Nowista #21 ? Death by PowerPoint!

Exploring the pitfalls of PowerPoint and the timeless lessons from Edward Tufte to create compelling presentations

Over the past few years, I've spent more time crafting presentation decks than brewing fresh ideas. To be fair, I get it. Pitch decks are the unsung communication heroes, helping us convey and sell our brilliant brainchildren. My last two gigs in Singapore before I moved to Dubai were particularly persnickety about deck wizardry—everything from storytelling to deck design had to be spot on.

Now, the presentation software landscape is vast, with Google Slides reigning as my personal favorite. But here's the twist—inevitably, your jaw-dropping deck will eventually morph into a PowerPoint presentation. It's practically a rite of passage in the corporate world.

Now, let's talk about PowerPoint. Many a soul has voiced their disdain for it. The term "Death by PowerPoint" even exists—a chilling phenomenon where speakers or sellers fail to engage their audience. It's triggered by slides crammed with text, perplexing graphics, or a monotonous speaker reciting slide after slide.

But perhaps the crown for critiquing PowerPoint should go to Edward Tufte . He not only pinpointed its flaws but also proposed solutions to elevate presentations. His points?

PP convenience can cost you: The convenience PowerPoint offers the presenter can sometimes come at the expense of content and audience engagement.

Slideware can diminish quality: PowerPoint often waters down the analytical aspect of presentations. Those ubiquitous templates can weaken verbal and spatial reasoning and nearly always muddy statistical analysis.

Impoverished space leads to shallow content: The limited space encourages over-generalizations, vague statements, slogans, flimsy evidence, and abrupt, poorly substantiated claims.

Now, here's the kicker. The critical point is PowerPoint's struggle to convey context and establish relationships. It often proves cognitively ineffective, undermining the analysis and content value of the presentation.

And the repercussions can be downright staggering . Tufte dives into an example where a PowerPoint slide played a pivotal role in the decision leading to the tragic 2003 Space Shuttle Columbia disaster, which claimed the lives of seven astronauts.?

It's worth noting that Tufte's article dates back a bit, and presentation software has made substantial strides since then. We now enjoy higher resolutions, video integration, easier sharing, and robust collaboration features that empower teams to work seamlessly on a single document. A well-crafted deck considers various elements, including storytelling, information design, and formatting.

Tufte's critique still holds value. Modern presentation tools have improved, but his insights remind us to prioritize substance over style.

Advertising

Arnold Worldwide & Progressive Insurance: Becoming Like Your Parents? Dr. Rick Is Here To Help

Young generations make fun of their parents. They don’t aspire to become like them. Arnold Worldwide recognized this was an opportunity for Progressive Insurance to make its name and service stand out. I love the idea!

?kestam Holst Noa & Atg: Unleash Your Inner Horse

?kestam Holst NoA invites people to get into horse racing betting brand ATG’s game, V75. I love how awkward this spot is. Produced by Giants & Toys.

The Monkeys: Australian Lamb Closes The Generation Gap

Australian lamb closes the Generation Gap, because no matter the differences – and gripes – between the Gens, everyone loves lamb.

One Club Global Creative Rankings 2023: Fcb Comes Out On Top

From the Stable: 博达大桥 ended 2023 in style, with FCB New York being crowned Global Agency of the Year and FCB Global Agency Network of the Year in The One Club for Creativity 's Global Creative Rankings 2023, which incorporates results from all of club’s leading global, regional, and local awards shows.

The Global Rankings provides a cumulative list of companies, individuals, projects, countries, and regions based on points earned from winning entries in various industry competitions across the globe.

Beginning with 2023, the Global Rankings now include points accrued from the Art Directors Club Europe Awards, which joins the ONE Asia Creative Awards on the regional tier. This tier sits under our global tier, which includes The One Show, the ADC Annual Awards, and the TDC Awards. Also included is our local tier, which features The One Club Awards Denver and The One Club Awards Miami.

And shout out to The Stable ! My favorite source of great ads.

Design

Yoojin Chung designs feng shui smart-home devices

Design Academy Eindhoven graduate Yoojin Chung pokes fun at the Western approach to feng shui with a trio of digital devices that offer a quick-fix approach to positive qi. Chung's graduation project, Capturing Qi, turns three of the most well-known feng-shui objects into smart-home devices that can be controlled via an app. The crystal ball, the wind chime, and the water fountain were all reimagined as dynamic devices that users could actively monitor and control. Thank you, Alina Kuznetsova , for the link!

Ryan Villamael’s Cascading Floral Sculptures Reconsider Maps and Identity

Gathered in bunches and trailing like vines, Ryan Villamael’s paper-cut sculptures cascade through niches of interiors, history, and identity . The artist addresses complex relationships between cartography and culture by utilizing maps to create overgrowths of leaves.

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