Advanced Presentations by Design: Creating Communication That Drives Action

by Andrew V. Abela

Advanced Presentations by Design overturns much of the conventional wisdom and practice for creating presentations. Based on over 200 research studies from the fields of communication, marketing, psychology, multimedia, and law, it provides fact-based answers to critical questions about presentation design, including how to adapt your presentation to different audience personality preferences, what role your data should play and how much of it you need, how to turn your data into a story, and how to design persuasive yet comprehensible visual layouts.

Genres: Business, Nonfiction, Design

195 pages, Paperback

First published August 20, 2008

Reviews

[Roger K. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book should be required reading for anyone before they touch another presentation. While the author's website (www.extremepresentation.com) has much of the information in this book, the level of detail and specifics is helpful to apply it successfully.

Abela's 10-step Extreme Presentation method is based on both his research and that of others. It overturns much of the conventional wisdom on how to display information. For example, slides with a lot of detail are not necessarily bad. You need to first understand the intent of your presentation and the best way to achieve it.

If you want your presentations to drive action, you need to read this book.

[Carlos G. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good approach in how to create a presentation. It focuses on how to design the material and topics of the presentation. No tips or advice on the delivery of it, just on what to include and how to define the sequence of the points to be presented.
The autor uses plenty of references to support his ideas, and this is good approach as many of the other books in the subject don't do it this way.

[Eduard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Creating meaningful presentations can be daunting, especially for guys like me who have a background in Natural Sciences where diagrams of the subject matter take several minutes figuring out is the norm.
The book introduces an approach how to get the message you are trying to convey across in a business setting. Several books I have read focus on either the technique (visual design, fonts, colors, etc.) or on a method ("tell a story") which seldom work in a business setting. Especially in every day situations where you are not presenting to a crowd of 100s, a presentation has a certain "document" feeling and character. The approach in this book takes this into account and helps you to create a presentation for such settings. It also shows how to support your message with visual cues and such and based on that it is only a small step to technique.

Conclusion: anyone creating presentations should read it before diving into books about technique.

[Erik · Rating 5 out of 5]

All the other high-end presentation books I own focus on the 10 largest (meaning audience size) presentations a person is likely to give. This book focuses on all the other, smaller, conference-room presentations (in comparison to ballroom-style presentations) we give. His advice was great, and has really shiftedd my design thinking. As a plus all of his advice comes from social science research on how to persuade and educate people, so his techniques are likely to be more then just the latest fad.

[Ruxandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very useful advice, summarizes the conclusions of various types of research regarding presentation effectiveness. Well organized & documented. I definitely recommend it!

[Daniel Kang · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great ideas, but perhaps the proof in the pudding is trying to implement it to your slides...

[Jediah Logiodice · Rating 5 out of 5]

After 20 years of presentations, which includes both formal and informal training; I learned a lot. I will no longer have to start my presentations staring at a blank PowerPoint slide and thinking, "Where do I go from here".