PowerPoint minimalism
If you’ve read this blog at all, you won’t be surprised that I’m not a big fan of PowerPoint. Yes, it is sometimes useful to have slides for your talk, but I hate that since the advent of PowerPoint slides have become almost mandatory.
I was happy to see this post on using images to help convey stories on Notes from a Corporate Life. It’s a good exercise to help you prepare a talk, and the images will help your audience remember your story better than a slide full of words (which might just put them to sleep).
I’ve done something similar with many of my talks, and many have ended up with only a handful of slides containing useful illustrations, or no slides at all. My favorite of my remaining PowerPoint files is a series of illustrations of poster design concepts. I think the illustrations help the students understand why some things work better than others on posters.
It occurs to me now that this would probably be more effective without the border and logo. At this point in the presentation, most people have probably figured out who I am and where they are. Let the further minimalization commence!
