Kathy Sierra’s Guide to Presentation Design
Kathy Sierra photo by Stephanie Booth
I am a huge fan of Kathy Sierra and her blog: Creating Passionate Users. There is no bigger advocate for software or Web end users. Plus, she can write like no other and really knows how to create interesting images. She doesn’t claim to be a “presentation guru” so don’t look to her for delivery advice: go to Bert Decker for that. This is one of the things that I like about her; she doesn’t claim to be something she’s not.
Kathy hasn’t actually written a guide to presentation design: I mined her blog and pieced it together for her. This is only the tip of the iceberg. It is worth your time to browse her blog postings; there is so much great stuff in there.
Better Beginnings: how to start a presentation, book, article… – Kathy discusses various techniques to grab an audience’s attention from the start — techniques guaranteed to have them in the palm of your hand.
Stop your presentation before it kills again – Kathy rails against the bullet laden slides that we all love so dearly. Pay strict attention to the “Do My Slides Suck” test. I really like the part where she puts the slide on trial. Pay particular attention to this point: It is hard for many people to discard a slide once they have created it. Don’t fall into that trap. Execute the useless buggers — they serve no purpose.
Add graphics to your blog, book, or presentation – Before Presentation Zen and Slide:ology there was Kathy Sierra. For technical presenters she is the master. In this post she discusses graphics.
“People pay attention to graphics. They respond to graphics. They learn from graphics.”
You should pay attention to what she says. She knows what she is talking about. Her blog is overflowing with outstanding graphics. It is easy to look at an image and tell if it is a Kathy Sierra original. Yes, her graphics are identifiable just like Stevie Ray Vaughn’s searing guitar riffs (that may be a stretch but bear with me).
Give users a Hollywood ending – Kathy applies learning theory and film making to designing presentations. We all know it is important to end strong but how do you do it. You will also learn why it is important to design many endings into your presentation.
Many, perhaps most, presenters focus all their attention on the middle (meat) of their presentations. Kathy points out that audiences are more apt to remember the details covered at the end. Read this post to learn some tricks for creating that compelling ending.
… but is it memorable? – You need to make sure you make your presentation memorable. Kathy shares some thoughts regarding how you can do that. More importantly, she gets you to think about it. Thinking is the unsung hero of great presentation – we should do it more often.
There is a ton of great content on Kathy’s blog. She no longer adds to it but there is enough content on it to take hours of your time. You should jot that down on your Getting Things Done (GTD) lists — spend hours of time reading and studying Kathy Sierra’s blog. You will be glad you did.
For more Kathy Sierra images by Stephanie Booth click here.
