Episode 102 - Listen To This If… Your powerpoint slides are BORING

Transcript

Jen (00:00:10)

Hello, everybody. We are so delighted to welcome you to another episode of Listen to This If. These are episodes where Michael and I, who are the team from Let's Talk SciComm, come together to try and fix something that you are currently stuck on. We like to give you a pep talk.

And we should point out, we don't ever discuss in advance what we're both going to share in these sessions. So it's just the luck of the draw, what idea we both bring.

So Michael, what is your suggestion for someone who is stuck on the fact that their PowerPoint slides or whatever slide tool platform you're using, that those slides are boring?

Michael (00:00:45)

Yeah, I mean, look, it's probably the default, right? I think you have to put in a little bit of effort and think a little bit creatively about your slides. It's a different type of thinking to you know, the thinking that you might do around writing a thesis, for example.

And I feel like we might have some overlapping points here, Jen, but maybe that only means they're really important.

So I always try and think, instead of writing this down, is there any way that I can visually display this information? Do I need to use words at all? Visuals are so important, I think that's probably my main point.

And there's loads of great tools out there. Canva for example, great Australian company. Has some really nice visuals on there, easy to use.

And I feel like, you know, the limited amount of text that you do have on the slides, it's so important to reveal that sequentially. So use animations.

And it's so important to have what you're saying with you know, perhaps the text that is on the slides in sync, appearing at the same time.

Yeah, I mean, I guess the way I like to think about it is that you know, if you're giving a presentation, you are the main character, not your slides. Your slides are just the sidekick, right? They're just there to complement what you're saying.

But people should really be mainly listening to you and perhaps you know, referring to your slides for some, you know, visual information for some extra context.

Rather than the other way around, right? Because the other way around is okay, we're all looking at this slide together. You know, we're just, just read through that information. You know, the science is speaking for itself there, right? I don't need to, I don't need to speak for it.

But you do need to speak for it. You're the, you're the main character.

Yeah, I think there's probably maybe slightly more than one tip in there. But that's what I have to say about that.

Jen (00:02:50)

Yeah look, I was going to play devil's advocate with this one Michael, but I think you've pretty much stolen my thunder.

I was going to say, I don't actually care if your PowerPoint slides are boring. I think boring PowerPoint slides are fine. Because the whole point is, it's not about the slides. So what bothers me is if your PowerPoint slides are distracting. To me, that is where the problem lies.

If they're boring, if they're just really simple, you know... Maybe you don't even need a heading. Think about whether you really need a heading. Definitely, obviously, I'm going to agree with you that visuals are better than text. If you think you need to have text, you know, very minimal text.

I don't actually care if they're boring, 'cause the whole point is I don't want people to be looking at your slides. I want them to be looking at you.

And so what we always say with our students is you know, "make sure your slides are enhancing you being the person who is there to deliver a message, to engage the audience, to tell a story, to captivate people, to get people thinking differently".

You know, do you even really need slides? Boring slides are way better than distracting slides.

And the biggest problem we see all the time is slides that just have so much text on them. And we know, if you've never heard us talk about the Colavita effect before, look it up. The Colavita effect tells us that people will always read or look at, you know, take in what they can see visually before they take in what they're hearing.

So if your slides are in any way busy, full of stuff, people are reading them and deciphering them and trying to work at what they mean without listening to a word you say.

So I would say, have really boring, plain, simple PowerPoint slides. So people glance at them, know what's on there, and then turn back and focus all of their attention on you.

Michael (00:04:32)

Yeah, that's a really good point. Yeah.

Because I suppose in an effort to try and make them exciting, you could cram them with too much information. Then they're distracting.

And as you say, distracting is you know, worse than boring. So yeah, I like it.

Jen (00:04:46)

Yeah, 'cause as soon as people are mostly focused on what they can see visually, and they lose the ability to focus on what you're saying, then we kind of lose the whole purpose of the communication.

I mean, you know, if you need to communicate something visually, then make an infographic, do something else that's visual communication. But PowerPoint slides traditionally are used for a talk and the focus of the talk should be you.

So simple, clear, clean, boring, you know. If you see them as boring, that's way better than if they're distracting.

Michael (00:05:16)

Yeah, that's right. 'Cause it doesn't mean it's a boring talk, 'cause you'll be exciting.

Jen (00:05:19)

Exactly. Exactly! Exactly. So we hope that helps and good luck with your next talk.

Michael (00:05:32)

I like it. Yes.

Thanks for listening. We hope you enjoyed the episode. And a huge thanks to our production team, Steven Tang and Madeleine Kelly.

That's it for this week. See ya.