Chapter 1
Tweaking Presentations
This chapter begins by relating to the reader the horrifying
experience that it is to sit through your typical Powerpoint
presentation. Having that as a starting point, Dr. Lynell Burmark, then begins
by giving the reader a set of clues that, she assures, will dramatically improve
the look and effectiveness of any presentation. She begins by stating, (rightly so
in my opinion), that backgrounds should not compete with the content; that
they serve as a surface to place elements. It is here that she points out the
importance of color as they increase reading comprehension and learning in
general. But she points out that color that distracts is worse than no color at,
adding also that color should not offend your audience (imagine presenting to
a group of Aggies using white and orange as your theme colors)...you get the
point. Dr. Burmark interestingly points out that the average slide contains forty
words, hinting that these maybe way too many for your slide to be effective in
delivering information. She points out that an effective slide should be able to
deliver its content within 3 seconds, just like a billboard on the highway. Dr.
Burmark process into some typographical tips such as recommending to use
widely kerned fonts, such as Georgia and Verdana, the use of lowercase, and
varying the leading (space between the lines) as it improves legibility and gives
your audience visual tips on what's more important. She finishes the chapter
by stating that Helvetica should be avoided unless you want to be confused
with the IRS, and that as a rule of thumb you should not have more than two
typefaces on one slide.
I agreed more than disagreed with what Dr. Burmark presented
in this first chapter. I can totally identify with what I snobbishly
consider a lack of taste and minimalistic presentation. We as presenters
need to become better at organizing information to make it visually
attractive to our audience; I couldn't agree more with Dr. Burmark
on this point. Yet, being admittedly a Helvetica fanatic, I don't agree
with her IRS-ish views on the font. But I am not surprised either. As
seen on the documentary Helvetica one can see that this font is a world
of controversy in the typographical world, apparently having its fanboys
and haters at each others' throat.
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