The present study compared a Whiteboard animation with a PowerPoint slideshow. A presentation in each style was analysed in detail for compliance to Mayer's (2014) twelve multimedia principles and Kosslyn, Kievit, Russel and Shephard's (2012) eight cognitive communication principles. An experiment is reported that compared the effects of each presentation on engagement time, subjective appraisals and learning. The findings revealed that both presentations led to a high degree of engagement. Subjective appraisals were also uniformly high, with the Whiteboard animation receiving even significantly higher ratings for satisfaction than the PowerPoint slideshow. The two presentations yielded similar results on a knowledge test administered after viewing. The discussion offers several explanations for the higher satisfaction rating for the Whiteboard animation, including a seductive details effect. It is argued that the Whiteboard animation complies to a number of multimedia principles almost by default. The eight cognitive communication principles offer important complementary insights into the design of the presentations. Special attention is drawn to the predominantly representational function served by the animations in the Whiteboard presentation.