The document offers guidance on enhancing presentation skills, emphasizing the importance of effective structure, visual aids, and the careful use of text and images. It advises keeping slides simple, using readable fonts, and ensuring visual content enhances the message without overpowering it. Finally, it highlights the need for coherence in design and delivery to engage the audience effectively.

1. Presentation Quest
Levelling up your presentation skills
Start

2. Chapter One
-
The Setting

3. Hello traveller, you seem restless. I sense that you
are on a journey to find enlightenment. If prowess in
presentation is what you seek, you came to the right
place.
Would you like me to tell you about presentations?
Yes
No

4. Very well then. First you need to clear your mind.
What is it that you seek? Each presentation is not
alike.
Create a one-slide-fits-all solution
Create visual aids for oral presentation

5. Indeed. The medium that you intend to use dictates
the design process. Rules that apply to one setting
need not apply to the other.
If you understand this basic premise you are ready
to move on to the next level of presentation design.

6. Chapter Two
-
Structuring
Information

7. Before you start thinking of slides, you need to know
where you want to go. What information you want to
convey to your audience.

8. BA Start
So come up with a structure to guide your audience to
that information. Make it a story, or a pattern that
helps them „get it“.

9. Chapter Three
-
Putting
Information on
Your Slides

10. Text is probably the first thing people think of to put
on a slide. That does not make it the best choice nor
is composing and designing text trivial. Writing and
Typography are artforms in their own right. Best to
keep it simple then.
When you are using text in a presentation you
should choose a font that is easy to read. Make sure
it contrasts well with the background. Remember
that it needs to be big enough to be read from afar.
• Never ever this.

11. Text is probably the first thing people think of to put
on a slide. That does not make it the best choice nor
is composing and designing text trivial. Writing and
Typography are artforms in their own right. Best to
keep it simple then.
When you are using text in a presentation you
should choose a font that is easy to read. Make sure
it contrasts well with the background. Remember
that it needs to be big enough to be read from afar.
Use text sparingly! Your audience can only process
one type of language input at a time. Whenever they
•
read Never ever this.
they do not listen to you!

13. Mountains?

14. Photos! Make sure that you only use images that
specifically add to the meaning of what you are
saying. If they are only remotely related, your
audience will marvel at them or ponder about them
instead of your message.

15. If you do think that your image is worth a thousand
words, let it shine. Pick the highest quality and have
it take up the whole screen.

16. Wow,
must be
Label Label important
Scale
Make sure your data is easy to comprehend. Visualize
it as plainly as you can. When time is of the essence,
you cannot afford to have your audience struggle
with irrelevant information.

17. Evil Adversary
Mercy Skill Hate
Resistant to: shock
Weak spot: shoulder
You know, just like with those random battles. Good
thing you have learned how to react in a pinch.

18. Chapter Four
-
Putting
Meaning in Your
Presentation

19. To have the meaning of your message carry over to
your audience, you need to put everything together,
your speech and your visual cues.

20. BA Start
Use a content scheme like a story or a recognizeable
pattern to create coherence in your message. Then
start designing slides to match your delivery.

21. BA Start
C ontrast information that should stand out.
R epeat design elements to establish coherence.
A lign all visual content to add cohesiveness.
P roximity of items that bundle information.
Use a design scheme of fonts and colors to arrange
the visual cues on your slides in a meaningful way.

22. BA Start
C ontrast information that should stand out.
R epeat design elements to establish coherence.
A lign all visual content to add cohesiveness.
P roximity of items that bundle information.
Use a little bling to wow your audience. But never let
the message that you took the effort to shine up
your presentation outshine the message of your
presentation.

23. If you use the skills you learned in your quest so far,
you should be ready to continue on your own now. As
long as you remember that there is still much to learn
you will do fine. I have but one final word of advice
for you to remember when you design your slides...

24. ...There is no slide!

25. The End?

26. Jakob Jochmann is exploring meaning in communication.
He develops frameworks to streamline the transfer of
information. Apart from dabbling in semantics and the social
facets of media he has a penchant for design and
presentations.
Mail: jakob@jochmann.me
Twitter: @jochmann
Web: blog.jochmann.me