Presentation Skills
Your design should be visually appealing to your audience and should complement the overall message of your project, but ultimately it is up to you to decide what looks best. In this section, we'll talk about visuals, which includes some tips to consider for your overall design.
Colour is one of the easiest ways to make your presentation stand out, and a good use of colour is a great way to create meaning in a subtle way. There are also plenty of articles online about the psychology of colour in marketing. Cool colours tend to be calming and friendly; warm colours may be welcoming and positive. Bold colours can be passionate, while lighter tones convey thoughtfulness. When choosing colours, consider using these hidden meanings to your advantage.
With colour, the important thing is to keep it consistent. Sticking to a colour palette will help make your work stand out and will keep your message on track.
You can choose colours you like or use the colour wheel to choose similar or opposite colours. If you have an image, you really want to use, you could pick colours from the image. There are a lot of choices you can make!
If you are not sure what colours look good together many tools, including PowerPoint, offer themes and colour variants you can choose from. There are also free tools that offer colour palette suggestions. Online colour palettes generators such as Canva: Color Palettes, Coolors, or Adobe Color, can help you get inspired and choose the right colours for your presentation.
We suggest you choose two to five colours, with one as your main colour and one as your secondary colour. Any other colours you choose should be used more sparingly, to add interest or emphasis.
Watch the video below for more information on:
In general, sans serif fonts are preferred over serif fonts (think Calibri vs. Times New Roman), but you can use any font you like. Try not to overuse fun or complex fonts; your viewers will get tired of them quickly and they can be harder to read.
Limit yourself to no more than two or three fonts and be consistent in their use; e.g. one for headings, and one for body text. A third font choice might be used for emphasis, but you could also use a different colour or size for that purpose instead.
If you’ll be presenting on a different computer or sending your presentation to someone else, make sure to use common fonts that are available across programs and operating systems. This way your presentation will always look the way you intend.
As far as size goes, some say there should be no text less than size 30, but you can use your discretion. The goal is to keep your font large enough so everyone can read your text whether they are looking at a screen from the back of a room or viewing it on their phone.
Be mindful of the amount of text you have on your slides. Large paragraphs or blocks of text can be overwhelming to look at and hard to read. Adding too much text can distract the audience because they will be focused on reading and not on what you’re saying. You want to outline only the most important points on the slide and fill in the rest of the information with your spoken presentation. Your points on screen should also be listed in the same order that you speak about them. This way the audience will be able to follow along with your presentation, engage with what you are saying, and take away the key ideas.
Learn about the different types of fonts, and how to choose fonts for your project. This video also talks about common typography terms, and fonts to avoid.
If a background colour and the text or images on top are too similar, they may blend into one another and will be harder to see. You want your content to stand out, and that is where contrast comes in.
The general rule is when using light-coloured content, use a dark background and when using dark-coloured content, use a light background (straightforward, right?). If you are adding text and you do not want to change your background, consider using coloured shapes behind the text to make it more visible.
You can always check your contrast with a contrast checker.
Remember that contrast is not just for text. Using contrast between your graphics and your background will help your visuals stand out, and contrast in the size or colour of your graphics also works to emphasize your point.
The video below discusses colour contrast and how it can help your design stand out. Knowing how to create visually accessible content will help your entire audience see your message.
Studies have shown that using images can help your audience retain information, so use them to help keep your content memorable and interesting.
Look for .png or .jpg file types as they will be suited to most projects, and choose images that:
If you are not sure why you are including an image, consider leaving it out. Too many images can be distracting. It’s okay to have white space.
The video below discusses the basics of using images in your project. It explains how to edit your images (crop, resize etc.) and how to find quality stock images.
When working on laying out your content, consider how your audience will see each slide or scene. The most important content should be clearly visible, and ideally your audience will see that important content before they see everything else.
The easiest way to know if your layout is working is to ask someone else to take a look. But if that is not an option, ask yourself:
If you are not sure where to place content, use the Rules of Thirds. To use this rule, imagine your work in a 3x3 grid. The points where those grid lines intersect are where our eyes tend to go naturally, so are ideal spots to add content. You will usually only need to add content near one of those spots to create an effective slide.
You do not need to visually fill your slides. Your job is to help your audience understand your topic, and too much content in one spot might overwhelm your viewers and muddy your message.
Use very simple or even blank slides to your advantage. Occasional visual pauses give your viewers a break and encourage them to listen to your voice or audio.
It is a good idea to have a variety of different slide or scene layouts so your audience does not get bored. If each slide looks the same, your audience may miss content not realizing you have moved ahead in your presentation.
If you are not a natural when it comes to slide design, the Designer Tool in PowerPoint 365 may help. Other software may also offer straightforward layout options that you can easily vary.
Take a closer look at 5 Ways to Design the Same Slide for inspiration.
As you design your presentation, think about which points you want your audience to focus on. Animation can help draw your viewer's attention to those important points. Remember to keep it simple. Too many animations will be distracting for your audience. Movement should complement your message and enhance your audience’s comprehension of your topic. In other words, do not use a fancy star wipe transition on a somber presentation. Instead think of animation as a way to control the amount of information you share at a given point in time.
If you are working on an online presentation, consider also that animations may not appear as you intended due to slow network connections, so keep them simple and use them sparingly.
Though similar, animations and transitions have different purposes.
There are four types of animations you can use in PowerPoint, each with its own purpose:
Using any of these types of animation can help draw your audience's attention to a specific point you are trying to make. Remember to use them sparingly. If there is too much happening on the screen your audience will find it distracting.
Use what you learned above to compare the differences between these two sample slides. Read about how all the design mistakes were corrected.
