As the lights dimmed, the speaker’s first words were, “Some of you won’t be able to read this chart.” No kidding. The culprit: an overwhelmingly dense PowerPoint presentation.
I was squinting so hard that I felt a dull headache coming on. I wouldn’t have been able to see that presentation with binoculars. But the speaker bravely plowed on, slide after slide--brimming with images, animation, and bulleted lists.
My recollection of the presentation’s key points? Next to nothing. I thought it was me, but then I saw a reference to a study that convinced me otherwise.
Richard E. Meyer, a professor at the University of California, studied the impact of multimedia presentations on human memory. He found that when irrelevant words and pictures were removed from such presentations, people experienced a 189 percent improvement in remembering the information.
Sometimes we pack so much stuff on a set of slides that we’re actually defeating our purpose. Next time you’re preparing a presentation, just repeat to yourself, “189 percent…189 percent.”
My new mantra ~ 189 percent, 189 percent, 189 percent ~ ohmmmmm.
Posted by: Jessan Dunn Otis | September 29, 2005 at 11:18 AM