Thinking process in the design of the PowerPoint
If you are planning to design the perfect deck of slides for your presentation using PowerPoint, you should enter the creative brain of a PowerPoint presentation designer. When you are designing your presentation from scratch, you will have to consider a lot of things. So, it is important to take things slow, so that you do not miss out on any important area.
Sequence of your presentation
Before you begin designing your slides, it is important to list the sequence of your presentation. Come up with a table of contents and list the points you intend to cover in your presentation. Based on the points you have listed down, note down how you will present the information to the audience. Once you do this step, you will come to realize the tools that you will require to design your deck of slides.
What is the theme of your presentation?
Once you have taken note of the sequence of your presentation, think about the underlying theme of your presentation. What is the purpose of your presentation? Based on the purpose, come up with possible background slides that will flow with your content.
Possible colors for your slides
To ensure that your slides look professional, you should limit the usage of colors for your presentation. Many people feel that colors make your presentation vibrant and keep your audience interested in your presentation. This is not true. In fact, too many colors confuse the audience. The rule of thumb is to have a maximum of four colors throughout your presentation. So, the next step in your thinking process as a designer will be to choose the four colors that will be appropriate for your theme and your presentation.
Assign the colors to your slides
The usage of colors has to be consistent. So, after choosing the colors, the next step is to assign a color to a specific part of the slide. For example, you can choose a dark color for the headings and another dark color for the text in the body. As far as possible, choose a light color for the background of the presentation. If you have bullet points in your slides, you can highlight them in another color too.
Choose the font that’s appropriate for your presentation
Based on the purpose of your presentation, choose the font that matches the theme of the slides. If you are designing a presentation for informal occasions, you can choose fonts like Cambria, Comics Sans or Papyrus to lighten the atmosphere. On the other hand, if you are designing a presentation for a corporate meeting, you should stick to fonts such as Arial and Times New Roman which add seriousness to your deck of slides.
Add images and graphs
Images not only capture the interest of your audience, but they also convey the message in the least number of words. As the saying goes, a picture speaks a thousand words, choose the right images so that you need not write too much on the slides. If there is data that you want to show to your audience, do not throw an array of numbers on the slides. Organize the data into graphs and charts so that it reduces the clutter on the slides and makes it easier for the audience to understand what you are saying.
Add minimal text
No one likes to read endless lines of text. So, the next step is to choose some catchy words and phrases that you can use in your slides to convey your message to the audience. Highlight the key words so that the audience retains the content of your slides even after your presentation is over.
Contrary to what many people think, it is not difficult to design a deck of slides that looks professional. Now that you have learnt the tips and tricks of making your presentation stand out, you can be rest assured that you will indeed ‘wow’ your audience.