PowerPoint is by far the most ubiquitous means by which presentations are made these days. But PowerPoint has its drawbacks, not the least of which is its graphic choices, which usually result in cookie-cutter presentations that look so much alike that after a while the audience begins to tune out. It doesn’t have to be that way. A PowerPoint presentation in the hands of a good, story-telling designer can become an engaging and compelling story. For example, click through this presentation we did for the president of GE Medical:

Note that the visuals seem to be missing a narrative flow, which is intentional, because it follows the rule that an audience cannot read and comprehend the content on a slide and at the same time process what the speaker is saying. Thus when we design a presentation, we like to use a zig-zag approach where the audience goes back and forth between what is being shown on the screen and what the speaker is saying, i.e. the slides are not simply there to replicate what the speaker is saying.

In addition, the speaker does not always “tell” in order to make his point, he mixes questions in with his presentation to keep the audience on its toes. For example instead of saying, “The American cancer rate has increased by 500% in the past 25 years,” he might say, “What do you think the cancer rate increase has been in the past 25 years?” Then he clicks to reveal the rate on the next slide. In other words, he uses several methodologies to keep his audience engaged that are based on how the human mind functions when it has to process verbal as well as visual information at the same time.