“Can you put my PowerPoint presentation online?”

This is something I hear over and over from prospective clients. Seems like such a simple question. Based on what I see on  the internet, it seems many folks say “yes” and then take the client’s PowerPoint and put it up on the web. There it is, in all its glory for visitors to open and look at. It looks just like it did when it was created. No audio narration. Many times, no notes to give you an idea of what the speaker might say. Was  the client’s purpose met? What was the desired outcome?

So, back to the question: “Can you put my PowerPoint presentation online?” I believe I understand the motivation from the client. They probably spent many  hours creating this PowerPoint, or even paid  someone to create good content. They don’t want to see that content go away, just because their budget was cut and they can’t travel to present this information. For these and other great reasons they now want to use the Internet to deliver their message or training.

My answer is that I can take your PowerPoint presentation and the content you have and repurpose  it so it is effective as an online product. Because presenting and learning online is different from presenting and learning in person, you have to consider what the return on investment should be when you put it online. Tom Kuhlmann, an online training expert, talks about this in his blog on measuring the ROI for online learning. He explains that you need to align the course or presentation outcome to measurable goals. I couldn’t agree more.

When you are standing in front of a group presenting a PowerPoint, you can measure success by gauging interest via audience body language, questions, and engagement, or by talking to them after the presentation. You are physically there as the expert and teacher, receiving audience feedback and adjusting your presentation on the fly (such as answering questions). But when you put your PowerPoint online, you need to consider how you will measure success in the absence of a live presenter. Tom suggests:

1. Finding a metric you can use and
2. Making sure the metric is meaningful

This requires that you know how to  measure online success, which is different from measuring classroom success. Sometimes success is measured simply by the number of  people who accessed  the content. Other  times success is measured by how many people successfully completed “check-on-learning” activities within the content, such as quizzes or interactive exercises requiring them to demonstrate learning. Reaching your desired outcome through these meaningful metrics is only possible when you follow best practices for online presentation and learning, like “chunking” information into smaller segments to get the audience to focus better.

So, the ultimate answer to the original question is that a client should consider what they are trying to accomplish by putting the PowerPoint online. Also that when you repurpose  PowerPoint content for the Web, you  should be prepared to modify it so it is effective as an online product. While  this may disappoint many who hoped to  just put  their PowerPoint  online as-is, I think most people understand that the Web is a different medium. Having something that effectively gets your message, brand, and intent to the right audience and inspires them to take the measurable action you wanted is worth the price of converting the PowerPoint to an online product.

Usability expert Steve Krug just rolled through DC to conduct his one-day website usability testing seminar. I attended along with about 35 other folks who love to discuss the placement and colors of buttons. We’re a rare breed perhaps. Most of our discussion and the shared examples centered around e-commerce and marketing websites, which I guess is to be expected. The folks that get really hyper about creating a very usable website are those who make money with that website. Better bring in the usability experts before you lose a sale, right?

Do owners of other types of sites give usability some, if not equal, attention? Do government agencies worry about the usability of their sites? They don’t sell, but they do have a mission to meet. They provide information or push an agenda for the public good. And they serve the government itself. Take USAJobs.gov as an example. The big story these days is the retiring government work force and the challenge associated with hiring the new breed. Well if USAJobs is a pain to use (and I’m not saying it is), then there go your applicants. Want to fight rising health care costs? Then let’s make sure Health.gov is easy to use.

The mission for government agency websites is to make information easily available, or to persuade viewers to take a certain action. So purchases may not be on the line, but usability should still be a concern. Why make the effort, and spend the money, to stand up a site that your audience can’t easily use? No matter the scope of your web effort, focus on usability from the early stages of design and information architecture, and then conduct usability testing during the production process. As Steve showed us, it doesn’t have to be expensive or derail the time line; on the contrary, usability testing can both save money and keep a web design project on track.