7 things which annoys your audiences the most

Every once in two years, Dave Paradi surveys audiences world wide. He asks them what annoys them most in presentations they attend. He recently concluded his survey. His sample size was an impressive 682.

Here are the 7 most annoying things. Numbers alongside indicate % of respondents which gave that answer.

1. The speaker reading the slides (72%)
2. Text so small, the audience could not even see it (51%)
3. Writing full sentences on slides, instead of bullet points (48%)

4. Extremely complex diagrams (31%)
5. Poor choice of color (26%)
6. No clear purpose of the presentation (22%)
7. No proper flow of ideas (21%)

Notice that a whopping 72% people say that the presenter was reading out the slides to them. This is what they hated the most. This is what your audience hates the most. Find out if you are also committing some of these mistakes and attempt to remove them from your presentation.

Interestingly, his survey in 2011 showed a similar result. The 7 most annoying things have not changed at all.

You can read his full survey report here. Dave Paradi also observes that more and more presentations are being made across the world and most presentations bore the audiences. The audiences have begun expecting better presentations, since they are being exposed to TED and other great presentations. He says, "Presenters need to improve their skills in planning their message, creating slides that support that message, and delivering those slides effectively."