Lynell Burmark • May 2000 Page 1 of 3

Enhancing Multimedia Presentations

Dr. Lynell Burmark • Thornburg Center • lynellb@pacbell.net

Elements of a successful presentation:1) Content (What)2) Technique (How)3) Purpose/Impact (Why/Who)

Balance between content & glitz:David Thornburg’s design coursemultiplying grades for content andtechnique (10 x 10 = 100)

Batting 1000:Multiplying by the third factor,Purpose/Impact, 10 x 10 x 10 = 1000.If any element scores a zero, what is thetotal (multiplied) score?

Impact occurs when the audience changesits behavior because of your presentation.

Think of Billy Graham. Howmany millions of lives havechanged because of his messages?

His content and delivery arealways 10s. And at the end ofevery sermon you see the impact.

Remember, the purpose is not onlyto have a message (content), andto impress (technique), but alsoto influence (impact).

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MMMMUUUUSSSSIIIICCCC sets the tone in any presentation(think of commercial jingles) for the messageto follow. Discuss the impact that music inads has on buying decisions. Look for sourcesof music to use in presentations.

If music sets the tone, CCCCOOOOLLLLOOOORRRR sets themood. Sometimes, all we need is black andwhite – as in historical photos. But, in othercases, color makes the objects more enticing.Did you ever wonder why restaurant menusare printed in color?

Try shining a blue light in your refrigerator, orputting a hot pink box on the table. What arethe reactions?

And why do we use yellow highlighers?(Hint: of all the 16.7 million colors thathumans can see, we are most attracted toyellow.) What is America’s favorite color?_____________________________________

What combination both calms and attracts?_____________________________________

HHHHUUUUMMMMOOOORRRR can also attract attention in apresentation. In workshops we do on changeand technology, people are under a lot ofstress. Laughing about it doesn’t diminish thechallenge, but it can help relieve the stress.

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Humor can be tricky. What one person findsamusing will not necessarily tickle the nextperson.... We can raise the bar on humor byonly using it in its positive, nurturing forms.

TTTTEEEEXXXXTTTT can be used effectively to communicate ina visual presentation. A few caveats:

Point size. Think of the size of text as an eyeexam. Type lines of text in decreasing point sizes(from 72 point down to 18 point), with one sizeper line. Then ask the people in the back rowwhich is the last line they can read.(One way you can test it out ahead of time: Ifyou stand 10 feet back from your computerscreen, whatever you can read off that screenyour audience should be able to read off theprojected image.)

Six by six rule. On one screen, there should beno more than six lines down, and no more thansix words across.

CCCCAAAAPPPPSSSS vs lower case. Limit the number ofwords you put in all capital letters, because theymake text harder to read. (The ascenders anddescenders in lower case letters give us morevisual clues.)

Serifs. Lower case letters are easier to read infonts with serifs – Times or Palatino

– rather than Helvetica.

Spelling. As Dan Quayle learned the hard way,a misplaced vowel can haunt you for life....

VVVVIIIISSSSUUUUAAAALLLLSSSS are more compelling than text.We all know the saying, “A picture’s worth athousand words.” Actually, according toresearch done by 3M Corporation:

Humans process visuals66,000 times faster

than text!

Part of the reason has to do with the level ofabstraction. The most abstract representationwould be text, then a graphic (like clip art),and least abstract would be a photo.

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PPPPhhhhoooottttoooossss can particularly useful when theaudience does not all bring the same lifeexperiences to the session. The same wordscan mean different things to different people,e.g., “hot dog.”Photos also contain more emotion and canshow people known to the audience (theBoard member’s granddaughter, etc.).

CCCChhhhiiiillllddddrrrreeeennnn’’’’ssss aaaarrrrtttt is a powerful alternativeor complement to photos, because it is soexpressive. Children tell us what is importantto them by the relative size of objects, and bywhat they include in a drawing.

GGGGrrrraaaapppphhhhssss are another means of visualcommunication. And with the transitions inyour slide show program (Wipe Up), you canmake bar charts seem to grow.NOTE: 14% of our population cannot readinformation from static graphs. All of us“get” the information faster with motion.

TTTTeeeemmmmppppllllaaaatttteeeessss that come with softwarearen’t always the best. Consider scanningyour own....

SSSSOOOOFFFFTTTTWWWWAAAARRRREEEE essential to a presentationwould include scanning software (comes withyour scanner), PhotoShop and your slideshow maker.Once the photos are scanned and saved at300 dpi (in case you ever want to print theimages), you reopen them in PhotoShopwhere you can “edit” them, saturate thecolors, and crop and save the images (in thesize that fits your slide show) as JPEGs at72 dpi.

HHHHAAAARRRRDDDDWWWWAAAARRRREEEE can make all the difference.Instead of having the audience crowd around amonitor or a TV, we have moved to LCDprojection as a presentation standard.

The rule of thumb for screen size is that you need2 inches for every person in the audience if youare going to project text. So, for 20 students in aclassroom, you need a 40” television set. (Thestandard 27” TV works for a maximum of 13students.)

Another problem with the television sets isresolution. They project approximately 500pixels across by 300 pixels high. Most of ourcomputers now display an image 1024 pixelsacross by 768 pixels high. The TV has to“discard” the extra pixels.

A good example of the image quality for text isto watch the credits at the end of a TV movie.Would you like to be doing text editing on thattext? It’s just the wrong tool for the job....

The LCD projector mantra:Cheaper . . . costs down to $4000 - 7000 rangeLighter . . . weight down to under 15 poundsClearer . . . resolutions of SVGA, XGA, beyondBrighter . . . 1000 - 2000 lumens common

OOOOnnnneeee----tttthhhhiiiirrrrdddd////ttttwwwwoooo----tttthhhhiiiirrrrddddssss rrrruuuulllleeee.... When usan LCD projector, try to keep the front third ofthe room dark; allow normal lighting (for notetaking, human interaction) in the back two thirdsof the room. The most important thing is to keeplight (particularly sunlight, florescent lighting)from shining directly onto the screen.When designing presentation rooms, make surethe banks of lights are parallel to the screen andthat the front bank (or two) can be turned offindependently from the rest of the lights in theroom. It doesn’t cost any more to do it right!

WWWWHHHHYYYY???? Why do we bother with makingpresentations? What can we achieve with visualsand with music that we could not with handoutsof textual material?Remember, all the technology – all the technique– must be in the service of the content and thepurpose. When we feel passionate about that,we will have an impact.