Why do our PPTs look the way they do? Or more so, how can we accept the way they look? All too often we are overwhelmed with PPT slides filled with charts, graphical elements, long sentences and slide numbers whilst we fade in a daydream, before snapping ourselves back to reality.
Funnily enough, those exact people are likely to design a PPT similar to the very one that didn’t capture their attention. It’s time dodgy fonts, mismatched colours, tiny text and complicated charts are a thing of the past.
Did you know 90% of what you said was forgotten by the audience within 30 seconds? Think about it like this;
When you have a plane ticket in hand, how many times do you check it before finally sitting down at that seat?
Alternatively, how many times have you looked at the time on your phone, checked it, then realised you instantly don’t remember what time it was?
This is because you brain isn’t engaged nor stimulated. It is simply routine.
Leading Neurologist Dr John Medina once said “If companies would have as little respect for business as they have for presentations then the majority would go bankrupt”.
So, how do we avoid Death by PowerPoint?
Here we will look at 5 design principals that what guarantee to cognitively and psychology optimise your PPT slides.
1. One
One message per slide – no more. One, uno, single, sole, solitary message per slide. Not two. Not three. Just one.
So why only one? Well, imagine you’re at a nice party and you’re chatting away to someone. Then, you hear your name in the background – your attention is now diverted in that direction, yet you continue to nod and smile at the person you’re engaged with. You’re not really listening to them, but instead listening elsewhere, yet still hoping you’re nodding and smiling in the right places.
The principal is the same in PPT. If you have more than one message per slide, the chances are they will be focusing on other points and not the one you’re discussing.
This entirely misses the point in having a second message on the same slide. As humans we are extremely limited in our capacity – keep it simple.
2. Redundancy Effect
As humans we are susceptible to something in the brain psychologists call the “Redundancy Effect”.
It works like this; If you have text sentences on PPT and you persist with the idea of speaking at the same time, what will be remembered by the audience is 0% … or very close to 0%. The information you’ve heard or read has become redundant.
So how do we correct this?
Take your sentences and highlight only the key words (remember just one message per slide) and then remove everything else. I’ll give you an example…
Original sentence on your PPT:
“Why Hippo? Well, we understand that a venue can reflect your objectives and company profile. Using our buying power and strong supplier relationships, we are able to achieve favourable rates for our clients, whether it be venue for team building or conference. We stop at nothing to ensure we find you the right venue for your event. Our persistence is one of the reasons we are seen as a top venue finding agency.”
Should be displayed on your PPT as:
• Buying Power
• Strong Supplier Relationships
• Favourable Rates
• Any type of event
• Persistence
It makes for such a more pleasant experience to read, doesn’t it?
3. Size
Did you know, every time you open your eyes for the rest of your life you will focus on 4 things; moving objects, signalling colours (like red, orange and yellow), contrast rich objects and big objects.
Imagine you’re at home with a friend and the TV is on but the sound is off. You’re having a great conversation but do you find it easy to not look at the TV? No. Why not? Because it’s got moving objects, it’s got signalling colours, it’s high in contrast and it’s usually very big nowadays! Try and use this knowledge to your benefit.
How often do you create your headline in a PPT as the largest text? I mean sure that makes sense doesn’t it? It’s the title of the page and it’s introducing the material below it. Your eyes are naturally drawn to it because of its size. But how often is the title the most important content on that slide? Almost never. Try it on your laptop – keep the same sized content and change the size of the headline and see where your eye is drawn.
The most important part of your PPT slide should be the biggest.
4. Contrast.
Contrast controls your focus.
The major drawback with PPT is that the majority of companies insist on white backgrounds. Consider which has the higher contrast when it has a white background – the presenter or the giant white screen? The screen does obviously.
Change the screen to a dark background and it’ll instantly relax your eyes – instantly the focus is now on the presenter – after all, it is the presenter that is the actual presentation, not the PPT itself.
Also, if you have white text on a dark background and you’re going through your list of bullet points you have on the slide, try greying out the bullet points you aren’t talking about at that time, leaving just the one bullet point you’re talking about as white. Then, move to your next slide, which has the next word down in white, and everything above and below that in grey.
This helps focus the mind on one item, rather than be overwhelmed by the whole slide.
5. Objects
Did you know, it takes you 2.0s to recognise 9 objects on a slide, 1.2s to recognise 7 objects, and only 0.2s to recognise 5 objects? That’s nearly 500% difference between 5 and 7 objects.
The key is that for 7 objects you have to count whereas anything below that number you just see.
The cognitive process of counting takes 500% more time and takes 500% more resources to execute rather than just seeing.
So, keep in mind at all times the word “six”. The magical number is six – the average perspective limit. When you go into a PPT in the future and you have 7 or more objects (e.g. 7 single or double worded bullet points), you have to understand that your audience has to use 500% more energy and cognitive resources to understand what’s in your PPT slide. That is death by PowerPoint.
So, next time you are pulling together your PPT presentation, think about the 5 principals and see if it makes a difference to your audience.
• One
• Redundancy Effect
• Size
• Contrast
• Objects
Hippo offer Event Project Management and Global Venue Finding services. Please feel free to contact us today on 01372 460 100 or email on enquiries@hippoevents.co.uk