Place holder and data charts

I realised that most presentation slides I create fall in two categories:

1. Data charts that have information in them that would be impossible to convey verbally (a graph, a table with financial information, a ranking of competitors)

Monthly reports in PPT

Many technology providers need to write some sort of monthly report with statistics for their clients. The bare output from their applications is too rough and does not contain conclusions, insights, follow-up actions and quantified $$$ savings.



So writing this report is a manual…

The big idea slide

I usually start a presentation design project by digesting all the available information, listen to a verbal version of the pitch, Google for market and competitor information, create a slide template based on a straightforward slide (the profit and loss account for example), and let the whole…

Word repetition

Some busy charts can still be highly effective. See the one below about the declining relative income of wealth classes in the US. The repetitive “United States” could have been replaced with something visually calmer, but the current works actually pretty well.



See that this charts presents…

Boring frameworks

If your business has 15 sales channels, it makes sense to review their performance using the same framework: easy to compare, and you make sure that you are covering everything that needs to be covered.



If you work with management consultants, you will notice that they love this approach. You…

Funny

Most infographics are a bombastic compilations of overcomplicated, trying-too-hard, visualisations of facts that are not always that insightful. These simple graphs by Danish writer/artist duo Mikael Wulff and Anders Morgenthale are well executed and actually pretty funny.

Aide memoire

Many speakers use bullet points to remind themselves what story to tell the audience next. Turn back to audience, say “Uh, and also…” Read out bullet point. Turn back to the audience. Then, improvise (often a very engaging) story.

Skipping the manual

When buying a new product, nobody reads the manual from beginning to end. People are curious, they try things, go back to a specific page in the manual, and then try again.



Many subject experts want to write the definitive, descriptive manual of their idea. Instead, considering the audience…