Designing a Slideshow Presentation

My Experience with Slideshow Presentations

Since middle school, teachers have drilled the creation of PowerPoint presentations into my classmates and me.    Thus, when I am assigned a presentation I almost always assume that I need a PowerPoint to accompany that presentation.   However, I don’t think my middle and high school teachers emphasized how to use PowerPoint effectively; many students would put every word of their presentation on the slide and simply read it. 

When I took classes in the Elementary Education program, we often worked in groups and had to give project presentations with our group.  Google Presentations were the best medium for us to create our presentation because they are structured like PowerPoints but collaborative and immediately updated via the internet.  The features (e.g., animation, design templates) of Google Presentations are a bit more limited than PowerPoint, but its convenience for group work often outweighs this cost. 

Thoughts on Prezi

I was excited for an excuse to try out the features of Prezi.  I was introduced to Prezi when my uncle Kenley gave a presentation here at the BYU Kennedy Center.  He was speaking on nuclear proliferation and his Prezi presentation was a spectacular visual aid; it drew me in completely.  I’ve seen it used occasionally when fellow students give presentations, but sometimes these presenters focused more on the neat animation and design of Prezi than the content of their presentation.  I think that is one thing to be careful of; a Prezi user should let their viewer to be distracted by what’s happening on the screen—the slideshow should simply enhance what they’re saying and help all learning styles understand the content of the presentation.   Creating the Prezi presentation seems intuitive with many options to add graphics, music, and text, but more easily confines the user to the pre-designed templates. 

Slideshow Presentation Design

The design of slideshow presentations can either enhance or detract from the content.  The size of the font, placement and use of graphics, and amount of empty space on the page all lead the eyes of the viewers somewhere.  Ideally, in a business or educational setting, we want them to glance at the display board for reminders, structure, and helpful visuals, but pay most attention to the speaker.   In previous blog posts, I’ve discussed CARBS.   As a quick review, CARBS stands for contrast, alignment, repetition, balance, and spacing, and all of these contribute to the level of visual appeal of a slideshow presentation. 

Something that I haven’t considered or done, but I will try for my next presentation, is to sketch out a storyboard of slides before creating them digitally.  Then, instead of using a template, the presentation is designed according to that sketch.   Another goal I have is to use as many tables, pictures, graphs, and graphics as possible.  Visually showing relationships between items in a diagram better sticks in the minds of the audience members.  Transitions between slides should stay consistent and animations shouldn’t be so varied or drawn out that they distract the audience from the content.  Slide design should be standardized and consistent, and text should be minimal and purposefully chosen.  Just like quality writing, there should be a clear opening, agenda, body with sub points, and conclusion. 

Note that the suggestions for effective design of slideshow presentations outlined above may not apply as directly to a slideshow that is meant to be studied or read, but not orally presented (e.g., replacing a textbook or student resources for study).  These tips apply best to academic support and business (marketing/sales or office meeting) slideshows.   A slideshow should be a visual aid, enhancing the oral presentation and content, not a crutch.