Mispah Laikpo

A presentation on presentations Best practices on designing presentations that leave an impact Presentations are all about taking people on a journey At the end of the day, a presentation is all about taking people on a journey. It’s about sharing a story that inspires, informs and moves people to act. When designing presentation slides, you need to find a balance between keeping the interest of your audience and maintaining their attention, while not distracting them from your key message. The aim of presentation slides is to enhance learning and understanding, by supplementing what you're saying (not be the main focus of your talk). 2 The most important things you need to remember are: If your slides are more important than what you are saying then your message will lose impact. Your slides must be an accompaniment and should not distract from your words. Keep it simple Remember your presentation mainly serves as an accompaniment and should not distract your audience from your words. You do not need to put everything on the presentation, only add key points and takeaways that you want to emphasise for your audience. Think about how everything sits on the page The best presentations are the ones where everything flows and ties together. Whether it is the font size, images, graphics or even the colors used, you need to think about how every element works together to share one message. 3 The most important things you need to remember are: If your slides are more important than what you're saying then your message will lose impact. Your slides must be an accompaniment and not distract from your words. Be consistent The slides should have the same design, including colour scheme, font size & font type. This makes the presentation flow better and emphasises that each slide is part of same story you're telling. This consistency will help with understanding and it's less frustrating for the audience. Organisations normally have designs and colour schemes they like to use. If the presentation is for a client, find out if they have a template. Be accurate: The slides should have correct information, spelling and grammar. Errors will only distract your audience and make you message less credible. Ensure you’ve done the necessary due diligence to confirm the accuracy of statistics, facts or data that you add to the presentations. Add any references to sources of information at the bottom of each slide, or on the last page of your presentation. 4