How Do You Want To Say It (Part 2)

The final part of your content design is to determine your presentation's style. Some of the stylistic decisions you need to make are:

• Is the audience looking for a solemn presentation or more relaxed one?

• Are you going to take a text-focused approach or-graphics-focused one?

• Will you be doing formal information sharing or will you put in some activities and games ?

Some General Rules About Style

• When presenting to management, keep the main presentation brief, to the point, clear and concise . Keep the flashiness to a minimum so the participants don't feel you are wasting time. Keep backgrounds and graphics formal.

• When requesting support, keep the presentation interesting. Show what you need to show with enough flashiness to keep interest. Prepare FAQ slides to use when questions come up. Target your graphics, backgrounds and colors to the intended audience.

• When presenting to children, keep the information moving at a rate appropriate to their learning level. Use flashier backgrounds, sounds and graphics. If the audience is early elementary school children, it is especially important you stay sensitive to their reading level.

• When presenting to teens, keep in mind they are more "tech-savvy" and likely know the basic technology tricks. That is a good thing. It means presentations can use a little more glitz to maintain their interest. Provide links to extra information whenever possible to allow them to do their own discovery.

• If you have a lot of information to share during a speaker-led presentation, break it up into viewable pieces. There's more on this later in the book, but for now remember the mind can absorb only what the body can see and endure. Too much at once turns the audience off.

• If you have a lot of information to present during a kiosk presentation, make sure you provide navigation buttons so the participants can review information from earlier sections.