Billboards and the Glance Test for PowerPoint slides

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When I read a recent article or blog post I expect the author(s) to have done their homework and create something better than what had come before. But that is not always the case. At the Priori Orators blog from Nigeria on May 24, 2025 there is a post titled The Glance Test: The Secret to Visual Confidence in Public Speaking. They state that:

 

“The Glance Test is a tule of thumb used by top-tier speakers, professional communicators, and presentation designers around the world. Simply put:

 

‘If your audience can’t understand your visual aid in 3-5 seconds, it’s not ready.’ “

 

Later they discuss How to Build Glance-Test Proof Slides:

 

“One Idea per Slide

Boil it down. What’s the one thing you want your audience to take from this slide? Say that and design around it.

 

Visual Hierarchy

Use bold titles. Make key numbers or takeaways large. Guide the eye with alignment and spacing.

 

Minimal Text

A good slide has no more than 6 words per line and no more than 6 lines total. If it reads like an essay, delete, revise, repeat.   

 

Data That Speaks

Graphs? Use only what’s needed. Remove gridlines, axes if possible. Highlight just the trend or point that matters. Less is always more.

 

Consistent Style

Stick to 1-2 fonts, a clear color scheme, and consistent layout. Visual harmony helps cognitive ease.”

 

Back on April 6, 2015 I blogged about Billboards and the five-second rule for PowerPoint slides. Slides don’t need to be as simple as billboards, since the presenter is there to explain them. You can tell a complicated story via a series of slides, like a set of Burma Shave signs.

 

And on September 23, 2019 I blogged about How many words should be on a PowerPoint slide: 6, 12, 20, 25, 36, or 49? In that post I noted that we can read four words per second, so we can read twenty words on five seconds. Six words per line times six lines (36 words) is nine seconds rather than their previously stated limit of five.   

 

Also, back on February 19, 2014 I blogged about Michael Alley’s work in a post on slide design titled Assertion-Evidence PowerPoint slides are a visual alternative to bullet point lists.

 

Less isn’t always more. On March 14, 2010 I blogged about minimalism in a post titled Why less is more – or even less. I ended it by advising:

 

“Minimalism in all kinds of design involves an optimum, so ‘less is more’ is a half-truth. It really calls for cutting out the fat while leaving the meat. You cannot keep cutting and expect that a design with zero content would be infinitely effective. Instead it probably would be completely ineffective. So, really less is more – until it is less.”

 

Let’s look at how a build with five slides can be used for revealing a 2x2 table. A story about time management, which could make a five to seven minute Toastmasters speech, comes from an article at DecisionSkills on July 17, 2013 titled Using the Eisenhower Matrix. I blogged about it in a post on July 3, 2020 titled Is that 2x2 graphic a table, a chart, or a matrix? Should the axis go from left to right, or right to left? Each slide can stay up for about a minute, not just five seconds.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We start by showing the box for both Important and Urgent.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next we show the box for Important but Not Urgent.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then we show the box for Not Important but Urgent.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And fourth, we show the box for Not Important and Not Urgent. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally we show the entire colored-in table.

 

The cigarette billboard came from Wikimedia Commons