Simplicity

As my first ‘official’ post. I want to tackle one of the most common, yet easiest to repair, mistakes.

In just about every presentation I’ve received from prospective clients, simplicity takes a backseat to detailed content. The challenge in this approach is that the audience easily becomes bogged down in the detail, and can loose track of the overall picture. Now, I’m not recommending you loose the detail, because as we both know without it there’s no point to a presentation. But, what I am suggesting is you move from fewer slides with more content to more slides with less content.

For instance, take this sample slide*:

Which, I’ve simplified here by turning into five separate slides and adding complementary graphics:

Not only is this method easier on the eyes but, you can now dedicate the time each deserves and present each topic more clearly. So, remember for your next presentation that less really is more. Whenever you can, reduce the amount of content per slide. It will make your presentation much more succinct.

*This slide was taken from a presentation by Dave McClure of the University of Edinburgh, released under the Creative Commons license.

Off the Ground

I’ll be adding new posts here frequently with recommendations and suggestions for making your presentations better than ever. Please stay tuned as I get it started.