Designing better visual presentation
1. Keep it clean. Always have plenty of “white space” or “negative space” (unfilled with words or images) on your slide. Focus in on one or two key words you want them to remember, or better yet, use an image to convey or illustrate what you are saying. Only show one item at a time. If you show 4 bullet points, your audience will be reading and considering those, not listening to what you’re saying about the first one. Show one point at a time, either using animations to bring them up, or (better yet) use 1-slide per point.
2. The fewer words the better. Your PowerPoint slides should provide an image or a few words to add impact to your presentation. It should not be your presentation. Your slides should be almost meaningless without your narration. If you do want to provide detailed notes to your audience, prepare a hand-out to distribute after you have delivered your presentation.
3. Have a visual theme or brand that you use throughout your presentation (and in all your organization’s presentations), but avoid the PowerPoint templates. Everyone has seen these templates and similar businesses tend to use similar templates (for instance, ocean-oriented agencies and businesses tend to select flow, waveform, or another blue or blue-green themes and color schemes. Create your own and save it as a design template (.ppt) for future use.
4. Choose colors carefully. In general terms, colors divide into cool tones (blues, greens) and warm tones (reds, oranges, yellows). Cool colors tend to make good backgrounds because they appear to recede, while warm colors jump out and so are good for foreground objects, like text. (That’s one reason why the most frequently used color combination in PowerPoint presentations is a blue background with yellow letters.) Remember to select contrasting colors, but never use two colors that are directly opposite each other on the color wheel (blue and orange or red, purple and yellow, green and red or orange) or the letters will “dance” on the screen, causing nausea in your audience. Another consideration for foreground and background colors is lighting. If you’ll be in a room with the lights on, it’s easiest to read dark text on a light background, but if you’re presenting in a dark room, light words on a dark background are most visible. If you do use a dark background with light letters, bump up the font size 3-4 points.
5. Choose your fonts carefully. Fonts convey a visual message to the audience so be sure your font matches your message. You wouldn’t use a “chipper” font like Comic Sans of Kristen ITC for a presentation on a serious subject. Be sure to use the same font throughout your presentation, and never mix more than two complementary fonts (Arial and Arial Bold). Serif fonts like Times New Roman are easier to read in text-heavy documents or at smaller point sizes, whereas sans serif fonts like Arial or Helvetica are recommended for PowerPoint presentations because they’re cleaner at large point sizes. Regardless of the font you select, always preview your presentation from the back of the room to make sure everything can be seen. Anything that isn’t clear—text or graphics (all parts)—should be removed or resized. If you’re tempted to say, “I know you can’t see this, but….” delete that slide immediately!
6. Left or right align your text, don’t center it. Centered text is harder to read.
7. Use images sparingly. While images can add to a presentation, too many of them, or images unrelated to the message reduce the impact. Only use high-quality images that illustrate the slide’s message. Avoid using the built-in clip art from PowerPoint or other canned packages. Everyone has seen them and, for the most part, they’re cheesy.
8. Avoid flashy animations and transitions. An occasional word appearing from off-screen can add impact. Every word flying, checker-boarding, or fading in and out is annoying. Save the animation for when it will make a difference, not to make the audience indifferent. If you want to present one bullet at a time, select the “wipe” mode to show it, and don’t add sound effects.
9. Use appropriate charts. When creating charts for your presentation, always ask “What is the main point I want the audience to see?” Then select the best chart and the least amount of data needed to show that. Remember, your presentation enhances your message, it isn’t the message. You don’t need the same level of detail in your PowerPoint slide that you do in the peer-reviewed, published paper you are presenting on.
1. Pie charts show percentages. Limit to 4-6 slices and use contrasting colors, or explode the slice of interest to emphasize your point.
2. Vertical bar charts show change over time. For clarity, only show 4-8 bars
3. Horizontal bar charts compare quantities, for example number of trainees by department. Similar to vertical bar charts, limit the bars to 4-8.
4. Line charts illustrate trends, for example number of employees trained per year. One bar, with proper axes can clearly show a trend with very little clutter.
5.Tables can be used to show side-by-side comparisons, but require more effort for the audience to comprehend. If your message can be conveyed with a chart, use the best one to make your point. Sometimes, however, you might want to reduce the impact of the data (for example, showing a decrease in the numbers of employees trained), in which case a table might be more appropriate.
10. Proofread, proofread, proofread. Spelling and grammar errors on a printed report can cause the reader to stumble. Those same errors magnified into 40 point font hovering on the screen over your head will tear your audience’s attention from your message to the mistake. Always run spellcheck, ask someone to look over your presentation, and read each slide out loud to catch errors prior to delivery.
