Is it finally time to ditch PowerPoint?

Last week an article appearing in The Sydney Morning Herald entitled Researcher points finger at PowerPoint generated quite a stir. The article highlighted findings by researchers from the University of New South Wales, including John Sweller who developed the Cognitive Load Theory back in the '80s. One of the findings mentioned in the article: it is more difficult to process information if it is coming at you both verbally and in written form at the same time. Since people can not read and listen well at the same time, the reporter suggested, then this may mean "the death of the PowerPoint presentation." The assumption being (apparently) that a presentation made with the aid of slideware such as PowerPoint or Keynote necessarily includes lines of text projected on a screen that mirror the spoken word of the presenter.

The article generated so much attention due in part to this quote by Professor Sweller:

"The use of the PowerPoint presentation has been a disaster. It should be ditched."

                                                   — John Sweller

Professor Sweller's comment makes a provocative headline and adds to the long list of professionals and researchers deriding the PowerPoint tool. I have added the professor's quote to my talks on the Presentation Zen approach. Two versions of the slide appear below.




Is PowerPoint a method?
I am assuming that what Professor Sweller means is that the way PowerPoint is used should be ditched, not the tool itself. Suggesting we abandon PowerPoint because it's often (usually?) misused and abused to produce awful presentation visuals is like saying we should dump the idea of 24-hour cable news because so much of it is vacuous rubbish. But whether we’re talking about bad TV or boring presentations, shouldn't we blame the content producers not the content medium? When people rail against PowerPoint they seem to be saying that PowerPoint is a method, and a flawed method at that. But is PowerPoint itself really a "method"? In a 2004 interview with Cliff Atkinson, Multimedia Learning author Richard Mayer said this:

"I do not think it makes sense to refer to PowerPoint as a method. Instead... PowerPoint is a medium that can be used effectively — that is, with effective design methods — or ineffectively, that is with ineffective design methods. We would not necessarily say that books are rarely a good method, because books can be designed using effective or ineffective methods."

                                                          — Richard Mayer

Cognitive load theory
I first read about the cognitive load theory as it relates to presentation in Richard Mayer’s Multimedia Learning. Sweller’s work is often cited in Multimedia Learning and many of his publications are also online. In this paper, for example, called Visualisation and Instructional Design (pdf), Sweller discusses several of the effects related to the cognitive load theory. For example, the modality effect shows that ”working memory can be increased by using dual rather than a single modality.” That is, it is more effective to target both the visual and auditory processors of working memory. Another effect in the cognitive load theory is called the redundancy effect (also outlined by Mayer in Multimedia Learning). The redundancy effect says that if one form of instruction (such as the spoken word) is intelligible and adequate then providing the same material in another form (such as lines of text on a screen that mimic the words being spoken) are redundant and can actually hurt understanding. This may seem counterintuitive and it certainly runs counter to many of the ways presentations are made in business or lesson taught in schools.

Below is another quote from Prof. Sweller from the same newspaper article. Here Sweller is surely referring to both the redundancy and modality effects:

"It is effective to speak to a diagram, because it presents information in a different form. But it is not effective to speak the same words that are written, because it is putting too much load on the mind and decreases your ability to understand what is being presented."

                                                        — John Sweller

In the scenario describe by Sweller above the diagram uses a visual modality and the speech uses an auditory modality which should result in greater working memory capacity and better understanding, depending, of course, on what is being presented.

Words should be presented as speech
The article in The Sydney Morning Herald put the ol’ bullet-filled PowerPoint slide back in the firing line. Good presentation techniques, and even classroom instruction methods, are as much art as science. Still, we can learn a lot from examining the findings from researchers such as Sweller and Mayer. Most of us know intuitively (or through experience) that presenting to an audience with text-filled slides does not work, but others — your boss perhaps — may need more convincing. This is where the research and evidence from specialists in psychology, education and other disciplines can be a great help. Research shows that visuals (animation) plus concise, simultaneous narration is better than just narration alone. When it comes to the issue of projected text on a screen and narration, Mayer draws this conclusion:

“Words should be presented as speech (i.e., narration) rather than text (i.e., on-screen text) or as speech and text.”

                                                      — Richard Mayer

What to do about PowerPoint?
So, is it finally time to ditch PowerPoint? Hardly, but it is long past time to ditch the use of the ubiquitous bulleted-list templates found in both PowerPoint and Keynote. And it’s long past time that we realized that putting the same information on a slide that is coming out of our mouths usually does not help — in fact usually hurts our message. Next time you plan a presentation, then, start by using a pencil and pad, a whiteboard, or a stick in the sand — anything except jumping headfirst into slideware on your computer with its templates, outlines, and content wizards that may point you down a path you wish not to go. And as you examine your work from previous talks remember this rule of thumb: if your presentation visuals taken in the aggregate (e.g., your “PowerPoint deck”) can be perfectly and completely understood without your narration, then it begs the question: why are you there?

LINKS
• Book by John Sweller et al: Efficiency in Learning: Evidence-Based Guidelines to Manage Cognitive Load
• Bert Decker’s take on the newspaper article

Comments

[Bert Decker]

Great insights Garr. I've been experimenting in situations where you read along with a speaker (eg. quotes, sermons and such) Experentially I find there IS conflict in the mind, but I get much more from the eye than I do from the ear.

But then what I think REALLY counts is the overall experience of a speaker and his images, behavior, props, etc. - much more powerful than any text.

Bears out what you preach about PowerPoints.
Bert

[Seth Yates]

Er...University of South Whales? You mean University of New South Wales (NSW)?

[Leoni Venter]

Sometimes circumstances forces you to make Powerpoint presentations containing your entire presentation... no matter how much it bugs you to do so.

In a previous life I taught introductory Computer Science (and especially C programming) at a university in South Africa. Many of my students were working and could not attend classes. I had to set up my slides for people who would not be there to hear the lecture.

But in class I tended to forgo the slides and rather ran an IDE live to demonstrate the concepts I was talking about, which seemed to work fairly well. The students present certainly were more responsive and interested during the live demos than during 'slideshow' classes.

Interesting blog, by the way, I've been lurking for months ;-)

[AnEmbodiedMind]

Garr, do you have any comment then on your own use of quotes in slides?

I felt it was quite ironic for you to use a written quote to illustrate a point about not reading / speaking the same text! ;)

How would you present the quote slide example you have added to your presentation? Would you read the quote or stand silently while your audience read it? Are you concerned that as you speak some people may be rereading the quote and so miss your discussion?

I'd be interested in peoples perspective on this since using quotes in presentations is something I do myself.

Are written quotes different from bullet points or do they suffer the same cognitive limitations?

[Jedidja Bourgeois]

I can't remember if you mentioned it an earlier post or not, but this is exactly what Cliff Atkinson's book 'Beyond Bullet Points' covers. I think people really enjoy not having to read a ton of text on slides :)

[Tom Elliott]

This sensible and well-balanced article overlooks one valid use case for an extended text block in powerpoint: a multilingual audience in which many members are accustomed to reading the presenter's language to some degree, but not speaking it. Obviously, this is a niche case, but we do encounter it frequently in academic meetings. In glossing the text of key points, as well as whole quotations, the presenter provides the audience with extra tools necessary to follow the line of argument and associated evidence. As in all presentations, quotations must be chosen judiciously and used sparingly, but that's a composition/content issue, not a PowerPoint issue.

[Garr Reynolds]

Thanks for the question, AEM. Yes, I was aware of the irony ;-) With presentations there is more involved, of course, than just information transfer. As I said, it's as much an art as a science. In my talks, *Showing* the quote demonstrates in a sense that "it is real" that I am being accountable, that this person really did say that (and they can look it up if they do not believe me), that I have done my homework and prepared, etc. Showing the actual quote can bring other emotional elements to the talk as well such as credibility, trust, etc. Tom Peters, for example, uses quotes (maybe even too many) for this very same reason. He is just one guy, he says, but if he can show that leaders of industry have said this and that, well, that backs him up.

I am not suggesting that slides can not have some text (even outside of quotes). Sometimes you want to show a list of features or benefits, etc. Many in the science community have found one declarative sentence per slide is a good rule of thumb (with supporting visuals). Then there is the issue of audience members who may be better readers of English than listeners since English is not their native language. In this case the single declarative sentence, single words, etc. may help.

Although many will gasp at the thought, information transfer is not always the main point of the presentation even if we believe it is. In many cases presentations are more about the transfer of emotions, motivation, inspiration, etc. There certainly is no cookie-cutter formula....

Thanks! -g

[Fred Woodbridge]

Hi Garr,

Great site, great blog; I quote it from time to time on my own blog and my goal is to get and read just about every one of the books you have recommended.

I also saw this NSW article and wrote a post about it and I'm very happy you've tackled it as well. I haven't read your take yet but I'm going to get a nice cup of coffee and read it.

Regards,

Fred

[Allan White]

Exellent post as usual, Garr. This is challenging many of the assumptions I've had about text onscreen - or rather, articulating some of the unconcious dissonance I've had about how much text is too much.

I'd been searching for the right term for "cognitive load" for a while. When I was designing a lot of Flash animations and interfaces, I came up with the term, "animation load" to describe how much people could handle looking at once. "Cognitive load" describes that much better and more broadly.

You likely don't need to hear this from yet another person, but I really appreciate the work you do on this blog. The entries are much meatier and thought-provoking than the usual blog fare, and you're doing a true service to the presenting community. I've felt personally inspired to do more presentation work, and to be a vocal advocate of better presentation design in my little circle.

I noticed you're in Portland, too - I wonder what a Portland presenter's meetup would be like?

[ktrueman]

Thanks for this. I am wholeheartedly in agreement on a personal level. On a professional level, I work for a company where PPT decks are the dominant means of communicating any idea, with the result that long-from Word documents are a complete non-starter.

The question then is how do you manage the tension between a good (text light) presentation using the practices you demonstrate above and the requirement to have something meatier to leave behind. If you do two versions, one light for presentation and one meaty for handout, you will probably confuse the attention-challenged in the audience (which these days feels like everyone)...

thoughts?

Ken

[Allan White]

Ken - the only successful way I've seen it done is to have both a handout and a presentation. It's more work, but more effective.

I've seen so many companies try to use PPT as a knowledge management tool, with poor results.

[Susan Abbott]

We don't blame pencils for bad writing, and we shouldn't blame PowerPoint either.

Having said that, I am dismayed that so many of my clients seem to think PowerPoint is the format they want reports presented in. I love it for presentations, but I do find it difficult to use to communicate complex or nuanced ideas.

Great blog.

[Oz]

Great post. Great blog. When I first saw the title of the post, I thought Apple annouced Keynote for Windows. :)

By the way, how did you create the transparency of the waste basket while having the powerpoint box in there. I am guessing they are different images - waste basket being transparent?

Thanks - Oz

[Leigh]

The problem with PowerPoint is some users think it will replace the need for presentation skills and a solid presentation. PowerPoint is only a tool. It should aid presentations, not create them.

[Steve]

PowerPoint is only a tool. I'm a big fan of Tufte, but I strongly disagree with his view on PowerPoint. Regarding the space shuttle, a simple slide with an explosion and the words "Do Not Launch" could have been put together in PowerPoint and gotten the message across.

[Garr Reynolds]

About leaving meatier slides as a leave behind.... It takes more work, but I say a document (handout) is a document and never an onscreen visual. I do not printout slides, but I do make a separate handout which includes the same content (for review) with more depth. Some of the most salient visuals from the talk (quotes, graphs, etc.) are also included. But the handout is designed as a document to be *read.* Knowing I have a leave behind with more depth keeps me from worrying about having to say everything about the topic or to include written summaries on screen etc.

About the garbage can photo... Simple in Photoshop. Many ways to do it: One way is to simply select the the bottom part of the box (which is in a layer above the can) and change the opacity levels of the part that is below the edge of the can giving the illusion that the box is in the can. You can also experiment with Overlay and Multiply etc. in the layer....

Allan, actually I live in Japan, but I have roots in Oregon. Been in Asia most of the time since graduating Uni except for my time at Apple and in Hawaii. Not sure, but spending so much time in a place that is the birthplace of Zen simplicity juxtaposed with the insane (yet harmonious) clutter and complexity of today has probably tainted my views on visual communication...

Thanks very much for all your comments; I value your input greatly. Cheers! -g

[Helen]

I'm looking for resources to refer to as I'm putting together a number of different class curricula and workbooks for adult learners. Is this book one that you would recommend for such a purpose?

[Lisa B. Marshall]

I do agree that we should present our ideas in the most efficient and effective form (eg. defining "a square" would perhaps be done best with an image and not verbal or textual description. Can you imagine hearing..."a square is x number of units up, x number of units to the right, then x number of units right again, and x number of units right again"... oh my!)

However, there are many somewhat elusive variables involved that need to be examined and considered to develop the "best" approach...the "art" part of presentation skills.

For example, determining how much is "too much cognitive load" depends on the previous knowledge (schema) of the learner--and speakers (versus teachers) are likely to have a greater variety of previous knowledge and therefore a more difficult time determining what is "too much." What about the complexity of the information? I work primarily with scientists and for sure complexity of content has an impact on cognitive load and presentation decisions (different from business presentations). What about the goal of the communication? Is it informative? persuasive? entertaining? motivating? Certainly repetition plays a bigger and important role in persuasion and motivation. What about interruptions and attention? What role do these play? How should your presentations be adjusted to account for this?

My overall concern is directly applying ideas for instructional design and education to making presentations. While at times they are similar, there are many times when they are not the same at all.

[evden eve nakliyat]

thankkss

[random8r]

Did you think maybe that the program is fine, but the users are at fault? ;-)

Have you seen the Identity 2.0 presentation? He used pictures on slides to reinforce and support his words.

Much better.

[David S]

I started reading the PZ blog a few months ago and now I find myself coming back almost every day with the hopes of finding another inspiration or paradigm shift.

That being said, I recently had to make a group presentation with three other people. Despite their recognition of the weaknesses of "slideuments," I was unable to get them to drop the bullets. One of my group mates even pleaded with me to keep an entire page long section of text (as in no white-space). It seems that unless people have experience presenting sans bullets, they have trouble believing that a presentation can be effective or even taken seriously unless it is replete with section outlines and bullets.

Any suggestions on how to spread the gospel?

[researchaholica]

regarding the "redundancy effect", you simply cannot assume that the spoken speech will be intelligible. for both the multilingual reasons mentioned in another comment (i don't think academic hearings are a niche case, btw), as well as accessibility-reasons like not everybody's hearing being equally sharp, room acoustics or a noisy audience. maybe comprehension decreases (slightly?) but it seems a small price to pay for easing up a bit
on people who have to point their ears to make out what is being said.

this is the reason why i often watch movies with same-language subtitling, it makes for a much more relaxed experience, you don't have to worry all the time that you might have missed something important (as speech is gone when it's spoken, yet written text can be read largely at your own pace).

[Dimitar Vesselinov]

I don't use PP, I prefer showing some stuff on the net. There are lots of interesting slideshows on YouTube.

[Ed Darrell]

"Begging the question" is a fallacious argument in which the presenter assumes the point he's advocating, or trying to prove. For example, someone who argues that 'we should make our schools better because that means better education' is arguing in a circle, failing to distinguish between education and schools, and saying "better is better."

So, what you meant to say is something like, " . . .if your presentation visuals taken in the aggregate (e.g., your “PowerPoint deck”) can be perfectly and completely understood without your narration, then it [asks/raises/poses] the question: why are you there?'

[Garr Reynolds]

Ed,

Excellent point about BTQ. My bad -- a result of my own laziness and watching too much CNN over the years I guess. I should know better (esp. since I was a philosophy major as an under grad). Thanks for pointing out my sloppy English.

FYI:

http://begthequestion.info/

"Descriptivists and other such laissez-faire linguists are content to allow the misconception to fall into the vernacular, it cannot be denied that logic and philosophy stand to lose an important conceptual label should the meaning of BTQ become diluted to the point that we must constantly distinguish between the traditional usage and the erroneous "modern" usage. This is why we fight."

Best,

-g