Good news! These 12 tips are well within your reach as a non-designer.
1. Who’s your audience?
Ask yourself this essential question before you even start thinking about visuals. Are they existing customers, prospects, colleagues, or students? Why are they coming to your presentation? What do they want to get out of it? Make this slide deck all about them. Not you. Them.
2. Ditch the template
Don’t you dare use a template that came with your software! Don’t be tempted to purchase one of those fancy stock templates either. They’re too restricting and won’t reflect your personality. Trust me, you can do this.
3. Get yourself organized
Sketch out exactly what you want to say before you create your first slide. Use paper, sticky notes, outlining software, or a word processor — the choice is yours. Uncover three main points and three supporting points for each one. You don’t have to go crazy, just find a crystal clear direction.
4. Stories, humor, stats, and quotes
Your audience doesn’t want a report. Their time is precious, so don’t waste it. Go beyond a transmission of information. Think through how you can share personal stories, funny anecdotes, interesting statistics, and provocative or inspiring quotes to support the three main points you’ve just outlined.
5. Know your C.R.A.P.
Contrast, Repetition, Alignment, Proximity. Add contrast to your slides through font choices (see #9). Repeat colors, shapes, and fonts to create visual unity throughout your deck. Always align slide elements with one another, being conscious of where you place them. Group related information through proximity to reduce clutter and provide structure
6. Keep it dead simple
Your goal here isn’t to win any design awards. The end result should be a clean, clear, and attractive looking deck. Resist the compulsion to put 10 pounds of stuff into a 5 pound bag. Simple designs always look the best. The next few steps will help you get there.
7. Bullets versus headlines
We all grasp the concept of “death by bullet point,” yet so many of us still crank out slides with bullet, bullet, bullet. Stop! Have one message per slide. Use headlines so people get your point in 3 seconds or less (think billboards).
8. Try basic shapes
Using circles, squares, rectangles and triangles might sound scary — but they’re simple visuals that can call attention to important content. Have a numbered list? Try placing a square behind each number.
9. Use two cool fonts
You know the fonts that came with your computer are boring! Spice it up with two unique, but very different fonts that contrast. For example, one that looks like handwriting combined with one that’s easy to read. Just be warned, if you send your deck to someone who doesn’t have those fonts installed, things will look disastrous.
10. Find incredible images
The perfect image will make a point stick in your audience’s memory. Spend time searching for free photos, a tool that combs through Flickr images. Just remember to make your images fullscreen, high-quality (no pixelation), and don’t ever use clip-art.
11. All you need is three colors
Three colors might sound like a lot, especially if you don’t know a darn thing about picking ones that work together. No sweat! Use black, white, and one favorite color. That’s it.
12. Go easy on the animation killer!
Really think hard about how and why you want to use an animation. The two best places to do this are when transitioning between slides or when you want to build in a couple of items to slowly reveal information. We don’t need to see every letter twinkle or image fall into place every time a slide advances.
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