A Time to Kill Bad Slideshows

We’ve all been to grey old presentations where 1200 words are spat unto a slide in Comic Sans. Now’s the time to do something about it. Here are a few things I’m trying to spice up my slides.

 

 

MAKING SLIDES MEMORABLE

Use Text Sparingly

Original photo by dmodzelewski (cc)

The more and more I attend and give presentations, the less text I want to put on and/or see on them. Slides are there to highlight a point, not to fill up with an essay. Too much text confuses the audience. Ideally, a slide should just have a single statement on it, with an image that pushes that idea home.

Some of us are wowed by text, others by images and yet more are bent to the auditory. Why not make your presentation appeal to all of the above? Cut the fat right out of your slides and build out a takeaway document for your audience. Slides sell the idea, a takeaway is opportunity to record context.

 

Stick to a Three-colour Theme, if possible

Original photo by Mestissa (cc)

You want your slides to look unique. Iconic. Logo designers often stick to a three colour palette with a eye to simplify a concept.

Taking this idea into slides, use coloured headings to highlight your points.  Try to associate your palette with how you want your audience to feel. If you are trying to sell a new idea, something fresh and clean – how about green and blue? If it’s a luxury item, should you be looking at something burgundy? Of course, the main font ought to stay black, unless of course you decide to mix it up and use one of the  heading colours as a background in a slide or two. Black text on burgundy? Ugh! No! Be smart.

If you are using Powerpoint 2007, your choices can be made this a little easier as it has a suite of themes on tap. There are piles of sites out there like that do help web designers with colour combos. You could check those out for inspiration.

 

Make use of Creative Commons images

Original photo by blprnt_van (cc)

Spice up your slides by using pictures licensed under Creative Commons. There are lots places where you can pick up quality photos and use, once you use them under the correct license and are sure to give proper attribution to the photographer/artist. Lots of people are turned on if you use their images. Just make sure you don’t abuse their kindness.

I like to use Jazz Biscuit’s handy Creative Commons image search. Yes and all of my images were found using it.

 

 

ON THE DAY, BE PREPARED

Cast a Hook

Original photo by The Wandering Angel (cc)

Be daring, the meek aren’t remembered. Your audience have carved out time in their schedule and are ready to be blown away. While this can be hard in some presentations, there’s almost always a neat idea that you use to make a lasting impression.

Are you making a bold statement? Can you use a live demonstration in your presentation with props? Things that people can smell, touch and feel leave a tangible mark with the audience. If it’s presentation on food, can you bring samples?

 

Ask yourself everything

Original photo by Tonamel (cc)

Imagine all your toughest critics in the room. When you quote numbers, stats or give examples have your homework done.

If you’re selling then the audience are like a team of VCs. Be sure to give precise answers. If you don’t know the answer to something admit it, make a note and promise to come back on that issue after the talk. Move on, there’s nothing to gain by talking bull.

 

Know your venue

Original photo by jcortell (cc)

Scope out where you’re going to do the presentation. Do you have to bring a laptop? Got the required AV cable to hook into the projector?

Also there’s a number of simple things you ought to do, like check you have enough seats and meeting notes for attendees. Know where the light and AC controls are too.

 

Do you have any presentation tips you’d like to add?

November 11th, 2008 at 4:48 pm • Filed in Brainstrobing, Design



Comments

2 Comments to “A Time to Kill Bad Slideshows”

  1. icedcoffee | words » links and things - sunday 16th november 2008 Says:
    November 16th, 2008 at 3:15 pm

    [...] has a great writeup on good presentations. Maybe this will come in handy for my best man speech in a few months [...]



  2. David McDonald Says:
    November 16th, 2008 at 3:33 pm

    Great post Alexia, covering all the main bases here.
    Ironically I probably broke a few of these excellent guidelines in my speech at CCamp Belfast. My only defense (poor as it is) is that I broke one rule big time – ‘Make sure you allow enough time to prepare for your presentation’. All other problems likely to flow from that one.

    Cheers.



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