A500.8.3.RB_BorutyAlan - Good Presentation Design

Good Presentation Design

I have spent uncountable hours throughout my career  trying to answer this very question, without much success.  It always seemed that good design depended on who asked for the presentation, who asked me to build the presentation, who the final audience is, and what mood any of the previously mentioned may be in.   In fact it depended on sso many things, I do not think I designed a good presentation the entire time I was in the Air Force.  It was a frustrating experience each and every time; getting a presentation through the review process was an accomplishment in and of itself.

When I retired from the military. I went to work for a contractor who sought contracts with the U.S. Air Force.   And, it was just as bad or worse because now two separate chains of important people , civilian and military, existed that I could possibly offend in some way or the other.  It really was that bad.  I promised myself I was done building presentation charts, period.  Wrong.

I decided to go back to school.  In my mind I knew at some point I would have to design a presentation.  The very first class abruptly ended the betting.   I had to come to grip with all of this much sooner than I anticipated.  When I did, I still was not sure how I should handle the things I was reading.   Am I being set up?   Who is in on this?  I did not know, but it all seemed very suspicious indeed.   Less is more, keep charts to the absolute minimum, white space is okay, are all messages I was sure I would never hear, much less, read.   I decided to play along and stick around to hear the punchline when the truth was eventually revealed despite my gut-level suspicion that something really bad was about to go down.

I wish I could say that I have exaggerated here, but I cannot.  So, now I am stuck with all this white space and the market for the extraneous filler material that eliminated white space by design has just crashed, leaving me out in the cold and much happier!

Concepts like charts are only there to support the presenter; one main idea per chart; when charts are simple and  kept to necessary minimums, learning increases; the audience is the only reason for the presentation; and, if a chart is is not understandable within three seconds, it needs to be redesigned, have all been taught in speech classes and professional military education classrooms for as long as I have been exposed.  Taught in theory and excused in practice.  To be able to follow the guidelines for good presentation design was exciting, but when I began my design I found it difficult to apply.  Bad habits kept sneaking their way back into my work. Bad habits are said to die slowly.  I look forward to their complete dissappeance  without  any sadness or conscience.

Additionally, there are tools too numerous to name available to help in presentation design.  I took four evaluation copies, but I have not used any of them enough to be comfortable using them yet.  On the surface they appear to be very capable, I just cannot prove it at the moment.