To fully understand the rules that govern just how much information
you can include in your presentation slides, you need to appreciate
a fundamental of human nature - namely, that we have an innate
desire to be" The First to Know".
Unfortunately, most of the presentation visuals that we see
are designed with the mistaken belief that audiences will
actually wait for the presenter to walk them through them.
Wrong.
When the technology of communications was slower, we took
a more historical approach to news - news was about what happened.
We were accustomed to waiting for the news, and news had a
time: Did you see the morning paper? Did you hear the evening
news?
But with electronic advancements, we came to think of news
more in terms of what is happening at the moment. Film brought
us motion, but video feeds brought us there. Screens eclipsed
paper as the preferred venue for getting the latest. Newspapers
folded, first afternoon editions and then even icons of Americana
- think Herald Tribune. Instead of being the first source
of news in the world, to survive newspapers became more feature
oriented - providing value only for less perishable and less
immediate content.
Cable News Network took a huge gamble that people all over
the world would watch news twenty-four hours a day - news
on the people's timetable, not the providers. News on demand.
Fulfillment for those with the desire to be "the first
to know."
What does all this have to do with presentation design? You
don't need to be a news junkie to share a basic trait of humans
and other intelligent animals - curiosity. Curiosity is basic
to survival, and we have evolved as creatures who need to
learn what we can quickly. So this same desire that humans
have to be the first to know translates to every event that involves
new information uptake. During a presentation, audience members
want the same control, and are basically unwilling to wait
for you, the presenter, to help them be the first to know.
Once the curiosity about a slide has been satisfied, audience
members usually will give the presenter their attention.
But when a new slide first appears on the screen, all eyes,
like moths to the flame, tune to the new image, and immediately
begin the race to be the first to know what the slide is all
about. It's not their fault! They're human!
Only when every member of the audience is thoroughly convinced
that they know exactly what the slide means will they lend
their attention back to what you are saying.
And until this point you realistically might as well not be
there. Oh, sure, you can act as most do and begin to describe
the elements in the slide, but for all intents and purposes,
it matters little what you do. You could drop your pants.
You could leave the room. You could tell off-color jokes. But until
the audience has determined for themselves exactly what all
the data and word tracks on the screen mean to them, you have
approximately 0% of their attention.
With most of the slides we see in business presentations today,
this is where the disaster begins. You see, the typical slide
contains so much information that a typical audience member
would need more than 30 seconds just to read the material,
much less absorb it. The reading process is delayed, though,
because first the viewer tries to decide for herself where to begin,
and which piece of information is most important. Clues to
the relative value of the information are often erroneous,
however, as audiences base them on such things as the size
of the type or placement on the screen.
For this reason, you must ask yourself how long it will take
the average person to discover for themselves all the information
you have in your slide. The more time it takes the average
person to absorb and assimilate the information they see,
the greater the chance you have to lose your audience.
So what does this tell us? Of course, there is only one truly
viable solution, and that is to limit, by all means possible,
the amount of information that is released with each click
of your mouse.
The less time it takes the audience to discern the new information,
the sooner they'll get back to you and start to listen to
what you really mean to "say" on the slide.
J. Douglas Jefferys is a principal at http://PublicSpeakingSkills.com,
a national consulting firm specializing in training businesses
of all sizes to communicate for maximum efficiency. The firm
spreads its unique knowledge through on-site classes, public
seminars, and high-impact videos, and can be reached through
the Internet or at 888-663-7711.
