Bullet points in a Steve Jobs presentation

Bullet points happen to the best, even Steve Jobs uses them. See the slide below from the iPad 2 launch presentation (thank you Engadget).

The good:

They are short
They do not have a bullet in front of them
He has them pop up as he speaks, so you can’t read ahead (good here, but not recommended for all presentations though)

The bad:

The “volume” orphan at the bottom
All those “dual core”, “2x”, “9x”, “CPU” makes it a bit hard to read
You can see Steve Jobs looking down, pausing to read them off a screen

What do you think of this alternative?

10 comments

Jan Schultink2011-03-08 12:39:52

Jeff, not saying that Steve is poor slide designer :-)

Chris2011-03-08 03:39:31

Nice rework!

Jeff Gorham2011-03-08 03:57:18

In the abstract, I agree. But the fact that you’ve pulled a screen dump Engadget suggests that one screen with idiot-proof headlines (for media outlets) might be worth it.

Compared to what I usually interact with, it's hard to dis Steve.

Anonymous2011-03-10 11:30:54

I like the new slide but the "Volume Shipment" statement could have been a bullet point.

Jan Schultink2011-03-08 15:23:19

I agree with the issue about the headline. There are 2 audiences: consumers and industry journalists. They get mixed up on this slide

Matt S2011-03-08 15:25:43

Nice rework. As others have said

1. Volume shipping is not a WOW title. Would it have been better just spoken, and the slide title would be 'See how the new processor compares to the old' or something like that.

2. Your 2x and 9x lose some meaning. If we didn't see the original people wouldn't know that it was 2x FASTER. It could be read that it has 2 processors.

chris kluis2011-03-08 12:30:49

While I tend to agree - I think your title could have been a separate slide. That would have really cleaned it up.

Also you might want to consider the facebook commenting system.

Arnout Drenthel2011-03-08 18:46:04

This is going to be fun! Who's able to improve Steve's slides?

I agree that the dual core shipment statement is too much on this slide.

Another suggestion would be to make the comparison visual. Not completely satisfied with the result, but to give an idea: a slide with visual comparison.

Also, I would underline the *low* power usage.

BillyK2011-03-08 03:35:49

Nice revise

Jim2011-03-08 14:14:18

Nice improvement overall, Jan. I think "the first dual core tablet to ship in volume" statement belongs at the bottom or on another slide, though. From a customer point of view, the volume shipment point is far less important than the increased performance.