PowerPoint: avoiding death by bullet point Adam Warren a.j.warren@soton.ac.uk 02380 594486

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Off-white background Reduces contrast Reduces glare Gradients look good

White on blue Classic choice Minimal glare Yellow text also good

Be consistent Backgrounds Fonts Colours Transitions Less is More

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

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)

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