4 Ways To Make Your Presentation Design More Engaging
A presentation design is a complex task to get right as you may struggle with a plethora of questions such as which colour scheme works best, how much content is needed per slide, or which multimedia elements to use.
Many presenters fear that if they don’t fill the slides with much information, they may be construed as not having done the work.
Regardless of the exact purpose of your presentation, a good starting point is to know your audience wants to grasp your main ideas in a clear and exciting format. Here is how to make your presentation design more engaging.
Table of Contents
1 – A Mesmerising Cover Slide
Many presenters are unaware of the importance of an intriguing cover slide. The cover slide can establish the topic and even include main talking points.
If you are not keen to have a personal introduction slide, you can write your name underneath the title (with qualifications or area of expertise if you wish).
The cover slide can also be used as an opener to acquaint the audience with colours, graphics, or animated characters that they will see a lot of for the duration of the presentation.
2 – Original Templates Reveal The Authentic You
Most presenters use generic PowerPoint templates with minimal changes to the main design.
While many free PowerPoint templates can be custom designs or given away as free trial versions from creative designer websites, the ones you find within PowerPoint itself are usually overused and overly familiar.
Make changes such as changing the colour, using a good quality picture as the background, relevant effects, and available diagram options.
If you make fundamental changes to a generic template, you will still fare better than simply using the first template you find.
However, nothing will serve you better than a custom template or a specially designed one in terms of presentation design.
Many websites sell pre-made slide decks often divided by categories such as project outlines, financial presentations, product mockups, etc.
If you have an original template specially designed, you can specify your purpose, colour preference, and the type of graphics or icons you need to showcase your information.
3 – Sensibly Choose Multimedia
Your instinct may be to use lots of images, video and audio clips, graphics, and icons to make your presentation more effective and exciting, but this usually can be overwhelming to the audience.
Choose colours that correspond with your brand image or idea, so they serve a purpose and pick and choose multimedia so that it provides information without being irritating, confusing, or disorienting.
Remember the adage about flashing lights and bright colours giving people migraines! It would be best to have your audience captivated by your presentation design, but a delicate balance needs to be struck with multimedia to make that happen.
4 – Readable Text
Text often gets overlooked in presentation design, but your audience must be able to read the text written on the slides clearly.
Use the rule of thumb of only a few points per slide with a maximum of 6-7 words each.
Use a font that viewers can read at a distance and a text colour that can withstand light reflection or other design elements on the slide.
