6
Ways to Quit
Bullet Points
with Style

Open any book on how to
design presentation slides,
and you’re guaranteed to see
an entire section on why
bullet points suck.

This isn’t unjustified.
After all, we’ve all suffered
from this experience…

Yucks
(See Fergus McAuliffe’s full
TED talk on how to tell a
captivating story of science)

So ok, we don’t want to do
that… but what are some
alternatives?
How can we not only quit
the bullet point, but quit it
with style?

Let’s look at 6 designs that
are simple yet effective.

Let’s look at 6 designs that
are simple yet effective.
BTW: The 6th option is the
most difficult yet offers the
biggest potential payoff. Stick
with me ‘til the end to see
what it is!

Before we dive in, let’s cover
some ground work.
Here’s an example of your
typical, brain death-
inducing bullet point slide:

A Good TED Talk:
1. Should offer new value, new insight to the
audience, something they’d never heard before.
If people already know it, why do they need to
listen to you?
2. Should be passionate and authentic. The
speakers must live and breathe their messages,
and be ready to show their true, even vulnerable
selves
3. Should use stories and examples. Stories are the
killer app of presentations. People simple love
stories. They trigger the senses and help the
audience see, smell, and touch – not just hear –
your talk.

Disastrous.
The first thing to do is to
identify the key words.
Luckily they’re already there
for the plucking.

A Good TED Talk:
1. Should offer new value, new insight to the
audience, something they’d never heard before.
If people already know it, why do they need to
listen to you?
2. Should be passionate and authentic. The
speakers must live and breathe their messages,
and be ready to show their true, even vulnerable
selves
3. Should use stories and examples. Stories are
the killer app of presentations. People simple
love stories. They trigger the senses and help the
audience see, smell, and touch – not just hear –
your talk.

Unless you have a great
reason for the audience to
see & remember every
single word, it’d be best to
keep the key words and
cut everything else.

A Good TED Talk:
1. Should offer new value
2. Should be passionate and
authentic
3. Should use stories and
examples

Brain death averted!
But not all is well… because
such slides are simply not
pleasing to the eyes, and yes,
aesthetics matter!
Let’s look at the options.

1
One point,
One slide

This is the most widely-used
option.
Let’s take the earlier slide on
TED talks, and give each
point its own slide, with
awesome pictures, like this:

New & Valuable1

Passion & Authenticity2

Stories & Examples3

Different, isn’t it?
This puts more emphasis on
the individual points, and
gives them powerful visual
support.

“Then I’ll have too many
slides! It’ll take too long!”
Actually, it won’t.

If you’re going to cover each
point anyway, it really doesn’t
matter that the points are on
separate slides rather than one.
1 2 3 4

“Wait! But I prefer to give my
audience an overview, so I
need them on one slide!”
Fair point.
Let’s look at the next options.

2
Keywords
plus photos
on one page

Let’s keep all the points &
photos, but combine them
into a single slide:

Stories &
Examples
New &
Valuable
Passion &
Authenticity

Have the points appear one
by one so as to avoid
having the audience “read
ahead” while you’re talking.
As each new point appears,
de-emphasize the earlier
points, like this:

New &
Valuable

New &
Valuable
Passion &
Authenticity

Stories &
Examples
Passion &
Authenticity
New &
Valuable

This helps the audience focus
on the current point, while
still having access to the
previous points.

Got more items to talk about?
No problem.

*From People,Not Candidates by Dave Hazlehurst on Slideshare

Or you could try a
horizontal orientation:

Safe Nuclear?
Energy Efficiency
Renewable Energy
Recycling

Notice that the photos
are color-tinted green
so they seem like parts
of a whole.
This simple trick helps
maintain cohesion while
using photos from
different sources.

3
Keywords
plus icons
on one page

Another trendy option is to
combine key words not with
photos, but with icons.
Even the United Nations does
this, like with the Sustainable
Development Goals:

They went
from this…

To this.

More pleasing and inviting,
isn’t it?
Here’s another example.

I recently designed a client’s
presentation on 8 key factors
of Silicon Valley’s Innovation
Ecosystem.
A traditional slide might have
looked like this:

SiliconValley Innovation Ecosystem: 8 keys
1. Many Silicon Valley companies have built-in exit strategy: e.g. to be
acquired by other companies.The founders can then move on to
build the next advance.
2. Successful entrepreneurs often become angel investors that help
nurture the next generation of startup founders.
3. Elite schools such as Stanford and Berkeley feature top research
programs that collaborate successfully with industry, and also train
elite talent that constantly bring new blood to the startup scene.
4. A strong garage culture means anyone can be building the next
great business or technology anywhere.
5. Silicon Valley’s unique environment also attracts the best and
brightest from around the world.
6. One of the big factors in attracting talent is its incredibly hospitable
climate, Spring-like for 8-10 months of the year.
7. Another factor is the infrastructure, which greatly facilitates both a
high living standard and the ease of doing business.
8. Finally, Silicon Valley’s community and culture is incredibly
accepting – even encouraging – towards failure.Where other places
look down upon failed businesses, Silicon Valley folks would pat
you on the back and say:“Keep trying!”

I re-designed it into the
next slide for a Chinese-
speaking audience.
But you don’t need to
speak Chinese to see the
difference.

失敗
鼓勵失敗
從中學習
天使護航
Exit
Strategy
EXIT
頂尖學府
20 C
四季如春
車庫文化
完善支援
全球精英
矽谷創新
生態系統

Again, have the icons
appear in the order you’re
narrating the points, so as
to focus the audience’s
attention.

Ok. So those were three
rather common designs.
Now let’s look at three
less common ones.

4
Alternate
background
images

Putting lots of point + photos
on screen requires tiny, almost invisible
pictures…
What if you wanted every
point on screen, but to use
BIGphotos?

Here’s one way.
Keep the points on one side,
and just alternate the
background picture, like
these next slides on disasters:

This allows you to use larger
photos for impact, yet still
reminds your audience of the
previous points.

Bill Gates used this technique
beautifully in his TED talk
Innovating to Zero.
He explained different parts
of a key formula by switching
background pictures:

*Screenshot of Bill Gates TED Talk: Innovating to Zero,TED Global 2010

*Screenshot of Bill Gates TED Talk: Innovating to Zero,TED Global 2010

*Screenshot of Bill Gates TED Talk: Innovating to Zero,TED Global 2010

5
Highlight
different parts
of a text wall

Let’s say you have a huge list of
things to talk about.
The usual “expert” advice is to
cut it down. Drastically.

But let’s try something else.
Instead of cutting the list down,
just put all of them up – as a
“text wall”.
And selectively highlight
different parts:

il wells ran dry natural gas depletion peak coa
odiversity loss mass coral reef die-out fisherie
ollapse extinction mass forest die-off ocean ac
tion desertification all bees disappeared drou
e avalanches earthquakes tsunamis typhoons
ooding extreme weather hurricanes blizzards
nowstorm sea-level rise cities under water coa
eas retreat $trillions in damages insurance lo
splacement food production drops sharply
assive crises mass hunger social crises politic
pheaval depression violent conflicts political

il wells ran dry natural gas depletion peak coa
odiversity loss mass coral reef die-out fisherie
ollapse extinction mass forest die-off ocean ac
tion desertification all bees disappeared drou
e avalanches earthquakes tsunamis typhoons
ooding extreme weather hurricanes blizzards
nowstorm sea-level rise cities under water coa
eas retreat $trillions in damages insurance lo
splacement food production drops sharply
assive crises mass hunger social crises politic
pheaval depression violent conflicts political

il wells ran dry natural gas depletion peak coa
odiversity loss mass coral reef die-out fisherie
ollapse extinction mass forest die-off ocean ac
tion desertification all bees disappeared drou
e avalanches earthquakes tsunamis typhoons
ooding extreme weather hurricanes blizzards
nowstorm sea-level rise cities under water coa
eas retreat $trillions in damages insurance lo
splacement food production drops sharply
assive crises mass hunger social crises politic
pheaval depression violent conflicts political

The wall of text conveys
overwhelming abundance:
“Wow there’re A LOT of
disasters!” (You could also use
it to convey good overwhelm.)
And yet it allows you to drill in
on each specific item.

This idea has been used in
various designs, such as the
cover for Nate Silver’s superb
The Signal and the Noise.

And now…
The 6th option – the most
difficult yet with the greatest
potential payoff…

6
Rethink the
List entirely!

Actually, this should probably
be your first question:“Is
the list just a loose ‘list’?
“Or is there structure to their
relationship that can be
visually represented?”

If you can find a visual
structure, this can be a huge
help to the audience to better
understand and remember
your points.

Take this loose list, for instance:
• Friendship
• Family
• Confidence
• Sex
• Loyalty
• Creativity
• Good food
• Art
• Leisure
• Respect
• Intimacy
• Achievement
• Meaning
• Security
• Expression
• Music
• Autonomy
• Sleep

By organizing these into a
hierarchy, Maslow
made them more
memorable &
influential
*Source:Wiki Commons

Here’s another cool example.
At the recent TEDxTaipei event,
BMW’s Alexander Kotouc spoke
about the future modes of
transportation.

Thankfully, he didn’t give us a
boring list of transportation
technologies.
Instead, he re-organized these in
terms of his own journey from
Germany to Taipei.

Germany
Taipei
He took us through
each “leg” of
his journey…
*This is a mock-up of his slides, as the video
of his talk has not be released yet.

Germany
Taipei
... and outlined
the futuristic tech
that will likely
appear for each.

Germany
Taipei
*This is a mock-up of his slides, as the video
of his talk has not be released yet.
This was way, way
more memorable
than a simple list.

Here’re some other common ways
to organize a list:
By time
By location
By step in a process
By function

You could also find metaphors
to organize your points.
Take, for instance, how speaker
Roger Dooley organized his
ideas about persuasion:

Certainly more arresting and
memorable than a list!
Let’s look at one more example:
a hypothetical defense system:

Defense System
1. Be able to detect threats well ahead of time, in
order to give the system time to react
2. Be able to verify the nature of the threat so as to
distinguish between real danger and false alarm,
and to determine appropriate response
3. Be able to move quickly to intercept the threats
before they cause significant damage
4. Be able to quickly and effectively destroy the
threats once it has been intercepted

Boooooooooring as hell.
So let’s get a little playful with
this.Why not use, say…

Boooooooooring as hell.
So let’s get a little playful with
this.Why not use, say…
A guard dog?

Inu Defense, Inc.

Detect threat
Inu Defense, Inc.

Detect threat
Verify threat
Inu Defense, Inc.

Detect threat
Move to
intercept
Verify threat
Inu Defense, Inc.

Detect threat
Move to
intercept
Verify threat
Destroy threat
Inu Defense, Inc.

Inu Defense, Inc.
Disclaimer:
Only functional
with abundant
naps & snacks

Fact is, bullet points are
always the easiest option,
but rarely the best.
With just a bit of effort and
creativity, your slides can be
way easier to understand,
love, and remember!

6
Ways to Quit
Bullet Points
with Style

Thanks for Reading!
Find more goodies at www.podiumwisdom.com
Connect with me on Twitter: @podiumwisdom