Present Beyond Measure

11Why Bad Slide Design Is Not a PowerPoint Problem

“Everything is designed. Few things are designed well.”

—Brian Reed

In 2008, the New York Giants defeated the New England Patriots in a dramatic Super Bowl upset. This caused a deep inner conflict for me, where my homeland of the Shore of Jersey scrimmaged against my newfound love for the Town of Bean. (I've now exhausted my football vocabulary.)

But more notable than my East Coast love triangle was a hilarious Super Bowl commercial aired by Tide called “The Talking Stain.” It portrayed a hopeful job candidate who inadvertently brings an embarrassing and sizable coffee stain on his shirt to his job interview.¹

Every time the candidate answers one of the interviewer's questions, the stain suddenly starts unintelligibly shouting over him. Unbeknownst to our job seeker, the vocal stain completely steals the interviewer's—and the TV viewers’—attention.

Once my belly‐laughing died down, it struck me that the stain was the perfect analogy for what happens when you create presentation slides that are so visually “noisy” that they drown out your message. That's why the way you use your presentation tools is a critical juncture.

It's the difference between inviting a trusty, supportive wingperson versus bringing in a digital Kanye West who climbs up on stage and steals your thunder.

To contrast the difference between what the stain did and what a true visual wingperson does, consider the following.

I recently purchased my first iPad. ...