1)10 slides — The presentation should not have more than 10 slides.
2) 20 minutes — The presentation should not last more than 20 minutes.
3) 30 points — The slides should not have any fonts smaller than 30 points.
As a venture capitalist and prolific blogger, Kawasaki is a guy pressed for time. I can easily understand why he came up with the 10/20/30 rule.
But there is an important assumption Kawasaki makes that is not obvious at first sight, that PowerPoint is used only for business presentations.
We’ve long passed the point where PPT is employed only by investors and business managers pressed for time.
All over the world, PowerPoint is used by educators and learners too. For example for my new online course, I’m using PPT templates to generate Adobe Captivate videos with sound. Using PPT as a template provides unprecedented control and structure to the video production process.
When you are a student taking an online course, I don’t believe the rule of 10/20/30 applies since it takes less time to absorb a slide online than in a live environment.
When a student is reading a slide on his or her monitor, it’s much easier to read fonts smaller than 30 fonts. However, I’d still stick to the 20 minute rule since anything longer than that becomes boring online as well.
So here is my 20/20/20 rule for online PPT presentations:
1) 20 slides — The online presentation should not have more than 20 slides.
2) 20 minutes — The online presentation should not last more than 20 minutes.
3) 20 points — The slides should not have any fonts smaller than 20 points.
How do these rules work for you, and under which circ*mstances? Please feel free to share your thoughts and comments here…
