This Office Tool Is Hurting Your Brand and Company, According to Harvard

When was the last time a presentation left you feeling inspired and impressed?

If it took you a few moments to think about it, you may want to consider the following research.

According to a study from Harvard University, Microsoft’s popular presentation program PowerPoint is harmful to both people’s perception of you and your brand.

The double-blind study asked respondents to answer how effective they thought PowerPoint is as a presentation tool, and how it compared to ‘zoomable user interfaces’ (ZUIs) and oral presentations.

The results?

PowerPoint fails to increase information transfer and fails to improve what people think of your brand (and you). The data revealed that “presentations influenced participants’ core judgments about a business decision, and suggest that [ZUI presentations such as] Prezi may benefit both behavioral and experiential outcomes.” ZUI presentations were found to be more organized (13 percent), engaging (16 percent), persuasive (22 percent), and effective (25 percent) than both PowerPoint and oral presentations.

In other words, skip the “next slide” approach and opt for more engaging presentations. While data revealed that ZUI presenters were seen as “more knowledgeable and professional,” it also revealed that some respondents found ZUI presentations confusing. Overall though, the data suggests that PowerPoint (which powers nearly 30 million presentations daily) is not helping users to be better or helping audiences to understand more.

And wasted time and energy hinders productivity.

Learn more about the study and its methodology on Forbes.