Dr. Lorimer Moseley is a pain scientist who says that pain is mostly a product of our mind. The structure of his talk follows Garr Reynolds' recommendation to start with a PUNCH. His story is Personal, Unexpected, Novel, Challenging, and Humorous. He first shares a personal story about feeling pain. But there is an unexpected twist that offers a novel perspective on where pain comes from and challenges the listeners' knowledge about why they hurt. Lastly, Dr. Moseley is humorous throughout the talk, playing to the Australian audience culture with language. This all helps capture and maintain the audience's attention.

What you may also notice, is that Dr. Moseley eschews the normal practice of bullet-point slides to guide his talk. Instead, he uses a natural, conversational tone to tell his story and explain the concept of pain being in the brain. Only in a few instances does he use very visual slides to clarify his talk. In fact, the key message of his talk was accomplished with a single slide.

Dr. Moseley and Sir Ken serve as excellent examples of how we can often say more with less on the screen.

What is a message you can share effectively with only one slide?

The newest tool explained in this video by Heather Ackmann looks powerful. It effectively allows you to take any old slidedeck and redesign with a click.

1. Focus on one major idea

2. Give people a reason to care
Get their permission to welcome you in. Stir your audience’s curiosity.
Reveal a disconnection in their world view.

3. Build your idea with familiar concepts

4. Make your idea worth sharing

(Click item to play that part of video)

1. Make it interactive

2. Share a part of yourself

3. Disclose just enough

4. Use good design

“Design can overcome our most deeply rooted stranger-danger bias.”

Great quotes

“High reputation beats high similarity.”
“Design won’t solve all the worlds problems,” but it can solve some of them.
“Design is much more than the look and feel of something, it’s the whole experience.”

Microsoft just announced a new version of PowerPoint for Office 365 that has two amazing new features to help you design presentations like a pro.

PowerPoint Designer

Design amazing slides with just 2 steps. Choose an image, from the web or your personal files, then choose an appropriate layout. Could this finally be the ticket to getting presenters to use full-bleed designs, easily?

Morph

A bit like Apple Keynote's Magic Move (which has been around for years), Morph will take objects on a series of slides and add seemless, animated transitions. Check out the video below to see what I mean.

Introducing PowerPoint Designer and Morp, two new features that enable anyone to create designer grade slides and cinematic like motion within their presentation.

Of course, it remains to be seen whether the feature will function as smoothly as this short video depicts it. Personally, I think it will take a bit of work behind the slides, so that the software knows what you're trying to do. In fact, this video from the Office 365 YouTube channel specifically mentions having to "hone your PowerPoint skills" to be able to create the transitions between slides.

What do you think? Are these welcome features? How do you think they'll help you present better? Keep in mind, these features require a monthly subscription to Office 365, and are not available on Mac.

The designers started with the one food item common in all cultures – a plate – and adopted the simple, circular shape as the foundation of their theme.

They then need only to change the color palette for each month's issue, and it makes it clear that, while they've moved onto another topic, the article still comprises the same series.

Due to the visual nature of the magazine, they incorporate full-bleed and half spread images with minimal text.

Inspired by such a simple yet beautiful layout, I adapted the design to a new Keynote 6.0 Theme that anyone can download and use for their next presentation.

Taking advantage of Keynote 6's new full-bleed image slides, quote slides, subtle and effective transitions, the Photo Magazine Theme is an excellent addition to your Template Chooser.

Simply download the file, double click, and select "Add to Theme Chooser."

The Photo Magazine Theme will then be available anytime you create a new presentation in Keynote 6.

Get the Template Free for a Limited Time!

Download the standard template free from Brainslides for a limited time.

As a proof of concept, and an exercise in reading research and designing presentations, I will periodically produce videos of me presenting a research paper via a Keynote presentation.

First up is a paper by Drs. Matthew McCoy and Christopher Kent of The Foundation for Vertebral Subluxation Research which outlines 5 goals for the future of chiropractic research.

I decided to build a custom theme based on the recent 8 month series called The Evolution of Diet in National Geographic issues from May-November. The design fit well with the broad perspective of the article covering just 5 key points.

Not only did I design the theme, review the article, and design the slides, but just this once I'm including a video of me presenting the information along with the slide presentation. Let me know what you think of the design and the video.

A few days ago I was priveleged to hear Neil deGrasse Tyson speak to a sold-out crowd in Portland, Oregon. At one point, a Microsoft employee sitting next to me chuckled, because Neil was struggling with his computer. I watched for a moment, and then I had to chuckle to myself – the Microsoft employee didn't have a clue what was going on!

I sat back and smiled as Dr. Tyson used some secret keyboard shortcuts - unique to Apple's Keynote - that made his presentation even more magical. He was adapting on the fly, jumping between slides at the beginning, middle, and end, without exiting his presentation and revealing his desktop, notes, or other slides.

In the video below I'll show you these awesome keyboard shortcuts you can use to keep your audience or students attentive while adapting on the fly.

Ignore Your Teacher. Or the Slides.

(It would probably be better to do the latter.) The problem with text filled slides and a lecturing professor is in our brains. Research shows that we simply cannot pay attention to two things at once. "But wait!" you say, "I can walk and chew gum and drive while on the phone. Isn't that multitasking?" Well, yes, it's a type of multitasking. We may be able to drive while talking on the phone (though not very safely), but chances are you're not intently focused on how many PSI your foot is placing on the accelerator, what make and model the cars around you are, or how fast to transfer your foot to the brake. The mechanics of driving have become ingrained in your muscle memory. You don't need to focus on every aspect of driving. Listening to a lecture on differential equations, for example, can be very different. Chances are you need to pay close attention to each word that comes from the professor's mouth so as not to get lost in the Greek! The problem is that when detailed slides call for the attention of our visual system while we are attempting to dedicate our auditory system to listening to the lecture, neither task gets full power and we end up absorbing a much smaller amount of information. So try focusing your attention on the professor. Pay attention to phrases she emphasizes, repeats, or takes a long pause after – these are usually important points. If the professor is using the PowerPoint slides as their teleprompter, then they aren't really there for the students anyway.

Play Word Search After Class

Ah, the elementary school game that has made it's way into the university. Students love it because they don't have to take notes. Teachers like them because they can get through their material more quickly than writing it all out on a board. I am, of course, talking about the slide handouts with one or two words missing from each slide that the student is to fill in during the lecture. There are a lot of things to like about this approach. Students really have to pay attention or they'll miss the special word, and they can relax once they have filled in the blank and just listen. However, the results may not be as great as you think. We'll have to spend time in another post to discuss the pros and cons, but for now we're talking about how a student can handle it. My advice – take notes. Use plain old paper and pencil. As Dr. Marian Diamond explains, it will increase retention by – get this – slowing you down. The brain needs time to process information and just hearing it in the lecture or reading it on the slide for 5-10 seconds isn't enough to reliably retain it.

Bonus Tip: You can still take advantage of those "word search slides." Pull them out after class (ideally within 2 hours of the lecture) and, without your notes, see if you can fill in the blanks. It will be a great exercise in retention and you'll have the complete slides to review from later.

"I can't keep up!"

The biggest challenge you'll have as a student in a bullet-point classroom is the pace. Because all of the information is revealed all at once, everyone (the teacher and students) will tend to glance over it relatively quickly without going into much detail. It is nearly impossible to write down everything on the slides, or everything the teacher says. I can't even type that fast and I test at 100 wpm or more! But don't worry! The point of notes isn't to reproduce a text book. You just need to take note of the most important points – you can look at all the slides later or refer to the textbook to add detail and fill in any gaps. Note taking is a developed skill and there are lots of different techniques. You can check out some suggestions online for Cornell Notes, MindMapping, or just plain outlining. It will take some time to get used to it and feel confident with what information is critical and what information you can let go of in the moment. If you're worried you'll miss something crucial, try recording the lecture. You can use a tape recorder, an iPod, or iPad apps like Soundnote and Mental Note. If you're really geeky like me, get yourself the LiveScribe pen which records audio and lets you digitally transfer your handwritten notes to your computer. And if you really are a nerd and want to do some risk free practice, you can start taking notes while watching lectures on YouTube, iTunes U, or TEDTalks!

Make Friends, Not Enemies

Hopefully, you can be a positive influence on your instructor's lecture style. I don't recommend criticizing their slides (they've worked really hard on them, no matter how bad they are). A "carrot-and-stick" approach may be appropriate: kindly e-mail them a link to BrainSlides or PresentationZen. At the end of the term you could thank them and give them a gift of a book like PresentationZen, Slide:ology, Resonate or Brain Rules. Whatever you do, don't fight bullets with bullets. It sends mixed messages and makes everyone defensive. It won't help you to build barriers between you and your professors, and can make it even more difficult when you need to get some one on one help during their office hours. That's why this post is about what the student can do to deal with bullet-point ridden slides.

In summary, don't split your attention between the slides and lecture, take notes the old fashioned way, and fill in the gaps after class. Spread the word about better slide design by sharing helpful resources, not correcting or criticizing. If you're a teacher, try taking the student's perspective to better understand what increases learning – you may be surprised what you discover!

For some other ideas on making the most of any lecture, check out these awesome blog posts:

How to Pay Attention During Even the Most Boring College Lecture

I prefer my professor’s illegible handwriting to your PowerPoint presentation

Faith Jegede: What I've learned from my autistic brothers

This TED talk is a perfect example of this technique. Watch it yourself, and see if you notice the trick. (It's only 5 minutes long.)

It's subtle isn't it? At the beginning of her talk, Faith has one simple request: "Don't tell me that I'm normal." She then introduces her two brothers, who happen to be autistic, and shares some of their special talents. Sam has an incredible memory, full of fun facts and trivia. Sam has unconditional love for life and others. But, Faith explains, each of them are far from normal. The first can't remember the simplest of events. The other can't talk. These differences are what make them special. Their autism is what makes them extraordinary. She tells us that normality overlooks the beauty that differences give us. Trying to be like other people robs us of our potential. And so, she again pleads, "Please, don't tell me that I'm normal."

The message is clear and powerful the second time around, but it relies on a primed mind to readily receive the relevant information. Establishing the context at the beginning helps the brain know where to store this new information. Repeating it at the end solidifies it, and locks it in.

Try using this technique in an upcoming lesson, and let me know how it goes.