his training on the site headgain(with the 110 elements) with 20 peoples (some of the content would be sent before payment as proof of purchase). Would you be interested in this ? :)))
Thank you for this effective presentation on effective presentations! I plan to use the video in training my students in speech and visual aid usage here at National Chiao Tung University in Taiwan! (sister school to Chalmers in Sweden BTW) Great ideas get around!
David JP Phillips Thanks, just saved my presentation. I tried my best to follow the advises and they loved.
I had just finished writing a Power Point before watching this.
*hangs head in shame*
All the more I have to say is that I hope the time I just spent re-doing the whole blasted thing is worth it.
Well was it? :)
Here we are, waiting for his response
Sameeee...waiting on answer
Most intense comment ever, posted 5 years ago, left as a cliffhanger.
Still waiting
I show this to my ESL classes every year. A few awkward digressions aside, this has some excellent selections on how to make decent PPTs.
Great advice but 95% of presenters are too lazy to even learn the content of their speech/talk so they'll never do this because they seem to think of PowerPoint as their cue cards.
Try to push a new PP design, it will probably get tossed, change is hard.
Never heard of comments?
Yes, you can apply this theory to all learning of anything. It's the difference between people who lose and win.
That's good for you, as it will help you stand out and look AMAZING in comparison.
Yep. That's the main problem: teachers don't really know their subject matter. Ironically, if they'd do some research, and put it in their powerPoint, then they'd actually KNOW the stuff, from just seeing it year after year.
That's one of the most brilliant speeches I've heard... Not even going into the main area of the topic I put the LIKE!!! Cause I'm sure it is definitely worth it.
A really good (slide-) show, but at 16:55 I'm failing because of my objection against "16 objects", the slide shows 12 objects. I make errors in my own slide shows, but I fix the problem with the slide when the pupils are complaining: it takes about 20-30 seconds.
On the screen seen by the audience there were in fact 16 (including title and 3 objects at the footer).
I love this. I use slides for Purchasing Training and I have been trying to clean up my presentations, and give them a sleeker, more polished feel. Since lots of words are sometimes needed when teaching, I took my old slides and made them in to a manual that I handed out after my presentation. I used every one of these tips in my new slides and the feedback so far has been awesome.
Nice presentation! Ive already known some of these points and used them at school. My teachers really liked my presentations. Nevertheless they always taught us the wrong way to do presentations and did them wrong themselve... Strange
David this is eye opener, grateful you shared this tricks.
11:36 Do you know how to do this effect?
Easiest way (for me, and I've done similar things a bunch): multiple slides.
WOW, That is the best slideshow I have ever seen on PowerPoint. I am going to tell all my Toastmaster friends.
Pretty much covered some basic design principles in very simple way. Can't believe how many of my professors at college even after years of doing presentations still do all of these mistakes... white glaring backgrounds, more attention to titles than content, sentences, heck even paragraphs of text while professor is talking.. + almost no pictures most times.
And this comes from a design college, and a professor who is like "design critic", yet he doesn't even understand basic concepts..
+Andriuha49378 Those are the worst. Live like you teach... feels like a pretty simple concept.
As someone who is horrible at lectures (I can never remember what people have said unless I make a lot of notes, but the moment I start writing a note I can't listen to the rest he's saying) I'm actually kinda glad college professors write entire sentences. Now I can look at the handouts when learning for the exams and figure out what I need to know. If they only use the PowerPoint as a visual aide, I would never be able to go back to something as easily as I can now... Unless the information they give is also written down somewhere, in which case I would strongly prefer this kind of presentation.
Different people use ppt differently. As a lecturer I show students the ppt in class but they know it's been designed as a conceptual overview and revision resource to be downloaded from the platform and perused at home: class showing is just a quick preview. Thus, some of these principles don't apply. My job is to map a territory and tell you the names of the places, so that you can dispense with me and just use Google from then on, and no self-respecting cartographer says "uh-oh, I've reached my limit of six place names to a map, better do a new map". We want to get a picture of the whole territory before zooming in on the detail.
I am a lowly Junior high school history teacher, and, perhaps because i have a challenging audience, my powerpoints are awesome. I'm the only teacher in my district that I know of that has 65'" big screens in his room. So that helps. I always use dark backgrounds, but, more than that, I try to not even use backgrounds. I use pictures as backgrounds. I use the picture first -- on the theory that people think in images -- and then, hit control + D and make a duplicate and then insert text and put in words on the image. One thing I require my students to do is to write down whatever words are underlined. The rest of the words are just for me to read, I try -- and succeed -- to write beautiful paragraphs for me to read, while they write down bits and parts of words that, when taken together, make a sentence that says the same thing, just with less words. Meanwhile, I use music. Mostly soundtracks from movies. War dramas seem to have the best music. Hans Zimmer for example makes anything seem important. Lots of images. Frequent changes. My typical chapter PPT has anywhere from 325 to 500 frames. Everyone is impressed with my PowerPoints. I've never seen anyone do them better. in fact, that's why I was on here hoping to find someone as good as me.
Robert Harrigan good job! Wish I had a teacher like you, and it in a good way, forces the students to focus in class because the presentation file will be too big to email! Brilliant!
This Ted Talk should be in the curriculum of every school in the Universe.
Love this.
But I really need some kind of tutorial just on the part he is describing starting at 11:00, contrast, animating. I saw in the comments David explained to someone but I still couldn't figure it iut. I have PowerPoint for Mac 2011. If I can just learn that technique I think I'll be golden.
It's even easier if you build the completed slide first, with all lines. Then just duplicate a bunch of times and work backwards, deleting a line on each previous slide.
This way you avoid the problem of formatting (e.g. words moving even a tiny bit when you advance slides).
that's very helpful thanks
I was just playing around with this (Windows). First build the entire slide, then add animations. The easiest way I found to do this is to click on the box so that all of the items are affected, then select the animations tab, then choose "appear" as the type of animation. You'll see numbers appear next to each of the items in your list. Next (box still selected) select "add animations" and "transparency" as the type of animation. You'll see that there now appears to be another number box behind each one that was already there. Then I open the animation pane and rearrange the "transparency" items. You then set it for item 1 to switch to transparent when item 2 appears (the first item in each pair should be set to "on click" and second should be "with previous"), item 2 to switch to transparent when item 3 appears, and so on. I liked the affect best setting the transparency to 75%, but you can choose whatever amount works best for you.
Thank you so much Rachel!!!!!! Your step by step was just perfect!
Still using this for my students when creating Powerpoints for Speaking and Listening Presentation. Makes complete and utter sense.
A great talk on the basic concepts on how to make powerpoint. It sure helped me a lot.