Rethinking the Design of Presentation Slides

1
Rethinking the Designof Presentation Slides
Peter Heath International Co-Operation and
Languages Expertise Centre Tampere Polytechnic
Sulkala and Vierula, 2006
2
Rethinking the Designof Presentation Slides
Sulkala and Vierula, 2006
3
Recently, slides following PowerPoints defaults
have received much criticism
Tiresome after two or three slides
Too many words
Parker, 2001 Tufte, 2003 Schwartz,
2003 Keller, 2003 Heath, 2006
4
Our slide design arises from principles of
rhetoric, cognitive psychology, and human factors
Mayer, 2001 Shaw and others, 1996
Sulkala Vierula, 2006
5
In a pilot study, we tested this new design in
the teaching slides of a large geology course
Message delivered with typical slide design
Students Fall 2004
Alley et al., 2006
6
Iron

• An abundant metal, makes up 5.6 of earths crust
  
• Properties
• shaped, sharpened, welded
• strong, durable
• Accounts for gt95 of metals used
• Iron ores discovered in 1844 in Michigans Upper
  Peninsula
• Soon found other ores in upper Wisconsin and
  Minnesota

Iron Ore Distribution
Kesler 1994
7
Where is the largest concentration of iron ores
in North America?
Iron ores make up 5.6 of the earths crustand
account for 95 of the metals used
Iron Ore Distribution
Iron ore
www.star-bits.com
Can be shaped, sharpened, and welded
Is strong and durable
Kesler 1994
8
When the tested assertion was in the sentence
headline, students performed significantly better
Q How abundant is iron in the earths crust?
Led to 59 recall
Led to 77 recall
Level of significance lt 0.001
Alley et al., 2006
9
When the tested assertion was in the sentence
headline, students performed significantly better
Overall percent correct (traditional
headline) 70 Overall percent correct (sentence
headline) 82
p lt 0.001
Alley et al., 2006
10
Recent research at TAMK shows the sentence
headline helps students understand information
The sentence headline, and the information it
contained, helped me to understand the meaning
of the slide.
Strongly agree
Slightly agree
In total, 54 students answered the questionnaire
11
In summary, this slide design is much more
effective than PowerPoints default design
more readily understood
more memorable
more persuasive
Sulkala Vierula, 2006
Questions?