Presentation Zen Design Quotes

“Getting the little things right is what sets professionals apart from amateurs.”
― Garr Reynolds, Presentation Zen Design: Simple Design Principles and Techniques to Enhance Your Presentations

“Humans are completely incapable of reading and comprehending text on a screen and listening to a speaker at the same time. Therefore, lots of text (almost any text!), and long, complete sentences are bad, Bad, BAD.”
― Garr Reynolds, Presentation Zen Design: Simple Design Principles and Techniques to Enhance Your Presentations

“People are only capable of absorbing a very small amount of material at a time. Therefore, it is counterproductive to throw up a slide with lots of text or complicated diagrams. Each change on the screen should relate to one simple new thought that should be expanded and explained by the presenter.”
― Garr Reynolds, Presentation Zen Design: Simple Design Principles and Techniques to Enhance Your Presentations

“Design isn’t just about iPods and cool products; it’s about improving people’s lives and making things clear and accessible. Design, at its most fundamental level, is about finding solutions.”
― Garr Reynolds, Presentation Zen Design: Simple Design Principles and Techniques to Enhance Your Presentations

“You learn the basics because they make your work easier and your designs better. — John McWade, designer and author”
― Garr Reynolds, Presentation Zen Design: Simple Design Principles and Techniques to Enhance Your Presentations

“• What will the display really show your audience? • How will it help them to see your point? • What is the essence of the point this particular chart helps to make? • Are any elements in this slide nonessential?”
― Garr Reynolds, Presentation Zen Design: Simple Design Principles and Techniques to Enhance Your Presentations

“Video can provide a welcome change of pace in a presentation. For longer presentations, it’s especially important to change up what you are doing. There is evidence that people’s attention really drops after about ten minutes. Unless you change some aspect of your presentation delivery from time to time, you are going to lose some of your audience. You cannot simply keep talking and dishing out new information. You must do something that is relevant to your topic—something that re-engages your audience or illustrates and supports your point in a different way. You can tell a story, give examples, explain a graph, show an illustration or photo, ask a question, and so on. And, of course, using video that relates to your point is also a great way to change pace and engage the viewer’s brain, bringing them deeper into your presentation.”
― Garr Reynolds, Presentation Zen Design: Simple Design Principles and Techniques to Enhance Your Presentations

“Here’s a key concept that is completely counterintuitive, but unbelievably powerful: “Say it, then show it,” rather than “Show it, then say it.” The vast majority of presenters put up a slide on the screen, glance at it, and then read it out loud to the audience. This is completely and disastrously wrong. The right way (but difficult until you’ve practiced enough to get comfortable with it) is to start talking about the next point while you are still on the previous slide, and only then bring up the new slide.”
― Garr Reynolds, Presentation Zen Design: Simple Design Principles and Techniques to Enhance Your Presentations