Why I Love PowerPoint
In a recent issue of Fast Company (Nov 2008) the Made to Stick guys (Dan & Chip) wrote about a problem designers are all too familiar with: Crappy PowerPoint presentations. It’s good to see mainstreamers calling attention to this. No matter how hard designers try to convince clients (I’ve tried whining, screaming, begging, refusing…) to stop making 78 slide PowerPoint decks filled with rainbow clip art, 7 point type and more bullets than an M249 Squad Automatic Weapon, they simply refuse. Maybe they try. Maybe they just don’t care. Maybe they know we’ll parachute in and fix it. Who knows?
It wears on you after a while, and I used to hate PowerPoint just like most designers. As far as I was concerned, PowerPoint was the lowest form of design, and possibly even communication, on earth. Then, in the middle of developing a deck a few months ago, I came to a realization: PowerPoint is the medium of the elite (What really happened is Kristian tried to appease my PowerPoint angst by feeding me that line. It just turned out to be true).
While many designers think of PowerPoint as a soul sucking, spirit crushing black hole of design death, the C-Suites, entrepreneurs, investors and the other business elites of the world use it to communicate some of the most exciting, and innovative ideas known to man.
Design schools should be including business presentation as a core part of their programs. Maybe some do, mine didn’t. Designers are story tellers. PowerPoint is a story telling tool. We need to master this medium. And not just the aesthetic piece. We need to fine-tune our ability to transform complicated concepts and overwhelming amounts of data and information into compelling, emotive, and meaningful stories.
2008
5:01 PM
PowerPoint? Ugh. Awful. Keynote is much much better (if it were only more compatible with PC’s)
I see your point though. Since business people use PowerPoint and don’t know any better, we as designers must use it too. Still, no reason to LOVE PowerPoint…is it?
As designers, I feel like it’s important to educate the client and give them better solutions, not devolve to the least common denominator (and secretly change their pc browsers from I.E. to Firefox whenever possible.)
My alternative to PowerPoint:
1. Design the presentation in Keynote
2. Export Quicktime or Flash with button/transition functionality in tact.
3. Show on PC
4. Watch client be amazed.
I do agree that design schools should teach more about how to design a presentation but…don’t get me started on how many other areas that design schools are lacking, at least mine did.
2008
2:55 PM
Nathan…
I know there are copious amounts of advice out there to tactically achieve what you’ve described in your post.
Like Adam, I favor Keynote as a tool over Powerpoint, but really it’s a more sophisticated approach to wielding the whole “presentation experience” that the corporate world is hungry for.
One of the most accessible examples of a pro that delivers clear, entertaining information design (as it pertains to the Presentation Experience) is the Merlin Mann. He’s crazy fun to listen to live, but the true value is his use of well written and designed slides that push his message across the sensory threshold, letting you SEE and READ and HEAR what’s important.
Check these out:
Merlin’s “Inbox Zero” Google Talk
Merlin’s accompanying slides to his “Inbox Zero” talk
Merlin’s “Who Moved My Brain?” Slides
2008
2:56 PM
oops. looks like I left a couple tags open. copy paste and google those list items above!