CHANNEL THEIR INNER ZEN 97
Picture Superiority Effect
By now I hope you have decided to gather up your current slides,
especially those with bullet points, and burn them. At least burn
them digitally by deleting them and emptying your recycle bin
STEVE’S WORDS STEVE’S SLIDES
“And as that happens, Genius just gets
smarter, and smarter, and smarter.”
Genius logo in cloud
replaced with word
“Smarter”“Everybody benefits. When we send back
down Genius results to you, they are tailored
to your music library.”
Arrow appears moving
downward from cloud to
iTunes library image“So, automatically make playlists from songs
in your library that go great together, with
just one click. That’s what Genius is about.”
[moves to demo]
According to Garr Reynolds, there is a clear Zen aesthetic to
Jobs’s slides. “In Jobs’s slides, you can see evidence of restraint,
simplicity, and powerful yet subtle use of empty space.”^21 Top
designers such as Reynolds say the biggest mistake business
professionals make is filling up every centimeter of the slide.
Nancy Duarte describes white space as giving your slides
visual breathing room. “Visible elements of a slide often receive
the most focus. But you need to pay equal attention to how
much space you leave open... It’s OK to have clear space—
clutter is a failure of design.”^22 Duarte says it’s “laziness” on the
part of the presenter to put everything on one slide.
Dense information and clutter requires too much effort
for your audience. Simplicity is powerful. Empty space implies
elegance, quality, and clarity. To see examples of how design-
ers use space, visit some slide design contest winners at
Slideshare.net (slideshare.net/contest/results-2008).White Space