Slide:ology, the art and science of creating great presentations
Presentations these days have outgrown the bullet points presentation we’re used to with powerpoint. Using presentations with only bullet points is out. There is even a new phrase for these presentations: Death by Powerpoint meaning killing your audience with boring PowerPoint presentations. Flickr has a group with pictures of lethal powerpoint slides.
This book itself is well designed, it looks beautiful. Moreover it has a lot of examples for good use of effective visual expression. It clearly describes the design part of making slides. It starts of with knowing your audience and creating ideas, using for instance post it notes for building ideas for your presentation. Making a presentation doesn’t start with firing up power point.
After explaining how to start the set up of a presentation, using diagrams and data the book quickly starts with the design part which is the main topic of this book. Arranging elements and using these visual elements such as images, background, color, and text.
The book also has a website: www.slideology.com with some nice examples of using panoramas with slides and creating scenes with slides.
It also has a lot of examples called a case study. One of which is Al Gore with his presentation: An Inconvenient Truth, created by the author of this book: Nancy Duarte, Principal of Duarte Design. Another case study is Stroke Insight by Jill Bolte-Tailor.
Very good book, well designed, focuses on design. It is not a book on how to make those designs. It teaches you the basic of design, the process of design but not how to implement these lessons. It is in that way comparable to Presentation Zen, also recently reviewed on this blog. Both differ from Beyond Bullet Points which focuses on the content of the presentation and has a few examples of how to design nice slides. Also recently reviewed on this blog. So I am waiting for a good how to book. How to implement those design rules in PowerPoint. Can anyone recommend a book for implementing this kind of design in powerpoint? Pleas let me know in the comments
Garr Reynolds who wrote Presentation Zen also reviewed slide:ology on his blog. He even made a short video about the book.
August 31, 2008 @ 7:20 pm
I am glad to see someone else in medicine is concerned with the horrid state of Powerpoints and presentations. I just got this book in the mail. Looking through it there is a lot of good stuff, but it is mostly aimed at business and sales. so how to translate it to medicine oriented interpretations may take a bit of work.
Like your other posts as well, just had to comment on this one since I just got the book.
August 31, 2008 @ 9:50 pm
I used it for a lecture and a presentation, the young ones (lecture) could appreciate it more. Most physicians are used to “death by Powerpoint” as if something good can’t look good. But I fully agree scientific presentations are still waist land considered to sales and business. I use beyond bullet points the most, this book recognizes the problem with scientific presentations but it can be done. Sparse examples but at least some hints.
Beyond bullet points also changes the way you present your data. It is more of a “how to” book. It enables you to build your story like a screen play. Defintely worth the money even for physicians.
August 31, 2008 @ 9:51 pm
By the way I am very curious what you think of the book, please let me know.
September 1, 2008 @ 7:16 pm
Hi Dr. Shock,
Thanks for the book recommendation. It means a ton to me. We’re working on an e-book for scientists, physicians, analysts and engineers since the content for these audiences is more condensed.
All the best,
Nancy
September 2, 2008 @ 7:56 pm
I am lookikng forward to the new e-book. From my experience even scientist can be able to ditch the boring bullet points and make beautiful slices, hope they wil read your book.
Regards Dr Shock
September 3, 2008 @ 5:41 am
Dr. Shock,
So far I have really liked the book. The layout is clear and well organized. I have not yet looked at the online content, but that is a nice feature. I am preparing to give a talk on mastering audio/visuals for medical presentations for our palliative medicine fellowship this Thursday. I have given the talk before, but I have updated a few things based on Nancy’s book.
Nancy, if you need a medical professional to help with any of the medical aspects of your upcoming book, I would be happy to be of assistance. ctsinclair a-t g-m-a-i-l d0t c0m
Presentations Update 3 | Dr Shock MD PhD
August 31, 2009 @ 8:33 am
[…] Duarte is the author of Slide:ology, reviewed in this post. This book and Presentation Zen are both excellent books about ballroom presentations. Ballroom […]
What will happen after Resonate in presentations? | Dr Shock MD PhD
October 27, 2010 @ 8:17 am
[…] am reading a new book by Nancy Duarte: Resonate ( link to amazon.com). This is her next book after Slide:ology, the art and science of creating great presentations which a reviewed a while back. This new book is all about telling a story during your presentation. That’s the […]