We’ve all wasted hours sitting through mediocre PowerPoint presentations. Everyone complains about them. You all know the expression – Death by Powerpoint.
I’m not a designer, but I spend a lot of time writing PowerPoint slides. And, if I’m being honest with myself, some of my presentations could have been a lot better. So, I set myself the goal of raising my game. To make my presentations easier to present from and easier for the audience to listen to. I never want to be accused of delivering dull presentations.
To help me do this, here are the ‘Golden Rules’ I try to adhere to.
1 One Message Per Slide
This is the biggie. A key mistake is that slides are overloaded. Our brains can’t cope. It’s incredibly tiring trying to make sense of complex slides. Eventually, we zone out.
As a presenter, it’s very difficult to tell a story with a slide full of ‘stuff.’ It becomes hard to remember what’s on it. Instead, you end up reading from the slide, which as we all know is the cardinal sin of presentations.
Sometimes we’re told to limit the number of slides we must give in a presentation. We’re then tempted to cram too much information onto each one. Don’t limit the number of slides you use. Limit what you say on each slide instead.
Treat each slide as a poster. Apply the 3-second rule. If you can’t absorb what’s on it in less than 3 seconds, then simplify it. Spread your messages across several slides.
2 Maintain a Consistent Style
Powerpoint offers us a huge choice of fonts, backgrounds, and colours. Resist the temptation to play with them and to mix and match too many. Otherwise, your presentation will look like a mess.
Creating the ‘right style’ is often down to personal taste or the visual style of your business. But whatever style you choose, be consistent across all the following dimensions.
Fonts. People have strong opinions on which are ‘good’ fonts vs ‘bad’ fonts. There’s a lot of choices. Everyone seems to hate the more ubiquitous, standard fonts. Notably, Times New Roman, Comic Sans, and Helvetica.
In general:
a) never use more than two fonts in a presentation
b) choose san serif fonts as they’re easier to read than serif fonts on screens
c) choose fonts that support your presentation’s tone of voice
Colours. Have a limited, but consistent colour palette. As with fonts, choose the ones that reflect the tonality of your presentation. Make sure there’s a strong contrast between the font and the background to aid legibility.
Layout. Powerpoint offers default templates, but it’s much better to create your own. People have seen the standard templates millions of times. If you’re not sure what style to adopt, get some design advice. Lots of organisations offer templates, often for free. Choose a style that suits you.
The tone of voice. Keep the style of words/choice of images consistent. Serious vs playful, conversational vs professional. Choose a style and stick to it.
Imagery. Try to adopt images with a similar ‘feel’. This could be the subject matter, style, or colour. If you’re choosing hand-drawn images, use the same style throughout.
3 Minimise Text
Words can act as a comfort blanket. We often use too many. Instead, aim to use the least words possible on each slide.
Don’t use whole sentences, or else people will simply read them from the screen. As a presenter, you’ll be tempted to do the same. The role of the text is to guide your presentation, not to replace you. Some people, such as Seth Godin, adhere to strict guidelines such as never using more than 6 words per page.
Never use bullet points. Bullet points take us to a bad place. The lists of bullet points on slides are so depressing.
Don’t put your logo on every slide. It’s egotistical, irrelevant, and creates visual clutter. By all means, provide your company details on the opening or final slide, but don’t pepper it throughout.
Having fewer words means that you can make your fonts bigger, so people at the back of the room can see your message.
Don’t be afraid of leaving space on slides. You don’t have to fill up the entire slide
Some people are fans of the Lessig method or Takahashi method. It uses single words or phrases on each slide. They're then shown at pace to drive a powerful narrative. Audiences find the presentation dynamic and easy to follow. Sometimes you end up creating hundreds of slides. But that’s fine. If this works for you, then, by all means, use it. It’s much better than cramming slides with text.
4 Use Large Impactful Images
Images evoke an emotional response and can have more power than words.
Choose your images carefully. Avoid the clichéd stock images or poor-quality Google Images. You also risk infringing copyright. Clipart is a disaster.
Instead, invest time in searching for the perfect, high-quality image. There are paid sites, eg Shutterstock, which may be worth investing in. Other sites offer beautiful images for free, that don’t infringe copyright laws. My favourites are Unsplash or Pixabay, but there are many more. Don’t be afraid to use good-quality photos you’ve taken yourself. They make your presentation much more personal.
Try to use full-bleed images for the highest impact. Icons are good too. Many sites offer beautifully drawn icons that can bring your presentations to life.
5 Make Data Easy to Understand
Data is particularly challenging to present on slides. Showing data-rich charts and pointing to important bits is not enough. Within nanoseconds, you will have lost your audience. You need to make it easy for them.
Focus on the big memorable facts. If there’s a key piece of data you want to highlight, simply show this on the slide.
Combine data with visuals. To make your data even more memorable, provide context by including relevant visuals.
Build your slides. Don’t choose fancy animations. But when you’re telling a story reveal sections of your slide bit by bit, with a supporting voiceover.
Highlight the implications. Do the work for your audience. Explain the meaning of the data. Don't force them to work it out for themselves
Summary
Powerpoint has a bad reputation. It’s seen as a necessary evil. It’s because people don’t invest time and effort in creating engaging presentations. Instead, they default to lazy, junk-filled lists of bullet points. Or they copy and paste slides from other presentations. Instead, view PowerPoint as an asset. See it as a way of becoming a better communicator. It doesn’t mean you have to become a graphic designer. Indeed, always ask for professional help if you’re looking to raise your game. Develop a style, a way of creating slides that suit you or your organisation. Whatever style you adopt, make sure you follow these five Golden Rules. Your presentations will improve exponentially.