The Magical ALT Key
July 29, 2009Dave Paradi’s book The Visual Slide Revolution is the first book I’ve seen that correctly diagnosed the business shift toward visual communications. Rather than focusing on design principles, Paradi goes directly to work telling business persons how to design slides that are clear and persuasive.
His KWICK method is easy to learn, practical enough to apply right away, and you’ll see instant results.
Key Point – every slide needs a key message. If you aren’t clear on your key message, it’s pretty sure your audience won’t be any clearer.
Words that Suggest the Visual – look for keywords in the slide headline that suggest what visual you should use. For instance, “increasing” suggests a line chart, “causes” suggests a cause-effect diagram.
In Context – consider your audience, their level of knowledge, and customize the slide to their level of knowledge.
Crystal Clear – double-check your slide for anything that’s not immediately clear. Use callouts (small boxes of text) as appropriate to clarify the slide’s message
Keep Focus – use visuals to support the slide’s message, not for decoration.
Paradi uses visuals extensively, showing before and after slides to bring the concepts to life. Visual Slide Revolution is a quick read, in part because each visual is worth a thousand words and in part because it isn’t full of extra pages that aft heft to the book but not useful content. I finished the book in about two hours and the message was 100% clear. We need more books like this.
You don’t have to be an artist to create slides the Visual Slide Revolution way. Paradi’s slides are not pretty, but they are clear, showing that even for the most left-brain artistically-challenged business person, you too can create clear PowerPoint slides.
My only criticism is the book is self-published and is not attractively formatted. That’s a shame because the humble appearance does not give this book the stage it deserves. But don’t let that fool you; Paradi has absolutely captured the key elements of clear PowerPoint slides. This deserves a spot on your bookshelf.
Also check out Paradi’s YouTube channel for a gold mine of before and after slide makeovers.
The Visual Slide Revolution is available on Amazon, and is also available at the author’s website. Highly recommended and an important foundation for all kinds of visual communications.
About the author: Bruce Gabrielle is author of Speaking PowerPoint: the new language of business, showing a 12-step method for creating clearer and more persuasive PowerPoint slides for boardroom presentations. Subscribe to this blog or join my LinkedIn group to get new posts sent to your inbox.
