Garr Reynolds' new book, PresentationZen Design, is his follow-up to his first book, PresentationZen of 2008. His first book was in many ways a summary of Garr's presentation style, looking at presentation preparation, design and delivery. I suppose it is no surprise that his second book expands on one key area from his first book, slide design - I say it is no surprise because it is Garr's design style that most defines him. If you already have his first book, this new book is really chapters 5, 6 & 7 expanded, however don't take this as a negative, what Garr has done here is to write a whole book about slide design.So what should you expect from a book that's subtitled, 'Simple Design Principles and Techniques to Enhance Your Presentations'?
Design Matters
The title of the first chapter gives you a good idea of the focus of the book - Design Matters. As most people who create slides for learning and presentations are not trained designers, Garr takes us on a journey through his design thinking, drawing heavily on the Zen design traditions of his adopted home, Japan.
It is clear that design matters a lot to Garr....
and quoting the designer Donald Norman,
I mean if it was all about content, why have live presentations and workshops? You may as well just send out pages of text and let people read it themselves! Slide design is Garr's passion, and to be honest, thank heavens it is, because his approach to presentation slide design may just save us all from having to sit through another slideshow chock-a-block full of bullets, complicated charts, corny clipart and flying text!
So what does PresentationZen Design teach us that will improve the design of our slides. The book is divided into three key sections:
Components
In this section the book covers the often ignored importance of Typefaces, particularly the choice of type and it's placement on the slide. Next Garr looks at Communicating with Colour. In addition to looking at some expected terms related to colour and it's use, for example hue, value, saturation, colour combinations, emotional connections and colour choices, Garr brings in aspects from the Zen aesthetic through a lesson in Sumi-e. In Using Images and Video to Tell Stories we enter the area that in many ways defines the PresentationZen style, the use of full screen images to complement and strengthen the spoken and written message - I particularly liked this area! Area covered here again include some technical aspects of image creation and editing as well as reviewing 10 things to avoid when using images. Finally in the component section Garr looks at how best to Simplify Data, how charts can communicate and indeed miscommunicate key messages, I know from experience that many presentations use charts that are barely readable, with far too much data, if all presentations followed the advice given here there would be less sleepy and bored learners and audience members!
Principles
So many slides used in presentations and workshops are full of text, bullet points, charts, and data.
The first part of this section looks at Seeing and Using Space, beginning with a lesson in the Japanese art of flower design, Ikebana. Garr looks at the importance of white space, symmetrical/asymmetrical balance, Gestalt theory and the importance of 'less is more'.
The use of focal points in slide design is illustrated through the Japanese room design feature known as a Tokonoma, in essence this part of the book, Creating Purpose and Focus, is about how to ensure the audience's eyes move see what you want them to see. Too often there is too much clutter on slides overloading the brains ability to focus on what is important, indeed once overloaded it is likely that no information will be retained, so less is actually more.
Finally the section looks at Achieving Harmony in your slide design. Here Garr looks at the 'rule of thirds' and grids in general when aligning aspects of our slides and working to connect the various elements to create balance and harmony. Garr must adore his food, because he loves a Bento Box, I've seen photos of his lunches uploaded via Twitter on more than one occasion! There is a point however, Garr sees harmony in a Bento Box, a balance of flavours, colours, sizes - doesn't food always taste better when it looks good!
Here's an example from my lunch yesterday!
The Journey
Finally Garr provides pages of examples of great Slide Samples that illustrate the principles outlined throughout the book. It is always good to see examples, as just as the book reminds us, visual messages trump the written word.
The book concludes with a chapter on Continuous Improvement, a good way to end, reminding readers that improving your slide design is a journey not a destination, that through continually learning from the lessons that are all around you - Billboards, Advertising, TV, brochures, package design - your slide design will continue to improve.
Finally I really liked how the book was scattered with 'guest appearances' from Nancy Duarte, David Rose, Maureen C. Stone, John McWade and Scott Kelby. They add further information and another perspective to the book.
The Conclusion
If you want to design slides that engage your learners/audience this book is the one, it must be on your book shelf!. If you live near me, that is Australia, the book is rather hard to find, (I got my copy via Amazon, click here to get to Amazon), but that's no real drama at least you won't have to drive around looking for it, it's only a few clicks away!
