Just this morning, I was rushing to catch the Metro in Washington, DC and found myself staring at a refrigerator-sized ticket machine with buttons, bells, arrows, windows, slots, writing and numbers all over it. I had no idea where to look or where to start. It had to be the worst design of a ticket dispenser in the world. The train was coming, I was going to be late, and I could not focus.
I asked a lady next to me how to work it, and she reached over, grabbed my money, shoved it into the slot, and pressed a button that indicated I was about to buy a $20 ticket to go one-way to Union Station from Shady Grove. I said, “Not $20,” and began to push various buttons in desperation to stop her from spending all my available cash.
She gave up and walked away, and thank God a Metro employee was there to educate me on how to interpret the hieroglyphs swimming before my eyes. She was great. And she was busy too, dealing with everyone else who was confused by the machines.
Somewhere around 30 million times a day, busy audiences have the same experience when they sit down to view our PowerPoint slides. Our audiences are content-driven, time-pressed, and results-oriented. They want it quick, clear and simple, and we need to give it to them that way.