Reframing the Powerpoint Equation

Source Image: torres21 via Flickr

I've been working on and off on a Powerpoint template for some client presentations the past few days. While brainstorming slide design ideas last week, I stumbled upon this lovely specimen developed by Duarte Design.

Since first discovering their work early this past spring, Duarte Design has in many ways completely reshaped my views on Powerpoint. Whereas previously I balked at any opportunity to use Powerpoint and often saw it as a cop-out to really engaging with one's audience, Nancy Duarte suggests that Powerpoints can be dynamic, thought-provoking, and interactive. She encourages developing "ideas, not slides" and using presentations to "build connections" with an audience. Coupled with a growing interest in data visualization, my reading of Duarte's book "slide:ology" has helped me begin to unpack data in newly-fashioned ways and rethink the notion of interaction design.

What I particularly love about Duarte's work is that she and her colleagues do not oversimplify content, but rather seek to find innovative means of visual communication where the existing tools might fail, whether that involves using Flash animation, developing process graphics, or avoiding Powerpoint altogether in favor of a flip chart. However, what I also (and especially) love is that they have pumped new life into a presentation medium that many see as boring, bland, and second rate.

As my interest in the applications of design principles in the business world continues to develop, presentation design has become just another way for me to hone and apply my skillset as an intermediary between the two realms. Duarte's work is a great reminder that design has applications in the business sector that extend well beyond the topics of marketing and product development. And I, for one, think we have something to learn from this example.