Levels of understanding

As a presentation designer, you need to understand the substance of your slides better than what is reflected in your final work. Here are the levels of understanding:

• Level 5: the expert, your boss, your client
• Level 4: the level you need to get to as a designer
• Level 3: what is reflected in your slides
• Level 2: the audience right at the end of the presentation
• Level 1: what the audience remembers in 3 weeks
• Level 0: where the audience and you start out on

The key lesson for the presentation designers: you need to shoot beyond level 3, if you cannot stand above your substance, you cannot make the right design trade-offs. So ignore the strange looks you get when asking probing questions during the briefing.