Some principles of slide design
PowerPoint (PPT) is frequently criticised for being a presenter-oriented approach. This is because many presenters use their decks as teleprompters rather than as tools to help communicate their message. This results in presentations that lack energy and slides with too much text.
Despite the criticism, PPT is after all only a delivery system for presenting the information. When used correctly, it can be a very useful tool that can facilitate better communication and more impactful presentations.
This article is designed to help presenters create learner-centred slides, which in turn will facilitate better delivery. The following principles can be applied to any presentation program that facilitates the sharing of ideas via imagery, text, audio and video.
Put the audience first
Presenters can align decks with learner requirements by creating personas.
One tool that presenters can modify to understand their audience is the Value Proposition Canvas (VPC). The VPC can be used to ensure that a product (or presentation) is positioned around what the beneficiary (or learner) values and needs.
Present one them or idea per slide
To support clarity, each slide should contain one overarching thought or idea.
In practice, this means no more than one chart or one image per slide. Multiple charts or images on a slide can obscure the point and frustrate cognition.
Use the “3-second rule” which states that presentations are glance media so messages on slides should be processed by the audience within 3 seconds.
Make slides that reinforce words, not repeat them
Avoid “triple delivery”. This is where the same text is on the screen, spoken aloud and printed on handouts. When this is done, auditory, reading and visual processing are all downgraded. Good decks are not designed to replace reading or listening to lectures.
Use headlines, not headings
Headings are often used in place of headlines. Headings are fine to use when the deck is being created to demarcate sections however when it comes to presenting, remove cognitive friction by placing the most important information in the slide at the top of the slide, rather than a description of the slide, followed by the most important information.
Make slides accessible
Larger, wider, and capitalised text outperforms smaller, narrow, lowercase text. A rule of thumb is to use 30-point, left-aligned text in a sans-serif font.
Choose contrasting colours to make the deck readable. Avoid using red and green combinations which are difficult to separate for colour blind people.
Some authors recommend not using a white background as the glare can steal attention from the speaker.
Support multi-sensory experiences
If decks are to be used as visual aids, it makes sense to make use of imagery. Presenters need to think carefully about how to transfer their ideas into engaging images. The point is to make your material easier to understand as opposed to decorating slides.
Imagery can also help people recall information when it is delivered in a combination of pictures, oration and text.
Use diagrams to explain relationships
To facilitate the construction of new knowledge and reduce cognitive load, it can be useful to utilise progressive disclosure by building and explaining diagrams via multiple slides. By doing this, you can imbue context, sequence and association.
Conclusion
Design is not about making aesthetically pleasing slides. It is about being an advocate for the person who you are presenting to and making sure that the design is consistent with what you are trying to communicate. This leads to three concluding points.
First, PPT should not replace independent reading. This means that slides are not a place to condense the speaker’s knowledge into bullet points. In fact, well-designed slides contain very little text, use large font, have one image per slide and one key idea or theme per slide.
Second, it takes time to craft learner-centred slides. As a rule of thumb, it can take at the very least 30 hours to create a 30 slide deck. You can add 3 hours of rehearsal on top of this. After all, slides should not be a visual crutch for the presenter.
Finally, getting a message out of one brain and into another is hard work. The goal for educators should be to utilise the interdependence between their ideas, their slides and their delivery to maximise comprehension.
Update
I’ve actually created a video about presenting online which you might find helpful.
References
Clark, J. (2008) ‘PowerPoint and Pedagogy: Maintaining Student Interest in University Lectures’, College Teaching, 56(1), pp. 39–44.
Craig, R.J. and Amernic, J.H. (2006) ‘PowerPoint Presentation Technology and the Dynamics of Teaching’, Innovative Higher Education, 31(3), pp. 147–160.
Davies, R. (2021) Everything I know about life I learned from PowerPoint. PROFILE BOOKS LTD.
Duarte, N. (2008) Slide:ology: the art and science of creating great presentations. 1st ed. Beijing ; Sebastopol, CA: O’Reilly
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Elliott, S. and Gordon, M. (2006) ‘Using PowerPoint to Promote Constructivist Learning’, Educational Technology, 46(4),
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Godin, S. (2007) ‘Really Bad PowerPoint’, 29 January. Available at: https://seths.blog/2007/01/really_bad_powe/
Osterwalder, A. et al. (2014) Value proposition design. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons (Strategyzer series).
Richard Mayer and Moreno, R. (2005) ‘A Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning: Implications for Design Principles’, in
The Cambridge Handbook of Multimedia Learning. Cambridge University Press.
Tufte, E.R. (1997) Visual explanations: images and quantities, evidence and narrative. Cheshire, Conn: Graphics Press.
Tufte, E.R. (2006) The cognitive style of PowerPoint: pitching out corrupts within. 2nd ed. Cheshire, Conn: Graphics Press.
