Respondents rated “full sentences and paragraphs instead of bullet points” the third most annoying characteristic of bad PowerPoint presentations. To see how this fared in practice, the content analysis examined the use of bullet points. Two-thirds of the LOEX text slides and 77 percent of the LOTW text slides included bullets. These findings suggest that approximately 25 percent of the text slides for both events used full sentences and paragraphs.
Slide Visual Elements
All slides were coded for the types of elements (cli-part, diagram, form, graph, photograph, screen-shot, and text) they contained. Elements were not counted if they were incorporated into the slide template, which appeared the same throughout the presentation. Video and audio were calculated but insignificant. LOTW had only one presentation that used audio and one presentation that used video. None of the LOEX presentations incorporated audio or video. Text was the slide element most used in the presentations—at least four times more than any other element. At LOEX, 62 slides (7 percent) included clipart, 21 (2 percent) included diagrams, 8 (1 percent) included forms, 45 (5 per- cent) included graphs, 85 (10 per- cent) included photographs, 186 (22 percent) included screenshots, and 731 (87 percent) included text. At LOTW, 100 slides (10 percent) included clipart, 29 (3 percent) included diagrams, 1 (0 percent) included forms, 50 (5 percent) in- cluded graphs, 127 (13 percent) included photographs, 120 (12 percent) included screenshots, and 904 (91 percent) included text. Calculations were also performed for those slides that con- tained only text and no other ele- ment. LOEX had 460 slides (54 percent) and LOTW had 575 slides (58 percent) with only text. Presentation Color The most frequent color combina- tion, used by 25 presentations (37 percent), was a white background with black text. Using Pardi’s Color Contrast Calculator, based on inter- national standards developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), presentation background and text colors were calculated for color contrast.9 Fourteen presentations (21 percent) failed the color contrast test (see table 2).
Presentation Elements of Genre
PowerPoint presentations at library instruction conferences are, in a sense, a genre. They have particular, distinctive, and predictable elements:
-
Show and tell: an illustration or demonstration, usually screen shots or a photo, of a resource or service. The show-and-tell technique is the process of showing the audience the resource or service and telling them about it. This element was used in 34 percent of the programs.
-
Testimonial: a written or spoken statement from a patron that (1) establishes a sense of urgency or need for the presenter’s resource or service, usually through the description of a problem the patron is experiencing; or (2) articulates the solution or reduction of the patron’s problem through the presenter’s resource or service. The primary function of the testimonial is to make the presenter’s problem-and-solution claim believable. This element was used in 28 percent of the programs.
-
Supporting quote: a quote from an outside source or expert that supports the presenter’s position. Generally, the quote is nothing more than an opinion. Typically, the opinion comes from an expert, famous historic figure, or respected current practitioner. By tapping expert opinion to advocate the presenter’s position, the credibility of the expert becomes a substitute for the presenter’s. A supporting quote was used in 25 percent of the programs.
-
Association position: a professional association’s official stance stated in the form of a goal, standard, or committee decision. The presenter uses the association’s position to authorize or legitimize their resource or service. This element was used in 22 percent of the programs.
-
Patron portrait: a list or photo describing demographic, psychological, socioeconomic, or lifestyle characteristics of a group of patrons. The characteristics, attitudes, and opinions of the patron group are represented in monolithic terms and reduced to a few oversimplified, stereotypical traits. Patron portraits were used in 19 percent of the programs.
-
Lessons learned: a collection of important discoveries after instituting a resource or service. This style of slide functions as “the moral of the story.” Lessons learned were included in 12 percent of the programs.
-
Survey says: a summary of survey findings. The survey is used to reinforce a resource or service’s validity. This element was included in 12 percent of the programs.
Discussion and Implications
The survey and content analysis offer guidance on how to improve PowerPoint presentations.
Peer Pressure
Although respondents indicated that they prefer presenters to use PowerPoint, presenters tend to overestimate the extent to which their colleagues will judge them as unprofessional if they do not use PowerPoint.
Learning Style
The results of this study indicate that there is a mismatch between the typical PowerPoint slide primarily composed of text and the learning needs of the plurality of respondents. By loading their slides with text, presenters are catering to the minority of read/write learners. However, because the text slides consist primarily of bulleted lists of brief phrases, even the read/write learner’s needs are marginalized by an instructional design that features an assemblage of incomplete sentences. Tufte argues that “bullet outlines can make us stupid.”10 Shaw, Brown, and Bromiley put it this way:
Bullet lists encourage us to be intellectually lazy in three specific, and related ways. Bullet lists are typically too generic; that is, they offer a series of things to do that could apply to any business. … Bullets leave critical relationships unspecified. … Bullets leave critical assumptions about how the business works unstated.11
Although Shaw, Brown, and Bromiley were examining slides in business presentations, their findings and conclusions have applicability in the library profession. Consider, for example, the following bullet point from a LOEX presentation:
- Digital games are fun
The generic information in this bullet point leaves out more than it provides. Who (and who does not) think digital games are fun? Are all games equally fun? Is fun enough of an incentive for students to play library-related digital games (or does the game have to be assigned)? In terms of getting the students to play, to what extent is it more important for the game to be relevant to coursework than fun? To what extent is the perspective of those who find digital games silly or boring integrated into these slides? Does the fun and engagement of games result in enhanced students or citizens? Although the speaker may address these questions within their talk, to what extent do the words on this PowerPoint slide supplement, extend, or reinforce the speaker’s message? In short, they do not. So, who is best served by this type of PowerPoint design? The primary beneficiary of this slide, like hundreds of others we examined, is the presenter. The slide’s primary function here is to help the presenter remember what to say. The slide is not designed to help the read/write learners or any of the other learners better grasp the message. As Tufte writes, the “convenience of the speaker can be costly to both content and audience.”12
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).