Advanced Presentations by Design: Creating Communication That Drives Action

Advanced Presentations by Design overturns much of the conventional wisdom and practice for creating presentations. Based on over 200 research studies from the fields of communication, marketing, psychology, multimedia, and law, it provides fact-based answers to critical questions about presentation design, including how to adapt your presentation to different audience personality preferences, what role your data should play and how much of it you need, how to turn your data into a story, and how to design persuasive yet comprehensible visual layouts.

Table of Contents:
Introduction. PART I: POLITICS AND METRICS. Politics. Metrics. Chapter 1: Understanding What Types of Communication Will Be Most Effective for Your Audience. Step 1: Identify the Communication Preferences of the Different Personality Types in Your Audience. How to Estimate Your Audience's Personality Types. How to Match Your Presentation Design to Different Personality Types in the Same Audience. Additional Information to Gather About Your Audience. Chapter 2: Setting a Measurable Objective for Your Presentation. Step 2: Set Specific Objectives for What You Want Your Audience to Think and Do Differently After Your Presentation. The Typical-and Wrong-Way to Set Presentation Objectives. Developing Effective Presentation Objectives. The Curse of the "Update" Presentation. How Do You Know Whether You Have Set the Right Objectives? PART II: LOGIC. Why You Should Always Focus Your Presentation on an Audience Problem. You Do Need Evidence!. The Reality Principle: Show Concrete and Specific Data Whenever Possible. Chapter 3: Articulating the Audience's Business Problem and Your Proposed Solution to It. Step 3: Identify a Problem Your Audience Has That Your Presentation Will Contribute to Solving. Why Discuss Problem Solving in a Book About Presentation Design? Choosing the Right Problem. Crafting Your Solution. Chapter 4: Marshalling Your Evidence. Step 4: List All the Information That You Think You May Need to Include in Your Presentation. What Kinds of Evidence Should You Include? Is There Any Kind of Evidence That You Should Exclude? Where Do You Find All This Evidence? PART III: RHETORIC. Logic Alone Is Not Enough. The Importance of Storytelling. Ethical Persuasion. Chapter 5: Assembling the Anecdotes That Will Illustrate Your Evidence. Step 5: Identify Brief Anecdotes That Highlight Your Most Important Points. What Kind of Stories Should You Use in Your Presentation? How to Tell a Story Using the Seven Basic Plots. Where to Find Useful Stories. Chapter 6: Sequencing Your Evidence. Step 6: Sequence Your Information so That It Tells a Compelling Story. The Structure of All effective Stories. Using the S.Co.R.E.(tm) Method to Sequence Your Evidence. What to Do with What Doesn't Fit into Your Storyline-The Role of the Appendix. PART IV: GRAPHICS. Should You Use Visual Aids? Should You Use PowerPoint? Should Each Slide Have Seven Bullets and Seven Words Per Bullet? Chapter 7: Visual Presentation Elements: Graphics, Charts, Color, Animation, and Fonts. Step 7: Identify the Most Effective Graphical Elements to Use in Your Presentation. What Kinds of Graphics Should You Use? Should You Use Clip Art? How to Decide Which Type of Chart Will Best Communicate Your Data. Which Type Fonts and Sizes to Use. Should You Use Bullet Points, Color, Animation, or Transitions? Chapter 8: Laying Out All the Elements on Each Page. Step 8: Create Slides That Communicate Your Information Concisely and Effectively. How to Make Sure That Your Slide Layout Reinforces the Main Message of the Slide. How to Design Effective Ballroom Style Presentations. How to Design Effective Conference Room Style Presentations. When You Can Use Multiple Presentation Idioms in the Same Presentation. How Much Detail to Put on Each Slide. How to Avoid Bad Detail ("Chartjunk"). How Much Text to Put on Each Slide. Whether to Combine Graphics and Text on the Same Slide. How Exactly to Decide What Goes on Each Slide. PART V. POLITICS AND METRICS AGAIN. Chapter 9: Satisfying Your Stakeholders and Measuring Success. Step 9: Identify Any Potential Roadblocks to Achieving Your Objectives, and Make a Plan to Deal with Each. Step 10: Decide How You Will Measure the Success of Your Presentation. Chapter 10: Conclusion. The Scalability of the Extreme Presentation Method. A Language and a Framework for Providing Effective Feedback. Contradicting Other Approaches to Presentation Design. Appendix A. Worksheets. Appendix B. Extreme Presentation Makeover. Appendix C. Thirty-Six Layouts That Pass the Squint Test. Appendix D. Further Reading. Appendix E: 1,000 Good Books. References. Index. About the Author.

About the Author :
Dr. Andrew Abela is an authority on designing presentations of complex and controversial information. He is currently an associate professor of marketing at the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC. He was the founding managing director of the Marketing Leadership Council, and is a former McKinsey and Company consultant. He provides presentation training and consulting to leading corporations and governmental agencies.