Comments on: PowerPoint Designs that Executives Love (But Shouldn’t)

By: Joann Sondy

Joann Sondy — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 10:43:10 +0000

Business e-books… well, that’s something I know a lot about. Producing investor/shareholder materials for publicly-traded companies for 15+ years; I sure have seen a full spectrum from award-winning annual reports to junk produced in Publisher.

Last week, I was asked to assist with some “tweaking” on a presentation a CEO of a NYSE hi-tech company was to give at an investor conference — aka “why invest in this company”.

I had designed a very nice template: high-tech look, easy to read, corporate branded, etc. Well, the file I received was NOT mine; but rather something done by someone who knows NOTHING about presentations and/or design.

I told the account executive that I believed the presentation was an embarrassment! And, something the CEO of a global company should NOT be associated.

With sites like this one — which I was glad to discover this week — I hope that the message of how design/creativity can be an ASSET to a company.

By: Joseph Lewis

Joseph Lewis — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 03:22:57 +0000

Joann, you’re absolutely right, you need to use the right document at the right time for the right reasons.

The document you’re describing sounds similar to a business e-book. They can be great for delivering short messages in an attractive format, but heavy information transfer should call for a heavy document, like a traditional report.

By: Joseph Lewis

Joseph Lewis — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 03:19:33 +0000

You’re generally right. I’m not advocating more text, just smarter text. For example, replace “Software out of date” with “Our software is out of date.” By adding two little words, you transform a vague phrase into a statement with accountability and urgency.

By: Kena

Kena — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 17:48:43 +0000

PowerPoint tampoco es muy de mi agrado… aunque creo que el punto de este artículo no es tanto las limitaciones del programa sino las estrategias que se usan para transmitir el mensaje. Por otra parte, ¡que viva el keynote!

By: Joann Sondy

Joann Sondy — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 14:30:33 +0000

In general is totally agree with the points in your article and thoroughly enjoy the most recent trends for presentation. However, consider:

Using full frame images + speech works best for in-person delivery. Since many of the presentations I design are used primarily for re-play and/or desktop delivery, unless the voice is included the message is lost.

Many are using Powerpoint as a document layout tool and having header/footers is actually a good thing.

Too much text… well, I completely agree with this one.
Goofy clip — agree!

Review some of the presentation on Slideshare — they’re great. But frankly, many times I miss the point because the presenter is missing.

By: Charlilottelise

Charlilottelise — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 06:37:16 +0000

The post is great but one thing was wrong. You should NEVER use sentences in a presentation. It distracts the audiance from what you are saying and it makes the slide to full. Otherwise you can just send the presentation to the presented and not bother inviting them. But the rest sounds great and I really hope that people will learn how to use powerpoint better. Thanks.

By: Dinu

Dinu — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 05:18:58 +0000

Does anyone here (geek or non-geek) use any of the HTML slideshow scripts? So far I’ve only seen a couple of geeks use them in presentations.

By: Bob Bessette

Bob Bessette — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 16:55:18 +0000

Hi,
I remember years ago when the CEO of a former company I worked for always added some silly cartoons or animations at the end. Back then it was considered clever. I agree that it is great to use some polished photographs that you can get at iStockPhoto or other sites. Also, chances are there have been some high resolution photos already done of your portfolio of products for marketing material.
This is really good information. Powerpoint is used everywhere, especially at my workplace. Any good information on how better to use the application can certainly go a long way to more creative presentations. This is great info..

Best,
Bob

By: Ahmed El.Hussaini

Ahmed El.Hussaini — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 13:23:34 +0000

A Really informative article, and unfortunatly all managers and executives around the world prefer those annoying habits in creating PPT presentations.

By: Chris Thompson

Chris Thompson — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 11:59:48 +0000

Great article! Sometimes its worth looking at the bad design patterns as well as the good. I wish a few execs at my work would take a look at this. We have tried masterpages / templates but they still manage to stretch images and employ every bell and whistle that microsoft crammed into powerpoint. Peeeeooowww