The Zen Aesthetic
Building a presentation that illustrates your story
Stewart Mader

simple slides

Image Credit: Presentation Zen
complex and unreal

Image Credit: Presentation Zen
still too complex

Image Credit: Presentation Zen
better

best
slide shows the statistic, and you explain what it means
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good for transitioning from one point to another,
and keeps the audience from feeling overwhelmed

Image Credit: Presentation Zen

use quotes

“
Never having used a Wiki before, I was a bit
nervous about how well it would go over with
students and how smoothly the process would
work. I presented the new method to the students
during our seminar, and we allowed time at the
end of class for data entry...to my amazement, the
entire process went entirely flawlessly. I think part
of its success can be credit to the fact that
students are used to technology, and the wiki
capitalizes on the strengths of its audience by
”
having an easy-to-understand user interface.

The best new technological
innovations, “take what 10% of the
population had previously been able
to do and make that capability
available to 90% of the population.
That’s what blogs and wikis have
done."
David Wiley
http://opencontent.org/blog/archives/241

use images

distill complex concepts into
simple visuals

Image Credit: Presentation Zen

Cost
Scale
Ease

ask questions

?
what is it?

make lists
without
bullets
...you don’t write bullets do you?

show examples

Before
excel template
students collect data; perform individual
analysis
excel files emailed to TA
TA compiles data and performs analysis for
next class

Issues
students didn’t follow template
clogged email inbox (don’t we already have this
problem?!)
TA had to manually copy and paste data,
reformat it, and correct errors
Then...
Perform analysis for next class

“
What would have taken me at least 3 hours of
opening emails, downloading files, fixing formatting,
cutting and pasting, checking my work, and emailing
the master file back to the students, took less than
”
15 minutes.

“
Students noticed that the wiki has potential for
making collaboration easy by:
removing the back-and-forth process,
eliminating the errors that are usually inherent in
the simultaneous editing of one file on different
computers, and
preventing the mistakes that typically arise when
”
one person is in charge of compiling many files.

presentations are underdeveloped
topic content message delivery
when development
stops here, the result
is the stereotypical
bullet point bonanza
most bullet point presentations are either:
handouts in disguise or speaker’s notes

It’s best to start with as little structure
as possible. Only add more structure
when it proves to be needed.
Ken Tyler, seedwiki.com

presentationzen.com

ikiw.org
(wiki spelled backward)

The Zen Aesthetic
Building a presentation that illustrates your story
Stewart Mader