Picture this: There used to be a time when stapled papers were manually distributed in meetings and the only communal visuals attendees shared simultaneously were images shone on a white wall through a plugged-in box of lights and mirrors -- a contraption called, according to Wikipedia, an "overhead projector." No, seriously, no computers were used. I think this was in the same era as those landline phones and when the sales of alcohol were prohibited -- right after the Civil War.
And then someone came along and invented the personal computer. And then someone else came along and developed a software application called PowerPoint.
Your meetings and conferences have never been the same since.
When I show up to a meeting and the ol' projector screen is pulled down, I just want to shoot myself in the face. Nothing is more disinteresting, more cliché, more perfunctory than a PowerPoint presentation. The equally hackneyed adage "If you've seen one, you’ve seen them all" perfectly describes these trivial slideshows.
The unpleasantness about PowerPoint presentations can usually be summed up by any one (or combination) of these reasons: the font is too small; the pie charts and bar graphs are too detailed; the screaming color scheme hurts my eyes; the ClipArt graphics are cheesy; the sudden, crazed sound effects don't quite match the professionalism supposed within the delivered content; the presentation was made with PowerPoint; etc.
Why do half the design templates remind me of my last stay at a Comfort Inn? Maybe it's because their patterns so closely and inexplicably resemble cheap motel wallpaper. Apparently the artist who designed Genesis album covers didn't have a better offer after Phil Collins peaced.
Not all blame goes to the software alone; matter of fact, most of the shame should fall on the presentation creator(s). I mean, what's with this compulsory final presentation slide simply labeled, "Questions?" ...Really? Do we need an entire slide for you to click to (or left-to-right-horizontal-bar-transition to) in order to ask the audience, who by this point has probably hit the REM stage of their nap, if anyone has any questions to offer up? Is there something wrong with merely asking them without the slide? Or do you fear that they might get lost midway in your plea for participation without a one-word graphic projected on the screen?
It's not that a PowerPoint presentation itself is a bad idea -- it's just tolerable, and that's it. They don't revolutionize, they don't improve material, and they certainly don't secure to memory. As I asked a manager at my office recently, what can you recall from the last PowerPoint presentation you had to sit through?
I'm still waiting on a response from that manager.
I try to avoid PowerPoint at almost all costs when teaching. The thing that gets me is that I inevitably have some portion of the students that want me to use it and go so far as to request it when I solicit anonymous feedback a few weeks into the semester. Please explain that one to me.
ReplyDeleteAnd, as an aside, I would add one thing in particular to your "why PowerPoint is often unpleasant" list: trying to cram too much crap into a slide. Usually this a result of trying to fit everything into the slides rather than just the key points. You know you're in trouble when they start reading from the slides as if they are a teleprompter.