Twenty years in the past, Edward Tufte revealed The cognitive type of PowerPoint: pitching out corrupts inside, an essay that also speaks to many people who’ve sat by means of shows the place bullet factors are learn aloud to us, one after the other by one, and the place the speaker feels a have to race by means of the final two-dozen slides within the remaining 5 minutes of allotted time. Tufte studied 1000’s of slides from precise shows, and gives detailed and exact evaluation of concrete examples. However for a way of his total argument, I’ll quote solely a few of his broader themes:
The followers of PowerPoint are presenters, hardly ever viewers members. Slideware helps audio system to stipulate their talks, to retrieve and present various visible supplies, and to speak slides in talks, printed experiences, and web. And in addition to switch critical evaluation with chartjunk, over-produced layouts, cheerleader logotypes and branding. and corny clipart. That’s, PowerPointPhluff.
PP comfort for the speaker will be pricey to each content material and viewers. These prices outcome from the cognitive type attribute of the usual default PP presentation: foreshortening of proof and thought, low spatial decision, a deeply hierachical single-path construction because the mannequin for organizing each kind of content material, breaking apart narrative and knowledge into slides and minimal fragments, speedy temporal sequencing of skinny data quite than centered spatial evaluation, conspicuous ornament and Phluff, a preoccupation with format not content material, an perspective of commercialism that turns all the pieces right into a gross sales pitch. …
Many true statements are too lengthy to suit on a PP slide, however this doesn’t imply we should always abbreviate the reality to make the phrases match. It means we should always discover a higher solution to make shows. With so little data per slide, many many slides are wanted. Audiences consequently endure a relentless sequentiality, one rattling slide after one other. When data is is stacked in time, it’s obscure context and consider relationships. Visible reasoning often works extra successfully when the related data is proven adjoining in area inside our eyespan. That is particularly the case for statistical knowledge, the place the elemental analytical act is to make comparisons …
In day-to-day follow, PowerPoint templates might enhance 10% or 2o% of all shows by organizing inept, extraordinarily disorganized audio system, at a price of detectable mental injury to 80%. For statistical knowledge, the injury ranges method dementia. Since about 1010 to 1011 PP slides (many utilizing the templates) are made every year, that’s quite a lot of hurt to communication with colleagues. Or at least an enormous waste of time. The injury is mitigated since conferences counting on the PP cognitive type might not matter all that a lot. By enjoying round with Phluff quite than offering data, PowerPoint permits audio system to faux that they’re giving an actual discuss, and audiences to faux that they’re listening.
Tufte is after all a genius at interested by efficient graphical presentation of information. Many people usually are not going to reside as much as his commonplace. However many people can do higher, too. As he factors out, a great picture that presents a set of information relationships can convey an amazing deal, and breaking these messages into bullet-points can obscure a lot.
Tufte quotes from maybe the basic Powerpoint satire of all time, Peter Norvig’s “Gettysburg Powerpoint Presentation.” Discover that it manages to incorporate six slides for a two-minute presentation. Earlier than the extra well-known a part of the textual content, Lincoln would start:
Good morning. Only a second whereas I get this connection to work. Do I press this button right here? Operate-F7? No, that’s not proper. Hmmm. Possibly I’ll need to reboot. Maintain on a minute. Um, my identify is Abe Lincoln and I’m your president. Whereas we’re ready, I need to thank Decide David Wills, chairman of the committee supervising the dedication of the Gettysburg cemetery. It’s nice to be right here, Dave, and also you and the committee are doing an amazing job. Gee, typically this new expertise does have glitches, however we couldn’t reside with out it, may we? Oh – is it prepared? OK, right here we go:
The speech that follows can be accompanied by six slides, that are maybe not in probably the most helpful order, however hey, the slides present professionalism and actually assist out the viewers, proper?
![](https://i0.wp.com/conversableeconomist.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/gettysberg.jpg?resize=712%2C776&is-pending-load=1#038;ssl=1)
In an identical vein, Gokul Rajaram recently posted an anecdote about his experience in making a set of slides for Eric Schmidt at Google:
In 2006, I helped Eric Schmidt [CEO of Google at the time] create a deck outlining Google’s technique, for a presentation Eric was delivering to the corporate. It taught me a profound lesson on how one can current.
After I confirmed as much as my first assembly with Eric, he requested me to go to with each product staff at Google, chat with them to determine what they had been engaged on, after which summarize it on one slide (for every staff).
Straightforward sufficient, I assumed. I’d use 3-5 bullet factors per slide.
“However”, Eric mentioned, “I would like no phrases on any slide”.
My well-laid plans disintegrated instantly. How was I purported to convey the important thing messages from every staff, with out WORDS?
Eric should have seen the panic on my face, and kindly gave me a touch. “Put the textual content in speaker notes”.
“However what goes on the slides, Eric?” I continued panicking.
That basic, light “Eric smile” fluttered on his face. “Why, photos, after all!”
“You imply, you need every slide to only be comprised of photos?”
“You bought it. And use the title properly. 7-8 phrases max. Let’s meet in every week to assessment progress.”
Rajaram suggests a number of classes from his expertise. For instance, one in every of them is “The bigger the viewers, the less the phrases on the slide.” However my level right here is to not reify Schmidt’s method to slide-decks, or Tufte’s for that matter. (Tufte is a believer in detailed paper handouts to accompany slides, which could have been workable in 2003 when he wrote his essay, however is so countercultural in 2023 as to be from a unique period.) I simply suppose we’d all be higher off with slide shows which have fewer bullet factors, fewer pages jam-packed with phrases, and fewer detailed numerical tables that may’t be learn by anybody greater than 30 ft away. Shows impose prices of time and a focus on others. In profitable shows, your consideration is attracted, quite than taxed, and all the time feels well-spent.
Twenty years in the past, Edward Tufte revealed The cognitive type of PowerPoint: pitching out corrupts inside, an essay that also speaks to many people who’ve sat by means of shows the place bullet factors are learn aloud to us, one after the other by one, and the place the speaker feels a have to race by means of the final two-dozen slides within the remaining 5 minutes of allotted time. Tufte studied 1000’s of slides from precise shows, and gives detailed and exact evaluation of concrete examples. However for a way of his total argument, I’ll quote solely a few of his broader themes:
The followers of PowerPoint are presenters, hardly ever viewers members. Slideware helps audio system to stipulate their talks, to retrieve and present various visible supplies, and to speak slides in talks, printed experiences, and web. And in addition to switch critical evaluation with chartjunk, over-produced layouts, cheerleader logotypes and branding. and corny clipart. That’s, PowerPointPhluff.
PP comfort for the speaker will be pricey to each content material and viewers. These prices outcome from the cognitive type attribute of the usual default PP presentation: foreshortening of proof and thought, low spatial decision, a deeply hierachical single-path construction because the mannequin for organizing each kind of content material, breaking apart narrative and knowledge into slides and minimal fragments, speedy temporal sequencing of skinny data quite than centered spatial evaluation, conspicuous ornament and Phluff, a preoccupation with format not content material, an perspective of commercialism that turns all the pieces right into a gross sales pitch. …
Many true statements are too lengthy to suit on a PP slide, however this doesn’t imply we should always abbreviate the reality to make the phrases match. It means we should always discover a higher solution to make shows. With so little data per slide, many many slides are wanted. Audiences consequently endure a relentless sequentiality, one rattling slide after one other. When data is is stacked in time, it’s obscure context and consider relationships. Visible reasoning often works extra successfully when the related data is proven adjoining in area inside our eyespan. That is particularly the case for statistical knowledge, the place the elemental analytical act is to make comparisons …
In day-to-day follow, PowerPoint templates might enhance 10% or 2o% of all shows by organizing inept, extraordinarily disorganized audio system, at a price of detectable mental injury to 80%. For statistical knowledge, the injury ranges method dementia. Since about 1010 to 1011 PP slides (many utilizing the templates) are made every year, that’s quite a lot of hurt to communication with colleagues. Or at least an enormous waste of time. The injury is mitigated since conferences counting on the PP cognitive type might not matter all that a lot. By enjoying round with Phluff quite than offering data, PowerPoint permits audio system to faux that they’re giving an actual discuss, and audiences to faux that they’re listening.
Tufte is after all a genius at interested by efficient graphical presentation of information. Many people usually are not going to reside as much as his commonplace. However many people can do higher, too. As he factors out, a great picture that presents a set of information relationships can convey an amazing deal, and breaking these messages into bullet-points can obscure a lot.
Tufte quotes from maybe the basic Powerpoint satire of all time, Peter Norvig’s “Gettysburg Powerpoint Presentation.” Discover that it manages to incorporate six slides for a two-minute presentation. Earlier than the extra well-known a part of the textual content, Lincoln would start:
Good morning. Only a second whereas I get this connection to work. Do I press this button right here? Operate-F7? No, that’s not proper. Hmmm. Possibly I’ll need to reboot. Maintain on a minute. Um, my identify is Abe Lincoln and I’m your president. Whereas we’re ready, I need to thank Decide David Wills, chairman of the committee supervising the dedication of the Gettysburg cemetery. It’s nice to be right here, Dave, and also you and the committee are doing an amazing job. Gee, typically this new expertise does have glitches, however we couldn’t reside with out it, may we? Oh – is it prepared? OK, right here we go:
The speech that follows can be accompanied by six slides, that are maybe not in probably the most helpful order, however hey, the slides present professionalism and actually assist out the viewers, proper?
![](https://i0.wp.com/conversableeconomist.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/gettysberg.jpg?resize=712%2C776&is-pending-load=1#038;ssl=1)
In an identical vein, Gokul Rajaram recently posted an anecdote about his experience in making a set of slides for Eric Schmidt at Google:
In 2006, I helped Eric Schmidt [CEO of Google at the time] create a deck outlining Google’s technique, for a presentation Eric was delivering to the corporate. It taught me a profound lesson on how one can current.
After I confirmed as much as my first assembly with Eric, he requested me to go to with each product staff at Google, chat with them to determine what they had been engaged on, after which summarize it on one slide (for every staff).
Straightforward sufficient, I assumed. I’d use 3-5 bullet factors per slide.
“However”, Eric mentioned, “I would like no phrases on any slide”.
My well-laid plans disintegrated instantly. How was I purported to convey the important thing messages from every staff, with out WORDS?
Eric should have seen the panic on my face, and kindly gave me a touch. “Put the textual content in speaker notes”.
“However what goes on the slides, Eric?” I continued panicking.
That basic, light “Eric smile” fluttered on his face. “Why, photos, after all!”
“You imply, you need every slide to only be comprised of photos?”
“You bought it. And use the title properly. 7-8 phrases max. Let’s meet in every week to assessment progress.”
Rajaram suggests a number of classes from his expertise. For instance, one in every of them is “The bigger the viewers, the less the phrases on the slide.” However my level right here is to not reify Schmidt’s method to slide-decks, or Tufte’s for that matter. (Tufte is a believer in detailed paper handouts to accompany slides, which could have been workable in 2003 when he wrote his essay, however is so countercultural in 2023 as to be from a unique period.) I simply suppose we’d all be higher off with slide shows which have fewer bullet factors, fewer pages jam-packed with phrases, and fewer detailed numerical tables that may’t be learn by anybody greater than 30 ft away. Shows impose prices of time and a focus on others. In profitable shows, your consideration is attracted, quite than taxed, and all the time feels well-spent.