The document summarizes the results of Dave Paradi's 2015 survey on annoying PowerPoint presentations. Some key findings include: the top annoyance was presenters reading slides verbatim (71.7%); audiences see too many presentations with small, hard-to-read text and full sentences used as bullet points. Comments showed audiences want clear messaging, focused content in slides, and prepared delivery from presenters. The advice was to improve PowerPoint skills, prepare a concise message tailored for the audience, and use visual slides instead of overwhelming text.

1. All content ©2015 by Dave Paradi. All rights reserved. Do not copy or extract without permission.
Results of the
2015 Annoying
PowerPoint
Survey
By Dave Paradi of

2. All content ©2015 by Dave Paradi. All rights reserved. Do not copy or extract without permission.
Dave Paradi
Author of eight books, four
Kindle ebooks. One of thirteen
people in North America
recognized by Microsoft with
the PowerPoint Most Valuable
Professional Award.
What annoys audiences
about PowerPoint
presentations?
Every two years I survey
audience members
through an online survey.
I want to know what they
think of the presentations
they see.

3. All content ©2015 by Dave Paradi. All rights reserved. Do not copy or extract without permission.
The 2015 survey was my seventh survey. A total of
453 people responded.
In the following slides I share the key findings from
the responses.
The biggest message from audiences was that they
feel presenters don’t care enough about the
audience to spend the time required to create and
deliver an effective presentation. That sounds harsh,
but the hundreds of comments I reviewed make it
clear that presenters need to do better.

4. All content ©2015 by Dave Paradi. All rights reserved. Do not copy or extract without permission.
Presentations are becoming the default method for
communicating in many organizations. This is a graph
of the % of people who told me they see at least one
presentation per day every day of the work week.
13.4% 14.2%
19.7%
22.6%
27.4%
2007 2009 2011 2013 2015
More than
doubled in the
last eight years

5. All content ©2015 by Dave Paradi. All rights reserved. Do not copy or extract without permission.
What does this mean for presenters?
Audiences see so many presentations, both live and
recorded on the web. They know what an effective
presentation can look like. They have higher
expectations today.
What presenters could get away with a few years
ago won’t cut it today. If you don’t improve your
presentations, you will fall further behind.

6. All content ©2015 by Dave Paradi. All rights reserved. Do not copy or extract without permission.
I ask respondents to tell me the top three things that
annoy them about PowerPoint presentations from this
list of twelve.

7. All content ©2015 by Dave Paradi. All rights reserved. Do not copy or extract without permission.
Here are the top four responses, with what % of the
respondents selected that statement.
The speaker read the slides to us 71.7%
Text too small to read
48.6%Full sentences for text
47.7%
Visuals too complex 36.9%

8. All content ©2015 by Dave Paradi. All rights reserved. Do not copy or extract without permission.
Here are the top four responses, with what % of the
respondents selected that statement.
The speaker read the slides to us 71.7%
Text too small to read
48.6%Full sentences for text
47.7%
Visuals too complex 36.9%
Reading the slides has
always been the #1
response. And when you
fill the slide with small
text, no wonder
presenters end up reading
their slides.

9. All content ©2015 by Dave Paradi. All rights reserved. Do not copy or extract without permission.
Here are the top four responses, with what % of the
respondents selected that statement.
The speaker read the slides to us 71.7%
Text too small to read
48.6%Full sentences for text
47.7%
Visuals too complex 36.9% Complicated visuals that are
hard to understand emerged as
a strong issue in this survey.
Presenters should use visuals,
but must make them clear.

10. All content ©2015 by Dave Paradi. All rights reserved. Do not copy or extract without permission.
I asked respondents to tell me three words or phrases
they hear when others talk about PowerPoint
presentations.
They were not shy in sharing.

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I took all the responses, and created a word cloud that
shows the size of the words based on their frequency
in the list.
Clearly “boring” is the most common word used to
describe PowerPoint presentations.
©2015 Dave Paradi

12. All content ©2015 by Dave Paradi. All rights reserved. Do not copy or extract without permission.
I think “boring” is the result of an overwhelm of text
and data on slides. Here’s how I see presentations
end up being described as “boring”.
Overwhelming
amount of text or
data on slides.

13. All content ©2015 by Dave Paradi. All rights reserved. Do not copy or extract without permission.
I think “boring” is the result of an overwhelm of text
and data on slides. Here’s how I see presentations
end up being described as “boring”.
Overwhelming
amount of text or
data on slides.
Audience is
confused

14. All content ©2015 by Dave Paradi. All rights reserved. Do not copy or extract without permission.
I think “boring” is the result of an overwhelm of text
and data on slides. Here’s how I see presentations
end up being described as “boring”.
Overwhelming
amount of text or
data on slides.
Audience is
confused
I better
remember
to pick up
milk
Audience
mentally
“checks out”

15. All content ©2015 by Dave Paradi. All rights reserved. Do not copy or extract without permission.
I think “boring” is the result of an overwhelm of text
and data on slides. Here’s how I see presentations
end up being described as “boring”.
Overwhelming
amount of text or
data on slides.
Audience is
confused
I better
remember
to pick up
milk
Audience
mentally
“checks out”
That presentation
was boring
After the
presentation,
the audience
says it was
boring

16. All content ©2015 by Dave Paradi. All rights reserved. Do not copy or extract without permission.
I asked what else annoys them about PowerPoint
presentations.
Their comments filled almost 21 pages.

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After reviewing all of the comments, three themes
emerged. All three themes relate to presenters not
respecting their audiences enough to take the time to
properly prepare the presentation. That sounds harsh,
but it is the truth that audiences want presenters to
hear.

18. All content ©2015 by Dave Paradi. All rights reserved. Do not copy or extract without permission.
Theme 1: Presenters need to invest in upgrading
their PowerPoint skills
It’s not that presenters don’t know the basics, they do.
It is that too many presenters think it takes too much
time to create visuals, so they take the quick and easy
way out by filling the slide with text or copying a
spreadsheet onto the slide.
Anyone can learn the skills and shortcuts to quickly
and easily create effective visuals like graphs,
diagrams, and organized text. Audiences will thank
you for doing this.

19. All content ©2015 by Dave Paradi. All rights reserved. Do not copy or extract without permission.
Theme 2: Presenters need to take the time to
prepare a clear message
Don’t start your presentation preparation by pulling
slides from previous files. When you do this, you
expect the audience to figure out how they go
together. They won’t.
Use a GPS strategy. Determine where
you want the audience to be at the end of
the presentation. Figure out where they
are now. Then plan the best route to get
them from where they are to where you
want them to be.

20. All content ©2015 by Dave Paradi. All rights reserved. Do not copy or extract without permission.
Don’t pour everything
you know into the
presentation
Focus your content on
just what the audience
needs to know

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Don’t pour everything
you know into the
presentation
Focus your content on
just what the audience
needs to know
If you dump everything into the presentation because it
also needs to be a stand-alone document, please stop
doing that. Instead, use hidden slides to hold the
additional detail in the same file. People can see it if they
need to and the message doesn’t get drowned out.

22. All content ©2015 by Dave Paradi. All rights reserved. Do not copy or extract without permission.
Theme 3: Presenters need to take the time to be
prepared to deliver the presentation
When a presenter apologizes for content on their slide,
the audience feels that the presenter couldn’t be
bothered checking for issues such as:
• spelling errors
• colors that are hard to see
• fonts that are too small or hard to read
• low quality fuzzy images
• mis-aligned objects
Don’t apologize, check your slides beforehand.

23. All content ©2015 by Dave Paradi. All rights reserved. Do not copy or extract without permission.
Rehearsing – standing and delivering your
presentation out loud – is the only way to know
how long it is. Rehearse so you don’t rush
through your presentation or go over time.
Rehearsing also makes you
comfortable with the content and the
flow of the material. You can deliver
the presentation facing the audience,
not the screen.

24. All content ©2015 by Dave Paradi. All rights reserved. Do not copy or extract without permission.
For the first time, I asked audience members what
advice they would give presenters.
They didn’t hold back. The responses filled over 23
pages. And there was some strong language used.

25. All content ©2015 by Dave Paradi. All rights reserved. Do not copy or extract without permission.
One overarching theme emerged after reading all of
the advice: Clarity. Audiences want clarity in three
areas: message, slides, and delivery. The advice
echoed what they had already said.
Message
Have a clear goal for
the presentation
Tailor the
presentation to this
audience
Include only the key
points, not
everything you know

26. All content ©2015 by Dave Paradi. All rights reserved. Do not copy or extract without permission.
One overarching theme emerged after reading all of
the advice: Clarity. Audiences want clarity in three
areas: message, slides, and delivery. The advice
echoed what they had already said.
Message
Have a clear goal for
the presentation
Tailor the
presentation to this
audience
Include only the key
points, not
everything you know
Slides
Make one point per
slide
Write a headline for
each slide that
summarizes the
message
Use visuals instead of
text and spreadsheets
Don’t overload the
slides with information

27. All content ©2015 by Dave Paradi. All rights reserved. Do not copy or extract without permission.
One overarching theme emerged after reading all of
the advice: Clarity. Audiences want clarity in three
areas: message, slides, and delivery. The advice
echoed what they had already said.
Message
Have a clear goal for
the presentation
Tailor the
presentation to this
audience
Include only the key
points, not
everything you know
Slides
Make one point per
slide
Write a headline for
each slide that
summarizes the
message
Use visuals instead of
text and spreadsheets
Don’t overload the
slides with information
Delivery
Rehearse so you are
comfortable with the
content and
sequence
Don’t apologize; fix
the issues before
Don’t read the slides
from the screen; if
you have a
document, email it

28. All content ©2015 by Dave Paradi. All rights reserved. Do not copy or extract without permission.
As a presenter, what should you do as a result of what
audiences told me in this survey? Here’s what I
suggest:
• Upgrade your PowerPoint skills (free tutorials here and
here; advanced tutorials here)
• Create a clear message before any slides (free articles:
goal, GPS, TED lessons; my book Present It So They Get It)
• Create clear visual slides (free articles: message vs
supporting information, make text visual; my book Select Effective
Visuals; e-course to convert bullet points to text visuals)
• Prepare to present (free articles: slide tests, stop looking at the
screen 1 & 2)

29. All content ©2015 by Dave Paradi. All rights reserved. Do not copy or extract without permission.
You can read the full report on the survey results on
my website here and download the report in PDF
format.
If you want me to train your staff on how to create
PowerPoint presentations that have a clear message,
focused content, and effective visuals, check out my
customized workshops.