You’ve just been asked to give a project update to your colleagues at next week’s lunch-hour seminar.

Quick…
How many slides will you use?
How much text can you put on them?
How long should you speak — the whole hour, or less?

Don’t know? Guy Kawasaki, a famous author and venture capitalist, has the answers and they may surprise you.

What is the 10-20-30 Rule for PowerPoint?

Guy Kawasaki framed his 10-20-30 Rule for PowerPoint as:

• 10 slides are the optimal number to use for a presentation.
• 20 minutes is the longest amount of time you should speak.
• 30 point font is the smallest font size you should use on your slides.

You can read his pitch here, and you can see his pitch below (or here):

Click here to view the embedded video.

What I Love About the 10-20-30 Rule for PowerPoint

If everyone were to follow this advice, the overall quality of business presentations everywhere would improve dramatically. If you stop reading now and follow this advice religiously, I wouldn’t complain too much.

#1: 10 Slides Constrains the Presenter to Choose Wisely

Sure, 10 may seem like an arbitrary number, but putting a limit on the number of slides you are allowed is a valuable constraint. Most people probably have 20, or 30, or 100 slides for a 1-hour presentation. Trimming this number down to 10 forces you to evaluate the necessity of each and every slide. Just like every element of your presentation, if the slide isn’t necessary, it should be cut.

It also encourages a presenter to design wisely. Often a single well-designed diagram eliminates the need for 5 bullet-point slides.

#2: 20 Minutes is Long Enough to Communicate Something Big

Just like the constraint on the number of slides, a constraint on your speaking time will force you to edit mercilessly. Trim the sidebar jokes. Trim the gratuitous “I’m happy to be here” pleasantries. Trim the stories which aren’t essential to conveying your message. Trim the details that only 5% of the audience cares about — send them out via email later. When you are able to trim all the extras, you can communicate with precision and concision.

Martin Luther King Jr. only needed 17 minutes to share his dream. What makes you think you need more?

#3: 30-Point Font Guarantees Readability

Unless you have a very large audience and a very small projector screen (it has happened to me), 30-point font should be readable by everyone in your audience.  Bigger is probably better, but this is a sensible lower threshold to adopt.

While a 30-point font still allows you to put too many words on a slide, at least your audience will be able to read them.

What I Hate About the 10-20-30 Rule for PowerPoint

There are very few strict rules for public speaking, and these don’t qualify. Here’s a few reasons why you should consider them guidelines, but not rules.

#1: Every Situation is Unique

First, remember Guy Kawasaki’s context for the rule: 1-hour presentations from entrepreneurs to venture capitalists. He’s a successful venture capitalist, so let’s assume his rule is perfect for that scenario.

But does this scenario match your next presentation? If not, then be careful about applying the wisdom to your personal situation.

#2: There’s no Perfect Number of Slides

“How many slides should I have?” is one of the most frequent questions I hear. Somebody asks it every time I deliver my PowerPoint design course.

The wrong answers are numerous:

• You should always have 10 slides
• You should always have one slide per minute
• You should always have one slide per major point
• You should have no more than 5 slides

The right answer is: How many slides do you need?

How many slides are necessary for you to convey your message in an effective and memorable way? It might be zero. It might be one. It might be 200. It depends heavily on the nature of your content, the message you are delivering, and the complexity of your slides.

Develop your content first, and then add slides as necessary.

#3: There’s no Perfect Duration to Speak

The 20 minute suggestion assumes a 1-hour time slot. So, the rule is really saying that you should speak for one-third of your allowed time and leave two-thirds for Q&A. That’s not a bad guideline. In fact, it’s a very good general guideline.

But, it depends. Maybe the format of your event just doesn’t allow for Q&A within or after the presentation. Maybe you are doing a product demo which takes 10 minutes, and you’ve only got a 12-minute time slot. (That’s cutting it close!) Maybe the conference is running 35 minutes behind and you are the last speaker of the day. Or, maybe your audience is better served by a 1-minute speech and a 59-minute Q&A.

Consider the needs of your audience, and choose the best presentation format that will meet those needs.

#4: There’s no Perfect Font Size

30-point font might be an optimal size, but it might be too small or too large. The optimal size depends on several factors:

• how much text is on your slides (aim for less!)
• the contrast between the text and background colors
• the lighting in the room
• the distance between your audience and the screen
• the quality of the projector
• the vision of your audience
• the time of day (Is your audience tired? Have they been looking at slides all day?)

If you have any doubts, go large.

#5: Size Matters, but Quantity Matters More

To be blunt, it doesn’t matter what the font size is as long as your audience can easily read the words. It is, however, much more important to take a step back from your slides and assess whether the words you’ve got are necessary at all. Neither you nor your audience should be reading lengthy passages of text from your slides. Your audience should be listening to you, and the slides are just visual aids.

#6: If Everybody’s Following the Rules, Maybe You Shouldn’t

One of the strengths of Guy Kawasaki’s advice is that, if you follow it, you are likely to stand out from your peers in a good way. They are probably using too many slides, speaking too long, and putting too much small text on the slides. Standing out as a speaker is a good thing.

But, maybe your colleagues are disciples of Guy Kawasaki. Maybe the 10-slide, 20-minute briefing is commonplace, and your corporate template is set to 30-point font. That’s when the environment is ripe for doing something different. Don’t just change it up for the sake of doing so, but watch for an opportunity where presenting without slides or presenting with 200 makes sense, and go for it.

The Verdict

I applaud Guy Kawasaki’s efforts to use his influence to improve the presentation status quo. He has reached many people with his message; if you are still reading this article, then he’s reaching you too. Overall, the impact of his rule has inched us collectively in the right direction.

But… the 10-20-30 Rule shouldn’t be viewed as a strict rule. (And, for the record, I don’t think Guy Kawasaki views it a strict rule either.) It’s a sound guideline which you should always consider, but make your choices based on your audience, your message, and your own personal style.

Your Thoughts?

What’s your verdict on the 10-20-30 Rule? Should it be embossed onto the surface of every digital projector in the world?

Similar Articles You May Like... 32 Reasons a PowerPoint Slide Deck is Nothing Like a Bra The 7 Deadly Sins of Public Speaking How to Axe Your Presentation… and Still Deliver Value Book Review: Universal Principles of Design Book Review: Multimedia Learning by Richard E. Mayer How to Improve Your PowerPoint Slides with the Rule of Thirds

Have a Question? Contact me anytime, or find me on Twitter: @6minutes

Andrew Dlugan is the editor and founder of Six Minutes. He teaches courses, leads seminars, coaches speakers, and strives to avoid Suicide by PowerPoint. He is an award-winning public speaker and speech evaluator. Andrew is a father and husband who resides in British Columbia, Canada.

Being a great speaker requires more than simply adopting the “more visuals, less bullet points” approach. You need to have effective visuals. The Back of the Napkin helps you figure out how by boosting your visual thinking skills.

This article is the latest of a series of public speaking book reviews here on Six Minutes.

• What’s Inside?
• The Price
• What I Loved
• How could it be better?
• What Others Think
• Verdict

What’s Inside?

Dan Roam’s bestseller stands out. The title is catchy, and the cover makes you want to grab it, thanks to the embossed “napkin” effect. But does it deliver on the hype?

Yes, it does. There are many original ideas here, and all will help you hone your visual communication skills. Roam makes a convincing case that you don’t need better artistic skills or better computer graphics. Instead, you need better visual thinking skills.

The Price

At the time of writing this review, you can get this hardcover book for only $15.92 from amazon.com. This is 45% off the list price. [Note that this price is for the expanded edition, while the copy in my hands is the original version.] When I started typing this review a few days ago, the discount was only 34%… act soon!

If you like workbooks, you may like the companion offering from the same author — Unfolding the Napkin: The Hands-On Method for Solving Complex Problems with Simple Pictures – which is currently just $13.60. You can get another discount if you buy both for $28.72.

3 Things I Love about The Back of the Napkin

The three things I liked most about The Back of the Napkin are the key insights that had my lightbulbs fireworks lighting up. These three insights (along with Roam’s explanations) are worth the price of the book alone:

1. Who/What? How Many? Where? When? How? Why?

Roam suggests that for any given problem, these six common questions provide the fundamental coordinate system in which all visuals can be framed:

• Who/What → Portrait
• How Many → Chart
• Where → Map
• When → Timeline
• How → Flowchart
• Why → Multivariable Plot

You like freebies? Me too! Download a free 1-page PDF from Dan Roam to show these six dimensions

2. The SQVID approach: questions to ask when designing any visual

Roam argues (quite correctly) that even when you know generally what you’d like to draw, there are numerous ways to draw it depending on what point you are trying to convey.

He illustrates this with a story about an apple. Suppose you wanted to communicate the idea of an apple to someone who didn’t know what apples are. Would you draw a picture of a single apple (simple) or an entire orchard (elaborate)? Would you draw an apple pie (vision) or the recipe and steps to prepare one (execution)?

He continues through other questions, eventually labeling it the SQVID approach which encourages you to consider the following qualities when communicating with a visual:

• Simple vs. Elaborate
• Quality vs. Quantity
• Vision vs. Execution
• Individual Attributes vs. Comparison
• Delta (change) vs. Status Quo

Another freebie: Download a free 1-page PDF from Dan Roam to show the SQVID approach

3. Does a visual need to be self-explanatory to be effective?

Roam confronts this question near the end of the book and gives a forceful response which I agree with. He writes:

“All good pictures do not need to be self-explanatory, but they do need to be explainable. It’s a rare problem-solving picture of any sort that can carry a clear message, convey powerful meaning, and inspire deep insight without at least a caption. … the point isn’t to replace all the words; the point is to use the picture to replace those words that are more effectively conveyed, understood, and remembered visually.”

How could it be better?

1. More drawing tips

I had hoped that The Back of the Napkin would cover more rudimentary drawing tips. For example, what are easy ways to show motion in quick sketches? How can color be used effectively at the flip chart, or should you stick with a single color? How do you show emotion in stick figures?

To be fair, I don’t have a copy of the companion workbook, so perhaps Roam goes deeper into practical tips in that resource.

2. More about how to present with the visuals

Although Roam correctly asserts that it is fine if your visuals need some explanation, but he doesn’t explore this explanation process deep enough. He hints at this process in the book’s final example (where he advocates drawing your picture in real-time in front of your audience), but I think there is conceptual room for much more.

For example, many speakers would benefit from exploring these questions:

• My final visual is going to be elaborate. Where do I start?
• How should I chunk the drawing, revealing a bit at a time?
• What advice do you have for narrating the story as you draw?
• How should you refer back to a previously drawn visual later in the presentation? (Or should you?)

What Others Think

Brent Dykes, PowerPoint Ninja:

Even if you don’t struggle with visual thinking, I recommend The Back of the Napkin (four of five stars) as it provides a valuable set of processes and frameworks that can even benefit experienced visual thinkers, who probably operate more by intuition than methodology.

Beverly Feldt, Perdido Magazine:

Charts, testimonials, vision, detail–all of these poured out of my pencil. I still couldn’t draw, but I could see that I didn’t need to. This wasn’t about art; it was about thinking–visual thinking. I was hooked.

Patrick Sanwikarja, Johnny Holland Magazine:

This book will give you a number of very hands-on tools to improve your visual thinking skills (not your drawing skills) and be more critical of the pictures you already made. …

I think The Back of the Napkin is not so much a must read for designers, but for everyone else – especially people who deal with problem solving on a daily basis.

Connie Malamed, The eLearning Coach:

Although this book is oriented toward the solving and selling of ideas in business, most of the techniques and concepts can be easily transferred to the general notion of solving problems through visual thinking.

Verdict

If you are afraid to sketch your own visuals at the whiteboard because you think you can’t draw, this book will convince you that your drawing skills are more than adequate.

If you aren’t afraid, but you have no idea how to sketch an effective visual, this book will provide a framework for you to build your skills.

The Back of the Napkin is a quick read, and a useful reference book. It will help you become a better presenter by converting your pointless bullet points and vague visuals into meaningful visuals.

Similar Articles You May Like... Book Review: Universal Principles of Design Book Review: Multimedia Learning by Richard E. Mayer Book Review: Advanced Presentations by Design by Andrew Abela Presentation Skills Book Review – slide:ology by Nancy Duarte PowerPoint Book Review – Clear and to The Point: 8 Psychological Principles for Compelling PowerPoint Presentations Presentation Zen Book Review

Have a Question? Contact me anytime, or find me on Twitter: @6minutes

Andrew Dlugan is the editor and founder of Six Minutes. He teaches courses, leads seminars, coaches speakers, and strives to avoid Suicide by PowerPoint. He is an award-winning public speaker and speech evaluator. Andrew is a father and husband who resides in British Columbia, Canada.

This article is the latest of a series of public speaking book reviews here on Six Minutes.

• What’s Inside?
• The Price
• What I Loved
• How could it be better?
• What Others Think
• Verdict

What’s Inside?

When I ordered the book, I expected to get a book which would teach me visual design lessons that I could apply to PowerPoint slide design. It exceeds my expectations.

I was delightfully surprised to find that the design principles apply to many aspects of public speaking and presentations. As I read through the book, I applied colored Post-it stickers (see a photo of my copy to the right) on any page with a lesson that applies to public speaking.

As you can see from the photo, the book is covered with stickers!

• 6 principles (red stickers) apply to speaker habits;
• 2 principles (yellow) apply to delivery skills;
• 16 principles (green) apply to speechwriting; and
• 26 principles (blue) apply to visual aids.

I am eager to apply these principles to my own presentations, and also in future Six Minutes articles.

The Price

At the time of writing this review, you can get this hardcover book for only $26.40 from amazon.com. This is 34% off the list price.

The 2nd edition (updated, and with 25 more principles) is available in paperback as of January 1st and is priced at $19.80.

3 Things I Love about Universal Principles of Design

The three things I liked most about Universal Principles of Design are:

1. Interdisciplinary approach

I believe that the greatest insights are found where two disciplines overlap. For example, I applied my engineering physics background to cancer research for nearly eight years.

Even though this is primarily a design book, the lessons for you as a presenter are numerous.

2. Examples and References

Every principle is accompanied by practical examples which show you how the principle is applied in practice. Further, every principle is accompanied by one or more references to seminal works on the subject. These are a treasure trove for probing deeper.

3. Layout and Readability

One would expect a book about design principles to be designed well and easy-to-read. This book delivers on that expectation. Like Nancy Duarte’s slide:ology, the layout for this book is a series of two-page spreads (on the left, a written description; on the right, visual examples). This consistent approach makes it a pleasure to read.

How could it be better?

1. More depth (and thus, more pages)

When I finished reading the book, I was actually sad. I wanted to know more about these 100 principles. The 2-page-per-principle format is excellent, and with 100 principles results in a little over 200 pages. For more depth, you’d have to either cut principles (no!) or add page count (yes!). I would happily invest double the money for double the depth.

2. Better Navigation

The book’s primary organization is alphabetical which makes it ideal for reference. (Indeed, this advantage is explained by one of the design principles in the book.)

Additionally, in the table of contents, there is a topical breakdown into five broad categories (e.g. “How can I help people learn from a design?”).  I would like to see more categories with a narrower focus.

Further, I’d like to see the category concept carried into the body of the book. Alongside each principle, the authors could list the categories which apply to this principle, and perhaps give the previous/next principle for that category. This would make it easier to read through a series of closely related principles.

What Others Think

Garr Reynolds, Presentation Zen:

I love this book [...] At some point you will want to get this one for your bookshelf.

Donald Norman, author of The Design of Everyday Things:

Absolutely required reading, required owning. Every designer should own it. My students should all read it. What else can I say?

Joachim Sander, SAP Design Guild:

It is both a source of inspiration and reflection on perceived design. It is definitely a worthy investment for anyone interested in design and – last but not least – it is simply fun to read and follow-up on the different perspectives on design.

Rob Tannen, The Designer’s Review of Books:

[...]  it is simply the best book I have read on general design and usability principles in terms of both its content and its presentation.

Verdict

This was the best book I read in 2009, both because it appeals to my inner, inquisitive geek, and because it provides practical ideas that can be applied to improving public speaking and presentation skills.

Universal Principles of Design will stay close to my side whenever I’m working on new or existing presentations.

Similar Articles You May Like... Book Review: Multimedia Learning by Richard E. Mayer PowerPoint Book Review – Clear and to The Point: 8 Psychological Principles for Compelling PowerPoint Presentations Book Review: The Back of the Napkin – Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures (Dan Roam) How to Improve Your PowerPoint Slides with the Rule of Thirds Book Review: Advanced Presentations by Design by Andrew Abela PowerPoint Design Wish List: 8 Modest Proposals

Have a Question? Contact me anytime, or find me on Twitter: @6minutes

Andrew Dlugan is the editor and founder of Six Minutes. He teaches courses, leads seminars, coaches speakers, and strives to avoid Suicide by PowerPoint. He is an award-winning public speaker and speech evaluator. Andrew is a father and husband who resides in British Columbia, Canada.

What else do all three have in common? They all point to Richard E Mayer’s Multimedia Learning as recommended reading for presentation design.

And I agree.

This article is the latest of a series of public speaking book reviews here on Six Minutes.

How does Multimedia Learning compare to other books?

Let’s set the context:

• Presentation Zen by Garr Reynolds (previously reviewed here)
• Slide:ology by Nancy Duarte (previously reviewed here)
• Beyond Bullet Points by Cliff Atkinson

All three of these are:

• More popular than Mayer’s work. [In fact, these are three of the 9 most popular books on PowerPoint, according to amazon.com.]
• More applied in nature.
• More directly tied to public speaking.

Yet, all three offer advice which is, in part, based upon research explained by Mayer in Multimedia Design.

So, who should read Multimedia Learning?

Given that Richard Mayer is a professor of psychology, it is not surprising that Multimedia Learning is written in an academic style. I believe it is this style which hinders its mainstream appeal. (And the pedestrian cover design.)

However, the content is fascinating and provides scientific explanations which leads to deep understanding of much of the contemporary approach to slide design.

For this reason, I think the primary audience for Multimedia Learning is:

• Professors, teachers, and trainers who create, design, and deliver instructional courses
• Professionals who are frequently involved with slide design
• Public speaking instructors and coaches

12 Principles You Learn from Multimedia Learning

Mayer’s work is organized around 12 key principles. Each chapter introduces the principle, describes the methodology used to study it, and summarizes research results.

1. Coherence Principle
   People learn better when extraneous words, pictures, and sounds are excluded rather than included.
2. Signaling Principle
   People learn better when cues that highlight the organization of the essential material are added.
3. Redundancy Principle
   People learn better from graphics and narration than from graphics, narration, and on-screen text.
4. Spatial Contiguity Principle
   People learn better when corresponding words and pictures are presented near rather than far from each other on the page or screen.
5. Temporal Contiguity Principle
   People learn better when corresponding words and pictures are presented simultaneously rather than successively.
6. Segmenting Principle
   People learn better when a multimedia lesson is presented in user-paced segments rather than as a continuous unit.
7. Pre-training Principle
   People learn better from a multimedia lesson when they know the names and characteristics of the main concepts.
8. Modality Principle
   People learn better from graphics and narration than from animation and on-screen text.
9. Multimedia Principle
   People learn better from words and pictures than from words alone.
10. Personalization Principle
    People learn better from multimedia lessons when words are in conversational style rather than formal style.
11. Voice Principle
    People learn better when the narration in multimedia lessons is spoken in a friendly human voice rather than a machine voice.
12. Image Principle
    People do not necessarily learn better from a multimedia lesson when the speaker’s image is added to the screen.

About Richard E. Mayer

Richard E. Mayer is Professor of Psychology at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

From his home page:

His current research involves the related disciplines of cognition, instruction, and technology with a special focus on multimedia learning and computer-supported learning. [...]

He was ranked #1 as the most productive educational psychologist in the world for 1991-2001. [...]

He is the author of more than 390 publications including 23 books, such as Multimedia Learning: Second Edition (2009), Learning and Instruction: Second Edition (2008), E-Learning and the Science of Instruction: Second Edition (with R. Clark, 2008), and the Cambridge Handbook of Multimedia Learning (editor, 2005).

Get Your Copy or Read Other Reviews

• Title: Multimedia Learning
• Author: Richard E. Mayer
• ISBN: 0521735351
• Get a copy from your local bookstore, or from these online sources (also with additional reviews):
  • amazon.com
  • amazon.ca
  • amazon.co.uk
  • amazon.de

Similar Articles You May Like... Presentation Skills Book Review – slide:ology by Nancy Duarte PowerPoint Book Review – Clear and to The Point: 8 Psychological Principles for Compelling PowerPoint Presentations Presentation Zen Book Review Book Review: Universal Principles of Design 32 Reasons a PowerPoint Slide Deck is Nothing Like a Bra PowerPoint Design Wish List: 8 Modest Proposals

Have a Question? Contact me anytime, or find me on Twitter: @6minutes

Andrew Dlugan is the editor and founder of Six Minutes. He teaches courses, leads seminars, coaches speakers, and strives to avoid Suicide by PowerPoint. He is an award-winning public speaker and speech evaluator. Andrew is a father and husband who resides in British Columbia, Canada.

You can design attractive visuals by following simple guidelines.  One of these simple guidelines is the Rule of Thirds — a composition technique borrowed from photography and other visual arts that works wonderfully in PowerPoint.

In this article, you will learn:

• What is the Rule of Thirds?
• How do photographers use the Rule of Thirds?
• How can you apply the Rule of Thirds to Your PowerPoint slides?

What is the Rule of Thirds?

The Rule of Thirds is a guideline for composition that suggests placing key graphic elements along lines which divide your image into thirds, or at the intersections of those lines.

What does that mean? I’m glad you asked.

Imagine your PowerPoint slide is divided both vertically and horizontally into thirds, like this:

PowerPoint Tip: You can use the guides feature to draw these four lines into your PowerPoint template. They will then appear on every slide to help you compose your slide.

• The vertical lines divide your image into thirds.
• The horizontal lines divide your image into thirds.
• Together, they divide your image into 9 equal areas.
• These lines intersect at four points — known as Power Points. (Seriously! They really are!)

How do Photographers Use the Rule of Thirds?

Rule #1 – Place Key Elements of Your Composition at Power Points

In this example, the key element is pretty obvious — the tree.

Rather than centering this element in the photograph, the artist has chosen to center it on over the top-left Power Point.

Even in an image with more elements (i.e. not just a “grass” background), the viewer’s eye is drawn to these Power Points. By placing key elements at one or more of these Power Points, you achieve maximum impact.

Rule #2 – Place Key Elements of Your Composition Along Horizontal Lines

Novice photographers are tempted to place the horizon in the middle of the frame. This is generally not the best approach.

In this example, the photograph has placed the horizon (and also the line formed by the tops of the horses) along the lower horizontal line.

Additionally, the upper horizontal line conveniently divides the upper dark blue sky from the lower cloud-covered sky.

The overall effect is balance between the three horizontal bands of color from top to bottom: dark blue, white, and brown.

Rule #3 – Place Key Elements of Your Composition Along Vertical Lines

This example shows the book cover of Nancy Duarte’s excellent slide:ology (previously reviewed by Six Minutes).

This isn’t a photograph, but the designer has (consciously or unconsciously) applied the rule of thirds.

Here, the white silhouette of the presenter is bisected by the left vertical dividing line.

Appropriately, Duarte writes this in slide:ology about the Rule of Thirds:

Composing your photos based on a simple grid of thirds is a trick used by movie producers, graphic designers, and professional photographers. Using the rule of thirds leads to aesthetically pleasing and professional-looking imagery.

Rule #4 – Place Key Elements of Your Composition at Power Points and simultaneously on Dividing Lines

In this example, the upper horizontal line lies across the horizon, separating the sky in the upper third from the water in the lower two thirds.

Simultaneously, the woman in this photograph is placed on the upper-right Power Point.

Furthermore, consider the line that is formed from the top of the woman’s head, down the middle of her back, and right through to the reflection on the water. Where is it? Centered on the right vertical dividing line.

So, this photograph blends elements on two of the four lines and one of the Power Points.

Does the Rule of Thirds Really Result in More Pleasing Compositions?

Are you skeptical?

I was. So, I decided to perform a simple test with the audiences of a PowerPoint seminar that I have given several times.

My test photograph is a landscape photo shown in the upper left of the four images below.  By zooming this image slightly, and then moving it up and down on a slide, I created the three slides shown below (without the rule of thirds dividing lines that you see here, of course).

• Slide A shows the tree line down the middle of the photograph.
• Slide B has the tree line lying along the upper horizontal dividing line.
• Slide C has the tree line lying along the lower horizontal dividing line.

Each time I give this seminar, I ask the audience a simple question: “Which of the three slides is most pleasing to you?”

The result?

Less than 5% of audience members choose Slide A. Some say “It’s boring.” Others remark that “I couldn’t decide what was important in the photo.”

Slides B and C were chosen roughly half of the time. Audience members found one or the other (or both) to be “pleasing” and “interesting.” Is it a coincidence that both of these slides use the Rule of Three, while slide A did not?

Which of the three do you like best?

How Can You Apply the Rule of Thirds to Your PowerPoint Slides?

1. Look for photographs which obey the Rule of Thirds
   If you are using photographs which bleed right to the edges of your slides (a good way to achieve maximum impact), try to choose photographs which use the Rule of Thirds.
2. Scale, crop, or position photographs to follow the Rule of Thirds
   When scanning photographs, use your mental viewfinder to find a small area within a larger photograph that you can use. For example, suppose the tree/grass example above were originally a much larger photograph with a tree in the middle. By cropping asymmetrically, you can create a more pleasing image using simple photo editing tools. This is easily done in Photoshop or any photo editing software.
3. Combine images with text so that one or both obey the Rule of Thirds
   Two great ways to do this are to choose photographs with either:
   • Large areas of uniform color on top of which you can place text with good contrast, OR
   • A solid color background (white works best!) so that you can move the photograph around seamlessly on top of the slide background.

The example below is the title slide from one of my presentations.  I used a stock photo which provides a visual metaphor for my topic (i.e. the blue piece stands out among all the yellow pieces). Since this photograph has a white background, I was able to place it off-center so that the blue piece landed on the upper-left Power Point. I then placed my slide text (in a matching color) centered on the lower horizontal line, anchored on the right vertical line.

Below are two more examples taken from my presentation design course.

On the left, I cropped a much larger photograph so that the stream of water falls along the right vertical line. Further, it hits the overflowing glass at exactly the lower horizontal line. Since the image background is out of focus, it provides good contrast for black text which I centered on the upper horizonal line.

On the right, I took a photograph of a trash bin and a white background and placed it on top of the lower-right Power Point. The white background of the photograph blends perfectly with the clean, white slide background. The text is positioned carefully with the most dramatic word — disaster — bolded and placed on the upper-left Power Point.

Will Using the Rule of Thirds Take More Time?

When you first become conscious of it during slide design, it may take you longer to choose and lay out your slides. However, it will save time and improve your visuals in the long run.

In Presentation Zen (previously reviewed on Six Minutes), Garr Reynolds writes about the Rule of Thirds:

You need to limit your choices so that you do not waste time adjusting every single design element to a new position. I recommend that you create some sort of clean, simple grid to build your visuals on. [...] Grids can save you time and ensure that your design elements fit more harmoniously on the display.

Further Reading: Rule of Thirds

• Wikipedia: Rule of Thirds
• Digital Photography School: Rule of Thirds
• Presentation Zen: Rule of Thirds

Similar Articles You May Like... Book Review: Universal Principles of Design Book Review: Multimedia Learning by Richard E. Mayer PowerPoint Design Wish List: 8 Modest Proposals PowerPoint Book Review – Clear and to The Point: 8 Psychological Principles for Compelling PowerPoint Presentations The 10-20-30 Rule: Guy Kawasaki on PowerPoint Book Review: The Back of the Napkin – Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures (Dan Roam)

Have a Question? Contact me anytime, or find me on Twitter: @6minutes

Andrew Dlugan is the editor and founder of Six Minutes. He teaches courses, leads seminars, coaches speakers, and strives to avoid Suicide by PowerPoint. He is an award-winning public speaker and speech evaluator. Andrew is a father and husband who resides in British Columbia, Canada.

An open letter to the PowerPoint programming team with public speaking inspired ideas for future PowerPoint features…

Dear PowerPoint Programmers:

Thank you for creating such a wonderful presentation aid. PowerPoint is like a Swiss Army knife in a presenter’s visual aid toolbox. It is a tool with tremendous power.

Unfortunately, the vast majority of people cannot control this power. Hour after hour, dreaded presentation after dreaded presentation, I continue to be amazed at the horrible presentations that speakers are able to create with PowerPoint at the core.

I teach a course titled Powerful PowerPoint Presentations. You’ll be happy to know that this course is always oversubscribed. Everyone is eager to tap into the power of PowerPoint.

I wish these people were motivated to become great PowerPoint artisans because their peers were giving fantastic PowerPoint presentations. Unfortunately, they are quite happy to become “adequate” users, because they know that any skill at all will put them in the top echelon.

Are PowerPoint users all morons? No, I don’t think so.

Is the tool itself crappy? Certainly not!

Perhaps the power of PowerPoint is just too great for the majority of users to handle by themselves. Like a jackhammer in the hands of a child, perhaps.

So, please consider the following suggestions to help tame the power of future PowerPoint versions.

1. Eliminate Slide Transitions

The verdict is in… users cannot handle the responsibility. If I had a dime for every random gratuitous slide transition that I’ve seen, I would have been grossly underpaid for suffering through these presentations.

Speaking of dimes, if you cannot eliminate the slide transition feature, consider making a user pay 10 cents for every slide transition used beyond 2 (a clear sign they are being overused). Donate the money to kiva.org. Here’s your ad slogan:

Microtaxing for Microlending… by Microsoft

2. Rewrite Your Documentation

From PowerPoint 2007, I searched for help to change the font. To my horror, I was presented with instructions to change the font in Access, InfoPath, OneNote, Outlook, Project, Publisher, and (hurray!) PowerPoint.

Why am I bombarded with all these non-relevant details? If this were a speech critique, I would be pointing out how reams of irrelevant details makes it more difficult for your message to reach your audience. But, I digress…

Instead of just spewing mechanical details, (e.g. “On the Home tab, in the Font box group, type or click a font in the Font group“), why not provide them with a virtual speech coach with useful advice like:

• Using fonts consistently makes your slides look more professional.
• When using different fonts on a slide, do so with purpose (e.g. one font for titles, one for labels), not to make things “look interesting”.

3. Partner with the Best

If you cannot rewrite your documentation, consider a marketing deal with Nancy Duarte to bundle a copy of Slide:ology with every license of PowerPoint. Seriously.

4. Prevent Suicide by PowerPoint

Atrocities are committed hourly with bullets, font choices, and colors, but you can’t exactly eliminate bullets, fonts, and colors from PowerPoint.

However, you can perform up-to-the-second analysis of the slide deck, and put up warnings when the user is making bad design decisions.

Some of these are trivial to implement:

• Count the number of words on a slide, and display it in the status bar. As the count rises, put up progressively stern warnings. (“Red alert: 100 words is a great start to a novel, but a lousy visual aid”)
• If the slide deck consists entirely of text, suggest that the user create a report in Word instead. (Better yet, just automatically launch Word after the 13th text-only slide.)
• Count the number of font variants in use in a slide deck. Caution users that their colleagues will laugh at them if every slide is something new. Better yet, give us an automatic way to apply a consistent font face throughout an entire slide deck. This would be especially helpful when cobbling together a presentation from multiple sources using cut-and-paste.
• Compute contrast ratios for all adjacent colors, and warn the user when something is hard to read. (“Pink text on yellow background may be hard for your audience to read.“)

5. Provide Better Support for Outlines

Presentations need to have a clear speech outline.

PowerPoint’s outlining support is awful. Both Outline Mode and Slide Sorter Mode give presenters only a one-dimensional stream view of their slides. The resulting slide deck is too often a sequence of individually designed slides that have no flow or macro-organization.

Make it possible to arrange groups of slides into units (e.g. these four slides are “background”, these eight are the “technical summary”).

• Let us apply formatting to entire units (e.g. a different background color to each section of the presentation as a visual cue to the audience).
• Let us create hierarchies among groups.
• Provide support for doing more presentation-level design.

6. Remember the Room

Some PowerPoint slides are designed entirely to be viewed at a computer where 10 point font is acceptable, even if not recommended. However, presenters are often oblivious to how their slides will look in a larger room. This isn’t your fault, but…

When a new slide deck is created, ask the user to specify the presentation setting, in general terms (e.g. small meeting room, lecture hall, etc.) or approximate dimensions. Use this to provide guidance on readable font sizes, diagram detail, etc. For example, I recently took an audience survey in a room with only six rows of chairs. Users at the back could not comfortably read fonts below 28 point font.

7. Enable Users to Insert Good Visuals

Please, end the clip art insanity.

Instead, allow us to search through stock photography website catalogues from within PowerPoint. (You can even take a cut of any purchased photos!) Once images are selected, make it easy for us to crop, resize, and optimize these photos (within PowerPoint) for embedding into slides. Why do I need yet another application open to do this?

8. Help Users Manage Slide Libraries

Don’t make us use third-party tools to organize, catalog, and search through slide libraries built up over time (particularly in corporate contexts). Provide this functionality in PowerPoint itself.

• Let me easily find all slides I’ve created with the words “Web 2.0″ in them, and then choose among them to insert into a new presentation.
• Create a Super Slide Sorter that provides a slide desktop where I can sift through slides from dozens of presentations at a time, selecting what I need, and then easily combining them into a new presentation.

Sincerely,

Andrew Dlugan
Six Minutes Public Speaking and Presentation Skills

p.s. Contact me if you’d like to discuss more ideas.

Your Wish List?

What features do you want the PowerPoint team to add/delete/change in future versions? Let me know in the comments.

Similar Articles You May Like... Book Review: Multimedia Learning by Richard E. Mayer Book Review: Universal Principles of Design 32 Reasons a PowerPoint Slide Deck is Nothing Like a Bra How to Improve Your PowerPoint Slides with the Rule of Thirds Interview with Nancy Duarte, Author of slide:ology Presentation Skills Book Review – slide:ology by Nancy Duarte

Have a Question? Contact me anytime, or find me on Twitter: @6minutes

Andrew Dlugan is the editor and founder of Six Minutes. He teaches courses, leads seminars, coaches speakers, and strives to avoid Suicide by PowerPoint. He is an award-winning public speaker and speech evaluator. Andrew is a father and husband who resides in British Columbia, Canada.

If you want to master visual communication, this book is for you.

If you want to impress your audience with eye-popping slides, this book is for you.

If you want to break free from the Death By PowerPoint pandemic, this book is for you.

Nancy Duarte has written slide:ology: The Art and Science of Creating Great Presentations. (Learn more about Nancy Duarte in a Six Minutes interview!)

Ever since my copy arrived, I can’t put it down. I’ve carried it to and from work every day so that I can read a few pages on breaks. It’s that good.

I highly recommend slide:ology. It is destined to become a classic reference text for presentation skills.

What’s In slide:ology?

slide:ology covers the whole visual presentation process, from concept generation to delivery. Examples and case studies abound throughout. The twelve chapters are:

1. Creating a new slide ideology.
2. Creating ideas, not slides.
3. Creating Diagrams.
4. Displaying Data.
5. Thinking like a designer.
6. Arranging elements.
7. Using visual elements: background, color, and text.
8. Using visual images.
9. Creating movement.
10. Governing with templates.
11. Interacting with slides.
12. Manifesto: The five theses of the power of a presentation.

7 Things I Love About slide:ology

There’s a lot to love about this book, and even more to learn. On top of the many presentation design lessons, slide:ology teaches many lessons that apply to all speeches and presentations.

1. Stories

I counted 20 case studies spritzed through the book, joining countless other anecdotes taken from Duarte’s personal or professional experiences.

Key Lesson: Tell a story. Make a point. Tell another story. Make another point…

2. Humbleness

slide:ology is written in a humble, respectful tone throughout. This makes it seem like the lessons are coming from a wise village elder rather than a stodgy industry expert.

Consider the case study of Al Gore in slide:ology. Although Duarte Design worked intimately with Gore on An Inconvenient Truth, Nancy takes no credit for this in the book. Instead, she hands all the praise to the former U.S. Vice President.

Al Gore has done more than any other individual to legitimize multimedia presentations as one of the most compelling communication vehicles on the planet.

Key Lesson: Making yourself the hero of your stories rarely works.

3. Generosity

Some books written by industry rock stars are filled with empty pages which ultimately amounts to “If you want to do X, hire an industry rock star.” This is not the case with slide:ology. Duarte reveals plenty of insider information in this book. And the giving doesn’t end there. Throughout the book, [www] icons refer the reader to extended multimedia content available online.

Key Lesson: Understand that every member of your audience wants to know what’s in it for them. It’s not about you.

4. Honesty

Walk the aisles in the technical books section of your local bookstore, and you’ll find dozens of titles making outrageous claims such as Teach Yourself X in 24 Hours.

Duarte is honest in pointing out the effort required for superior presentations. (36-90 hours to create a 30-slide one-hour presentation) There’s no smoke and mirrors here.

Key Lesson: Be authentic with your audience first, and tell them what they need to know.

5. Personal Connection

I’ve haven’t met Nancy Duarte yet (unless you count email), but reading this book makes me feel like I have. She shares intimate stories about her family and her psyche.

• The foreword is written by her husband, and features a mock presentation from her daughter.
• Page 44 tells the story of a day spent on her office floor categorizing diagrams, complete with a photograph from her youth which illustrates this personality trait.
• Page 84 discusses how she sought out her life mission.

Key Lesson: The best presentations (and books) make a personal connection.

6. Beauty

Every two-page spread in the entire book except the first (Introduction) and the last (A Call to Relate) has a visual element complementing the text. Whether a photograph, a drawing, a table, or an example slide, every design element in the book must have been labored over for hours or days. The design quality reflects the expertise of the entire Duarte Design team, but the decision to pour this quality effort into the book is key.

Key Lesson: Pay attention to the details. They matter.

7. Fun

What else can you say about a book which features:

• A quote comparing Tolstoy’s War and Peace to Dr. Seuss’ One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish
• Pie graphs made with real slices of pie!
• A photo of Salvador Dali sketching in his bathtub

Key Lesson: People learn better when they are having fun. Make them smile.

How could it be better?

There are three things I’d like to see done differently in slide:ology.

1. Follow a Single Example Presentation from Concept to Completion

From chapter to chapter, Duarte covers the full lifecycle of a presentation from concept generation, through sketches on Post-It notes, to slide design, and on to delivery. Examples abound for each of these individual steps.

I’d like to see one example to which the entire slide:ology methodology would be applied. Start by setting the context, and then show the steps to the final presentation. This might add significant length, so perhaps that explains the absence. Maybe the platform for this extended case study could be a companion e-book downloadable on demand. Whatever the format, I’d like to see it.

2. More Flexibility in the Two-page Spread Format

Earlier in this review, I praised the visual elements present on nearly every two-page spread, and I was sincere. I love this style. It reminds me of the STOP method for document creation which is common for proposals and reports.

However, the challenge with this format is that every concept you want to cover needs to be massaged into two-page spreads. Continuity can suffer. I would like to see a little more in the way of chapter introductions and summaries, even if they spill onto three or four pages. Metaphorically, I’d like to zoom out once in a while and reset the big picture. (Something that’s good to do in a long presentation too.)

3. More Comprehensive Table of Contents

With only chapter titles given, it isn’t as easy as I’d like to jump back to a specific topic. Sure, the index is there, but that doesn’t help me if I’m looking for a case study, but don’t remember the organization profiled. This is a pretty minor thing, but I plan to reference slide:ology often; better navigation would help me find the topic I need sooner.

What Nancy Says About slide:ology

Author Nancy Duarte introduces her book in this YouTube video:

Click here to view the embedded video.

What Other Presentation Experts are Saying About slide:ology

Andrew Abela — The Extreme Presentation Method:

It’s a beautiful and useful book.  I recommend it highly.

Richard Bretschneider — Presentations Roundtable:

I know I’ve said this before, but this is a book you need.

Garr Reynolds — Presentation Zen:

My favorite presentation book of all time.

This is high praise, considering that Garr authored his own bestseller earlier this year. [Garr's Presentation Zen is reviewed here.]

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Have a Question? Contact me anytime, or find me on Twitter: @6minutes

Andrew Dlugan is the editor and founder of Six Minutes. He teaches courses, leads seminars, coaches speakers, and strives to avoid Suicide by PowerPoint. He is an award-winning public speaker and speech evaluator. Andrew is a father and husband who resides in British Columbia, Canada.

Stephen Kosslyn has written a wonderful book for all presenters: Clear and to The Point: 8 Psychological Principles for Compelling PowerPoint Presentations.

The subtitle for the book promises to illuminate the psychology of PowerPoint. Does it deliver?

In a way, yes. The 8 principles, dozens of examples, and hundreds of tips reveal much that would improve your PowerPoint skills.

However, this book delivers so much more. The 8 psychological principles can be applied to many aspects of public speaking beyond PowerPoint design.

For example, consider Principle 7 (The Principle of Information Changes: People expect changes in properties to carry information). A wise presenter might apply this to variations in voice. A shift from a strong, quick voice to a softer and slower voice should mirror a change in the content. Indeed, such a transition must mirror a change in content. Otherwise, your audience will be confused.

8 Psychological Principles for Compelling PowerPoint Presentations

This book revolves around 8 psychological principles which are introduced early in the book, and then explained in greater detail in the Appendix. (The Appendix explanations are not required reading, but I do recommend it.)

1. The Principle of Relevance
   Communication is most effective when neither too much nor too little information is presented.
2. The Principle of Appropriate Knowledge
   Communication requires prior knowledge of pertinent concepts, jargon, and symbols.
3. The Principle of Salience
   Attention is drawn to large perceptible differences.
4. The Principle of Discriminability
   Two properties must differ by a large enough proportion or they will not be distinguished.
5. The Principle of Perceptual Organization
   People automatically group elements into units, which they then attend to and remember.
6. The Principle of Compatibility
   A message is easiest to understand if its form is compatible with its meaning.
7. The Principle of Information Changes
   People expect changes in properties to carry information.
8. The Principle of Capacity Limitations
   People have a limited capacity to retain and to process information, and so will not understand a message if too much information must be retained or processed.

Practical Application of the 8 Principles

The majority of book is devoted to 4 chapters, each of which:

• Addresses a topical area of slide design,
• Includes dozens of tips which describe how the 8 principles can be applied to maximize the effectiveness of the slides, and
• Conclude with a summary of tips organized by the matching principle.

The format is easy to read from start to finish, or as reference material.

1. Legible Text

This chapter covers font selection, formatting choices, the use of bullet points, labels, titles, tables, and legends.

An excerpt which illustrates the Principle of Information Changes:

Use the same terminology in labels, as well as in the surrounding text and spoken words. Using different terms in a display, in text, and in what you say aloud may lead the audience to wonder if you mean different things. Attempting to distinguish these differences will definitely tax the cognitive capacities of your audience.

2. Color, Texture, Animation, and Sound

Here’s an excerpt illustrating the Principle of Perceptual Organization:

Use color to group elements. Regions of the same color will be seen as a group. Use the same color for all titles and another color for all text entries, which will clearly group the material into these two categories. And use color to pair corresponding elements.

3. Quantitative Information: Graphs

This chapter covers pie graphs, visual tables, line graphs, bar graphs, step graphs, and scatterplots.

Here’s an excerpt illustrating the Principle of Salience:

Construct an exploded pie graph by displacing the important slice or slices, as if a wedge of pizza had been pulled out from the pie. [...] If you decide to use an exploded pie, you must decide which part or parts to emphasize. If too many wedges are exploded, the viewers won’t know where to look.

4. Qualitative Information: Charts, Diagrams, Maps, Photographs, and Clipart

Here’s an excerpt illustrating the Principle of Capacity Limitations:

Use photos and clipart to give the audience time to “come up for air.” [...] useful as a break in the steady flow of information, allowing the audience a moment to reflect and digest. This is especially the case if the photo or clipart is humorous.

Three Primary Goals for Every Presentation

As stated above, the advice in Clear and to the Point applies to more than just PowerPoint design — it applies to presentations as a whole. This broad context is established early in the book, and referenced throughout.

The 8 principles are mapped to three primary goals of any presentation, even those which do not utilize PowerPoint at all.

Goal 1: Connect with your audience.
Your message should connect with the goals and interests of your audience. [Principles 1, 2]

Goal 2: Direct and hold attention.
You should lead the audience to pay attention to what’s important. [Principles 3, 4, 5]

Goal 3: Promote understanding and memory.
Your presentation should be easy to follow, digest, and remember. [Principles 6, 7, 8]

In Summary

Clear and to the Point is a very welcome addition to my public speaking bookshelf. I highly recommend that you read it too.

About the Author: Stephen M. Kosslyn

Stephen Kosslyn is Chair of the Department of Psychology at Harvard University. He is a leading authority on the nature of visual mental imagery and visual communication.

Update: Isn’t This Just “Common Sense”?

Upon reading this review, Michael Hyatt (President and CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers) commented:

Much of this looks like common sense; nevertheless, I am a sucker for books on making better presentations. It’s a HUGE part of what I do.

Michael’s comment struck a chord with me. I felt the same way as I browsed through and then read the book. None of the individual guidelines was earth-shattering, and most of them were not even new to me. While I was already designing slides in agreement with Kosslyn’s advice, Clear and to the Point helped me understand why I was doing things that way and it underlines the benefits for the audience.

Further, as I asked myself whether this was just common sense, my eventual conclusion was simply: “If it was common sense, why do we still suffer through so many poorly-designed presentations?”

Like Michael, I am a sucker for books on making better presentations. I hope you are too.

Similar Articles You May Like... Book Review: Multimedia Learning by Richard E. Mayer Book Review: Universal Principles of Design Presentation Skills Book Review – slide:ology by Nancy Duarte Presentation Zen Book Review Book Review: The Back of the Napkin – Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures (Dan Roam) How to Improve Your PowerPoint Slides with the Rule of Thirds

Have a Question? Contact me anytime, or find me on Twitter: @6minutes

Andrew Dlugan is the editor and founder of Six Minutes. He teaches courses, leads seminars, coaches speakers, and strives to avoid Suicide by PowerPoint. He is an award-winning public speaker and speech evaluator. Andrew is a father and husband who resides in British Columbia, Canada.

The World’s Best Presentation Contest is returning to SlideShare for 2008.

Get creative, enter the contest, and you can win one of those prizes.

Leave a comment linking to your entry. If a number of Six Minutes subscribers enter, I’ll feature those entries in a future article.

Categories

Entries are welcome in six diverse categories:

• Business
• Picture Slideshows
• Technology
• Educational
• Creative / Offbeat
• About Me

Can you Beat This?

As I write this article, The Consumer Agenda (category: Business) is leading the way with 19 votes.

| View | Upload your own

Last Year’s Winners

View the 2007 contest winners to see what it takes to win.

First Place — Shift Happens

| View | Upload your own

Second Place — Meet Henry

| View | Upload your own

Third Place — Sustainable Food Lab

| View | Upload your own

Good luck!

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Have a Question? Contact me anytime, or find me on Twitter: @6minutes

Andrew Dlugan is the editor and founder of Six Minutes. He teaches courses, leads seminars, coaches speakers, and strives to avoid Suicide by PowerPoint. He is an award-winning public speaker and speech evaluator. Andrew is a father and husband who resides in British Columbia, Canada.

Break free from PowerPoint bullets!

Learn from photojournalists — tell stories with visuals, and your audience will love you.

A Visual Feast — What the World Eats

This article is inspired by a captivating photo essay from Time magazine titled: What the World Eats.

The photo essay is based on the remarkable book Hungry Planet: What the World Eats by Peter Menzel and Faith D’Aluisio.

Among the families, we meet the Mellanders, a German household of five who enjoy cinnamon rolls, chocolate croissants, and beef roulades, and whose weekly food expenses amount to $500. We also encounter the Natomos of Mali, a family of one husband, his two wives, and their nine children, whose corn and millet-based diet costs $26.39 weekly.

Captivating contrasts, indeed!

How Would You Present this with PowerPoint?

Suppose you wanted to discuss the contrasts in your next speech.

How would you do it?

• Would you present a series of boring text slides?
• Would you prove your conformity and lack of originality by using one of the stock PowerPoint templates?
• Would you read the slides aloud to your audience?

Audiences hate that!

Or…

• Would you use a series of visuals?
• Would use maximize the photos to run from edge to edge?
• Would you punctuate the visuals by sharing real stories about the families?

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Have a Question? Contact me anytime, or find me on Twitter: @6minutes

Andrew Dlugan is the editor and founder of Six Minutes. He teaches courses, leads seminars, coaches speakers, and strives to avoid Suicide by PowerPoint. He is an award-winning public speaker and speech evaluator. Andrew is a father and husband who resides in British Columbia, Canada.