Clear and to the Point: 8 Psychological Principles for Compelling PowerPoint Presentations

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Customer Reviews:

If you're new to presentations, this is good but otherwise, you will find little value. [Posted on 2007-12-03]
This book is filled with very basic advice - much of which is very intiutive. For example, there are a lot of Do's and Dont's. Some of the do's and dont's:

dont vary bullets arbitrarily (one bullet is round, second is a ~, third is #, fourth is >).

dont present one giant list of items on a slide, do categorize them

dont make the subheading of your title slide more salient (visible, eye catching) than the heading. do make the heading more salient than subheading.

dont vary color in your presentation purely for decoration, do vary for emphasis

don't use underline, do use bold italics, etc.

This book is filled with probably 50 pages of such examples since each do and dont takes up a full page (sometimes two).

the 8 principles are also very simple things you would learn from watching a few well done presentations online such as talking at the right level, not trying to cram too much in people's heads at once, keeping focused on what you want people to get out of the presentation, etc.

If you are new to presentations, this is a good book for you. If you are familiar with giving presentations, you're better off trying a different book.

great book [Posted on 2008-02-08]
This is a great book. I really liked the psicological approach and the appendix where the author goes with more detailed scientific description of how psicology interacts with communications and powerpoint.

Great Thoughts [Posted on 2008-02-27]
Having studied Psychology in College it was refreshing to see Psychological principles applied to PowerPoint.
I believe we do have to consider psychology when making presentations that connect. Kosslyn goes along way to reaching that goal. A lot of the ideas I have heard at other places and seminars. It was nice to see them all listed in one source.

Eight principles lost in a forest of recommendations [Posted on 2008-03-25]
The idea seems good -- eight principles for compelling PowerPoint presentations. But the execution is neither clear nor to the point. For example, chapter 2, the first chapter of substance, lists eight recommendations for overall structure, five recomendations for building the introduction, ten recommendations for the body of the presentation, three recommendations for the wrap-up, and five recommendations for delivery (that's 31 recommendations in all), before returning to the eight psychological principles. And that, as I said, is only chapter 2. Other chapters are similarly ungainly.

In addition, as other reviewers point out, many of the suggestions are barely worth the paper they're printed on. For example, "start with a bang" or "face the audience."

In short, this is a book that will overwhelm novice presenters and bore experienced ones. Find another.

Where research and practice meet [Posted on 2008-06-11]
Finally!, a book that engages visual communication practice with cognitive
neuroscience and psychology research. Too often these areas live separately
and as a graphic designer professor, I find the Kosslyn's content invaluable.
As producers of visual communication, students should know what is going
on in the mind of their users. I plan on adding Clear and to the Point to my
course reading list.

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