These tips are taken from a presentation created by Garr Reynolds. I took his advice, and put them into a helpful slideshow presentation for you guys to take advantage of.
Don’t clutter up all of the free space the slide with words or images. The less clutter you have the stronger your visual image will be.
The less text you have on a slide, the more focus will be drawn to the text that you do have. This also means you have to present to people instead of people simply reading your presentation off of the slide.
Many of the transitions are too slow or too repetitive, and many viewers will get bored with this constant animations. You can use animations, just keep the brief and don’t put them between every single slide.
If you use clipart from common websites online, chances are you viewers have seen it before, but regardless it undermines the professionalism of the presentation. High quality images help the viewers connection with the point you are trying to make regarding the slide.
Avoid using powerpoint templates, as they are not fantastic to begin with and if you couple that with the fact that the viewers have seen those templates hundreds of times via other presentations you are left with a less than stellar presentation.
Charts are always good for representing data, but make sure you are using the correct chart of the data you have. Also make sure the charts are easy to read even from farther away.
Studies have shown that color can help with comprehension and retention of knowledge, in addition to being able to elicit an emotional connection from the viewers.
Choosing a bad font can make your presentation hard to read for some of the viewers, and this will cause them to lose interest in your presentation.
Video and audio will not only help make your point stronger, they also offer a change of pace to your presentation to help keep things interesting and upbeat. Putting the video or audio directly in the presentation increases the professionalism of your presentation and also cuts down on external distractions.
Presentations are easier to follow if the slides are presented in a manner that makes logical sense. The better your presentation flows, the easier it is for the viewers to follow and understand.