Survey Findings
A summary of the responses, grouped into five topics, follows.
Audience Preference for PowerPoint Use
Given the popular idea that audiences do not want presenters to use PowerPoint, one of the noteworthy findings of this survey is that 73 percent of respondents indicated they usually, frequently, or always prefer speakers to use PowerPoint. When asked to explain this in an open-ended question, the following reasons were provided for this preference: it visually reinforces and supplements the speaker’s verbal message, it outlines and organizes the presentation, and it aids notetaking. When asked why they prefer presenters not to use Power-Point, the negative reasons listed included overuse, misuse, and inflexibility.
Presenter Preference for PowerPoint
The power in PowerPoint comes from the way it functions as a given for both presenter and audience. Earlier in this paper we asserted that Power-Point is the preferred method of communicating knowledge at professional library conferences. When asked if they have ever presented at a library conference, about 80 percent of respondents said yes. Of those, about 92 percent have used Power-Point at their presentations.
Respondents were further asked why they used or did not use PowerPoint. For those that indicated they used PowerPoint, the following three reasons appeared regularly in their descriptions: it organizes content, adds visual impact, and is expected by colleagues. For those respondents that indicated they did not use PowerPoint the following general reasons were provided:
- It creates a distance between the speaker and the audience (or other speakers if one is on a panel) and therefore inhibits discussion.
- It disrupts the natural flow of conversations.
- It restricts the speaker’s physical mobility to move throughout the crowd.
- It is not as attractive as using Web-based alternatives or live Web demonstrations.
- It would add nothing to the presentation’s content.
- It is so common that one’s presentation is unmemorable.
Peer Pressure to Use PowerPoint
Half of respondents said that their colleagues would judge them as unprofessional if they did not use PowerPoint. On the flip side, 85 percent of the respondents revealed that they seldom or never believe a presenter is unprofessional if they did not use PowerPoint.
Characteristics of Bad PowerPoint Presentations
Respondents selected the top five characteristics of bad PowerPoint presentations (see table 1):
- Speaker reads the slides
- Overuse of text
- Full sentences and paragraphs instead of bullet points
- Text too small to read
- Slides hard to see because of color choice
Respondents were then given the opportunity with an open-ended question to further describe the characteristics of bad PowerPoint presentations. Nine general complaints emerged:
-
Slide-centered presentations: speakers either can’t go beyond the slide content or focus on the slides rather than the audience, resulting in the feeling that the slides drive the presentation rather than the speaker.
-
Too many slides: speakers either have a slide for everything or skip, zoom through, or don’t fin ish as a consequence of having too many slides, usually trying to say too much in too short a time.
-
Lack of visuals and poor graphic design: presen tations are either overloaded with text slides or suffer from problems with functional and aesthetic design—usually graphics that fail to intrigue, entertain, captivate, or inspire.
-
Disconnect between slides and talk: slide content differs from the speaker’s verbal messages.
-
Inadequate and wasteful handouts: handouts either simply duplicate PowerPoint presenta tions or fail to summarize the important points in complete sentences, usually resulting in wasted paper.
-
Audiovisual problems: speakers are unfamiliar with the presentation technology or audiovi sual equipment malfunctions.
-
Undesirable presentation environments: rooms that suffer from poor lighting, excessive glare, or inadequate sightlines.
-
Unrehearsed presentations: speakers don’t ap pear to have carefully planned or practiced their presentation.
-
Spelling errors: spelling mistakes distract from the presentation and the speaker’s credibility.
Learning Style
The survey results indicate that 76 percent of the respondents learn best through a combination of visuals, sound, and touch. When asked to describe their primary learning style, seventy-five (38 percent) indicated visual, forty-eight (24 percent) indicated read/write, forty (20 percent) indicated tactile/kinesthetic, and thirty-five (18 percent) indicated auditory.
Content Analysis Findings
Of the sixty-seven presentations, the smallest number of slides was nine at LOTW and the largest number was eighty-three at LOEX. The average number of slides at LOEX was twenty-nine, or about one slide for every two minutes of the sixty-minute presentations. At LOTW, the average number of slides was twenty-six, or slightly less than one slide for every two minutes of the fortyfive-minute presentations.
Slide Word Count and Bullet Points
As respondents pointed out, PowerPoint slides often have too much text. A total of 731 out of 845 LOEX slides (87 percent) contained text—a total of 21,640 words. Of these 731 slides, 460 were text-only—a total of 17,825 words. A total of 904 out of 988 LOTW slides (93 percent) contained text—a total of 26,305 words. Of these 904 slides, 575 were text-only—a total of 21,244 words. The average number of words on text-only slides was 39 for LOEX and 37 for LOTW.
There is an interesting study published in “Doing Things With Information” (O’Connor, 2008) that measured levels of distraction in PowerPoint presentations. (I think it’s in chapter8).