A presentation is a valuable piece of content that you may want to share with your clients, business partners, or colleagues. It can help you present your project, promote your products or services, and establish your expertise. To create an effective presentation worthy time of others, use the expert hints from Dmytro Makarov, a designer at Promodo.
Develop your idea
Aim comes first. Period. Your presentation should have a clear, manageable goal. Do you want to introduce a new product? Inform your customers about the market updates? Provide your expert opinion? Either way, be honest and make sure to understand why you are going to make a presentation. Come up with a relevant title and double-check it after your slides are ready.
Another important point is to understand what call-to-action to incorporate into your presentation. Do you want your audience to submit an order form, subscribe to a monthly digest, or sell something? Your final presentation should be purposeful.
We recommend you to write down the main ideas, thoughts, statistical data, interesting facts, and everything else that you would like to share. Then, create an outline, check the structure, edit and proofread the text, pick or create visuals, and open your presentation editor.
Design your presentation
To get started, select 16:9 slide resolution so that you will use the whole screen. Avoid standard templates no matter whether you use Google Presentations, PowerPoint, or Keynote. There are a few reasons for that. Your audience should focus on the message you deliver rather than see a boring design.
If you plan to show your presentation using a projector, then you should use the rule: white text and a black background. The fact is that the projector “draws” your texts with light, makes them neat and readable, and does not light the background. Black and white slides are much easier to read and take pictures.
Select fonts
It is recommended to select and purchase one of the following fonts:
- – Arial;
- – Intro;
- – Din;
- – Gotham;
- – Agora;
- – Roboto;
- – Universe;
- – Proxima;
- – Futura.
You will need bold and regular fonts. Avoid italics and underlining, as they are harder to read.
Do not make a colored text on a colored background just for the sake of beauty. First, you need to know and be able to select the colors correctly. Second, the color reproduction of the projector is unpredictable that can lead to unexpected color solutions. In fact, the best color combinations for the presentation are black and white. Keep it simple.
If you want the text to be read well on background images, try to make it as contrast as possible. For example, try the following technique: use a colored ‘patch’.
Organize content
On the slide, place only the main ideas and data. Do not overwhelm your listeners or readers. However, if you prepare your presentation for SlideShare, you may include more information considering that people will have more time to read the slides attentively.
The golden rule here is one idea – one slide. Information should be easy to read and understand. Where possible, use lists, bullet points, and visuals. To help your audience browse through your content, number slides, identify subtopics, and organize your material in other ways.
Pick visuals
A successful presentation is the one with relevant and nice visuals. Usually, people better understand and remember the visual content. The so-called visual metaphor is a useful tool to make your content stand out, so do not underestimate it.
Do not use SmartArt objects and free low-quality images from photo stocks. High-quality paid image sources are ShutterStock and DepositPhotos. For free high-quality alternatives, check the following links. We searched for a desk and that’s what we’ve found.
Your website is also a presentation of your company, product, yourself, and more. So, make it a love at first sight and encourage your visitors to come back and purchase your goods, interact with your content, and so on. Try Promodo UI/UX services!
About the Authors
Dmytro Makarov
Designer at Promodo
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