A strong presentation is so much more than information pasted onto a series of slides with fancy backgrounds. Whether you’re pitching an idea, reporting market research, or sharing something else, a great presentation can give you a competitive advantage, and be a powerful tool when aiming to persuade, educate, or inspire others. Here are some essential principles to help you create a memorable slide deck.
Think about your slides last. Building your slides should be the tail end of developing your presentation. Think about your main message, structure its supporting points, practice it and time it—and then start thinking about your slides. The presentation needs to stand on its own; the slides are just something you layer over it to enhance the listener experience.
Create a consistent look and feel. In a good slide deck, each slide feels like part of the same story. That means using the same or related typography, colors and imagery across all your slides.
Choose the right fonts. Use sans serif fonts like Helvetica or Arial for a minimal look and better readability. Stick to two font styles throughout your presentation—one for headings and another for body text—and ensure consistency throughout. Keep the body text at a minimum of 30-point size and titles at 40 points or more.
Opt for high-contrast colors. High-contrast color combinations ensure maximum visibility and ease of reading. Limit your color palette to two or three main colors to avoid visual confusion and maintain focus on your key points.
Use pictures effectively. Select images that communicate your message powerfully and succinctly—and use them sparingly. Limit yourself to one meaningful image per slide to maintain clarity and reinforce your message without distracting from the substance.
Aim for a clean layout. Avoid clutter by using a simple layout with plenty of white space. Emphasize key points in bulleted lists rather than paragraphs. And use a visual hierarchy to guide the audience’s attention to the most important elements first.
Think about topic transitions. You don’t want each slide to look exactly the same. Create one style for the slides that are the meat of what you’re saying, and then another style for the transitions between topics. For example, if your general slides have a dark background with light text, try transition slides that have a light background with dark text. That way they feel like part of the same family, but the presentation has texture.
Remember, the purpose of a presentation is not to impress your audience with a work of art. The goal is for people to understand and remember what you said or be persuaded to take a specific action.
References:
TED Blog (2014, July 15) TED Staff: 10 Tips on How to Make Slides that Communicate Your Idea
Harvard Business Review (2024, April 10) Guy Kawasaki: How to Make a “Good” Presentation “Great”
Leave a Reply