Presentation Secrets: Do What you Never Thought Possible With Your Presentations

SUMMARY

The key points to remember from this chapter are as follows:

• Much like everything else in your presentation, slides should have a goal. Moreover, elements on your slides should have goals. “What's the purpose of this slide/element?” is the single most important question to answer as far as slide design is concerned.
• Don't design slides for reading, design them for scanning. Separate important information from the less important. The most obvious way to do this is to make important elements big and bright and less important elements smaller and faded into the background. If you want to highlight more than one concept, you might be losing your focus.
• The most important element on a text slide is the header. Make it big and clear. Ideally, people should be able to make sense of your presentation by reading only your headers. Try not to make lists with more than four items.
• Use photographs to produce emotional impact and to illustrate concrete events, things, and places. Use stock illustrations with caution: avoid clichés entirely or use them in humorous ways. Use abstract icons to illustrate abstract concepts when you don't need much detail. Avoid clip art.