Brainslides
I've not been a fan of Microsoft PowerPoint, but the latest editions are adding more features that will make designing and preparing presentations easier.
The newest tool explained in this video by Heather Ackmann looks powerful. It effectively allows you to take any old slidedeck and redesign with a click.
Read MoreJoe Gebbia, the co-founder of Airbnb, bet his whole company on the belief that people can trust each other enough to stay in one another's homes. How did he overcome the stranger-danger bias? Through good design.
These 4 tips can help improve your presentations, too!
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Microsoft just announced a new version of PowerPoint for Office 365 that has two amazing new features to help you design presentations like a pro.
Read MoreThe recent 8 month series called The Evolution of Diet in National Geographic issues from May, June, July inspired me to design (ok, steal) a new Keynote theme.
Read MoreI've decided to put my presentation design skills to good use by reviewing research articles and creating slides to explain them. Not only did I design the theme, review the article, and design the slides, but just this once I'm including a video of me presenting the information along with the slide presentation. Let me know what you think of the design and the video.
Read MoreI haven't been this excited about a presentation app for years. I've never liked PowerPoint, but do love Keynote, and have been pleased with other apps like SlideRocket or Prezi. But never have I been this head over heels enamored and downright giddy as I am now. What is this crush?
HaikuDeck was released just a few months ago as an iPad app. I discovered it and started playing with it just days after it's launch. It's a simple solution to a great big problem: Presentations are just awful these days, and some of the blame goes to the complexity of the software.
HaikuDeck solves this problem by drastic measures: it greatly reduces the amount of control you have over the slide design. But with this constraint comes awesome opportunity. Rather than fiddling with text boxes, bullet-points, and animations, you are forced to simply focus on the content. It helps you follow the mantra of one idea per slide.
HaikuDeck does have one feature that you won't find anywhere else, though. When you enter your single idea onto a slide, the app automatically helps you find relevant images on the web that are free and legal to use (i.e. Creative Commons licensed). For example, if your slide says, "That place is the core of the sun," you will, of course, be presented with the key words "core," "sun," and "place." Tap on one, and you will instantly see a gallery of beautiful pictures that have that keyword. Simply tap the image you like, and it will become the background of your slide, with the text formatted on top. It couldn't be easier.
Here's a deck I threw together to test out the app. It's based on a blog post by The Bad Astronomer.
In my opinion, HaikuDeck could be the future of presenting. I have in my mind a vision of elementary and middle school classrooms where students are given iPads and told to create book reports and presentations with HaikuDeck. They focus on the story they want to tell and spend most of their time finding striking visuals to accompany that story. They aren't distracted by bullet-points and formatting or led astray with slide transitions and templates. I am confident that if students learn how to create presentations with HaikuDeck, they will grow up avoiding the tendencies of our generation. If Death by PowerPoint is the disease, consider HaikuDeck the inoculation. The future looks bright without PowerPoint leading the way! Head over to the HaikuDeck Gallery to view some featured decks.
The best part about HaikuDeck? It's free! The app comes with a handful of built-in themes. You can purchase new themes within the app for $1.99 each, or buy a theme pack for $14.99. Download the app now and start creating beautiful presentations.