This document provides best practices for presentation design and delivery. It recommends preparing thoroughly by practicing, knowing your audience and setting. For design, it advises choosing a simple template with no more than 3 colors or font sizes per slide, and limiting bullet points and text. Visuals like charts, graphs and images should tell your story. For delivery, it suggests starting strongly, speaking clearly, making eye contact, avoiding filler words, being passionate and engaging the audience rather than reading slides. Helpful links for templates, examples and consultation are also included.

1. Presentation Design & Delivery:
Best Practices
By Samantha Harlow
Instructional Technology Consultant
School of Education, UNC Greensboro
******This version will include more text than oral presentation
version in order to stand alone on the Internet.

2. Prepare

3.  Practice, practice, practice.
 Know your audience.
 Know your setting – especially for AV
materials.
 The more you know your content,
the more you will be able to engage
with the audience.

4. Keep it Simple

5.  Choose or design simple template.
 Be wary of PowerPoint templates.
 There are places online where you can
experiment with more modern/sleek looking
templates than what is pre-installed on
PowerPoint.
 Use animations, transitions, etc sparingly.
 Create a snappy and clear title.
 Choose pleasing colors, but no more than 3 colors
per slide.
 Stick to your message and keep your message
clear.
 Remember SLIDE: Simplify, Lose the cliches,
Information needs emphasis, Designate elements,
and Empathy for Audience.

6. Limit Bullet Points & Text

7.  Use readable font. No cursive or hard to read
fonts should be used.
 You can download fonts from the Internet that
can make you stand out while also being simple
and easy to read.
 No more than three font sizes per slide
 Slide should not have all the information and text
for your oral presentation.
 Sometimes the best slides have little to no text.
 10/20/30 rule recommends limiting the number of
your slides to 10, your presentation time to 20
minutes, and using at least 30 point font size.

8. Charts & Graphs

9.  Should contain limited data.
 Use shapes to draw attention to important data.
http://www.garrreynolds.com/preso-tips/design/

10. Visual
Images

11.  Use high quality visual images to tell your story.
 There are websites online to get your images, such as
Getty Images (some images costs money) or
Everystockphoto.com (free with sign up).
 Don’t use cheesy images from clip art unless it fits in
with your story.
 Be sure to follow copyright rules, especially if you plan
on publishing your presentation or submitting it to a
conference. Fair use does not always apply.

12. Delivery

13.  Start Strong: first impressions are important.
 Keep it short and speak clearly.
 Make good eye contact.
 Avoid fillers: like, um, etc.
 Be passionate about what your talking about
or no one will care what you are saying.
 Be engaged with your audience.
 Confidence is key: if you prepared well
confidence should be easier.
 Do not read every word off of your slides.

14. Seth Godin’s Five
Rules to Remember
to Create Amazing
PowerPoints:

15. How to Not do PowerPoint by Don McMillan:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpvgfmEU2Ck
Nancy Duarte’s talk at TEDx East: On the Art of Storytelling:
http://vimeo.com/20618288
Designing an Effective Presentation:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJgeF3ALl0g
How Can I Make my PowerPoint Presentations Amazing:
http://lifehacker.com/how-can-i-make-my-powerpoint-presentations-amazing-
507552122
Pecha Kucha: Get to PowerPoint in 20 Slides
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NZOt6BkhUg
Presentation Zen:
http://www.presentationzen.com/
Guide to Slideshare: includes some good presentation examples
http://blog.kissmetrics.com/marketers-guide-to-slideshare/
Helpful Links:

16. UNCG SOE Instructional Technology Services & Website:
http://intech.uncg.edu/
UNCG Digital Media Commons:
http://library.uncg.edu/spaces/dmc/
UNCG PowerPoint Templates and Projection Images:
http://ure.uncg.edu/brandguide/?brandcat=powerpoint-
templates-and-projection-images
UNCG SOE Director of Instructional Technology:
Sandra Bates-Hart
smbatesh@uncg.edu
UNCG SOE Instructional Technology Consultant:
Samantha Harlow
slharlow@uncg.edu
How can UNCG Help?

17. References
Garr Reynolds,
http://www.garrreynolds.com/preso-tips/design/
Seth Godin’s Blog Post: Really Bad PowerPoint
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2007/01/really_bad_powe.html
How Can I Make My PowerPoint Presentations Amazing? By Melanie Pinola on
Lifehacker
http://lifehacker.com/how-can-i-make-my-powerpoint-presentations-amazing-
507552122
Images taken from stock.xchng
http://www.sxc.hu/
University of Washington, PowerPoint Best Practices
http://www.washington.edu/research/.SITEPARTS/.documents/.osp/PowerPoint
_Best_Practices.pdf