Presentation

Putting together great looking slides can be quite a challenge. The reason for this is that the overall process of designing a deck requires much more than just a keen eye for aesthetics. Creating a stunning presentation actually involves a variety of disciplines, and design can only take you so far. This guide will cover all there is to know about presentation design, from the minute you sit down to sketch your ideas, to the moment when you deliver your slides publicly.

So whether you are a designer in the look for some ideas for your graphic work, or simply a regular presenter who wants to improve the quality of your slides, you’ve come to the right place.

Presentation Outline

Probably the hardest part of creating a presentation is choosing what content goes in, what doesn’t, and on which order. The success of the entire process relies on a solid story, and that’s why it’s critical that you dedicate a fair amount of time to this part.

The overall process of creating a presentation looks (or should look) something like this:

1. Knowledge: Having a solid knowledge of the subject you’re presenting is absolutely key. It will allow to convey your message naturally, and provide the foundation of your presentation. Nothing inflicts more pain than listening to somebody spend two hours explaining something you could’ve learned on Google in five minutes.

2. Content: With great knowledge, comes great content to support your presentation. Be picky with the sources of information you use, and make sure to attribute any relevant source of information as it adds credibility to your speech. Respect your audience, and provide something worth listening to.

3. Synthesis: The editing part is where most people fail the test, as it is probably the hardest and most thorough process of all. It implies getting rid of any unnecessary information, and focusing on small chunks of information that people will be able to grasp and remember. After all, people came to listen to you, not to read a manifesto from a projection. A poor editorial work is a slippery slope that leads to blasting your slides with an insane amount of data, causing the infamous Death by PowerPoint. We’ll further detail best practices on this regard later in the article.

4. Outline: After you’ve successfully synthesized all the main ideas that you wish to convey, it is time to arrange all the chunks of information into a logical presentation outline. Probably the best piece of advice I can give you is to do everything up to this point without even touching your presentation software. Scribble on a piece of paper, on your iPhone or on a computer if you must, but resist the temptation of jumping into your presentation tool for drafts until you’ve managed to complete all the prior steps. It will only distract you, and make you waste valuable time.

5. Design: FINALLY! The fun part, and the easiest (?) part as well! This is the moment to put a spell on your slides, and blow your audience away with a killer visual proposal. Now it’s the time to jump into your presentation software, and make the most of the graphic resources. This article has a big section on presentation design inspiration and best practices so stay tuned!

The Three Act Structure

The idea of the three act structure used in presentations is that, after all, to present is to tell a story. It has been used for decades in theatre and cinema, and it is a fairly simple formula: you have three acts to tell your story, and each act serves a purpose to advance that story.

THE FIRST ACT

This is where you establish the origin or problem; in a movie that would be the first scenes where you get to meet the main characters of the movie, and the starting point of the movie’s journey. In a presentation, the first act (which in this case is the first few slides) is where you tell your audience about the problem you’re trying to solve, and what the current state of things is for that particular subject. This introductory part is critical, since most spectators are quick to judge you based on the first seconds of speech. There needs to be a hook, a truth about your value proposition that motivates people to pay attention to you. Sometimes rookie presenters make the mistake of leaving all the good stuff for the end of their pitch, and by doing so they risk having enough momentum for the audience to even get to that point without falling asleep. Keep a great quote, a great stat, an alarming number for your first slides to shake your audience from minute one.

THE SECOND ACT

It usually begins with a plot twist. A sudden turn in the story that unfolds the main events of the play. In a presentation, this comprises the development of your pitch. It usually builds up as you move along in your slides, up to the point where you reach the climax of your entire presentation. This whole part gives you the opportunity to explain what you’re doing, how you’re doing it, why you’re the one to carry out the task better than anyone else, what is the vision you are pursuing, etc. Keeping your audience’s attention gets even trickier here, specially for presentations that go beyond 30 minutes (it’s hard to believe sometimes people talk non-stop for two hours). No one ever complained for a brief, to-the-point presentation, so don’t stretch your second act for too long.

THE THIRD ACT AND CLIMAX

The highest point of interest, of immersion within the plot, should occur at the end of your second act. This is called the climax of your presentation, and depending on the presentation’s purpose, it opens up the opportunity to do “the ask”. That can range from revealing your new product, how much money you are raising, the release date of a new project, etc. If your presentation is compelling enough, the audience is fully on your side. After the climax, the third act is usually the shortest, and helps summarize the main points discussed in your pitch and bring closure to your whole story.

Design Principles

I’ll focus on 4 major principles that relate closely to presentation design:

Unity/Harmony

The ultimate goal of a graphic composition is to speak with one visual voice. What this means is that all graphic elements need to be coherent, and consistent throughout your design. Unity and harmony are achieved by different methods, which include for example sticking to 1 or 2 fonts tops, and using a color palette that is consistent on your different media outputs.

Unity is absolutely key when establishing corporate identity. A company needs to speak with a unique voice, and that covers from the obvious stuff (company goodies, corporate communications) to more complex outputs (i.e. marketing material).

Hierarchy

There should be an intended order in which your graphic composition should be read, and that order should be obvious to the spectator. This is why establishing visual hierarchy is an important part of arranging content. Have you ever visited a website where you don’t know where to start, what to click first, which navigation is global, or local? Well, those websites are perfect examples of poorly established visual hierarchies. The result? People become overwhelmed, feel lost, and quickly lose interest and leave. Conveying visual hierarchy can be achieved not only by positioning elements in an intended and well thought order; it can also be established by the use color, shape and text, and the relationship in size and distribution of each of those elements.

This poster is a great example of visual hierarchy. The reading order is clear, and the font size guides the user from the general to the specific.

Focal Points

– Smashing Magazine

This means that not all areas of your design hold (or should hold) the same relevance. Emphasizing specific elements adds movement and ease of read, and keeps the spectator more interested in your content than if everything is arranged in a flat, uniform layout.

Not only is this a beautifully designed website, but also has a very clear notion of the page’s focal points: the main one is clearly the product photo, second is the product’s name, and third the zoomed details of colors and materials. The rest of the less relevant information comes next: other views of the product, secondary navigations, price (conveniently toned down as to let the user fall in love first before realising this is a 900 bucks baby stroller).

Similarity-Contrast

Similarity and contrast coexist in a delicate balance within the graphical space. Let me explain why: Similarity refers to the intentional repetition of elements in order for the user to get familiar with a certain characteristic. For example: when all chapters in a book begin on a right-side page, with the first letter of the chapter in capitalized and bigger font. The benefit is that the user doesn’t have to figure out every time that he’s reading a new chapter; the previous knowledge allows the user to instantly recognize the course of action. Contrast, on the other hand, refers to breaking similarity in order to draw attention.

I said they coexist in a delicate balance because too much familiarity makes things too repetitive and dull, and too much contrast increases cognitive load, and can be perceived as too chaotic. There should be enough of both in order to achieve a harmonious composition.

The same book in its different outputs for various devices. Thanks to similarity, the user can quickly recognize visual references of the design’s identity, even though the virtual and physical format have significant differences.

Presentation Design Inspiration

Now that you have a solid foundation as to how to structure your story, and how to use design principles to achieve better graphic results, you are ready to jump into some serious design inspiration for your presentations!

Examples

We’re gonna show you a curated selection of great slides, and analize one by one so you can grasp what was done and why it worked.

This is a great example on how to make a quote slide more interesting. Several elements make it so: the use of a background adds contextual depth, and makes the whole slide look more polished. Notice how the quotation marks are used in an unconventional fashion, making it stand out even more. The big (huge) font size makes the phrase completely stand out. The last thing to notice here is that there is no additional content on the slide other than the quote itself. This is usually the most effective way of including quotes on your presentation, as it grants the quote its proper relevance. Quotes are usually meant to make people question something, or reflect on a specific idea. Let people read it and don’t distract them with more information until it is time to move on!

This is a great example of a clever use of focal points. The one paragraph is located in the upper left third of the slide, making it the first and obvious point of attention. The use of the right image is also something to take notice here: it’s a simple image that conveys contextual visuals, but doesn’t compete with the foreground elements. A slight variation in font size, weight and color allows to emphasize key elements of the phrase in a very elegant fashion. Last but not least: the slide has very few text, which will always make it more readable and memorable. This you’ll hear me repeat over and over, because it’s true every single time.

I’ve selected these slides as a great example of unity throughout a presentation. Notice how while the slide’s content changes, the layout and element distribution remains consistent. This makes all the slides look like they belong to a single collection.

This is a stunning slide! And yet, it is a very simple one. What works here is the use of big, BIG, font to emphasize a certain phrase. You almost feel the text is using up all the space available, even though it’s only seven words long. There’s a very interesting balance between the light font used on the six smaller words, and the bold one used for the bigger word. You almost feel the the latter is popping out of the screen. The use of black background and white font makes the contrast work beautifully as well.

This slide in contrast with the previous one has way more text, yet it doesn’t feel overcrowded thanks to its clever use of different font sizes to fit in more information. It also has a great color palette that makes it very appealing, and it uses great icons to make the concept even more memorable.

The reason why I chose this slide is not necessarily based on its aesthetics, even though it’s a clean and decent looking slide. The motivation comes from dedicating a slide to summarize what you’ll be talking about during your presentation. This is something that’s fairly simple to do (if you have planned your presentation outline properly) and yet a lot of presenters skip entirely. It helps your audience set expectations on what they’ll learn from you, and it pinpoints the main subjects of your pitch, so you can easily remember them if you happen to lose your train of thoughts.

I loved this slide for various reasons. The phrase itself is powerful and inviting. It is graciously displayed using several elements that work harmoniously together: the icon, representing the journey part; the user on the background with the wave thingys around it’s head, reinforcing the user-centred concept; and last but not least, an epic color gradient that makes the slide look awesome.

I love this slide. Why? The background image is beautiful and represents the content perfectly. The font size is small, almost as if to let the image speak for its own. The text alignment is centred both vertically and horizontally, which for this particular image works.

That stupid button icon makes this slide almost impossible to miss. It’s self explanatory, it’s loud, and it’s great because of that. Something else that’s good about this slide is the use of white space (not white as in color white, but in terms of free-of-any-element space). The focal points are absolutely clear.

This is a (far) more elaborate use of visuals, but boy how nice it looks! I can easily picture those slides framed and hanged in an office wall. Sometimes “decorating” does serve a purpose, and that is of making something so darn good looking it ends up being memorable.

These I chose not only because they are presentation tips slides, but also because they are a pair of well designed ones. The second one specially because it reminded me of Timothy Samara’s 20 Rules of Good Design; one of Timothy’s rules is “treat type as image”. The clever use of line spacing in this slide is a graphical metaphor of the actual pauses needed during verbal pitches. Smart right?

Such a neat example. This slide is rather complex (vector textures in the front and back; a dimmed, blurry layer to soften the background) but it all comes together in a very nice and easy-to-follow way. The takeaway: a slide can be complex in it’s design, as long as that complexity doesn’t compromise the simplicity of the message. Always aim to have dominant elements in your slides (focal points, remember?), and make the rest of the elements more subtle in their form, color and position.

This is a great way of displaying screen captures in a more interesting manner. Instead of simply copy-pasting your raw screenshot, you can frame it nicely into a laptop vector to make it seem more real.

A cool idea to present company’s metrics. The idea here is to emphasize a part of the info by repeating it somewhere else; the percentage is repeated in bolder, bigger font with a different color and typography, and contrasting it with surrounding elements that draw attention to it, like the circle and the background image. The use of the location icon helps once again make a visual reference of the content being discussed.

This variation of the two column layout works pretty nice to make the slides look edgier. Word of caution: this kind of layout can become a little restrictive and work against you depending on the kind of information you wish to add, because space is limited considerably due to the askew grid. This kind of layout works better with fewer text and simpler graphics.

Another beautiful example of how vector illustrations can transform a simple phrase into an artsy composition. This of course is a very time consuming approach, and probably requires an in-house graphic designer to achieve it. But, if available, it surely pays off. In this kind of presentation, the presentation outline and content needs to be final, because the time required to prepare each slide cannot be wasted in last minute changes.

This slide is a great example of simplicity. The main differentiator here is color, and that turns an otherwise dull slide into a sharp looking one. When in doubt, less is more.

Chart slides have a strong tendency to be boring. This slide is a good reference on how to disrupt a chart slide. The heading merges with the chart to maximize the use of space, and editing the chart to remove unnecessary elements makes it look way more interesting.

When all else fails, a few simple tweaks in your slide design are almost foolproof. Capitalize the font, choose a strong primary color for the background, and emphasize a key part of the phrase with either bold, italics or a different color. Doesn’t get any simpler than that.

Presentation Design Best Practices

So, after all these great examples, the main lessons can be summarized as follows:

• Simplicity is always a safer choice that is most likely gonna work best in your presentation design.
• Quotes are a powerful content resource: take the time to make them stand out.
• Not all information should be granted the same level of importance in your slide. Use focal points in order to establish visual hierarchy.
• Big fonts work great on presentations and also forces you to keep the amount of text on the low levels.
• An overcrowded slide is a slippery slope that leads to cognitive overload. Avoid!
• A summary/index/table of contents at the beginning of your presentation is much appreciated to set expectations.
• Great images pay off. Avoid stocky photos of guys in suits, shaking hands, and stuff like that.
• Icons are a great visual resource.
• Pretty slides draw attention, regardless of the content. Go the extra mile and beautify your presentation.
• Treat the type as image. Try to use text in creative ways.
• Keep graphic effects subtle. The main focus should always be the content.
• A great way to do product demos, show mockup, or simply display screenshots, is to show them in a vector frame of a laptop/tablet/phone.
• Emphasize a certain piece of information by highlighting or repeating it in a bigger, more notorious way.
• Edit charts in order to get rid of unnecessary elements and leave only the most essential data sets.
• Type is probably the most effective way to convey visual hierarchy in your content, so keep that in mind when you work on your presentation design.

Presentation Design Guide: How to Summarize Information for Presentations

Bad presentations. We’ve all had to sit through them. Heck, we’ve probably all given one or two. I know I have.

You know the type: twice as long as they need to be, slides chock-full of text, no visuals in sight. 

How can you ensure you don’t fall victim to these presentation faux-pas when designing your next presentation for your team, class, or clients?

Include less text and more visuals in your presentation design

According to David Paradi’s annual presentation survey, the 3 things that annoy audiences most about presentations are:

1. Speakers reading their slides
2. Slides that include full sentences of text
3. Text that is too small to read

The common thread that ties all of these presentation annoyances is text. Audiences are very picky about the text found in presentation slide decks.

Audiences are more engaged, ask more questions, and find my talks more memorable when I include lots of visual examples in my slide decks. 

I’m not the only one who has found this. We recently surveyed nearly 400 conference speakers about their presentation designs and found that 84.3% create presentations that are highly visual.

A great example of a high visual presentation is the iconic AirBnB pitch deck design, which includes no more than 40 words per slide. Instead of repeating the speaker’s script on the slides, it makes an impact with keywords, large numbers, and icons:

To help you take your presentations to the next level, I’d like to share my process for creating a visually-focused presentation like the one above. I’ll give you my top presentation design tips that I’ve learned over years of presenting:

• Webinars
• Class presentations
• Pitches
• Meetings
• Online courses

You can then apply this process to our professional presentation templates or pitch decks, creating unique presentation decks with ease! Our online presentation maker tool makes customizing these templates easy.

We’ll cover the most important steps for summarizing lengthy text into a presentation-friendly format. Then we’ll touch on some presentation design tips to help you get visual with your slide decks. Read on for the best creative presentation ideas.

How to summarize (and organize) information for presentations

1. Identify one core message to center your presentation design around
2. Eliminate any information that doesn’t immediately support the core message
3. Create a strong presentation outline to keep you focused
4. Use text to reinforce, not repeat, what you’re saying
5. Design your presentation with one major takeaway per slide
6. Use visuals to highlight the key message on each slide

1. Identify one core message to center your presentation design around

We know from David Paradi’s survey that audiences are easily overwhelmed with lots of text and data, especially when presentations are long.

So unlike in a white paper, report, or essay, you can’t expect to tackle many complex ideas within a single presentation.

That would be a recipe for disaster.

Instead, identify a single central message that you would like to communicate to your audience. Then build your presentation around that core message.

By identifying that core message, you can ensure that everything you include in your presentation supports the goal of the presentation.

As seen below, a great presentation tells you exactly what you’re going to learn (the core message), then gets right to the facts (the supporting information).

To ensure you create an asset that’s clear, concise, impactful, and easy to follow, design your presentation around a single core message.

2. Create a strong presentation outline to keep you focused

Think of your outline like a roadmap for your presentation. Creating a strong presentation outline straight away helps make sure that you’re hitting all of the key points you need to cover.

Take this presentation outline example:

• Introduction and hellos
• Vision and value proposition
• Financial profit
• Cash flow
• Your investment
• Thanks and questions

These are all things that we know we need to talk about within the presentation.

Creating a presentation outline makes it much easier to know what to say when it comes to creating the actually presentation slides.

3. Eliminate any information that doesn’t support the core message

Next, use that core message to identify everything that doesn’t belong in the presentation.

Aim to eliminate everything that isn’t immediately relevant to the topic at hand, and anything remotely redundant. Cut any information that isn’t absolutely essential to understanding the core message.

By cutting these extra details, you can transform forgettable text-heavy slides:

Into memorable slides with minimal text:

Here’s a quick checklist to help you cut out any extra detail:

Get rid of:

• Detailed descriptions
• Background information
• Trivia
• Redundant statements
• Explanations of common knowledge

Keep:

• Persuasive facts and figures
• Illustrative examples
• Impactful quotes

This step may seem obvious, but when you’re presenting on a topic that you’re passionate about, it’s easy to get carried away with extraneous detail. Use the recommendations above to keep your text in check.

Clarity is key, especially if you’re presenting virtually rather than in-person. However, Lisa Schneider (Chief Growth Officer at Merriam-Webster) has had plenty of experience making that adjustment. She recently shared her tips for adapting in-person presentations into virtual presentations on Venngage that you can check out. 

4. Use text to reinforce, not repeat, what you’re saying

According to presentation guru Nancy Duarte, your audience should be able to discern the meaning of your slides in 6 seconds or less.

Since your audience will tend to read every word you place on each slide, you must keep your text to an absolute minimum. The text on your slides should provide support for what you’re saying without being distracting.

Never write out, word for word, what you’re going to be saying out loud. If you’re relying on text to remember certain points, resist the urge to cram them into your slides. Instead, use a tool like Venngage’s speaker notes to highlight particular talking points. These can be imported into PowerPoint — along with the rest of your presentation — and will only be viewable to you, not your audience.

For the actual slides, text should only be used to reinforce what you’re saying. Like in the presentation design below, paraphrase long paragraphs into short bulleted lists or statements by eliminating adjectives and articles (like “the” and “a”).

Pull out quotes and important numbers, and make them a focus of each slide.

5. Design your presentation with one major takeaway per slide

As I mentioned above, audiences struggle when too much information is presented on a single slide.

To make sure you don’t overwhelm your audiences with too much information, spread out your content to cover one major takeaway per slide.

By limiting each slide to a single simple statement, you focus your audience’s attention to the topic at hand.

My favorite way to do this is to pick out the core message of whatever I’m talking about and express it in a few keywords, as seen in this presentation slide below.

I’ve talked to many professionals who are pressured by their management teams to create presentations with a specific number of slides (usually as few as 10 or 15 slides for a 30-minute presentation).

If you ask me, this approach is completely flawed. In my mind, the longer I spend sitting on a single slide, the more likely I am to lose the interest of my audience.

How many slides should I use for a 10 minute presentation?

A good rule of thumb is to have at least as many slides as minutes in your presentation. So for a 10 minute presentation you should have at least 10 slides.

Use as many slides as you need, as long as you are presenting a single message on each slide, (as seen in the lengthy presentation template below). This is especially important if you’re presenting your business, or delivering a product presentation. You want to wow your audience, not bore them.

6. Use visuals to highlight the key message on each slide

As important as having one major takeaway per slide is having visuals that highlight the major takeaway on each slide.

Unique visuals will help make your message memorable.

Visuals are a great way to eliminate extra text, too.

You can add visuals by grouping and integrating information into visual frameworks like timelines:

Or by representing simple concepts with icons, as seen in the modern presentation design below. Using the same color for every icon helps create a polished look.

Using visuals in this way is perfect for when you have to convey messages quickly to audiences that you aren’t familiar with – such as at conferences. This would also make the ideal interview presentation template.

How to make your presentation design more effective

1. Use scaffolding slides to orient your audience and keep them engaged
2. Use text size, weight, and color for emphasis
3. Apply design choices consistently to avoid distraction
4. Split a group presentation by topic
5. Use a variety of page layouts to maintain your audience’s interest
6. Use presentation templates to help you get started

1. Use scaffolding slides to orient your audience and keep them engaged

It’s easy for audiences to get lost during long presentations, especially if you have lots of slides. And audiences zone out when they get lost.

To help reorient your audience every once in a while, you can use something I like to call scaffolding slides. Scaffolding slides appear throughout a presentation to denote the start and end of major sections.

The core scaffolding slide is the agenda slide, which should appear right after the introduction or title slide. It outlines the major sections of the presentation.

At the beginning of each section, you should show that agenda again but highlight the relevant section title, as seen below.

2. Use text size, weight, and color for emphasis

Every slide should have a visual focal point. Something that immediately draws the eye at first glance.

That focal point should be whatever is most important on that slide, be it an important number, a keyword, or simply the slide title.

When picking fonts for your presentation, keep this technique in mind. Pick a font that has a noticeable difference between the “bold” font face and the “regular” font face. Source Sans Pro, Times New Roman, Montserrat, Arvo, Roboto, and Open Sans are all good options.

The last thing to remember when using size, weight, and color to create emphasis on a slide: don’t try to emphasize too many things on one slide.

If everything is highlighted, nothing is highlighted.

3. Apply design choices consistently to avoid distraction

Audiences are quick to pick out, and focus on, any inconsistencies in your presentation design. As a result, messy, inconsistent slide decks lead to distracted, disengaged audiences.

Design choices (fonts and colors, especially), must be applied consistently across a slide deck. The last thing you want is your audience to pay attention to your design choices before your content.

To keep your design in check, it can be helpful to create a color palette and type hierarchy before you start creating your deck, and outline it in a basic style guide like this one:

And remember, a consistent design isn’t necessarily a boring one. This social media marketing presentation applies a bright color scheme to a variety of 3-column and 2-column layouts, remaining consistent but still using creative presentation ideas.

4. Split a group presentation by topic

When giving a group presentation it’s always difficult to find the right balance of who should present which part.

Splitting a group presentation by topic is the most natural way to give everybody the chance to attempt without it seeming disjointed.

When presenting this slide deck to investors or potential clients, the team can easily take one topic each. One person can discuss the business model slide, and somebody else can talk about the marketing strategy.

Top tips for group presentations:

• Split your group presentation by topic
• Introduce the next speaker at the end of your slide
• Become an ‘expert’ in the slide that you are presenting
• Rehearse your presentation in advance so that everybody knows their cue to start speaking

5. Use a variety of page layouts to maintain your audience’s interest

Page after page of the same layout can become repetitive and boring. Mix up the layout of your slides to keep your audience interested.

In this explain the designer has used a variety of combinations of images, text, and icons to create an interesting and varied style.

6. Use presentation templates to help you get started

It can be overwhelming to build your own presentation from scratch. Fortunately, my team at Venngage has created hundreds of professional presentation templates, which make it easy to implement these design principals and ensure your audience isn’t deterred by text-heavy slides.

Using a presentation template is a quick and easy way to create professional looking presentation skills, without any design experience. You can edit all of the text easily, as well as change the colors, fonts, or photos. Plus you can download your work in a PowerPoint or PDF Presentation format.

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How to deliver an impactful presentation

What makes a presentation memorable?

It usually comes down to three things:

• The main idea.
• The presenter.
• The visuals.

All three elements work together to create a successful presentation. A good idea will give the audience a purpose for listening. A good presenter communicates the main idea so that the audience cares about it. And compelling visuals help clarify concepts and illustrate ideas.

But how the presenter delivers their presentation and what visuals they use can vary drastically while still being effective. There is no one perfect presentation style, or presentation design.

Here are some top tips to consider to help you deliver an impactful presentation:

1. Include examples of inspiring people

People like having role models to look up to. If you want to motivate your audience, including examples of people who demonstrate the traits or achievements, or who have found success through the topic you are presenting.

2. Dedicate slides to poignant questions

While you might be tempted to fill your slides with decorative visuals and splashes of color, consider that sometimes simplicity is more effective than complexity. The simpler your slide is, the more you can focus in on one thought-provoking idea.

3. Find quotes that will inspire your audience

A really good quote can stick in a person’s mind of weeks after your presentation. Creating a slide that features a quote can be a nice way to either begin or finish off your presentation.

4. Emphasize key points with text and images

When you pair concise text with an image, you’re presenting the information to your audience in two simultaneous ways. This can make the information easier to remember, and more memorable.

Use your images and text on slides to reinforce what you’re saying outloud.

Doing this achieves two things:

• When audience hears a point and simultaneously read it on the screen, it’s easier to retain.
• Audience members can photograph/ screencap the slide and share it with their networks.

5. Label your slides to prompt your memory

Often, presenters will write out an entire script for their presentation and read it off a teleprompter. The problem is, that can often make your presentation seem too rehearsed and wooden.

But even if you don’t write a complete script, you can still put key phrases on your slides to prompt jog your memory. The one thing you have to be weary of is looking back at your slides too much.

Presentations Must Tell a Story

We’ve all been there, dutifully enduring a dull presentation at work or an event. The slides are packed with text, and the presenter feels obligated to read every single word. There are enough charts, graphs, and equations to fill a trigonometry book, and each screen is awash in the brightest colors imaginable.

As the presentation drags on, the lists get longer. “We do this, this, this, this, this, and oh yeah, this!” Unfortunately, everyone in the audience just wants it to be over.

This is a major opportunity missed for a business, and we designers may be part of the problem. No, it’s not our fault if a presenter is unprepared or uninspiring, but if we approach our clients’ presentations as nothing more than fancy lists, we’ve failed.

See, presentations are stories, not lists, and stories have a structure. They build towards an impact moment and unleash a wave of momentum that changes people’s perceptions and preconceived notions. Good stories aren’t boring and neither are good presentations.

But before we go any further, it’s important to ask why presentations exist in the first place. What’s their purpose? Why are they useful?

Presentations exist to…

Inform

Presentations impart new and sometimes life-changing knowledge to an audience.

Instruct

Most presentations provide a practical method for using the knowledge that is shared.

Entertain

If executed correctly, presentations are able to captivate an audience’s imagination and lead them to consider the worth of what they’re learning.

Inspire

Well-crafted presentations have the power to arouse feelings that can influence an audience’s behavior.

Activate

Presentations ready people to move, to act on their feelings and internal analysis.

Persuade

Ultimately, presentations make an appeal to an audience’s logic, emotions, or both in an attempt to convince the audience to act on the opportunity shared by the presenter.

With this kind of power, designers can’t afford to view presentations as “just another deck.” We shouldn’t use the same formulaic templates or fail to educate our clients about the importance of high-quality image assets.

Instead, we need to see presentation design as an opportunity to craft a compelling narrative that earns big wins for our clients.

Need more convincing? Let’s take a quick look at how a few big brands merge storytelling with world-class presentation design.

The overarching emphasis of any presentation is its narrative. Before any flashy visuals are added, the presentation designer works hand-in-hand with the client to establish the narrative and asks big questions like:

• Who are we presenting to?
• Why are we presenting to them?
• How do we want them to respond?

The marketing team at Salesforce, the world’s leading customer relationship management platform, answers these questions by first writing presentations as rough essays with a beginning, middle, and end. As the essay is fleshed out, themes emerge and section titles are added.

From here, the presentation is broken into slides that present the most impactful topics and information the audience needs to know. Only a few select words and phrases will make it onto the screen, but the essay draft will be rich with insights for the presenter to further refine and share in their oral narrative.

Writing the narrative first prevents the chaos of slide shuffling that occurs when a presentation’s stories aren’t clearly mapped out. With no clear narrative in place, slides don’t transition smoothly, and the presentation’s momentum dissipates.

Within the first few moments of meeting someone new, we quickly assess whether or not we feel they’re trustworthy.

Presenters are typically afforded an initial level of trust by virtue of being deemed capable of talking in front of a large group of people. But if that trust isn’t solidified within the first minute of a presentation, it can vanish in an instant.

Deloitte is a global financial consultant for 80 percent of all Fortune 500 companies. Naturally, they understand the need to quickly establish credibility. The slide used in the example above is number five in a thirty-slide deck. Right from the outset, Deloitte establishes their authority on the topic, in essence saying, “We’ve been at this awhile.”

Including a slide like this in a client’s deck can be a real confidence booster because it allows them to quickly secure expert status. Establishing credibility also helps an audience relax and engage with what they’re learning.

Arrange a Compelling Narrative

“Storytelling” is everywhere these days. Social media platforms have cleverly packaged the promise that our every post, image, and interaction is part of an ongoing story, but most of what we call “stories” are loosely related moments strung together by the happenstance of time and technology.

So what’s the distinction between narrative and story? How do they relate, and how do they differ? And most importantly, how do they tie into a compelling presentation?

Story

A story is bound by time. It has a beginning, a middle, and an end. It details events and orders them in a way that creates meaning. In a presentation, stories speak to specific accomplishments and inspire action—“We did this, and it was amazing!”

Narrative

A narrative is not bound by time. It relates separate moments and events to a central theme but doesn’t seek resolution. In a presentation, the narrative encompasses the past, present, and future —“Where we’ve come from. Where we are. Where we’re headed.”

How does this information impact the presentation designer? Here’s a simple and practical example.

You have a client who makes amazing paper clips that always bend back to their intended shape no matter how much they’re twisted. They ask you to design a presentation that highlights the paper clips and their company vision to “forever change the world of office products.” How do you begin?

Start with the Narrative

The narrative is the overarching emphasis of a presentation.

In this example, you would shape the presentation around your client’s company vision of forever changing the world of office products.

An overly optimistic presentation packed with positive information simply crashes over an audience and sweeps away their enthusiasm. Each rosy insight is less impactful than the one prior. Before long, all the audience hears is, “Good, better, best. We’re just like all the rest.”

An effective presentation designer looks for ways to create internal conflict within an audience. This means they feel the weightiness of a problem and actively hope for the relief of a solution. The yin and yang of problem and solution is the presentation designer’s true north, the guiding principle of every piece of information included in a deck.

One tried and true way to ensure a healthy positive/negative balance, without overly dramatizing a presentation is withholding information.

For instance, in our example of the paperclip company, this could mean devoting an extra slide or two to the research and development process. These slides would hint at the soon-to-be-revealed production costs and build anticipation without providing actual numbers.

Then, when the cost comparison chart is finally shared, the audience is genuinely eager for the information it holds, and the payoff is far more rewarding and memorable.

Unlock the Power of Clear, Consistent, and Compelling Content

Content doesn’t exist apart from the narrative; it enhances it. Once the narrative is in tip-top shape, it’s time to make the content shine, but before we dive into slide design, let’s take a quick detour.

Imagine we’re reviewing an investor pitch deck and we take an elevator into the sky to observe the presentation from an aerial view. From this lofty position, the deck’s content should have a cohesive appearance that ties in with the brand, organization, or topic being presented.

If you’ve ever been hired to work on a company’s pitch deck design, you understand how challenging this can be.

Many times, clients already have some sort of skeleton deck in place before they hire a presentation designer. Sometimes, these decks are packed with a dizzying assortment of charts, graphs, fonts, and colors. Here, you have two unique responsibilities.

First, you must help your client understand how the disunity of their content detracts from the narrative. Then, you must provide a way forward and present them with a practical vision for remaking things in a cohesive style.

Be warned that you may have to sell this idea, especially if your client thinks that their visual content is presentation ready and only in need of some “design magic” to make it look good.

If this happens, remember to be gracious, and acknowledge the role that their expertise played in generating such valuable information. Then, bring the conversation back to results. “This is a compelling topic. I want your audience to be in awe as you present, but for that to happen, I need to recreate the visuals.”

This is a tough chore, but as designers, we’re hired to improve the way our clients communicate—not fill their heads with false affirmations of poor content.

Essential Slide Design Principles

Slide design is an important part of presentation design, and effective slides are rooted in visual simplicity. But the strange thing about simplicity is that it stems from a thorough grasp of complexity. If we know something well, we can explain it to someone who does not in just a few words or images.

In this section, we’ll look at hierarchy, typography, image selection, and color schemes, but know that these design elements are rooted in a proper understanding of a presentation’s narrative and content. If we start the design process with slides, we seriously risk equipping our clients with presentations that are unfocused and unimpactful.

Create Emphasis with Slide Hierarchy

Design hierarchy relates to the placement of visual elements in a way that creates emphasis. For the presentation designer, this means asking, “What two or three things do I want the audience to see on this slide?

DO’S AND DON’TS

• Do create visual contrast through scale, color, and alignment.
• Don’t try to visually highlight more than three ideas per slide.

PRO TIP

Whenever a really important idea comes up, be brave and only use a few words in bold type to communicate it. This kind of simplicity signals to an audience that it’s time to intensify their focus and really listen to what the presenter has to say.

Overcome Ambiguity with Thoughtful Typography

Most presentations are built on words, so it’s important to know which words to include and how to style them. This starts by choosing the right font, then knowing how big to make the words and where to include them.

DO’S AND DON’TS

• Do ask if your client has any designated fonts listed in their brand style guide.
• Don’t use more than two fonts in your presentation, and avoid text blocks and lengthy paragraphs like the plague.

PRO TIP

Try not to use anything smaller in size than a 36 point font. Some designers believe it’s ok to use sizes as small as 24 point, but this often leads to packing slides with more text. Remember, slides are a speaking prompt, not promotional literature.

Communicate Authority Through Graphic Simplicity

Every chart, graph, icon, illustration, or photograph used in a presentation should be easy to see and understand. Images that are difficult to interpret or poor in quality can erode the trust of an audience.

DO’S AND DON’TS

• Do look for ways to use symbols, icons, or illustrations as they have a way of communicating ideas more quickly than photography.
• Don’t use more than one photograph per slide, and don’t use stock photography that conflicts with your client’s brand (e.g., too funny, serious, or ethereal).

PRO TIP

During the consultation phase of a presentation design project, ask your potential client to see existing charts or graphs they’re hoping to include. If anything is confusing, pixelated, or inconsistent, tell them you’ll need to remake their graphics. Be prepared to show high-quality examples from well-known companies to sell your point.

Add Energy and Meaning with Bold Color Schemes

Color plays an important role in nearly every design discipline, and presentation design is no different. The colors used for a presentation affect the tone of the topic being shared and influence the mood of the audience.

DO’S AND DON’TS

• Do keep color schemes simple. Two or three colors should make up the majority of slides.
• Don’t use complementary colors for text and background (e.g., blue background with orange text). This has a way of making words vibrate with nauseating intensity.

PRO TIP

Identify a few high-contrast accent colors to make strategic cameos for added impact.

The Mission of Every Presentation Designer

It can’t be overstated; presentations are huge opportunities for designers to positively impact their clients’ businesses. Innovation and advancements in culture and technology are occurring so rapidly that it’s become absolutely vital to be able to tell a good story. No one has time for poorly communicated ideas.

Here’s the simple truth: A bad presentation designer dresses up junk content with no thought for narrative and dumps a pile of slides into their client’s lap. Maybe the presentation looks pretty, but it doesn’t inspire, doesn’t activate, and certainly doesn’t sell.