Powerpoint Design: Best Practices

Presentation Design & Delivery: Best Practices

By Samantha Harlow Instructional Technology ConsultantSchool of Education, UNC Greensboro

******This version will include more text than oral presentation version in order to stand alone on the

Internet.

Prepare

Practice, practice, practice. Know your audience. Know your setting – especially for

AV materials. The more you know your content,

the more you will be able to engage with the audience.

Keep it Simple

Choose or design simple template. Be wary of PowerPoint templates.

There are places online where you can experiment with more modern/sleek looking templates than what is pre-installed on PowerPoint.

Use animations, transitions, etc sparingly. Create a snappy and clear title. Choose pleasing colors, but no more than 3 colors

per slide. Stick to your message and keep your message

clear. Remember SLIDE: Simplify, Lose the cliches,

Information needs emphasis, Designate elements, and Empathy for Audience.

Limit Bullet Points & Text

Use readable font. No cursive or hard to read fonts should be used.

You can download fonts from the Internet that can make you stand out while also being simple and easy to read.

No more than three font sizes per slide Slide should not have all the information and

text for your oral presentation. Sometimes the best slides have little to no text. 10/20/30 rule recommends limiting the number

of your slides to 10, your presentation time to 20 minutes, and using at least 30 point font size.

Charts & Graphs

Should contain limited data. Use shapes to draw attention to important data.

http://www.garrreynolds.com/preso-tips/design/

Visual Images

Use high quality visual images to tell your story. There are websites online to get your images, such

as Getty Images (some images costs money) or Everystockphoto.com (free with sign up).

Don’t use cheesy images from clip art unless it fits in with your story.

Be sure to follow copyright rules, especially if you plan on publishing your presentation or submitting it to a conference. Fair use does not always apply.

Delivery

Start Strong: first impressions are important.

Keep it short and speak clearly. Make good eye contact. Avoid fillers: like, um, etc. Be passionate about what your talking about

or no one will care what you are saying. Be engaged with your audience. Confidence is key: if you prepared well

confidence should be easier. Do not read every word off of your slides.

Seth Godin’s Five Rules to Remember to Create Amazing PowerPoints:

How to Not do PowerPoint by Don McMillan:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpvgfmEU2Ck

Nancy Duarte’s talk at TEDx East: On the Art of Storytelling:http://vimeo.com/20618288

Designing an Effective Presentation:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJgeF3ALl0g

How Can I Make my PowerPoint Presentations Amazing:http://lifehacker.com/how-can-i-make-my-powerpoint-presentations-amazing-507552122

Pecha Kucha: Get to PowerPoint in 20 Slideshttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NZOt6BkhUg

Presentation Zen:http://www.presentationzen.com/

Guide to Slideshare: includes some good presentation exampleshttp://blog.kissmetrics.com/marketers-guide-to-slideshare/

Helpful Links:

UNCG SOE Instructional Technology Services & Website:http://intech.uncg.edu/

UNCG Digital Media Commons:http://library.uncg.edu/spaces/dmc/

UNCG PowerPoint Templates and Projection Images:http://ure.uncg.edu/brandguide/?brandcat=powerpoint-templates-and-projection-images

UNCG SOE Director of Instructional Technology:Sandra [email protected]

UNCG SOE Instructional Technology Consultant:Samantha [email protected]

How can UNCG Help?

ReferencesGarr Reynolds, http://www.garrreynolds.com/preso-tips/design/

Seth Godin’s Blog Post: Really Bad PowerPointhttp://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2007/01/really_bad_powe.html

How Can I Make My PowerPoint Presentations Amazing? By Melanie Pinola on Lifehackerhttp://lifehacker.com/how-can-i-make-my-powerpoint-presentations-amazing-507552122

Images taken from stock.xchnghttp://www.sxc.hu/

University of Washington, PowerPoint Best Practiceshttp://www.washington.edu/research/.SITEPARTS/.documents/.osp/PowerPoint_Best_Practices.pdf