5 Cardinal Sins of Modern PowerPoint Presentation Design
Making PowerPoint presentations can be fun from the preparation of slides, editing, adding customized color schemes, modifying with animation and sounds. In this day and age where everyone is becoming a tech pro, people want to experience and creative presenters with well-defined slides. Almost all business meetings require a presentation, and some hold professionals from various industries who expect to see unique and informative content. PowerPoint preparation is easy, quick, and a compelling display gives a visual interest during the presentation. However, there are things you need to avoid in the report. Here are the five most dreaded sins.
1. Too Much Text on Slides
Too much text on the slides is unnecessary usually lowers the impact your presentation. It makes the presentation boring and makes it hard to read even for the presenter. Limit the text on your slides to make them more in point form. You need to make readable texts of about four to five lines and one that you can read within seven to ten seconds. If your presentation requires a lot of information all on one slide, let it not appear on the screen at first, you can gradually make a presentation for a smaller part of the slide so that your audience understands every point.
2. Using Pixelated and Low-Quality Graphics
There are many high-resolution images you can use in your PowerPoint presentation to give an excellent illustration of your slides. Pictures add a visual aid to your content and make the session well engaging. They also make a beautiful and eye-catchy background on the screen. Using a presentation icon can be a great way to introduce subtle, yet powerful, visual elements on the screen to drive your point in more interesting ways. When inserting the pictures on your slide, always try to get a high-resolution image that you can crop and resize to fit your slide while limiting the file sizes. Even if your images are getting compressed, it is still best to begin with the highest quality image you can find.
3. Showing Content all at Once
The beauty of a PowerPoint presentation lies keeping the audience anticipating the following content on the slide. When you pre-empt the whole information on the slide, your audience may not focus and will be trying to read through the next bit of information or stop listening to what you’re saying. To avoid this, use animation on all the slides, let content appear in at least one to two slides at a go as you explain through the text. You can make one point on each text as you let it slide in with the animation. There are various types of animation that you can use to create visual interest for your viewers. When your content is animated, you’ll only need to click the button and let one bullet appear to the screen per time.
4. Unnecessary Content on the Slides
Every presentation has its main idea, and that should be your focus. The wrong message can create a distraction and cause the viewer to switch off from your performance. Even if the title focuses on a large content field, you need to highlight only one idea or piece of information at a time. Let your content be what you want to talk about and focus on it. Your aim should be your viewers getting the main point and not an overhaul of the whole book or the full content as it appears from your source. The bottom line is, only include content that is relevant to the title of your presentation.
5. Using Too Many Colors
Adding colors to your presentation makes it appealing to your audience. But too much of it diverts the attention of your audience and, unless you’re a designer, usually looks tacky. You’ll need to use at least two to three colors on your slides and remain consistent throughout the report. Using fewer colors makes the theme more pleasing and helps the viewers to stay focused.
Focus on Engagement
With some of this in mind, there is much more to be discussed. Learning how to present effectively has its curve, but you can always think about these simple guidelines to help you make decisions on how to implement information and design elements into your presentations. Making effective, engaging, and informative presentations are well within your reach.
