By Sandina Heckert
Have you ever heard of "Death by PowerPoint?" It isn’t good like "Death by Chocolate." "Death by PowerPoint" refers to “killing” one’s audience with a bad presentation. By doing a cursory search online, one can locate an abundance of information about how not to use PowerPoint.1
At McAfee & Taft, just as in any law firm, our attorneys regularly utilize PowerPoint as a supplement to presentations. As the firm’s communications specialist, it is my job to ensure their slides do this effectively and efficiently, in a way that is aesthetically pleasing and professional. I am unofficially known as “The PowerPoint Queen,” and for this reason: I am passionate about it!
I strive to spread that passion and best practices for PowerPoint to our attorneys. As we all know, attorneys can sometimes, well, struggle a bit with producing PowerPoint presentations that communicate with their audiences in ways that are visual and memorable. If you are familiar with Death by PowerPoint, you already know the fundamentals of avoiding it, like reducing heavy text to one point or idea per slide, incorporating images (not Clip Art) and not reading your slides. However, there is another way to improve presentations that will not only make the experience more enjoyable for the audience, it will aid in their retention of the information as well.
Some sources suggest that new technologies and media, especially those characterized by fragmentation and graphical information, such as television commercials and web videos, cause shorter attention spans.2 Continually shifting images in the devices and media we use today shape our neural maps so that we grow to expect a steady diet of visual stimulation. Therefore, it is becoming increasingly important that we create presentations that can compete for attention span on the level of social media, video games and smart phones.
So how do we compete with modern technology? How can we use PowerPoint to create visual aids for presentations that will hold the audience’s ever-shrinking attention span? The answer: cognitive psychology.
According to Stephen M. Kosslyn, author of
Clear and to the Point: 8 Psychological Principles for Compelling PowerPoint Presentations, cognitive psychology seeks to understand such mental processes by analogy to the operation of computer programs.3 The core focus of cognitive psychology is on how people acquire, process and store information. Kosslyn says “PowerPoint presentations are problematic when they fail to respect fundamental characteristics of how we perceive, remember and comprehend information.”
Kosslyn understands that attorneys, like most professionals, are not trained in cognitive science, and applying the principles he has studied in a practical way may not seem simple or obvious. Whereas "Death by PowerPoint" principles emphasize slide layout, text formatting, length and timing, Kosslyn has shared four ways PowerPoint presentations can be more “human brain-compliant.”
The Goldilocks Rule
What was Goldilocks’ goal? A chair, a bowl of porridge and a bed that was “just right.” The same applies to presentations. Only include relevant information that is just the right amount, not too much or too little.
The Rudolph Rule
Nothing stands out like a red, shiny nose. Remember this principle and use it to guide your audience to the important details. The eye is drawn to any object that looks different in size, shape, color or positioning.
The Rule of Four
The human brain can generally only hold four pieces of visual information simultaneously, so resist the urge to pack slides full of text. This is an especially important tip for attorneys, who are accustomed to not just presenting the facts, but backing them up with citations, examples and references.
The Birds of a Feather Rule
You may recall the saying “birds of a feather flock together.” Organize the information in your presentation likewise – show things in groups. If you want to convey that five things belong in a group, make them similar by giving them the same color or shape, or literally group them together.
In the book Multimedia Learning by Rich Mayer, the core elements of human cognitive processing break down into three concepts: dual channel, limited capacity, and active processing.4These concepts explain that we process visual and verbal information separately, and that we can only capture pieces of incoming information at one time, once we have organized that information in a way that we increase our understanding by integrating it with prior knowledge.
According to studies by the 3M Corporation, people process images 60,000 times faster than text.5 Three days after an exclusively verbal presentation, an audience will only remember 10% of the information given. Three days after that the same presentation is given with added visual content, the audience retains 60%. Using graphics engages the imagination by stimulating the right lobe of the brain. As you give your presentation, your words go through the audience’s ears to their left brain, and your slides connect with their right brain through their eyes. This combination of stimuli through dual channels leads to a more profound and accurate understanding of the presented material.
In their practice, attorneys must provide sufficient facts to underlie and adequately support their arguments or claims. As a result, many attorneys have a tendency to fill their presentations with text. Based on the principles of cognitive processing, their audiences, who are usually made up of clients or potential clients, may not remember much of a text-heavy presentation. In the field of law, producing presentations that communicate visually can be challenging due to complex and sometimes abstract content. However, by incorporating cognitive psychology to reinforce the message being delivered, we not only aid in retention, but also make aesthetic improvements.
For example, suppose a labor and employment attorney is giving a presentation on the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). Instead of making a slide containing bullet points on what is and is not included in the regular rate of pay, that same information can be communicated using some of Kosslyn’s suggestions for applying cognitive science. Using the “Birds of a Feather Rule,” the items included in the regular rate of pay would be grouped together in red font, and those not included would be grouped together in blue font. Additionally, applying the “Rule of Four” could mean that only four are listed, or four are listed in each category. By breaking up the information and adding color, the text becomes more visual and is easier to remember.
As visual stimulation in our world continues to increase, it is imperative that we adapt our communication style for our audience. Imagine the inside of your audience’s mind is like Times Square in New York City, overloaded with messages and images all vying for their attention. Then ask yourself, what kind of presentation will it take to engage the person in the back row that can’t put their iPhone down?
- “Death by PowerPoint” by Alexei Kapterev
- New media, young audiences and discourses of attention: From Sesame Street to 'snack culture'” by Michael Z. Newman
- Clear and to the Point: 8 Psychological Principles for Compelling PowerPoint Presentations by Stephen M. Kosslyn
- Multimedia Learning by Rich Mayer
- 3M Corporation research cited in “Polishing Your Presentation.” 3M Meeting Network Articles & Advice (2001) [Online Article]
Sandina E. Heckert is communications specialist at McAfee & Taft. Sandina can be contacted at sandina.heckert@mcafeetaft.com or (405) 552-2376.