Kosslyn指出，成功的演讲在实际中通常要达到以下三个目标：

1. 与你的听众建立联系
   
2. 引导并始终保持他们的注意力
   
3. 促进理解和记忆

换句话说，你需要（1）与你的听众以及他们的目标和兴趣点建立联系；（2）你要吸引并且一直保持听众的注意力和兴趣，让他们了解什么是重要的信息，而什么不是的；同时（3）你应该设法让他们更容易理解、效法和记住你的材料。书中的八条原理正是围绕如何实现这三点来展开的。如果需要更详尽的细节，具体应用，生动的例子，那一定要看原书，但基本上这些原理可以这样归类：

目标1：与你的听众建立联系。这个目标源于心理学的关联性原理 （The principle of Relevance）和适当知识原理（The principle of Appropriate Knowledge）。不要包含过多或过少的信息量，要针对你的具体听众，筛选信息，同时要用恰当的语言来表达。

目标2：引导并始终保持他们的注意力。这个目标源于心理学的突出性、可辨性和知觉组织原理（The principles of Salience, Discriminability, and Perceptual Organization）。注意力被不同的领域所牵引，所以使用杠杆作用的设计原理（如对比度、突出放大显示特别的地方）。或者，像Robin Williams说的，“拒绝平庸！” 另外也要记住，人们会自然而然的将看起来相似的元素默认的归为同类。

目标3：促进理解和记忆。这个目标源于相容原理（The principle of Compatibility）和信息变化原理（The principle of Informative Changes），以及限量原理（The principle of Capacity Limitations）。消息在与意思一致的情况下，更容易被人记住。例如，“红色”一词如果被用绿色字体显示，则违背了这一原理；同样的道理，如果一张关于大阪市流浪猫数量的图表却辅以一张人与活蹦乱跳的狗玩耍的背景图片，也是不妥的。另外要提醒的是，人们期待你的演讲有变化，例如突然插进一段笑话、一个故事，幻灯片上的视觉变化或加入一段动画，等等。当然这些东西必须是有意义的，否则就变成了干扰，反而破坏了效果。同时，听众在一个演讲中只能记住有限的信息量，所以一定要仔细筛选，千万不要试图不断地向人们灌输信息，那只是做无用功。

背景，突出性和协调性

让我们使用突出性和相容性这两个原理，来单独检验幻灯片背景的问题。Kosslyn认为，设计中最重要的元素同样也应该是最为出众的。你可以通过使用大号字体、加粗字体、颜色的选择、显著的位置以及其他的方法来使其醒目。

Kosslyn同样认为，通常幻灯片的背景则不需要过于突显。也就是说，背景应该简单，其本身不需要过多的变化，以防止干扰前景的元素。Kosslyn则提醒背景图片是用来强调我们的信息而不是形成干扰的。他还告诉我们好的背景可以“帮助你有效的衬托出信息，否则就会混淆观点。背景图片不应该与所展示的信息相冲突。”

让我们看看下面的一些例子：

上图：这些海报是我在关岛购物中心的两家店前看到的。左边这幅用了三种颜色（白，红，黑），而右边这幅则用了超过左边两倍的颜色（黄，绿，蓝，红，黑，紫和白）七种。在这两张海报里，最关键的元素是用大号字体突出的数字：40%和50%用来吸引顾客的目光来购物（"off" 和"%"使用了相对较小的字号，因为它们的意思已经通过前后文中可知，故重要性略低）。打折的范围（仅限于部分商品以及必须先以正价购物以后才能以折扣购买一双鞋等等）被列在附属位置，事实上很有可能被忽略，直到店员告知那些已经在店内的顾客们。

对于右侧游戏软件商店的那幅色彩斑斓的海报，“40% Off”就没有这么有力，因为所有的要素好象都被设计成了首要的，包括多余的标语和小图片，干扰信息的要素太多了（这张海报让我想到那些在同张幻灯片上大标题与重要内心元素相互干扰的错误）。反观左侧鞋店的海报，就很清晰的传达了最重要的元素（显而易见的不同可以更醒目），这是一个很好的突出重点的例子。

让我门再来看看下面一组关于2004年手机互联网联通率的图表。其主题是要突出日本和南韩在这方面远远领先于其他地区。并不需要每根柱形图都用不同的颜色，南韩之所以用红色突出是因为它将被作为焦点来讨论。

左上图：这个PowerPoint模板的背景图片本身就有太多的突出点，形成干扰而影响了前景中的图表表达。

右上图：这里背景与前景的对比看起来更好，但是沙滩和排球与信息的内容缺乏一致性。这个背景图片（也是一个powerpoint模板）如果用于衬托一张比较晒伤情况或度假风景区度假天数等内容的图表会更加合适一些。另外，你还应该避免使用过时、看厌的模板，而是另外选择一些更好的图片。

左上图：除了图表的配色不恰当，模版有一个给标题的固定位置以至于第三行的文字根本看不清。我们可以缩小图表的尺寸，再把题目放在指定的位置，但那将意味着前三张的幻灯片只不过是用来装饰的。

右上图：这张图片在用于一个关于有机农作的演讲是合适的，但并不与手机这一内容相协调。虽然有对比但是一些需要看清的字符还是和被背景干扰导致难以辨认。

上图：用一张日本或韩国手机用户的图片做背景效果则好多了。然而，这张图片没有完全突出图表，放一个半透明的方框在图表下面，将背景处理成模糊效果可以取得满意的效果。

上图：展示图表或表格，我比较喜欢使用简单的幻灯片。以上的两种都有不错的效果。白色背景与深色文本或其他元素有很好的对比度（没有比黑与白的更强烈的对比了），在相对明亮的房间里效果非常好。但是，在光暗的房间里，白背景就可能有些过于强烈。

“简明扼要”这本书提出了大量源于知名的心理学理论的专业意见。我对于作者提倡的这些原理并没有意见，不过很多时候当你用要和不要来写书的时候总有很多人不同意这些案例的处理方式的。我对于书中一些例子只有些次要意见，不过总而言之，我认为这是当前发行的对于PPT最有用的书目之一。为什么这本书没有更好的发行量和销量确实是个疑问，看起来似乎牛津出版社或者作者并不想它大卖一样。奇怪的是它并不是教你怎么制作PPT的书，也不是指点某种方法（这是两点很吸引我的地方）。但这真的是一本很好的、值得给予掌声的书。如果作为大学演讲交流学的教课书的话，将是非常优秀的。当然，任何经常演讲的人都会发现这本书的确很使用。你可能不会同意所有这些案例，但是没关系。重要的是让交流继续。

如果你仍然在犹豫要不要再买这样一本关于PowerPoint／演讲的书，那你可以从作者文章的材料中再找点感觉。

PowerPoint tips that are clear and to the point

I spent the weekend on the Island of Guam (three hours south-east of Osaka) finishing up a good quick read on presenting better with slideware in a new book called Clear and to the point: 8 psychological principles for compelling powerpoint presentations by Stephen Kosslyn. I would like to add this book to the short list of books on the topic worthy of your money. There may be nothing necessarily new for the most experienced of you in this book, but because the advice comes to you from a renowned cognitive neuroscientist from Harvard, who aligns his list of presentation and PowerPoint "do's & don'ts" with sound psychological principles, this book will be of help to you as you try to change your own "PowerPoint culture" around you. It's one thing when a designer says the current methods are flawed, but it is quite another when a cognitive neuroscientist says so. The book is by no means the final word on presenting with slides, but it does offer plenty of graphic examples of what works and what doesn't, and it will give you some "hard evidence" to use while you try to persuade your own entrenched curmudgeons trying to defend the status quo.

Kosslyn says that presentation success can be virtually defined by meeting these three goals:

(1) Connect with your audience

(2) Direct and hold their attention

(3) Promote understanding & memory

In other words, you must (1) make a connection with your audience and their goals and their interests, (2) you must get and keep their attention and interest and let them know what is important and what is not, and (3) you must make it easy for them to follow, digest, and remember your material. The eight principles are grouped around these three goals in an organized fashion. You'll have to get the book to get all the details, applications, and visual examples, but basically the principles are grouped like this:

Goal 1: Connect with your audience. This goal is supported by the principle of Relevance and the principle of Appropriate Knowledge. Do not include too much nor too little information, and select information and use language appropriate for your particular audience.

Goal 2: Direct and hold attention. This goal is supported by the principles of Salience, Discriminability, and Perceptual Organization. Attention is drawn to areas that are perceptibly different, so leverage design principles such as contrast and make differences big and obvious. Or as graphic designer Robin Williams would say, " Don't be a wimp!" Also remember that people will naturally tend to group similar elements into a single unit.

Goal 3: Promote understanding and memory. This goal is supported by the principle of Compatibility, the principle of Informative Changes, and the principle of Capacity Limitations. Messages are easier to remember when they are compatible with meaning. For example, the word Red presented in green text violates this principle as would a graph about the homeless cat population in Osaka decorated with a background image of people playing with their healthy dogs. Remember too that people expect any change in your presentations — such as a sudden interjection of a joke or a story, or a visual change in slide color or an animation, etc. — to have meaning, and when they don't have a meaning this becomes noise and hurts effectiveness. And of course, audiences can only retain a limited amount of information in a presentation (see cognitive load theory), so choose carefully and do not try to stuff people's brains with more and more information. It won't work.

Backgrounds, salience, and compatibility

Let's use two of the principles, salience and compatibility, to examine the single issue of slide backgrounds. The most important element of your design should also be the most salient, says Kosslyn. This could be done in many ways such as with larger or bold type, color choices, positioning, and myriad other ways that help guide the viewer's eyes. Generally, slide backgrounds should have low salience, says Kosslyn. That is, backgrounds should be simple without lots of perceptible differences among the background image itself since this would interfere with the foreground elements. And if you use a photo for your background image, Kosslyn reminds us to use a background image that underlines our message instead of undermining it. A good background, says, Kosslyn, can "...allow you to underline your message effectively, or it can create confusion, the background image should not conflict with the message of the display." Let's looks at some examples below.

Above: These are posters I found in two store fronts at a shopping mall in Guam Sunday. The one on the left uses three colors (white, red, black), the one on the right has over twice as many colors at seven (yellow, green, blue, red, black, violet, and white). In both cases the key element is the number set in large type: 40% and 50% are what attracts the eye of the shoppers looking for a deal ("off" and "%" are made smaller because they are a step down in importance and are assumed or implied given the context). The limitations of the discount (that they are for selected items only and that you have to buy one first at full price to get the discount on the shoes, etc.) are made subordinate and may in fact be missed until the clerk informs the customer who is now all ready in the store. The power of the "40% Off" on the colorful poster for a game software shop is reduced due to weaker overall design priority of the poster, which even includes superfluous clip art, and in the end simply blends into the sea of noise.(The poster reminds me of some PowerPoint slides that have a large title competing with the more important elements in the slide). The poster for the shoe store is a good example of salience ("Attention is drawn to large perceptible difference") as it is clear which element is the most important.

Let's look below at a few different ways to treat a chart on cell phone internet connectivity rates from 2004. The theme in this case is how far ahead Japan and South Korea are compared to the rest of the world in this area. It is not necessary for every bar to be a different color. South Korea is highlighted because that is the focus of discussion.

Above Left: Background image from this PowerPoint template has too much salience itself and competes with the chart in the foreground. Right: Here the contrast is better between the background and the foreground, but the sand and beach ball are not compatible with the message. The background image (also a PowerPoint template) may be appropriate if the chart was comparing sunburn cases or days spent at resort holidays, etc. Still, you could find a better image elsewhere rather than using a tired template.

Above Left: Besides the color being inappropriate for this chart, the template has a fixed place for the slide title that is nearly a third down the page which interferes with the legibility of the text. We could reduce the size of the chart and place our title in it's designated place, but that would mean the top third of the slide is taken up by ornamentation. Right: The photo is appropriate perhaps for a presentation on organic farming but is not compatible with mobile phones. There are also some contrast and legibility issues as some of the text is difficult to see.

Above: A background photo of a cell phone user in Japan or South Korea may work. This photo does not make for great contrast, however. Contrast can be helped by placing a dark transparent box behind the chart, and still further by adding a Gaussian blur to the background image.

Above: I prefer to keep slides quite simple when displaying charts, graphs, or tables. Either of these may work. A white background can make for good contrast with dark text and other elements (nothing has more contrast than black and white) and works well when your room is relatively bright. In a dark room, however, a white background may be overpowering.

Clear and to the point gives a great amount of specific advice that's rooted in well-known psychological principles. I have no issues at all with the principles outlined by the author, but any time you give specific do's & don'ts in a book like this you are bound to have people disagree with some of your example treatments. I have some minor issues with only a few of the slide examples in the book, but all-in-all I would say that this is one of the most useful books on PowerPoint to ever be printed. Why this is not getting more press and more sales is a huge mystery — it's as if Oxford Press or the author do not want this book to do well. Odd. This is not a how-to-use-PowerPoint book, nor does it prescribe a method (which are two of its attractive features to me). But this is a very good book and it deserves some buzz. This would be an excellent supplementary textbook for a college-level speech-communications class, and of course, anyone who presents often will find the book provocative and practical. You may not agree with all the examples, but that's fine. The important thing is to get the conversation going.

If you can't afford yet another book related to PowerPoint/presentations, then you can get some feel for the material here in this article by the author.