Microsoft did not invent PowerPoint.
That honor goes to a small company called Forethought, which released PowerPoint for the Mac in 1987.
The company was then purchased by Microsoft and the Windows version of PowerPoint eventually hit the market in 1990...and the world hasn't been the same since.
Photo credit: Microsoft
But did Microsoft invent the wordy, bulletpoint-ridden PowerPoint slide approach, the approach ridiculed by Edward Tufte and so many others?
I don't have the answer to that, but judging from the presentation visuals (slides) used by high-profile Microsoft executives, the company is certainly perpetuating this approach, an approach we'll call the "Microsoft Method."
Examples of the "Microsoft Method" of presentations
You can find a plethora of the actual PowerPoint files used in many Microsoft presentations, including those by CEO, Steve Ballmer and Chairman, Bill Gates. The company also provides many video streams to past presentations, often including written transcripts.
On November 7, Steve Ballmer kicked off the "Ready Launch Tour."
The audience for this presentation and others on the tour consist mainly of developers and database administrators. The keynote presentation was at a high-level and not overly technical.
The presentation was more of an opportunity for the CEO to show his leadership, vision, and what it all means. I don't have any problems with the content of Steve Ballmer's keynote.
My focus here is only on the slides he chose to use to support his messages.
But first, allow me to introduce another concept from the Zen aesthetic we can refer to when examining these visuals and our own visuals.
Shibumi
Shibumi is a principle that can be applied to many aspects of life. Concerning visual communication and graphic design, shibumi represents elegant simplicity and articulate brevity, an understated elegance.
In Wabi-Sabi Style, authors James and Sandra Crowley comment on the Japanese deep appreciation of beauty:
"Their (Japanese) conceptualization relegates elaborate ornamentation and vivid color usage to the bottom of the taste levels...excess requires no real thought or creativity. The highest level of taste moves beyond the usage of brilliant colors and heavy ornamentation to a simple and subdued refinement that is the beauty of shibumi, which represents the ultimate in good taste through conscious reserve. This is the original "less is more" concept. Less color — subdued and elegant usage of color, less clutter..."
— Wabi Sabi Style
I do not suggest you judge a presentation visual the same way you do a work of art, of course.
But understanding the essence of shibumi can have practical applications in your creative work. And I believe presentations are best viewed as creative endeavors — all of it — preparation, design, and delivery.
Below I show a few slides from Steve Ballmer's keynote while providing an in-depth analysis of what problems exist with them and how they could have been better handled.
Read on "The "Microsoft Method" of presentations" by Garr Reynolds, visual presentation guru at Presentation Zen.
