Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery (Voices That Matter)

My manager and a few on the team have been fans for a long time, including participating on his blog. We bought the book and then had him come to campus to teach in person. Best 8 hours I've spent! Love him, love the book.

I had finished Garr's book in 2 days. I found it inspiring, motivating and well designed.

The book is an easy read with good example slides, designs and lots of useful references.

I suggest this book to everyone who wants to improve the effectiveness of their presentations.

This book is very good on the philosophy behind "designing" presentations. On how to use visuals and how to make your presentation into an engaging story. Unfortunately the book focuses too much on visuals and on (a bit superficial) presentation and design philosophy. Also the author contradicts himself with the last chapters in the book which are completely unneccessary. While in the first half of the book he argues convincingly for less is more. A bit more facts and figures or bulletpoints might help this book. But maybe those are in the handout? I recommend this book for those who are first time presenters or when looking for new twists. But it might be a bit lightweight for people who have to give "deep" presentations.

For anyone tired of putting his or her presentation audiences to sleep, here are some wonderful ideas based on a sound philosophy of visual communication. Highly recommended.

PresentationZen isn't really a book about specific techniques; it's about understanding and applying simple principles from Zen to your overall approach to, preparation for, design of, and delivery of your message.

Garr Reynolds invites the reader into his mind as he prepares a presentation. We see his narrowing down the presentation to a core message, then fleshing out the ideas on white board flows, paper storyboards, and post-its. He explains there are three parts of the presentation - the slides, your notes, and the handout - and how each is approached very differently. He speaks out against what's now acceptable as a "slideument," and how slideumentation is killing presentations at conferences and perpetuating the "Death By PowerPoint" phenomenon.

When he gets to design, he illustrates how three Zen principles - Kanso (Simplicity), Shizen (Naturalness), and Shibumi (Elegance) - can work together to create slides that help convey your message. Other non-Zen principles (design, story, symphony, empathy, play, meaning, enthusiasm, and surprise) are also thoroughly discussed throughout the book, and ultimately applied to his slide design.

Okay, I said the book is about principles rather than techniques... that doesn't mean there is no technique in the book. About half way into the book, Garr shifts into technique and starts showing before and afters to illustrate how the techniques are used to apply the principles. The difference between this book and other "before and after" books is that Garr doesn't just show you one bad example followed by the fix; instead he shows a set of bad slides covering the same content, and a set of different ways the principles and techniques can be applied. There are many pages of example after example (many contributed by other designers and presenters) - if Garr had just published these alone, the book would be worth the price.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who designs, creates, and/or delivers presentations. It is a beautifully crafted book, and provides an insight into a presentation master's mind. Having said all that, here is my only negative comment on the book... too often (especially in the first half of the book), I feel the prose overwhelmed the message. I know another reviewer commented on the lack of text (as if adding text increases the value of a book), but when your message is simplify, the same principles should have been applied to the writing of the book.