I can’t remember the last time I made it all the way through a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation without cringing. Between kitschy clipart, putrid color schemes and seizure-inducing flash animations, desktop-based presentation programs like PowerPoint and its Mac OS counterpoint KeyNote seem to offer unlimited ways for unwitting presenters to torture their audiences.

Haiku Deck, Inc., hopes to cure such presentational ills with its flagship app, Haiku Deck.

The app’s mobile splash page bills it as “the simple new way to create and share inspiring presentations,” beseeching users to “think like an innovator.”

It might not make you think like an innovator, but this cross-platform iOS/WebApp certainly makes long strides towards streamlining the clunky process of creating professional-looking presentations.

Haiku Deck is set apart from its contemporaries like Prezi by seemingly removing as much creative discretion as possible from its users. It’s impossible to animate graphic elements or add transitions between slides. You can pick between a few preset themes (13 more are available for purchase through the iTunes AppStore for $1.99 apiece), but you cannot customize the color palette. Fonts are consistent across each theme and cannot be modified in style or size.

For the end user, this means a forced allegiance to clean, trendy design that immediately hamstrings any ill-conceived attempts at “spicing up” a presentation with low-res images spinning so dizzily that they cause migraine headaches.

The app also integrates instant search of 35 million royalty-free Creative Commons images that can be embedded in Haiku Decks free of charge, as well as access to licensed Getty Images that can be purchased and embedded for $1.99. Images can also be imported from users’ personal collections.

Haiku Decks can currently be created with iPads on iOS 7 or higher or on the Haiku Deck webapp using Safari or Chrome. Presentations can be viewed and remotely controlled via iPhones, but creative mobile functionality is still in development.

Haiku Deck may not possess the revolutionary influence that its marketing department claims, but it is certainly effective at mitigating poor presentational values by limiting functionality for its users. The clean, beautiful look of its presentations may not have dragged me out of bed to attend some of those lost lectures from my freshman year, but if my professors could have taken advantage of Haiku Deck rather than an outdated program like PowerPoint, those 8 a.m. classes could have been that much more bearable.

★★★★☆

crclark2@mavs.coloradomesa.edu