A short video on why most PowerPoint presentations suck

Posted on March 31, 2012 | 3 Comments

I recorded this video using http://www.presentermedia.com’s 3-D animation. I am not a big fan of cheesy clip art and animation in slides. But I am going to make an exception in this case. The 3-D stick figures are classy and are not obnoxious.

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3 Responses to A short video on why most PowerPoint presentations suck

  1. Craig Hadden - Remote Possibilities | April 3, 2012 at 1:06 pm | Reply

    The issue of what makes a graphic cheesy came up on the Duarte blog recently, when a post praised graphic recorders (who illustrate live talks by hand). But someone commented that the resulting illustrations look like clipart, and I agree. (Also see the recent Duarte post that mocks the use of cheesy photos, like a handshake to signify partnership – http://blog.duarte.com/2012/02/duarte-comedy-episode-2-avoid-cliches/#disqus_thread – there’s a link in my comment there to the earlier post.)

    The whole issue is quite contentious. People like originality – hence the dislike of clipart, and handshakes! Elegance is part of the mix, too, which I think is why – along with being original – the 3D animated figures look good. However, they do remind me of those black Screen Bean figures in PPT that have been given a bad wrap.

    Norm – or anybody else – what’s your take on the similarities and differences between the 3D figures in the video and the 2D Screen Beans? (See http://office.microsoft.com/en-gb/images/results.aspx?qu=screen%20beans&ctt=1#mt:1| for examples of Screen Beans.)

    • normwei | April 3, 2012 at 2:07 pm | Reply

      Craig….I am not sure I am familiar with those black screen bean figures in PPT. Are you referring to those Microsoft black figures? I got into trouble a long time ago when I was doing some training for LAX airport system in California. I used one of those figures that happened to have a white line drawn in the form of a smile. One fellow in the audience filed a compliant to management that I was using a black minstrel figure. Management dismissed the compliant and I stopped using that stuff. People can be so sensitive these days. I think the 3-D animated figures I used look pretty good and as long as I don’t over-do it, it should be OK. I also use airsketch in my presentation to do hand drawn annotations on the slides. The audience likes it. It makes the slide more lively. I don’t see the objection to using a handshake photo to illustrate partnership. It is what it is.

      Norman

  2. cliplsmile clip | September 7, 2012 at 4:53 am | Reply

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