Marcus RichardsDesigning effective PowerPoint slides may seem too easy at first. But, once you sit in front of your computer, you realize you don’t have a design in mind. Hence, if you use default designs on your computer, you may end up having a bad Powerpoint presentation.
You can make your presentation slides memorable for your target audience by looking at PowerPoint design ideas and using professionally made slide templates from Simple Slides. Not only do these slides look great, but they also help save time, for you don’t have to make everything from scratch.
This article will share some useful tips for designing effective PowerPoint slides. You and your slides will wow the presentation room with your amazing presentation.
10 Tips for Effective Powerpoint Presentations
You can create your own presentation that is engaging and interactive. Using all the animation or transition features of PowerPoint can be tempting. However, that doesn’t mean you must use all of them to make your slides awesome.
Below are some design tips for effective PowerPoint presentations. You can improve your presentations big time with the help of these tips.
1. Use the Slide Master Feature
Before you become too excited to start working on your slides, you must first focus on the slide master of your presentation. The slide master feature allows you to make a consistent design template for your presentation. The slide master ensures you consistently use the same font, color, and background in your presentation.
The slide master is the very first slide in your presentation. This slide stores all the information for your presentation, including the overall theme or background, slide layouts, and font and color.
Using the Slide Master feature, you can instantly make changes to all the slides in the presentation. When you edit the slide master, it also affects all the other slides in the presentation. Though, you can still make changes to the content presentation on individual slides.
2. Choose Appropriate Fonts and Colors
When choosing a color scheme for your presentation, it is best to use contrasting colors for readable text. Dark text is paired with a light background, while light text is readable on dark background. Avoid using patterned backgrounds for the text may be unreadable.
Sans-serif fonts (Arial, Calibri, or Helvetica) are highly recommended for PowerPoint slides, for they are easily readable. Avoid using serif fonts (Times New Roman) as much as possible. Using a font size of at least 24 pt or higher is recommended.
Use bold fonts instead of italics because the text is more readable and gives more impact to your presentation.
In one slide, use a maximum of four colors and font only. Test your presentation slides on the projector screen before your live presentation begins.
3. Use Graphical Images and High-Resolution Pictures
It is highly recommended to use good-quality images for your PowerPoint presentations. Your choice of images should relate to your topic. Choose only one or two images per slide instead of using several small images.
With a simple design template, layout all the images to be the same size. If you include graphs or charts in your slide, you can label or explain them briefly.
4. Do Not Use Clip Art
There are several amazing pictures that you can use to make your presentation amazing. Do not use clip art on any of your slides, for it is a thing of the past and doesn’t add any impact to your presentation.
5. Apply the 6×6 Rule
The 6×6 rule suggests typing your thoughts or key ideas in one line. Each line should include no more than six words, and each slide should only have a maximum of six lines. You want your audience to enjoy your presentation, not bore them.
6. Avoid Text-Heavy Slides
Your PowerPoint presentation is not a cheat sheet that you can read during your presentation. Instead, your slides are there to emphasize key points to grab your audience’s attention.
Limiting the number of words per slide by typing only the important points of your topic is advisable. You can use bullet points to express your ideas. As much as possible, do not capitalize all letters in your presentation, and limit punctuation usage.
Also, when creating your slides, it is best to follow the natural reading order that the Western languages follow, which is from left to right.
7. Limit Animation or Effects
Use a single slide transition throughout your presentation so your audience can expect you to move to the next slide. Do not use flashy images or noisy animations unless it is part of a joke. But, otherwise, do not use it, for they are more of a distraction than an attraction.
Don’t just randomly choose sound effects, animations, or slide transitions that you feel look nice. All the elements that you use on your slides should have a purpose.
8. Use Empty Space
If your slides have many empty spaces, don’t be anxious that you need to fill them up with more text or images. Several elements in a slide can result in confusion and clutter. The use of empty space can enhance readability of your presentation.
9. Keep your Presentation Design Simple
Everyone wants to make the best PowerPoint presentation. But, many equate best with overly decorative slides. You cannot create a great presentation with so much going on. The best presentations are simple yet appealing.
A minimalist design template offers clarity and consistency. A simple design template is not distracting; instead, it can attract or sustain your audience’s attention.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. What are the tips for designing an effective PowerPoint presentation?
There are several tips for designing an effective PowerPoint presentation. Some of these tips include using appropriate fonts and colors, using high-quality images and avoiding clip art, using animations, effects, and transitions sparingly, and applying the concept of empty spaces in your presentation.
2. What is the 5-5-5 PowerPoint rule?
The 5-5-5 PowerPoint rule states that each slide should have only five lines of text, and each line should not exceed five words. Also, there should be no more than five consecutive slides loaded with text.
Conclusion
When designing effective Powerpoint slides, always keep the design simple. A simple design is not boring when using professionally made PowerPoint templates.
A simple design is effective because it has the power to deliver a clearer message and offer a better visual impact to the audience. The tips listed above are straightforward; you can try them immediately on your next presentation.
