8 Key Design Principles for Better PowerPoint Presentations

Here are eight key principles to follow when creating a PowerPoint presentation:

8 Key Design Principles for Better PowerPoint Presentations

Here are eight key principles to follow when creating a PowerPoint presentation:

1. Keep it Simple (but not simplistic)

A presentation is about your audience and how you connect with them. That connection - and your message - can be lost if you have a stack of slides which are overly ‘busy’, complicated or loaded with text.

Think about what you want to say and convey before you start designing.

2. Have a Consistent Theme (topic and visual)

A presentation should have a clear theme, title and core message. That helps the audience to engage with the content, and to understand and remember it.

The savvy Assistant can build a PowerPoint presentation from scratch or use a design template. Mastering the Slide Master helps to create and apply changes to the formatting and design of each slide, efficiently and without fuss.

3. Use a Logical Structure and Flow

The human brain is hard wired for story. It also searches for familiar patterns. So, your audience is looking for a beginning, middle and end - with each ‘chapter’ of the presentation’s story in the right order.

4. Keep Wording Short and to the Point

One of the main reasons why ‘Death by PowerPoint’ became a phrase was not PowerPoint itself but how people were using the application. Slides loaded with text, repeated verbatim by the presenter. A dull and lazy approach for which the technology wrongly took the blame.

Whilst you can turn a Word document into a slide presentation deck (and Copilot can help you do this) you want to avoid filling slides with tons of text.

Keep text short and to the point. Use Smart Art instead of bullet points they are far more engaging than a boring bulleted list. Sometimes an image with no words is all a slide requires. The presenter adds the narration to tell the story.

5. Use Images, Graphics and Charts

Pictures are often remembered better than words. Images that represent common objects, when combined with short and punchy text, can be the most memorable combination for an audience.

Good quality graphics can enhance a presentation. Avoid clip art - it looks dated and unprofessional. Online resources for images and graphics include Pexels, Unsplash and Pixabay. Subscription services for visual resources are available from the likes of Adobe Stock, Shutterstock, iStockphoto and Storyblocks.

Did you know that with your Microsoft 365 business subscription you get access to a full Creative Commons Library of online images. Use them freely within your PowerPoint presentation but do not take them outside of the Microsoft Application ecosystem.

Graphs and charts are a great way to represent information in a visual way. However, principle #1 of Keep It Simple applies to visuals as well as to text.

6. Be Smart with Animations and Transitions

To engage the audience, using Animations and Transitions for polished presentations can be a good way to go. However, you have to be smart and use any special effects or motion effects wisely.

Used well, the presentation is enhanced. Just ‘thrown in’ for the sake of it and it could distract from the power of the presentation’s message.

7. Make Clever Use of White Space and Colour

You don’t have to fill up an entire slide with a logo, footer, or unnecessary graphics or text box. If an element can be removed from a slide without diminishing the message, remove it or change it. The resulting white space helps the audience to see the message.

Colours evoke feelings and responses. They can increase engagement and improve learning. The right choices can make all the difference to a presentation. Use a maximum of three or four colours.

8. Consider Adding Interactivity and Embedded Media for Greater Engagement

The value of introducing interactive elements to enhance your PowerPoint presentation should be obvious Video and audio clips add an extra dimension to any presentation, and can be a good way to introduce, support or finish a point.

Interactive surveys, polls, quizzes and forms help to involve the audience, test user knowledge, gather feedback and gain insights.

To learn more and improve your PowerPoint Skills - head over to my course Essential PowerPoint for The Savvy Assistantt and get your skills upgraded!

Categories: : Microsoft PowerPoint