Mastering the art of attention by rethinking your presentation tools

A close-up image of a young woman peering out of a window through a small gap in the blinds. The woman is resting their chin on the windowsill, gazing outside with a focused expression. The scene is dimly lit, highlighting the woman's face against the soft shadows.

Have you got something to talk about and you want people’s attention? It might be time to revisit your choices in how you present your information, to be sure to get that precious attention.

We live in a world of lots of fancy possibilities of tools for communicating – some low-tech like drawing or inking, some high-tech like videos and games. For everyone who does presenting of some kind, it’s time to get the basics right.

I’m talking about the use of basic technology that almost anybody can use – the Slide Presentation software tool, that for many of us is the product MS PowerPoint™. In what I share below, I’ll refer simply to PowerPoint, but the message holds true for whatever equivalent software tool you use.

PowerPoint has the potential to be a Visual Aid to a Speaker, and an Artefact for a Reader. (Unfortunately it sometimes has been produced to act as a Teleprompter for a Speaker – which is all about the Speaker and not the audience.)

I’m going to present a scenario for each below and share advice on where you can make improvements.

Design Decisions

Start with empathy to make better design decisions. When preparing content consider:

  • Who is my audience/user?
  • What is their context when receiving this input?
  • What knowledge do they want or need that I seek to provide?
  • What content (form, quality, quantity) will best serve their context and need?

Scenario 1: Visual Aid

  • Audience: Attendees at a conference or training course
  • Context: First hour of many hours; some excitement, probably some agitation from getting here which is a break in their routine; in a group of people, likely strangers; in a strange place, settling in and trying to get comfortable
  • Knowledge sought: How I/you will take care of my basic needs (e.g. stomach, bladder, heating, safety); How to play well with others in this group (e.g. attention, etiquette)
  • Content: Visual Aid + Q&A Conversation

Here are three examples of visual aids for this particular scenario.

Option 1

A boring slide titled 'Housekeeping' with bullet points providing webinar-related information. The slide includes details about the availability of slides on SlideShare, the recording of the webinar, a post-webinar survey, the ability to type questions during the session, and a Q&A session at the end for the speaker to address questions. It is just text with no graphics.

Option 2

A semi-attractive slide titled 'Housekeeping' with a list of bullet points covering logistical details: restrooms, refreshments, attendance sheet, questions, and microphones. To the right, there is an image of various electronic devices, including a smartphone and a PDA, with a red prohibition symbol over them, accompanied by the text 'Please turn off cell phones & other electronics.

Option 3
A slide with an image of a green ceramic mug on a bedside table, with a blurred background showing an unmade bed. The word 'Housekeeping' is displayed in bold black text in the top right corner of the image.

Looking at the three options above, ask yourself:

  • Which feels more pleasing to look at and to experience?
  • Which has all the knowledge that the user needs/seeks? (i.e. it can stand alone and could simply be read)

You might be ready to discount Option 3 as lacking information. Consider that the experience that goes with Slide 3, could be designed so the communication covers a range of unspecified topics. The speaker/presenter could ask people to offer Housekeeping questions to be answered, rather than working from an assumed list.

Advice for Visual Aids

To make and use better visual aids, here’s some tips:

  • Use less words than your natural inclination. (The slide is not a teleprompter for the speaker/presenter; put speaker’s words under the Notes section, or on speaker cards.)
  • Use phrases, not sentences; definitely no paragraphs. People will scan, not read the text. Besides you want them listening to you, not reading what’s behind you – else why are you there?
  • Use good quality photos. Find photos at treasure troves like www.unsplash.com (Be sure to credit the source.)
  • Learn from the best – two people who have written advice that is worth applying are Nancy Duarte and her book Slideology, and Seth Godin in a book, Really Bad PowerPoint.
    Change the experience: Ask, don’t tell. Get people to ask questions about what they want/need to know rather than you run though a list talking to them about what you think they need to know. (There is an exception to the rule here with Housekeeping Content – you may have safety obligations to meet that your audience doesn’t care about, so you’ll need to ensure you to share those essential details.)

 

Scenario 2: Artefact

  • Audience: Staff geographically dispersed across location and time zones (so difficult to arrange live sessions)
  • Context: Receiving a digital message while at their desk or on the move; will be amongst a whole lot of other messages so could get lost in noise; may get ‘read’ (i.e. scanned) in between other activities that are demanding their attention
  • Knowledge sought: What is going on; What is expected of me/us
  • Content: Artefact for reading/viewing at time of own choosing

Here’s two examples of the same words in different formats.

Option 1: Block of Text in document

A page of text without any graphics discussing the benefits of visualizing work with Kanban. It explains how Kanban can reveal patterns and insights, enabling better decision-making about capacity and priorities within an organization. The page includes a quote about making work visible: 'Let's get visible, visible / We want to get visible / Let's get into visible / Let us hear the workload talk.' It also provides a brief overview of how Kanban works, describing how each piece of work is represented by a card that moves through vertical columns representing different stages of the process.

Option 2: Artefact (made into an A4 PDF file for digital distribution)

The reader gets one page at a time, and turns each page as they interact with the message.

A series of six slides illustrating the concept of visualizing work with Kanban. Slide 4: A mountain partially obscured by clouds with text explaining how visualizing work with Kanban reveals patterns and insights not available from other methods, helping to identify opportunities for improvement. Slide 5: Two pencils on a bright yellow background, with text discussing the importance of making work visible for the Leadership Team to make informed decisions about capacity and priorities, and to participate in shaping the organization's future. Slide 6: A hand holding string lights in the dark, with the quote, 'Let's get visible, visible / We want to get visible / Let's get into visible / Let us hear the workload talk.' Slide 7: A sticky note pad and a notebook with a pencil on a desk, explaining that Kanban is a simple idea where each piece of work is written on a card or sticky note. Slide 8: A Kanban board with columns labeled 'To Do,' 'Doing,' and 'Done,' with sticky notes under each column. The text describes how cards move across columns representing different stages of the work process. Slide 9: An arched hallway with sunlight streaming in, accompanied by text explaining that the number of columns and the names or stages of each column can vary depending on the work and the owners of the board.

Advice for digital artefacts

To make and use better digital artefacts, here’s some tips:

  • Write for readability. (Check out the quality of readability with a readability checker/score, like Readable.com. Some of my slides above would get a good score – some wouldn’t. Can you pick the difference? )
  • Use words that make sense to your reader; avoid jargon that is foreign to them.
  • Limit how much text a person can see at one time; slow them down, so they have less to read or scan at a single time.
  • When creating Landscape documents, be aware that the human eye gets tired if there are more than 50-70 words in a single line. So don’t use the entire width of the page.
  • Use sensible pauses to give a cadence or rhythm to the knowledge you are sharing. (e.g. page breaks vs. paragraph breaks)
  • Enhance text with visuals. (See advice above about photographs.)

Nancy Duarte calls this second version a Slide doc to differentiate it from a Slide deck. She offers more insightful advice on creating Slide docs here.

WARNING: Just because both can be created in PowerPoint, don’t use the digital Artefact in a live session. Design for purpose: A Visual Aid to supplement a presenter/teacher; an Artefact for self-directed reading.

Are you ready to do things a little differently? Your audience or reader will thank you for thinking of such things, next time they receive something you’ve prepared.

 

Author
Helen Palmer is Founder of Quello. Like Winnie the Pooh, she ‘sits and thinks’ … and imagines how people – especially those creating knowledge – can create better things for others. She likes to share those thoughts with the possibility that they inspire and initiate meaningful change.

 

Attribution
Except where otherwise noted, this content is released under a Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 4.0 International licence so it can be freely shared with attribution to the creator (Quello); it cannot be used for commercial purposes; and it cannot be modified.

 

Quello is a Knowledge Product Development Support boutique agency based in Brisbane, helping small organisations anywhere across Planet Earth. A part of The RHX Group Pty Ltd (formed in 2008).

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