Design Considerations

Presentation Design Considerations
I was rocked a little from my safe world of thoroughly packed PowerPoint slides by the "less is more" movement championed by Merlin Mann. I began considering the notion that I should be telling the story, not my slides.

Then I visited some sample presentations, looking for "less is more," on slideshare. What I discovered is that such presentations don't lend themselves well to unnarrated or unaccompanied presentations. The "less is more" presentation is useless as a standalone teaching tool. It might serve as a relic to jog the memory of someone who witnessed the brilliant presentation (like Merlin's google talk), but as a public document to share, it's pretty useless.

So it's important to differentiate between the valid points that--on the one hand--(1) giving a presentation can be more about talking than filling slides with words, data, and bullets and--on the other hand--(2) the "less is more" slideshow is not suitable as a standalone teaching tool. For example, in Faculty Orientation, I cover our entire yearly strategy, as well as review the previous year, so that all faculty are on the same page. If someone is ill or I make a late hire, my PowerPoint presentation can stand on its own. So how does the "less is more" consideration affect my practice? Here are two good solutions:

1. Be a writer!
Most of us who write journal-article length research papers start with more material than we need and then whittle it down to a finished product. Likewise, you can make your bloated PowerPoint or Keynote, and save it as the teaching standalone that you want to share with the world. But then whittle it down to just a few words and an image per slide for the actual presentation you will be giving.

2. Record Video or Audio
I could record my orientation for later playback. The limitation is that Orientation is 6-7 hours, which would be a monster video file! Even the audio might get pretty beefy. But it's possible.

My Presentation Did Not Empress(r)
I wound up making a "less is more" presentation. I sought evocative pictures and matched them with impactful statements. Trying to write first and find images to match my words rarely works for me. I'm too picky. So it's easier to find a thematic image first and then write for it. This presentation has a little bit more "meat" to it than an orthodox image with a few words. I have data, including a graph. I also made a tinyurl to refer the audience to a web site for more information. So my presentation is not totally useless as a standalone, but it lacks my usual detail.

To build the presentation, I used the web site Empressr. I was not pleased with it overall. Moving text and images was cumbersome and not intuitive (the constant need to double-click was annoying). Making a chart was impossible. I could not get the rows equally sized, could not shrink the size of one column, and could not get all the text to display unless it was too tiny for a presentation. I finally gave up trying to create the table and just used text boxes to simulate a table (without gridlines). Reordering also slides took more slight of hand than a magic trick.

The feature I did like was the ability to import images via supplying a URL or performing a limited but robust search of Google, Flickr, youtube, etc., from within Empressr. This saved me time. Also, since it's a web app, Empressr provided an embed code, saving me from having to upload to slideshare or other host.

Involve Me!
The other challenge for me was to make my presentation more interactive. I am definitely a didactic presenter. However, I flatter myself that I am engaging enough to keep my audience's interest. I use humor, anecdotes, etc. However, building a presentation to be inherently interactive took work. I first made a didactic presentation, and then identified the opportunities to get the audience involved. Honestly, the interactive version is a better presentation. It's the one I would want if I were in the audience. I need to be more empathetic to my audience when presenting, just as I try to be as a writer.

Getting students to see their writing from the audience perspective would be easy if they get feedback on their writing from a real audience (i.e. blog post comments from classmates and teacher). However, given their "off the cuff" nature, blogs don't come to mind as the leading strategy for teaching revision strategies. Students need to learn that formal writing and writing for a specific purpose, such as to persuade, needs revising. I went through a process of making a presentation that had the content/message I desired--and then I revised it to be more interactive. Students need to experience the balance between content and audience. Maybe they could be assigned a presentation that taught a specific topic. Then they could be tasked to go back and make it interactive for their audience.



Poor Web Site!
When we were studying comics recently, I visited the Dilbert homepage. The site is awash with different gadgets that let you interact with Dilbert cartoons. However, each and every page contains so many similar looking Dilbert cartoon strips that I felt overloaded! The site literally stressed me out. I thought Mashups (you fill in the final caption on a Dilbert strip) were a great idea, especially after we were creating our own cartoons in class. I clicked on the link but could not for the life of me figure out how to create my own. There was an endless stream--again--of strips sorted by how recently they were created. I would think sorting them by the most popular would make more sense, since you are allowed to vote for your favorite. That aspect of the site is still in beta, so maybe it will improve. Suffice it to say, I will not be revisiting the site. It's such a disaster that a screen shot won't do it justice; you have to experience it.

Easy on the Eyes Blogs
Chris Brogan's blog on community and social media has a layout I prefer. Simple menu headings on top, the latest blog post, and blurbs of the last several blog posts with links to full articles. The right side has a plug for his book but it is otherwise uncluttered. There is plenty of whitespace so my eyes don't feel like they are being pulled in every direction. I feel serenity while reading. Another blog whose design I like is the fast forward blog by Bill Ives. The blog posts are listed in full, and at the bottom of each are links to related blog posts. The right column has more stuff in it, but it is easy to ignore while reading blog posts.

Comparing Dilbert's site to some blogs might at first seem like comparing apples to oranges. However, all three sites want visitors to read what they have written, and all have books to sell. The blog authors, however, are appealing to a specifically intellectual or digerati audience that would not tolerate total chaos. Dilbert's appeal is to silliness, even if its audience includes the sophisticated set in addition to cubicle dwellers in seek of a respite.