PowerPoint & Human Perception

April 23, 2009 by Jerry

indezine_logo I am grateful to Geetesh Bajaj, and his excellent site, indezine.com, for last month’s feature story about The Power Presenter. It provided the opportunity to reacquaint myself with the site after a delinquent gap. It was particularly satisfying to read a recent article called “Show Me! What Brain Research Says about Visuals in PowerPoint,” written by Robert Lane and Dr. Stephen Kosslyn. Dr. Kosslyn chairs the Department of Psychology at Harvard University, and his 35 years of research have focused on how the brain recalls visual stimuli in the form of mental imagery.

In his article, Dr. Kosslyn provided scientific validation of the fundamentals of human perception that I brought from television and cinema to the business world. Video and filmmakers craft their programs and films on the basic premise that audiences’ emotions can be driven by how the human sensory system intakes sights and sounds. If directors or editors want to create a pleasant or positive experience, they assemble their audio and video images in smooth, synchronized sequences. If they want to create tension or disturbance, as in suspense, war, chase, caper, or western stories, they assemble those images in disruptive, asynchronous sequences.

Presenters always want to create only favorable impressions but, in their desire to validate their important ideas, they bulk up their PowerPoint slides with loads of data and jabber away as they click through them. Instead of impressing their audiences, they lose or worse, alienate them.

Dr. Kosslyn explains why: “Viewers must try to read the text, look at the picture, and pay attention to the speaker’s words, all in a short time span. Most of us fail to do all three and either: ignore the text and listen to the speaker, or try and read the text and miss the speaker’s words.”

In a recent guest post on Nancy Duarte’s Slide:ology blog, called “Interacting with Slides,” I wrote, “The instant a new image appears on the projection screen, the audience suddenly shifts their attention to the screen and away from the presenter, and they do so involuntarily—driven by the reflex actions of their eyes. So focused is the audience on the slide, they do not hear anything the presenter says.”

There are two remedies to this slideshow-stopping impasse.

One is Dr. Kosslyn’s recommendation—based on his own scientific study—to substitute images for text wherever possible. As he puts it, “Showing people meaningful, content-based visuals, as opposed to text, lessens their cognitive exertion and improves overall experience.” Bravo! Dr. Kosslyn takes Less Is More to a new level.

The other remedy is in the presenter’s delivery: whenever you introduce a new slide or a new element on a slide, be it a graphic or text, pause. Stop talking, turn to the screen and look at the new information. During your pause, look at the image as if you have never seen it, giving your audience time to see it, because they most certainly never have. Your pause fulfills Dr. Kosslyn’s goal to lessen your audience’s cognitive exertion and improve their overall experience. Only then can your presentation succeed.

Think about that: the key to the effective use of PowerPoint is the pause.

Next week, you’ll find more about the critical role of the pause in presentation graphics, but first tomorrow, we’ll introduce you to some shady characters.

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