Making PowerPoint presentations that are clear, compelling, memorable, and even enjoyable is not an obscure art. In this book, Stephen Kosslyn, a renowned cognitive neuroscientist, presents eight simple principles for constructing a presentation that takes advantage of the information modern science has discovered about perception, memory, and cognition. Using hundreds of images and sample slides, he shows the common mistakes many people make and the simple ways to fix them. For example, never use underlining to emphasize a word, the line will cut off the bottom of letters that have descending lines (such as p and g), which interferes with the brain's ability to recognize text. Other tips include why you should state your conclusion at the beginning of a presentation, when to use a line graph versus a bar graph, and how to use color correctly. By following Kosslyn's principles, anyone will be able to produce a presentation that works!
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."..a world authority on the visual brain ...shows how to use this tool effectively."--Steven Pinker, author of The Language Instinct and Blank Slate
"I would say that this is one of the most useful books on PowerPoint to ever be printed."--Garr Reynolds at Presentation Zen
"This review may not do justice to the insight and clarity of this excellent book which is easy to read, chock full of examples and filled with illustrations of the principles. It is the best book I have found so far on how to improve presentations--especially in PowerPoint."--Robert Hacker at Sophisticated Finance
"Kosslyn puts PowerPoint users on notice. Read this book, and you will be enlightened. Kosslyn's thorough and engaging treatment is based on broad scientific literature, and on his extensive experience. Besides covering the myriad features that PowerPoint offers, Kosslyn provides great advice on how to connect with an audience, tell a story, work at the right level of information, and come up for air." --Lawrence W. Barsalou, Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Psychology, Emory University
About the Author
Stephen M. Kosslyn is the former Chair of the Department of Psychology, currently Dean of Social Science and John Lindsley Professor of Psychology at Harvard University. A leading authority on the nature of visual mental imagery and visual communication, he has received numerous honors for his work in this field. His previous books include Image and Mind, Wet Mind: The New Cognitive Neuroscience (with Koenig), and Psychology: The Brain, the Person, the World (with Rosenberg).
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
By InfoSecMatt
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Professor Kosslyn must have sat through an awful lot of dreadful powerpoint presentations to come up with the material for this book.
Sadly we have all had to sit through most of the howlers he describes, but having read this book, I am not convinced there is anything ground breaking about his recommendations. This is stuff we have seen before and presented in a more informative way by the likes of Dave Paradi, Nancy Duarte and Garr Reynolds.
The other ideas in this book, such as 'The Principle of relevance - communication is most effective when neither too much nor too little information is presented' is more a statement of the blindly obvious than a deep psychological insight and is practically repeated in Principle 8 - people have a limited capacity to retain and to process information and so will not understand a message if too much information must be retained or processed.'
If you are looking to polish your powerpoint, there are better books on the market and no better way than to go along to your local toastmasters group, deliver presentations and read the feedback you are given.
Sadly we have all had to sit through most of the howlers he describes, but having read this book, I am not convinced there is anything ground breaking about his recommendations. This is stuff we have seen before and presented in a more informative way by the likes of Dave Paradi, Nancy Duarte and Garr Reynolds.
The other ideas in this book, such as 'The Principle of relevance - communication is most effective when neither too much nor too little information is presented' is more a statement of the blindly obvious than a deep psychological insight and is practically repeated in Principle 8 - people have a limited capacity to retain and to process information and so will not understand a message if too much information must be retained or processed.'
If you are looking to polish your powerpoint, there are better books on the market and no better way than to go along to your local toastmasters group, deliver presentations and read the feedback you are given.
By R. Smith
Format:Paperback
This book is exactly what I was looking for. It provides some rudementary lessons for formulating solid powerpoint presentations. It's also a great at taking it back to basics.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
3.8 out of 5 stars
19 reviews
23 of 25 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent guide to visual design of slides
18 Oct 2007
By J. M. Swisher
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This is an excellent guide to the visual design of presentation slides (PowerPoint or otherwise). Kosslyn explain his 8 principles, and then provides guidelines for various aspects of presentations, such as text, sound, graphs, and other visuals. At the end of each chapter, he ties the guidelines in that chapter to basic principles that underlie them.
However, Kosslyn is an expert on visual perception, not an expert on learning. Therefore, take his suggestions on non-visual aspects of presentations with a grain of salt. For example, he endorses reading your slides aloud, which he says "gives the viewers two chances to understand and remember them". In fact, reading and hearing the same information *reduces* retention of information. For more details, see Multimedia Learning.
If you buy only one book to improve your presentations, I suggest that you get Beyond Bullet Points: Using Microsoft PowerPoint to Create Presentations That Inform, Motivate, and Inspire (Bpg-Other). However, "Clear and to the Point" is an excellent additional resource.
However, Kosslyn is an expert on visual perception, not an expert on learning. Therefore, take his suggestions on non-visual aspects of presentations with a grain of salt. For example, he endorses reading your slides aloud, which he says "gives the viewers two chances to understand and remember them". In fact, reading and hearing the same information *reduces* retention of information. For more details, see Multimedia Learning.
If you buy only one book to improve your presentations, I suggest that you get Beyond Bullet Points: Using Microsoft PowerPoint to Create Presentations That Inform, Motivate, and Inspire (Bpg-Other). However, "Clear and to the Point" is an excellent additional resource.
48 of 57 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars
If you're new to presentations, this is good but otherwise, you will find little value.
3 Dec 2007
By E. Malik
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
This book is filled with very basic advice - much of which is very intiutive. For example, there are a lot of Do's and Dont's. Some of the do's and dont's:
dont vary bullets arbitrarily (one bullet is round, second is a ~, third is #, fourth is >).
dont present one giant list of items on a slide, do categorize them
dont make the subheading of your title slide more salient (visible, eye catching) than the heading. do make the heading more salient than subheading.
dont vary color in your presentation purely for decoration, do vary for emphasis
don't use underline, do use bold italics, etc.
This book is filled with probably 50 pages of such examples since each do and dont takes up a full page (sometimes two).
the 8 principles are also very simple things you would learn from watching a few well done presentations online such as talking at the right level, not trying to cram too much in people's heads at once, keeping focused on what you want people to get out of the presentation, etc.
If you are new to presentations, this is a good book for you. If you are familiar with giving presentations, you're better off trying a different book.
dont vary bullets arbitrarily (one bullet is round, second is a ~, third is #, fourth is >).
dont present one giant list of items on a slide, do categorize them
dont make the subheading of your title slide more salient (visible, eye catching) than the heading. do make the heading more salient than subheading.
dont vary color in your presentation purely for decoration, do vary for emphasis
don't use underline, do use bold italics, etc.
This book is filled with probably 50 pages of such examples since each do and dont takes up a full page (sometimes two).
the 8 principles are also very simple things you would learn from watching a few well done presentations online such as talking at the right level, not trying to cram too much in people's heads at once, keeping focused on what you want people to get out of the presentation, etc.
If you are new to presentations, this is a good book for you. If you are familiar with giving presentations, you're better off trying a different book.
16 of 20 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars
Eight principles lost in a forest of recommendations
25 Mar 2008
By J. Green
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
The idea seems good -- eight principles for compelling PowerPoint presentations. But the execution is neither clear nor to the point. For example, chapter 2, the first chapter of substance, lists eight recommendations for overall structure, five recomendations for building the introduction, ten recommendations for the body of the presentation, three recommendations for the wrap-up, and five recommendations for delivery (that's 31 recommendations in all), before returning to the eight psychological principles. And that, as I said, is only chapter 2. Other chapters are similarly ungainly.
In addition, as other reviewers point out, many of the suggestions are barely worth the paper they're printed on. For example, "start with a bang" or "face the audience."
In short, this is a book that will overwhelm novice presenters and bore experienced ones. Find another.
In addition, as other reviewers point out, many of the suggestions are barely worth the paper they're printed on. For example, "start with a bang" or "face the audience."
In short, this is a book that will overwhelm novice presenters and bore experienced ones. Find another.
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3.8 out of 5 stars
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