Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery
by Garr Reynolds
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Book Summary Information
Author: Garr ReynoldsEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2008-01-04
ISBN: 0321525655
Number of pages: 228
Publisher: New Riders Press
Accessories:
- The Backchannel: How Audiences are Using Twitter and Social Media and Changing Presentations Forever
- Presentation Zen Design: Simple Design Principles and Techniques to Enhance Your Presentations
- Non-Designer's Design Book, The (3rd Edition)
- The Brand Gap: How to Bridge the Distance Between Business Strategy and Design
- The Open Brand: When Push Comes to Pull in a Web-Made World
Book Reviews of Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery
Book Review: A true classic
Summary: 5 Stars
In this age of information overload and short attention spans, the ability to deliver clear and concise presentations is one of the most important skills.
Instead, business presentations today are mostly long, unfocused and boring. In a typical PowerPoint presentation, the audience is forced to sit through slide after slide of charts, bullet points and text while the presenter reads from the screen.
As a result, both presenter and audience feel stressed and disengaged, and everybody ends up wasting their time (this common situation is also referred to as Death by PowerPoint).
Garr Reynolds' quest to end PowerPoint presentations as we know them started years ago when, riding on the express train from Tokyo to Osaka, he had his epiphany: after watching a Japanese businessman nervously flipping through a printout of poorly designed PowerPoint slides in an obvious state of confusion, he decided to launch his Presentation Zen blog, now the most popular presentation design site on the web.
Presentation Zen (the book) is organized in three main sections:
*Preparation
*Design
*Delivery
In the way of the true classics, this book is more than a simple step by step tutorial. It outlines an approach, a strategy to solve the complex communication issues of today. It not only tells us how to do a presentation, but instead takes us on a journey to discover what is it that we need to communicate in the first place, and how to make it resonate with our audience.
Here are some of the things I learned:
*How to discover your core message (the one thing, and only one, that you want your audience to remember).
*The importance of having quiet time to think. Busyness kills creativity. We all need some quiet time alone to come up with our best ideas.
*Use two often forgotten PowerPoint tools: notes (so you don't have to read from the screen) and handouts (so you don't have to cram all the data on your slides)
*Less is more: remove from slides every single element that is not necessary and doesn't add to our core message.
*PowerPoint is not a document creation tool. It's job is to provide visual aid to our presentation. The slides themselves are not the presentation.
*Images are more powerful than words.
Drinking from his own Kool-Aid, Reynolds packs his book with visual examples of great (and not so great) presentations, so we can see the difference. Also, he summarizes the most important ideas at the end of each chapter, and links to great presentation resources on the web (my favorite is TED, where you can see the great presenters of our time in action).
This book is not for everyone. Those readers who are looking for a few quick tips on how to do a PowerPoint presentation may get impatient with the author's frequent and lengthy references to the Zen philosophy and concepts.
However, if you bear with him, you will learn more than just do a presentation. You will learn how to analyze and solve complex communications problems, how to see the big picture from your customers' perspective, and how to effectively position products and services in the marketplace.
If you have to do presentations for a living (and who doesn't these days?) read this book and keep it handy for future reference. And, while you're at it, add Presentation Zen (the blog) to your blogroll or favorites.
Summary of Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery
Presentation designer and internationally acclaimed communications expert Garr Reynolds, creator of the most popular Web site on presentation design and delivery on the net ? presentationzen.com ? shares his experience in a provocative mix of illumination, inspiration, education, and guidance that will change the way you think about making presentations with PowerPoint or Keynote. Presentation Zen challenges the conventional wisdom of making "slide presentations" in today?s world and encourages you to think differently and more creatively about the preparation, design, and delivery of your presentations. Garr shares lessons and perspectives that draw upon practical advice from the fields of communication and business. Combining solid principles of design with the tenets of Zen simplicity, this book will help you along the path to simpler, more effective presentations.General Books
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