It's my belief that most people put together presentations to entertain first and inform second, and most formatting mistakes start from a deep fear of boring the audience. Hence "variety", superfluous images, etc.
You're a real pro at creating amazing presentations. I'm a presentation designer and I really like the way you create slides with clear takeaways and engaging narratives. However, most of the people I have worked with prefer beautiful-looking slides with a ton of graphics and images over clean and easy-to-read slides!
Most of these videos and advice are really good. Sometimes I’m confused, though. To give an example, repeating the message from the title can be “adding nothing new” or “nicely reemphasizing the main takeaway”. Both situations appear in this video, but it’s unclear why one is bad and the other is good.
I don't have a perfect answer for this, but now re-watching the video I think the distinction is that in one case the information in the title is just repeated without any additional support (example at 4:53). In other words, they're both summarizing statements with essentially the same purpose. Whereas at 9:18 the callouts and the title have different purposes. The title is meant to summarize the slide, while the callouts are meant to show how the slide's message is actually reflected in the chart (i.e. guiding the audience).
@AnalystAcademy - Fantastic work on this video. Just a few remarks on #3 Mistake - Using default ppt slides - Agree with you 100% , default ppt themes & default visual (smart draw/default graphs etc..) don't look appealing but I'm just wondering here - which other tools/visualization techniques would you recommend to move away from default themes/visuals?
I like your videos. Good example and easy to follow. I guess some of these slides are one-off case. How difference for slides that are prepared monthly basis?
0:30 corporate style presentation. 0:50 first, too complicated visual 1:30 4 charts on a slide is overly complicated. 2:00 example: Credit suisse, clear and simple 2:15 second, simple titles, descriptive 2:40 example: BCG, evidence of rising housing cost and creative out of city 3:05 example: even in financial summary, they give you takeaway 3:30 third: default powerpoint designs they don't update the details. could for school project but not the corporate slide. 4:35 fourth: unrelated content 5:20 this breadstick isn't helping me understand the takeaway any easier. 6:05 fifth: distracting background 7:20 sometimes, darker background works better for longer, live presentations. esp. on large screens. 7:40 sixth: not guiding the audience: 9:20 here, they are with callout. 9:30 final mistake: too many colors:
You're an excellent teacher. However, sometimes the advice is contradictory. For example, too much text is dense and makes the slide hard to read. But then, you give examples of good slides - which happen to have dense lines of text.
from my very limited experience they usually put far from brightest people in charge of making these presentations. so not only they're designed poorly, but the information structure itself is often subpar. on a positive side, people who then watch them do not care.
So much text on some slides. How does that work? Does the presenter show the slide then wait for 5 minutes of silence while the audience reads it? If no, then why is it there? Does the speaker speak while the audience attempts to read? That creates cognitive overload and leads to either taking in nothing or making faulty memories of the material. Either way, very poor result. Complex material should be reserved for a hand out given at the end of the talk. (Yes, I know, consultants don't like giving reports because that breaks their business model as show ponies). The slides should be reserved for images, graphics or sparse structuring text.
@Dagwould - my thoughts exactly - keep the slide text *very* simple, so the audience listens rather than reads - and reserve the complex text for the handout. Where complex slides are unavoidable, break them up into multiple, simpler slides
Exactly. That's why you should present your slide and not just give them to read. If you have time (and you should take the time) you can start by creating the text-heavy version and then a "presentation" version where you remove all or most of the text (the last example in the video was good with only the title and 2 graphs/tables. Then after the presentation you can send the full text-heavy version as a handover. That way you keep the best of both worlds.
Not all slides are meant to be presented, many are meant to be read. The majority of my slides were to be read in detail and in quiet by various audiences. If there was a presentation, it was as a summary to prepare the audience for what they were going to read.
One mistake to highlight - Too. Much. Text. Multi sentence bullets, word walls, 3 line slide titles, etc. Bad for comprehension and presenting. If all the text is required, you either have too complex of a key takeaway (or multiple) for the slide or need to shift to memo
The "good example" slides do a good job of highlighting the key information but they are boring and do not engage my interest after my preliminary understanding of the slide. I don't even need to listen to the presenter, and I won't after I'm done reading the key information. While those slides are superior to the "bad example" slides, they are still bad. An engaging slide presentation can use colour, texture, pictures and lighting to guide the eye and can support the data through subtle storytelling in the design. This has to be done carefully though, and a trained eye is important. A flat data slide can be made interesting with attention to the design and use of elements available in PowerPoint. In presentations, it is better to lead the audience through rather than project something that could have been an email on a wall for them to look at. A good slide presentation will elicit thoughtful questions from the audience at its close. No questions? You are boring them, and they did not receive the message.
There's a thin line between this and becoming a graphic artist. Getting bogged down with little design details can be time consuming when you have a lot more analysis and decks to put together.
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It's my belief that most people put together presentations to entertain first and inform second, and most formatting mistakes start from a deep fear of boring the audience. Hence "variety", superfluous images, etc.
That little breakdown you do at 4:07 is great!
You are an excellent communicator, with very clear presentation style and helpful advice that makes sense even for us science nerds. Thanks a bunch!
You videos are great. Definitely signing up for your course. Thanks for posting tips like this.
Glad you like them. Enjoy the course!
You're a real pro at creating amazing presentations. I'm a presentation designer and I really like the way you create slides with clear takeaways and engaging narratives.
However, most of the people I have worked with prefer beautiful-looking slides with a ton of graphics and images over clean and easy-to-read slides!
Thank you!!! Got praised for great powerpoints following your advice
So glad to hear that!
Could you please make a video on building presentation on survey results?
That's a great idea. I'll look into it. Thanks!
This will be highly appreciated
Would love this too!
Update: Here's a short one --> ruclips.net/user/shortsKq8ytMp5Jp0?feature=share
Most of these videos and advice are really good. Sometimes I’m confused, though. To give an example, repeating the message from the title can be “adding nothing new” or “nicely reemphasizing the main takeaway”. Both situations appear in this video, but it’s unclear why one is bad and the other is good.
I don't have a perfect answer for this, but now re-watching the video I think the distinction is that in one case the information in the title is just repeated without any additional support (example at 4:53). In other words, they're both summarizing statements with essentially the same purpose.
Whereas at 9:18 the callouts and the title have different purposes. The title is meant to summarize the slide, while the callouts are meant to show how the slide's message is actually reflected in the chart (i.e. guiding the audience).
Many thanks for the reply. Makes sense 👍
Many thanks for these tips.. I've picked up some great suggestions and ideas to improve on what I have presented previously.
You're very welcome!
V nice.
I always learn from your videos
Thank you!
@AnalystAcademy - Fantastic work on this video. Just a few remarks on #3 Mistake - Using default ppt slides - Agree with you 100% , default ppt themes & default visual (smart draw/default graphs etc..) don't look appealing but I'm just wondering here - which other tools/visualization techniques would you recommend to move away from default themes/visuals?
I had to smile at the Credit Suisse slide 2:07
Archegos - when your bankruptcy is so large that you get your own color on a bank's financial statement
Tq very much... very helpful information indeed 👍🏽
Please post more regularly 😊😊😊😊
Great info! Love the real world examples.
You are doing great work, it is realy helpful. One thing, would you please share which software do you use for video editing?
Didn’t know there is a role powerpoint instructor.. how did you get into that role, sounds interesting!
I like your videos. Good example and easy to follow. I guess some of these slides are one-off case. How difference for slides that are prepared monthly basis?
Great content! very helpful!!!
How do you add the lines to the table at 4:16?
Thank you
Well done
0:30 corporate style presentation.
0:50 first, too complicated visual
1:30 4 charts on a slide is overly complicated.
2:00 example: Credit suisse, clear and simple
2:15 second, simple titles, descriptive
2:40 example: BCG, evidence of rising housing cost and creative out of city
3:05 example: even in financial summary, they give you takeaway
3:30 third: default powerpoint designs
they don't update the details. could for school project but not the corporate slide.
4:35 fourth: unrelated content
5:20 this breadstick isn't helping me understand the takeaway any easier.
6:05 fifth: distracting background
7:20 sometimes, darker background works better for longer, live presentations. esp. on large screens.
7:40 sixth: not guiding the audience:
9:20 here, they are with callout.
9:30 final mistake: too many colors:
Hey team, do you have a coupon code for your courses on Udemy?
Thank you so much!
finished watching
You're an excellent teacher. However, sometimes the advice is contradictory. For example, too much text is dense and makes the slide hard to read. But then, you give examples of good slides - which happen to have dense lines of text.
from my very limited experience they usually put far from brightest people in charge of making these presentations. so not only they're designed poorly, but the information structure itself is often subpar. on a positive side, people who then watch them do not care.
Its why students should not use Power Point while they are working in a university.
So much text on some slides. How does that work? Does the presenter show the slide then wait for 5 minutes of silence while the audience reads it? If no, then why is it there?
Does the speaker speak while the audience attempts to read? That creates cognitive overload and leads to either taking in nothing or making faulty memories of the material. Either way, very poor result.
Complex material should be reserved for a hand out given at the end of the talk. (Yes, I know, consultants don't like giving reports because that breaks their business model as show ponies). The slides should be reserved for images, graphics or sparse structuring text.
@Dagwould - my thoughts exactly - keep the slide text *very* simple, so the audience listens rather than reads - and reserve the complex text for the handout. Where complex slides are unavoidable, break them up into multiple, simpler slides
Exactly. That's why you should present your slide and not just give them to read. If you have time (and you should take the time) you can start by creating the text-heavy version and then a "presentation" version where you remove all or most of the text (the last example in the video was good with only the title and 2 graphs/tables. Then after the presentation you can send the full text-heavy version as a handover. That way you keep the best of both worlds.
Not all slides are meant to be presented, many are meant to be read. The majority of my slides were to be read in detail and in quiet by various audiences. If there was a presentation, it was as a summary to prepare the audience for what they were going to read.
One mistake to highlight - Too. Much. Text.
Multi sentence bullets, word walls, 3 line slide titles, etc. Bad for comprehension and presenting. If all the text is required, you either have too complex of a key takeaway (or multiple) for the slide or need to shift to memo
The "good example" slides do a good job of highlighting the key information but they are boring and do not engage my interest after my preliminary understanding of the slide. I don't even need to listen to the presenter, and I won't after I'm done reading the key information. While those slides are superior to the "bad example" slides, they are still bad. An engaging slide presentation can use colour, texture, pictures and lighting to guide the eye and can support the data through subtle storytelling in the design. This has to be done carefully though, and a trained eye is important. A flat data slide can be made interesting with attention to the design and use of elements available in PowerPoint. In presentations, it is better to lead the audience through rather than project something that could have been an email on a wall for them to look at. A good slide presentation will elicit thoughtful questions from the audience at its close. No questions? You are boring them, and they did not receive the message.
There's a thin line between this and becoming a graphic artist. Getting bogged down with little design details can be time consuming when you have a lot more analysis and decks to put together.
I don't think a lot of people would appreciate bland and boring slides is the issue which a lot of your gold standard slides were
Be careful using too many animations/transition slides!
W
Give me birthday discount on ur course
Decent vid. However, you cannot have a lot of content on slides, relevant or not. It's been proven.
Power Point is there for you to learn things, and for your teacher to discover the joy of freedom.