What we can learn about great presentation design from Apple’s September 2019 Keynote
There is a desperate need to evolve the way most of us have been going about creating presentations — stale, out-dated methods and opinions about how to present are no longer good enough in today’s competitive landscape. After 15+ years working in communication design, Apple’s Keynote got me excited to share my thoughts on what makes their events so powerful and memorable.
Open with emotion. Opening with a sleek intro video that takes us through a condensed visual history of the Apple-verse through the years, paired with this evocative song by Les Gordon is a winning combo to cleanse your palette from any other distractions and set you up to hear about what’s new with Apple.
Amp up that emotion with an aspirational statement. In this case, “Give people wonderful tools, and they’ll do wonderful things.”
With these two steps alone, Apple has created a new environment for their viewer to drop into; a cinematic feeling that inspires you to pay attention to what’s to come.
(Good) Imagery reigns supreme. Particularly when we are talking about product marketing, but this also applies for any presentation in which you want to give your audience something to look at and be inspired by (wink wink, when do we ever not want this)? Try to avoid cheesy stock photos of businessmen shaking hands, though, and opt for tasteful, non-literal imagery, like what you can find on Unsplash (and be kind, give credit where credit is due).
Minimize the use of text. Gone are the days when a presentation serves as a teleprompter. As Seth Godin so eloquently states, “Slides should reinforce your words, not repeat them.” Rather than putting the sensory load on your audience and giving them the responsibility to cull through your content, do the work ahead of time for them.
“Slides should reinforce your words, not repeat them.”
Say it visually. If you’ve got a complex concept that you want your audience to understand, do the prep work of figuring out how to best represent it visually. What is the essential information, and how do you display it in a way that makes sense? In the case of Apple’s Keynote, we don’t need to remember that LTPO stands for low-temperature polycrystalline oxide in order to know we like the feature of our watch display always staying on. LTPO will suffice.
Lean on the experts. If someone in your organization understands what you’re trying to explain better than you do, don’t hesitate to bring them in to the presentation, even in the form of a video snippet where they can speak to the topic. Tim Cook brought on an expert for each of the products that was presented during Apple’s hour and forty minute presentation. This also brings us to the next point:
Provide variety. Visual variety, variety of speakers, etc. It turns out it’s a myth that simpler content is always better. The reality is, your audience needs to experience contrast to keep their attention piqued. That means variety is an essential key to avoiding boredom or losing the attention of your audience. Consider moving from text to graphics, from stories to facts, complexity to simplicity. Every few slides, change up what you are bringing to your audience.
The reality is, your audience needs to experience contrast to keep their attention piqued. That means variety is an essential key to avoiding boredom or losing the attention of your audience.
Use infographics to present a variety of information, but not for retention. At the end of each product segment, we see a gird of product info. This is a new visual approach Apple is employing in their Keynote to both summarize the presentation, and importantly, to highlight the features that were not called out. This is a departure from their previous approach of listing all of the features at the end of a segment. Try using this visual device in lieu of bullet points.
This was such a refreshing departure from so many bullet-ridden presentations that I felt like I was at the movies. What a fun way to learn about new tech features without getting bogged down with facts and jargon. This has given me more courage to step outside of my own comfort zone as a designer and also serves to jumpstart some of the techniques and strategies I have wanted to incorporate into my work at InVision. We can all learn these lessons, we just have to be willing to try something new. Your audience will thank you.
Adrienne is Presentation Designer at InVision with over fifteen years of design experience in the Science and Tech space. She is an enthusiastic explorer of the intersections between neuroscience, behavioral psychology, and presentation design. She spends her free time painting miniature watercolors, singing to her kiddo, and learning to play the ukulele.
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