How to present numbers with flair.
Delivering a presentation filled with numbers/statistics creates an added challenge for any presenter. For expert advice, Recharged Education invited Michael Campbell, Radiate Presentation Design, to offer tips. Before stepping in front of another audience, whether it is your management or industry peers, ensure your presentation meets Michael’s “three Bs” of presenting numbers.
The Three Bs of Presenting Numbers
by Michael Campbell, Radiate Presentation Design
In the time it takes you to read this sentence, millions of presentations have begun in boardrooms, conference rooms and coffee shops around the world. And while I don’t have an exact figure, we can assume these presentations feature a goodly share of numbers—lots of numbers. As vital symbols for storytelling, numbers quantify progress and failure. They offer a sense of scope and scale. They add, subtract, multiply and divide our understanding of a situation. Unfortunately, a vast percentage of these numbers are unreadable, under-utilized and under-valued in presentations.
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“You probably can’t read this in the back row.”
We’ve all been in the back row for these presentations. Heck, even the folks in the front row are squinting as the speaker clicks through spreadsheets and screen shots with tiny numbers. How do we stop the madness? How do we give numbers their due? It’s simple, really. When building presentations, we need to be mindful of the three "Bs" of presenting numbers: make them Big, Bold and Beautiful.
Big Numbers
Wizards are one of the biggest problems in presentations today. Not the white-bearded fellows who take you on quests for dragon’s gold. I’m talking about the step-by-step, "hand-holding" assistants in programs like Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint. Wizards promise "beautiful charts and graphs" in minutes—no design experience necessary—just turn the crank and Voila! Unfortunately, most people don’t look back after they’ve clicked "Create Chart.” The result is usually a pie or bar chart with a Day-Glo palette and tiny numbers in Arial Bold. Few presenters stop to consider the readability of these "insta-charts" for their audience—especially the poor folks in the back row who are destined to receive an apology from the speaker for the “eye-chart.”
If you are using a wizard, take another moment to review and reflect on the readability of the chart or graph. Step back eight feet from your monitor. Can you read it? Think about your audience. Can they read it? Guess what? You’re more powerful than a wizard. You can override their wizarding results. Double-click the numbers and double their size from 12 point to 24 point. Change the colors—double-click and darken pie slices for greater contrast. It only takes a few minutes and a few extra steps to ensure your audience gets the true impact of the numbers.
Figure 1 - The pie chart on the left is directly from the PowerPoint chart wizard. The pie chart on the right shows what five minutes of editing can do to improve readability.
Bold Numbers
A no-brainer, you say? Just click the "B" on the formatting toolbar and "BAM!" your numbers are bold. Yes, formatting numbers with bold helps readability; however, let’s consider another definition of boldness. I’m talking about Mick Jagger boldness. As the front man of one of the biggest arena acts of the late 20th and early 21st centuries, Jagger uses his voice and body language to entertain his fans—even in the upper deck—with no apologies. So why are so many presenters hiding their numbers in text-heavy bullets? Let your numbers stand out. Give them the spotlight. Give them the microphone. Let them rock the audience.
What’s bolder than a giant set of digits in the middle of a slide? BAM! Now, that’s bold! A celebratory number shouting: we met our goal. A big, bad number representing an obstacle to overcome. A giant target number you want to burn into the memories of your team.
As you review your slides, consider the importance of each number. Find opportunities for boldness. Look for the numbers deserving the spotlight.
Figure 2 – The Rolling Stones wouldn’t get any satisfaction with the top slide—their achievements are buried in the bullets. The slide on the bottom pulls out the big numbers and helps the audience visually grasp their achievements.
Beautiful Numbers
Are you ready for some brain science? When the human brain detects a presentation with the fonts Arial or Calibri, the visual cortex flips an internal switch, sending the brain into a mild state of catatonia. Okay, I made that up. There is, however, some truth to the stimulating effect of beauty on the human brain. What does this all mean for our numeric heroes? There is a big wide world of typography to explore and plenty of free fonts to download and try (check out www.fontsquirrel.com for starters). Don’t stick with the default fonts. Go forth and find a font to enhance the readability and aesthetics of your charts, graphs and tables.
Wait! Hold on—not so fast. Here are some parting words of advice on this subject:
- Avoid cursive or script fonts. While beautiful, most often they are not appropriate for displaying numbers.
- Take a look at fonts like Bebas Neue and Passion One (both available on Font Squirrel).
- Don’t beautify fonts with drop shadows, 3D effects or anything listed under a menu called “Type Effects.”
- Look around. Take note of the use of typography in the world around you. I’ve found inspiration in breakfast cereal boxes, ESPN motion graphics, infographics and billboards. Pinterest is a great resource for ideas.
Figure 3 – Default fonts like Calibri and Arial (top row) are serviceable as readable text, but there can be beauty in numbers. The beautiful fonts above in the lower half of the figure (second row l-r): Bebas Neue, Passion One, Montserrat (third row l-r): Brooklyn Samuels, Recovery.
About the Guest Blogger
Michael Campbell is a Presentation Strategist and Creative Director at Radiate Presentation Design in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Radiate helps clients like Cargill, Land O’Lakes, Hewlett-Packard and Medtronic connect with their audiences using memorable content and visual storytelling. Campbell has a passion for making his clients’ voices heard, their messages understood, and their visions realized. You can view project samples and read more about Radiate at www.radiatepresents.com.