You may be wondering, "Does any research exist that shows the benefits, effects, potential drawbacks, preferred applications, or best practices of visually interactive presentation?" The short answer, basically, is no. As incredible as it may sound, despite hundreds of millions of people using presentation software such as PowerPoint, seemingly no such research exists at this point. That fact soon will change as we initiate studies.

In the meantime, your best bet for understanding the potential benefits and drawbacks of interactive-style communication is to explore research associated with other forms of media. The research report here summarizes hundreds of hours we've spent trolling through existing literature, looking for interactivity-related studies applied to Web sites, databases, e-learning, visual marketing, video gaming, and so forth. You may find these references interesting and useful. The report is now an appendix printed in the full course textbooks, or you can download it here as a free PDF.