Our PPT Use Survey began by trying to determine what the average PPT presentation looked like. To do this we searched for publicly available PPT files on the Web. A total of 175 presentations were downloaded and analyzed. Based on this survey, the typical PPT presentation could be described as follows: Read the rest of this entry »

The clamour surrounding PowerPoint as a presentation tool appears to have died down a bit over the last few years. This is a welcome relief. The hype and fervour about the use of PPT that followed the publication of Professor Edward Tufte’s 2003 article entitled “The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint” did little to increase our understanding of how electronic visuals can enhance communication.

In December of 2005, Presentation Facts wanted to take a small step towards adding to our presentation knowledge base in some way. We had to keep our goals modest so we decided a good way to start would be to conduct a relatively simple survey of publicly available PowerPoint presentations. By analyzing average PPT presentations, we hoped to begin building a baseline of usage information that might suggest further areas of inquiry. In addition, perhaps comparisons could be drawn between how average users actually use PPT and proven principles of effective multimedia development. Read the rest of this entry »

It is hard to believe that it has been about two years since I made my last Presentation Facts post on the Visual Being Blog. Visual Being was started by my friend Lee Potts and was home to numerous contributors connected with Infocomm’s Presentations Council. While interest in Visual Being has unfortunately waned a bit over the years, my passion for seeking out presentation related research has not. Over the years, many VB readers have contacted me about my Presentation Facts posts, asking for more detail or copies of studies I commented on … leading me to believe there is a fair amount of interest in this topic out there.

A couple of my personal goals for 2008 are to renew my commitment to posting on the growing library of research I have been collecting, and to finish a presentation-related research project I started in January of 2006. Since I had purchased the Presentation Facts URL back in 2005, I decided to start a new blog dedicated to this subject rather than continue as a part of Visual Being. All the Presentation Facts posts from VB have been copied here. I wish all of my friends at VB the best of luck moving forward.

Here at Presentation Facts, I plan to continue posting on the presentation-related research I run across and maybe even conduct some small research projects of my own where possible.

I hope you will join me for a lively discussion and debate!