1. PowerPoint: avoiding death by bullet point
Adam Warren

4. Edward Tufte
"Particularly disturbing is the adoption of the PowerPoint cognitive style in our schools. Rather than learning to write a report using sentences, children are being taught how to formulate client pitches and infomercials.”
Edward Tufte has written seven books, including Visual Explanations, Envisioning Information, The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, and Data Analysis for Politics and Policy. He writes, designs, and self-publishes his books on information design, which have received more than 40 awards for content and design.
He is Professor Emeritus at Yale University, where he taught courses in statistical evidence, information design, and interface design.
2003 The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint

5. emergent properties deep hierarchy simplisic thinking enforced linear
slide headings
bullet points
simplisic thinking
hierarchy – used to manage complexity
where is the overview?
The core ideas of teaching - explanation, reasoning, finding things out, questioning, content, evidence, credible authority not patronizing authoritarianism - are contrary to the hierarchical market-pitch approach. Bob Horne (Stanford)
bulleted lists – hard to show causal relationships
Simplistic thinking, from ideas being squashed into bulleted lists, and stories with beginning, middle, and end being turned into a collection of disparate, loosely disguised points. This may present a kind of image of objectivity and neutrality that people associate with science, technology, and "bullet points".
enforced
linear
sequence

6. and also… too many slides bad slide design unreadable text
a crutch for presenters instead of a scaffold for learners
a crutch for presenters instead of a scaffold for learners
too many slides
bad slide design
unreadable text
poor use of colour
plain text only
distracting effects
a seductive technology that encourages style over content

7. Why use PowerPoint? Provide structure Emphasise key points
Show visual information
Integrate multimedia
Look professional
Assist delivery
Create handouts
rrrrrrrrr

8. How many slides? One slide = two minutes Plus Title and End slide
Too many slides = ?

9. Too much text! One slide = two minutes talking
this is a guideline, not a rule – but having 20 slides for a 20 minute talk:
increases the risk that your ‘talk’ is reduced to you reading out a list of bullet points
increases the risk that you talk too long about the earlier slides and run out of time
increases the risk that you have to skip over some slides to reach your conclusions

10. Keep it simple Six points per slide Six words per point
Don’t overload slides
use more, simple slides

11. Keep it readable Font size = 28 points Use easy-to-read fonts:
24 points is OK
18 point is too small
Use easy-to-read fonts:
Serif fonts like Palatino or Georgia
Sans Serif fonts like Arial or Verdana
Cursive fonts like Comic Sans

12. Keep it clear Use high-contrast colours
mid-tones do not show up well
avoid bright red
colour-blind people confuse red and green
Use colour or bold or italic for emphasis
CAPITALS and underline are hard to read

13. Black on white Very high contrast Visual stress
Glare with data projectors

14. Off-white background Reduces contrast Reduces glare
Gradients look good

15. White on blue
Classic choice
Minimal glare
Yellow text also good

16. Be consistent
Backgrounds
Fonts
Colours
Transitions
Less is More

17. 6% of the world health expenditure
Use strong images
You don’t need to be an artist to create simple graphics – this is just circles and rectangles
75% of the world’s people
6% of the world health expenditure

18. Use photographs
Make sure they are relevant to your talk and are not simply decoration
This sculpture on the Highfield campus is Two Figures by Barbara Hepworth (Bronze, 1968)

19. Show trends, not data This chart was imported from Excel.
It needed some editing to make the text large enough to read