How To Design A Powerful Presentation That Will Amaze Your Audience

Cookie-cutter PowerPoint templates are not going to impress anyone, not yourself and certainly not your audience who’s probably already either half asleep or trying to sneak out the door unnoticed. To stand out with a powerful presentation, you need to be extra creative as no one has the patience to sit through a really bad presentation made with lousy templates. In this post, you’re going to find out how to design a powerful presentation that will wow your audience and will keep them glued to their seats.

Create Beautifully Designed Slides

Whether you need to prepare a presentation for school or work, it’s important to consider the design you will use. There are so many modern-looking templates available on the web today. You don’t have to design your slides from scratch, rather you can build off one these templates and use your own creativity to make your presentation unique and effective. Here are some helpful tips to enhance your skills in creating presentation designs.

Consider using modern design techniques.

A great presentation is never going to be boring. Think about how you can make your presentation fun and engaging. Use your creative design skills in building interesting slides that present your topic and convey your message accurately. Bullet points and bold numbers also offer excellent visual devices when breaking up your texts.

Placing images in the grids.

Don’t put naked images in your presentation. You can use grids to provide a more professional edge to your slides. Grids give also the appearance of white space, which will ensure that your texts are not overpowered by images.

Matching simple content with a strong cover.

You probably heard of the golden rule “less is more” when it comes to designing. That’s always true because it helps designers to achieve better designs through simplicity. The body slides will work better if you don’t use too many images, different fonts, and shapes. You need to focus on your message so you can effectively deliver them to your audience. Use a strong cover to even out simple slides.

Use similar frames.

Frames are effective in containing the information you want to convey. These are usually made with transparent shapes and your slides can be duplicated using similar frames. This is actually one of the keys to better looking presentation designs.

Duplicating the slides.

After creating the slides, save them as templates. Meaning, you may duplicate them while adapting your content as the body slides. By doing this, you achieve cohesion and save time since you don’t need to design the slides from scratch again.

Executing Professional Visual Presentations

Today, you can take advantage of abundant materials and ideas in designing presentations. Understanding different ways to encourage and entertain your audience, however, is crucial when making presentations. The following are guidelines in presenting a topic to an audience successfully:

Timing.

It’s so cliché but it’s true that “timing is everything”. If you’re free to choose your presentation schedule, it would be better to pick a mid-morning slot. Many professional presenters say this is the best time to capture the attention of individuals who are more alert between morning and afternoon. Just remember to be succinct so as not to waste other people’s time.

Be brief.

Audiences normally have a short attention span. People easily get bored when given long texts to read. If you want to attract attention and keep them listening, be straightforward. Don’t add unnecessary content which will only lengthen the presentation. Avoid fluff content. Present your topic with some exciting ad lib.

Encourage audience participation.

It’s a great challenge for presenters to keep their audience interested in what they are saying. Making an impression in the first 30 seconds will help you engage the audience and make them participate in the discussion. Inject humor while changing slides to keep them involved.

Continue reading

Originally published at 24slides.com on December 27, 2017.