PowerPoint slides (or Keynote or Google slides or Prezi, etc) can be a powerful tool to supplement a speaker’s presentation. But how many times have you dozed through a presentation where the speaker read the slides verbatim? Or the audience – even those on the front row – squinted to read the small fonts? Or the distracting dancing emoticons stole the show?
These issues aren’t always the result of bad design. These issues frequently arise because the speaker forgets the #1 reason for being in the room.
The audience.
Focus on the people in the seats
- Remember the goal of using PowerPoint is to support your presentation, not be your presentation. Never read the slides. Focus the audience on your message, not your slides.
- Avoid the temptation to read the slides aloud by keeping slide content short and “high level.” If the slides are necessary to keep your presentation on track, you may not know your topic as well as you think.
- Keep in mind that the people in the back of the room may not be able to see the level of detail that the people on the front row can see. There’s never a good reason to say “I know some of you may not be able to see this . . ”
- Have a Plan B if the technology doesn’t work. Do a trial run on-site to ensure video, animations or QR codes embedded in your slides will work in the presentation space. Test the internet connection to ensure adequate bandwidth to use the video and make sure people in the back of the room can scan the QR code. Make sure you’ve got access to your file in a second location in case the file on your hard drive becomes inaccessible.
- Keep your eyes on your audience, not the slides. Nothing is more distracting than watching a speaker address the screen instead of the audience.
Begin with the end in mind
- Make it easy for the audience to pay attention to you. Don’t tempt them to read ahead by including too much content on a single slide. Break down complex graphics or dense copy into multiple slides
- Start organizing your deck by writing out your notes/script/handout rather than the other way around. This helps you create slides that support intended take-aways.
- Leave behind a single handout, not a copy of the slide deck. A good slide deck is a very high-level summary of your points; it’s not your entire presentation or your handout.
Build concise slides
- Limit text. Simplify and limit the number of words on each screen. Use key phrases and include only essential information. White space is a positive.
- Break complex or dense copy into multiple slides. The audience needs to be focusing on what you’re saying, not what they are reading on the slide that you will say next.
- Maintain parallel construction and consistent verb tense for bullets.
- Save details for a separate handout. A good PowerPoint presentation does not necessarily make for a good meeting handout or standalone document. A separate handout may take a little additional time to create, but it’s almost always a more appropriate place to include your detailed graphs and charts.
- Use single slide/single idea approach. Each slide should address a single concept rather than trying to connect the dots across multiple data points, trends or ideas.
- Avoid inserting spreadsheets or detailed graphs on a slide. Instead, pull out summary points from the spreadsheet that can be converted into a very simple, easy-to-read chart or graph. Save spreadsheets for handouts.
Pay attention to readability
- Maintain the same fonts throughout your deck. Mixing font styles just gives the audience one more thing to pay attention to.
- Avoid acronyms or abbreviations unless they are commonplace enough that everyone in the audience will recognize what they represent. Stay away from parenthetical references. For example: University of South Carolina (USC)
- Keep font color consistent to ensure the audience is focused on your content rather than jarring changes in color.
- Avoid italic type, script, underlining, all caps and drop shadows. All decrease readability.
- Avoid font size smaller than 24 point
— 44 pt is ideal for headlines
— 32 pt is ideal for primary bullets
— 24 pt works for sub-bullets. Anything smaller gets hard to read.
Use images strategically
- Use graphics that clearly support your message. Good graphics can significantly add to learning. Bad graphics can confuse and distract your audience. In a large ballroom-sized meeting room, graphics may become pixilated or colors diminished on a large screen. Make time to check this before the presentation.
- Avoid pixelated and blurry images. Use images with a high enough resolution to appear clearly on a large screen.
- Focus on your message, not the technology of images. Animations, a rainbow of colors, multiple fonts and text fly-ins can detract from your message. Avoid dancing emoticons and zooming graphics.
- Credit the source of the image, graphic or photo if you or your organization didn’t create it. Always assume the image is copyrighted.
- Make sure to have releases for any photos that are used.
Need some outside perspective on your company’s use of PowerPoint? Contact Reba Campbell at the Medway Group for a consult.