There are many strong opinions about the use of PowerPoint and other slideware, but surprisingly little research. In fact, in a survey of the texts employed in public speaking courses taught within the California State University system, Jennifer Kammeyer found that only 33% of textbooks contained any sourced recommendations and of those sources listed, only 35% were based on research findings.
A review of the research that is available reveals some substantial gaps. Sure, the research seems to support our intuitions that text-laden slides are less effective than slides employing well chosen visuals. But there are so many more questions. Martin Shovel, among others, has suggested that the use of expressive language (unsupported by a projected visual) can be more effective than the typical PowerPoint-based approach. True? If so, in what situations?
WhiteboardSelling advocates (you guessed it) designing and delivering your message by drawing on a whiteboard. This approach is supported by many luminaries including Dan Roam. Seems like a good idea, but…
How about Garr Reynolds’ Presentation Zen style? Who can read that book or his blog and not feel inspired? But, I doubt the emotional appeals made with beautiful photography are all that appropriate for the conference room. Am I wrong?
Further, a presentation is much more than a collection of slides. How should we organize the material? In Presenting to Win, Jerry Weissman describes 15 different presentation organizations. When should you apply any one of these? Or, perhaps there is something magical to the “rule of three” – the ancient Greeks certainly thought so, and public speaking experts continue to argue for its effectiveness (see Andrew Dlugen, Nick Morgan, and Olivia Mitchell).
To be clear, I don’t believe there is a single best approach to presenting. There are a very large number of factors that come into play – not the least of which is the level of comfort the presenter feels with their presentation material. However, I do believe we can make significant progress in quantifying the benefits of different presentation strategies in particular contexts. Using the language employed by Brent Dykes on his PowerPoint Ninja blog – it is important to know which tools can be applied effectively in different situations.
This is the challenge that has inspired us to form Firestarter Labs. Recognizing that we, on our own, cannot possibly fill all the gaps in research literature, our software will assist academics, salespeople, and others in conducting targeted experiments and sharing their results. Our hope is that based on these findings we will be able to deliver advice that is increasingly supported by empirical evidence.
For those that are interested, here is a set of the academic research we have found useful:
Alley, M. and Neeley, K. Rethinking the Design of Presentation Slides: A Case for Sentence Headlines and Visual Evidence, Technical Communication, vol. 52, no. 4. 2005.
Alley, M., Schreiber, M., Ramsdell, K., & Muffo, J. How the Design of Headlines in Presentation Slides Affects Audience Retention. Technical Communication, 53, 2006.
Atherton, C. Visual Attention, a psychologist’s perspective, presented at Technical Communication UK Conference. See coverage by Olivia Mitchell at New evidence that bullet-points don’t work
Blokzijl, W. and Andeweg, B. The effect of Text slides Compared to Visualizations on Learning and Appreciation in Lectures. In Engineering the Future of Human Communication IEEE International Professional Communication Conference Proceedings. Seattle, 2007.
Blokzijl, W. and Andeweg, B. The effects of text slide format and presentational quality on learning in college lectures. 2005 IEEE International Professional Communication Conference Proceedings. 2005.
Hamann, S.B., Ely, T., Grafton, S., & Kilts, C. Amygdala activity related to enhanced memory for pleasant and aversive stimuli, Nature Neuroscience, 2: 289-293, 1999.
Kock, N., Chatelain-Jardón, R., and Carmona, J. Using Surprise in Human-Computer Interfaces to Enhance Knowledge Communication Effectiveness. Proceedings of the 41st Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, Waikoloa, Hawaii, 2008.
Mackiewicz,. J. Comparing PowerPoint Experts’ and University Students’ Opinions about PowerPoint Presentations. Journal of Technical Writing & Communication, 38: 149-165, 2008.
Mayer, R. E., & Moreno, R. Aids to computer-based multimedia learning. Learning and Instruction, 12: 107-119, 2002.
Muldoon, C.A. Shall I Compare Thee to a Pressure Wave? Visualisation, Analogy, Insight and Communication in Physics. Doctoral Thesis. Science Studies Centre, Department of Psychology, University of Bath, England, 2006.
Sweller, J. Cognitive Load Theory, learning difficulty, and instructional design. Learning and Instruction, 4: 295-312, 1994.
