There are approximately 30 million PowerPoint presentations being given each day. PowerPoint has become such an essential part of a presentation that we can't really fathom presenting without one.
Yet, we have all fallen victim to death by PowerPoint in our professional lives. We can vividly remember going through numerous dreadful and tedious PowerPoint presentations, secretly wishing for your time back. Het is het onderwerp geworden van een goed ontvangen stand-upcomedy. In an extreme case, death by PowerPoint kills, literally.
Most people use PowerPoint like a drunk uses a lamppost – for support rather than for illumination.
David Ogilvy, the Father of modern Advertising
But how do you create a presentation that illuminates your audience and avoids death by PowerPoint? If you want you – and your message – to stand out, challenge yourself to try some of these ideas.
Vereenvoudig uw PowerPoint
David JP Phillips, a renowned presentation skills training coach, international speaker, and author, gives a TED talk about how to avoid death by PowerPoint. In his talk, he lays out 5 key ideas to simplify your PowerPoint and make it attractive to your audience. Those are:
- Slechts één bericht per dia
If there are multiple messages, then the audience would have to divert their attention to each message and reduce their focus. - Use contrast and size to steer focus
Big and contrasting objects are more visible to the audience, so employ them to steer the audience's focus. - Avoid showing text and speaking at the same time
The redundancy would make the audience forget both what you say and what is shown on the PowerPoint - Gebruik een donkere achtergrond
Using a dark background for your PowerPoint would shift the focus to you, the presenter. The slides should only be a visual aid and not the focus. - Only 6 objects per slide
It's the magical number. Anything more than 6 would require drastic cognitive energy from your audience to process.
Gebruik interactieve presentatiesoftware
Humans evolved to process visual and not text. In fact, the human brain can processes images 60,000 times faster than texten 90 percent of information transmitted to the brain is visual. Vul daarom uw presentaties met visuele gegevens om een maximaal effect te bereiken.
U bent misschien gewend om uw presentatie in PowerPoint voor te bereiden, maar dit levert niet het gewenste opvallende effect op. In plaats daarvan is het de moeite waard checking out the new generation of presentation software that maximises the visual experience.
AhaDia's is a cloud-based interactive presentation software that sheds the static, linear approach to presenting. Not only does it offer a more visually dynamic flow of ideas, but it also provides interactive elements to keep your audience engaged. Your audience can access your presentation through their mobile devices and play quizzes, vote on real-time polling, or send questions to your Q&A session.
Check out a few ways you can use AhaSlides' visual mechanisms to create fantastisch icebreakers for your remote online meetings!
Tips: You can use AhaSlides integration in PowerPoint so that you don't have to switch between sites.
Betrek alle zintuigen
Sommige zijn audio-leerlingen, terwijl andere visuele leerlingen zijn. Daarom zou je dat moeten doen ga via alle zintuigen in contact met uw publiek met foto's, geluid, muziek, video's en andere media-illustraties.
Voorts sociale media opnemen in uw presentaties is ook een goede strategie. Het is bewezen dat het plaatsen tijdens een presentatie het publiek helpt om met de presentator in gesprek te gaan en de inhoud te behouden.
Aan het begin van uw presentatie kunt u een dia met uw contactgegevens toevoegen op Twitter, Facebook of LinkedIn.
Tips: With AhaSlides, you can embed links that your audience can click on their mobile devices. This makes it so much easier for you to connect with your audience.
Zet uw publiek in een actieve houding
Zet mensen aan het denken en praten voordat je je eerste woord zegt.
Send out a light reading or play a fun ice breaker to create audience engagement. If your presentation involves abstract concepts or complex ideas, you can define them beforehand so your audience will be on the same level as you when you present.
Create a hashtag for your presentation, so your audience can send any questions they may have, or use AhaSlides' Q & A-functie voor uw gemak.
Handhaaf de aandacht
Een studie van Microsoft suggests that our attention span lasts only 8 seconds. So blasting your audience with a typical 45-minute talk followed by a brain-numbing Q&A session is not going to cut it for you. If you want to keep people involved, you have to diversify the publieksbetrokkenheid.
Create group exercises, get people talking, and constantly refresh your audience's minds. Sometimes, it is best to give your audience some time to reflect. Silence is golden. Have audience members reflect upon your content, or spend a bit of time coming up with well-worded questions.
Geef (korte) hand-outs
Handouts have gotten a bad rap, partly because of how dull and awfully long they usually are. But if you use them wisely, they can be your best friend in the presentation.
You should keep your handout as brief as possible. Strip it of all irrelevant information, and save only the most crucial takeaways. Set aside some whitespace for your audience to take notes. Include any important graphics, charts, and images to support your ideas.
Do this properly and you can get your audience's sole attention as they don't have to listen and jot down your ideas at the same time.
Gebruik rekwisieten
Visualising your presentation with a prop. As mentioned above, some people are visual learners, so having a prop would enhance their experience with your presentation.
A notable example of the effective use of prop is this Ted talk below. Jill Bolte Taylor, a Harvard brain scientist who had suffered a life altering stroke, donned latex gloves and used a real human brain to demonstrate what happened to her.
Het gebruik van rekwisieten is misschien niet in alle gevallen relevant, maar dit voorbeeld laat zien dat het gebruik van een fysiek object soms meer impact kan hebben dan een computerdia.
Laatste woorden
It is easy to fall prey to death by PowerPoint. Hopefully with these ideas, you will be able to avoid the most common mistakes in creating a PowerPoint presentation. Here at AhaSlides, it is our aim to provide an intuitive platform for you to organise your ideas in a dynamic and interactive way and captivate your audience.
