by Norman Eng
Real design goes beyond cosmetic. Questioning assumptions and conventions are more important. What if simply showing a title and three bullet points is not the best way to communicate your point? What if a photograph,
a quotation, a story, or an activity works better? Now you're removing conventional constraints and developing solutions from scratch—just as innovators and "first principles" thinkers do.
Real design goes back to the fundamentals and solves problems. When you do that, you create the ultimate user experience.
KEY QUOTES.
Every time you present, you create a user experience— whether you intend to or not.
The goal of design is to help audiences get from point A to point B as quickly as possible. Removing the "friction" in your slides is one way to do this.
"Distill" and "distribute" (D&D) are the two most effective design principles to instantly simplify and improve the way audiences respond to you.
People learn better from graphics and narration than from graphics, narration, and on-screen text.
How well we communicate is determined not by how well we say things but by how we are understood. — Andy Grove, cofounder and former CEO, Intel.
The audience learns better when you anchor new knowledge to something familiar.
Learning is a sense-making process. Give audiences time to "struggle" with the content.
PRO TIPS.
When using visuals, fill the whole slide with the image. Go borderless. Images then become the "hero." It sounds obvious, but non-designers often don't think to do that. They subordinate the image to the text, which often leaves it as an afterthought. Think of visuals used in documentaries.
Use the Eyedropper tool to match colors in your slide. That sense of cohesion reduces the friction and improves the user experience. To learn how to use the Eyedropper tool, search online with the phrase "Use Eyedropper to match colors on your slide" or check the support site for Microsoft Office (support.office.com).
Consider removing your slide headings or making them smaller. It's interesting how PowerPoint (and others) default to having a heading in each slide. Its large size suggests it's really important! Yet the body is often more important and
it should therefore be upgraded, from a visual hierarchy perspective. Ask yourself, Is the heading even necessary? Use the "finger-snap test" to see how quickly audiences will get your slide. Take one slide and show it to someone—a colleague, a friend, or a family member. Without context, will they get it quickly? (It shouldn't take more than three seconds.)
REFLECT.
Do all these changes actually matter? Maybe these tweaks don't mean much to you. All that time and effort for what? It's the content that matters, right?
When you present in front of industry experts, it's easier to stuff content. Their knowledge is more sophisticated compared with novices, so presenters can afford to go heavier on the content. This may explain why professors teaching advanced biochemistry, for instance, may feel that design and visual flourishes are a waste of time, that graduate-level students or conference attendees don't require such visual "crutches."
Yet cognitive overload is a universal phenomenon. Same with user experience. All messages are still received by the primitive fight-or-flight brain. It still pays to be simple, novel, and concrete.
In the end, changing the type size from 28-point to 40-point may not mean much on its own (although the audience member in the back of the room may appreciate it), but combined with other design principles—namely simplicity, composition, and relationships—the collective user experience will improve.
It's like being nice. One time won't make an impression, but if done consistently, people will generally see you that way. As such, design matters tremendously.]
Chapter 6
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS.
KEY QUOTE.
If you've done your PowerPoint right—meaning you're using lots of visuals and minimal text, as in a documentary—then providing a copy of it is meaningless.
VIDEO.
For a primer on how to take Cornell notes, watch this short video (5:26): https://youtu.be/WtW9IyE04OQ
RECOMMENDATION.
If you need flexibility with your graphic icons, I recommend The Noun Project. It has millions to choose from, it's easy to navigate, and it's only US$20/year for educators as of 2019 (normally $40/year).
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Norman Eng is a doctor of education (Ed.D.), with a background in teaching and marketing—two areas that relate to lecturing, presenting, and engaging audiences.
He is also the founder and president of EDUCATIONxDESIGN, Inc., which—through his books, coaching, consulting, and online course—helps professors amplify their work to influence the world.
Dr. Eng's book, Teaching College: The Ultimate Guide to Lecturing, Presenting, and Engaging Students, is widely read by faculty members and teachers everywhere. It consistently ranks #1 on Amazon's bestseller list in various education categories. Likewise, his online course, the Teaching College Masterclass, continues to help professors across the U.S. transform their lectures and lessons in the classroom.
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