The Power of Images

I know that at times, we have repeated this over and over, but a Power Point presentation is not the place for a wall of text.

Text belongs in a handout.

Your audience did not come to a presentation to read.

They came to listen to you. They came to hear an interesting story; they came to hear you make connections and give them ideas; they came to hear the passion in your voice; they did not come to read.

They can read at home.

Consider how information is conveyed in this graphic. It is effective because conveys a lot of information in a short amount of time, and, frankly, it is just more interesting than a wall of text.

Look over each and every slide in your presentation. Is there a way to graphically represent the information?

For those of you that want to see more information conveyed visually try ChartPorn.org

ILT Masterpiece Theater: The Golden Banana

While in a college marketing course several years ago I was witness to forty-five minutes of engaging, funny, relevant and interactive content all from a single PPT slide with the picture of a golden banana. This forty-five minute fruited-slide benchmark is my own personal instructor led-training equivalent of Michael Jordan's Game 5 performance against the Jazz. Except the instructor didn't have the flu...he also didn't have a Scottie Pippen so we'll call it even.

That night in Service Marketing 302 our instructor R. Hornfisher introduced the power of graphical simplicity backed by well constructed content. He used the Golden Banana to springboard into a brilliantly articulated lesson on the power of rewarding your employees and customers. The greatest lesson I learned that evening was not about service marketing it was about the power of content and simplicity.

Instructional Designers/Developers of the world, I challenge you to take the time to consider the Golden Banana or use the term as proper noun used to describe the perfect simplicity of graphics backed with a talented trainer. Or better yet implement an annual award ceremony where you hand out Golden Bananas to your designer, developer or trainer who exhibit the spirit of the GB.

Disclaimer: Under no circumstances should the Golden Banana phrase or likeness be allowed to mutate into anything resembling a phallic joke...no matter how hilarious or obvious.