Level 3—External Navigation and Networks

Once comfortable with the foundational concepts of Levels 1 and 2, you are ready for a substantial expansion of these ideas in Level 3. Here the direction of navigation is External rather than simply Internal, meaning movement and actions are directed outside of whatever current show you happen to be in at the moment. Such navigation may open other slide shows, return to previously visited slide shows, access a Web site, or open an object such as a spreadsheet, text file, or PDF document. By jumping out of the current slide show, the presenter has a world of knowledge and expressive potential is at his or her fingertips. At the same time, clearly the complexity of such a system can become daunting.

Level 3 helps manage this complexity. With well-designed structures in place, finding individual pieces of content out of hundreds or even thousands of options is easy. There are five sessions that focus on the following topics:

Session 3.1

Advanced Navigation: External hyperlinks and Nested navigation are used to tie together clusters of related information (slide shows). These interlinked clusters give a speaker the option of immediately moving between supporting pieces of information, in any order, at any time. Nested navigation is the most intricate and potent form of navigation in a relational presenter's arsenal.

Session 3.2

Presentation Networks: Forming clusters of related information, and arranging these clusters hierarchically, naturally leads to structures we call Presentation Networks. Such networks resemble large Web sites in many ways, but are entirely PowerPoint based, meaning they have the flexibility of a Web environment and also feature all the advantages PowerPoint brings to display of information. Presentation Networks typically contain a number of key components such as a Main Switchboard, Primary Shows, and a Resources section. All component are discussed in detail, and during this session, you will see how to begin building a Presentation Network using your own slide show materials.

Session 3-3

The Seven Phases: Building a Presentation Network in some cases is a reasonably simple task. A designer thinks, "Hey, I have 30 slide shows in my collection that I regularly use. Why don't I just tie all those shows together via hyperlinks and that will be my network?" Such an approach is certainly possible. In most cases, however, a more effective approach is preferred. Networks usually have a superior design when they are built from the bottom up. In other words, the designer gathers all potentially useable slides into a pile and sorts them according to related categories. This approach almost invariably results in slides being rearranged compared to their positions in the original shows. The approach we recommend for this planning, sorting, and building process is called The Seven Phases. Level 3 explores this process in detail.

Session 3-4

Advanced Design and Show and Tell: This session considers additional design issues, such as strategic use of illusion, incorporation of visual clues, the advantages of subtlety, making alternatives to traditional bullet lists, and numerous psychological effects that are possible through clever design decisions. At this point you also will have a chance to show off your progress so far. A very important part of Relational Presentation training is that you begin applying the techniques learned, right away. Therefore, you are encouraged to deliver a 3-5 minute Web-based presentation to the instructor and other attendees, showing your applications of visually interactive concepts.

Session 3-5

Delivery and Interactivity: Level 3 concludes with a health dose of what it means to deliver a relational presentation. Visually interactive communication is very different from the standard slide-to-slide style of normal PowerPoint performances. It requires alternative delivery techniques and strategies. One especially important strategy called the Content Ladder aides a presenter in the delicate task of staying on track, even while spontaneously selecting content to answer questions or shape topics. Toward the end of this session, we look at the likely stages you will go through over the next few months of development and talk about success strategies that will help assure your success when implementing the methods.

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