The Non-Designer's Presentation Book [Paperback]

Robin Williams (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 25, 2009 | ISBN-10: 0321656210 | ISBN-13: 978-0321656216 | Edition: 1

These days, it's not just corporate marketing directors tasked with giving computer-based presentations—anyone forced to stand in front of a crowd and talk for more than three minutes had better know how to put together a slide presentation. You're not a professional designer, but you want your slides to look professional. What do you do?
 
Enter Robin Williams, the beloved, best-selling non-designer's designer (with over 850,000 copies of The Non-Designer's Design Book in print!) who has taught an entire generation the basics of design and typography. In The Non-Designer's Presentation Book, Robin expands upon the design principles introduced in her award-winning Non-Designer's series. She explains four fundamental principles of good design as applied to digital presentations, and adds four more principles specific to clear communication with slides.

Whether you work with a Mac or PC, PowerPoint or Keynote, let Robin guide you, in her signature, light-hearted style, through the entire process of creating a presentation—from using the right software to organizing your ideas to designing effective, beautiful slides that won't put your audience to sleep.

In this essential guide to presentation design, you'll learn:

• What makes a good presentation or a bad one
• How to plan, organize, and outline your presentation
• Four principles of designing effective presentations
• Four principles for designing beautiful slides that communicate clearly
• An exhaustive list of timeless presentation rules...that you should totally ignore

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Robin Williams is the author of dozens of best-selling and award-winning books, including The Non-Designer’s Design Book, Robin Williams Design Workshop, The Little Mac Book, and so many more. Through her writing, teaching,  and seminars, Robin has educated and influenced an entire generation of  computer users in the areas of design, typography, the Mac, and the web.

Product Details

• Paperback: 168 pages
• Publisher: Peachpit Press; 1 edition (October 25, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0321656210
• ISBN-13: 978-0321656216
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 7.1 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #75,756 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #91 in Books > Business & Investing > Skills > Running Meetings & Presentations

More About the Author

Robin Williams is the author of dozens of best-selling and award-winning books, including Robin Williams Mac OS X Book, The Little Mac Book, The Non-Designer's Design Book, Robin Williams Design Workshop, and Web Design Workshop. Through her writing, teaching, and seminars, Robin has influenced a generation of computer users in the areas of design, typography, desktop publishing, the Mac, and the World Wide Web.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Finally, a presentation book that fills the void, March 2, 2010

By 

Tom Carpenter "- www.sysedco.com" (Marysville, OH) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Non-Designer's Presentation Book (Paperback)

Most presentation books focus on how to present as a presenter and how to "not design" powerpoint slides. This book finally provides the non-designers out here, myself included, how to build great looking slides that also enhance the presentation.

First, I must admit to being a huge fan of the Non-Designer's Design Book and the Non-Designer's Web Design Book. I think they are two of the best books for us designer deficient business people out there. Now, this book does the same thing for presentation design.

Many of the concepts are similar to those presented in the Design Book and the Web Design Book; however, they are reformed to apply to presentation design.

The section titled "Ignore these Rules" is one of the best sections of the book. This section helps you understand the principles behind many "rules" like "Don't read the slides." When you understand the principles, you better understand when the "rule" applies and when it doesn't. Ultimately, you realize that the rules are guidelines and not really rules at all.

For example, if you have a slide that reads, "First quarter profits rise" and you avoid saying these exact words just because they're on the slide, you'll only feeling the pressure of presentation pundits, who, themselves, often err in educating their audiences anyway. I'd rather learn from someone who has given hundreds or thousands of presentations that are not on the topic of "Presentation Skills" than someone who has given almost exclusively presentations on how to give presentations. Robin Williams is not a "Presentation Skills" presenter, she's a design trainer and she knows what really works in real presentations. Robin, thanks for speaking for all of us non-Presentation Skills speakers out here who know that the pundits are often wrong.

All-in-all, this is a must book in the presenter's library.

14 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good comprehensive book, November 23, 2009

By 

B. Norris - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Non-Designer's Presentation Book (Paperback)

I've recently purchased a number of books on presentation design and delivery, and this one was great. It takes a good look at the whole process and addresses many of the common pitfalls. I found it helpful to have a book like this that takes a simple, comprehensive approach.

11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good but redundant, February 21, 2010

By 

I Teach Typing (Stanford, CA USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Non-Designer's Presentation Book (Paperback)

I agree with the other reviewers that this is a good book with lots of practical advice. The only serious drawback is that so much of the information is redundant with the author's other big seller Non-Designer's Design Book, The (3rd Edition). There is basically only one or two chapters worth of new material here if you have read her Non-Designer's Design Book. If you are thinking about designing just for presentations and have not read the other book grab this one for sure but if you have it consider getting something else instead like Presentation Zen Design: Simple Design Principles and Techniques to Enhance Your Presentations or slide:ology: The Art and Science of Creating Great Presentations.