My “Selling Presentation Design” post from a few days ago compared people’s thoughts about presentation design today to the public understanding of the iPod back in 2001: Apple knew how great their product was but its customers didn’t get it yet. Today I just happened to run across a tweet with a link to this video of Steve Jobs introducing the iPod (thanks to @missjessrose and @denislirette).

If you’ve watched even a few minutes of a Steve Jobs keynote in the past few years, one of the first things you’ll notice about this video is just how silent the audience is through most of the presentation. Even though Steve’s saying all the right things, the looks on the faces of the audience at around 5:30 are still pretty blank. They don’t get it yet. And why should they? Would you have gotten it right away? I didn’t back then, and wouldn’t for several more years.

But in watching this today I noticed something else. Steve never looks uncertain, even for a second. He knew even then how great a product he possessed and how revolutionary it would be. He didn’t go for the hard sell, he just told them why it was great and was willing to wait for everyone to catch up. And when the public finally realized how great it was and had to have one, Steve was still there, ready to sell them one.

It seems to me that a presentation design is at a similar, early stage now. A small group has started to catch on but it’s not reached the mainstream yet. Hopefully, though, if enough people start sharing what they know, in a few years it’ll be recognized by most speakers that they can’t get away with awful slides anymore.