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Applying the Four Elements
Creating high-impact slides is the foundation for a successful presentation. How do you start? First, you have to follow the three simple rules explained below.
1. Keep the Text Simple and Use Key Phrases
The most commonly made mistake is putting all of your information, in sentences, up on the slide, which makes the type very small in size. The audience is not motivated to look at such an uninviting slide, and you as a presenter are more apt to read the slide. Why do people make this mistake? Presentersfeel nervous and deal with their anxiety by using the screen as a crutch. They put every possible issue on the screen. If you need a full script or many, many bullet points to jog your memory, by all means develop them. But don't put everything on the screen!
Keep the text simple by following these guidelines:
Figures 5.1 and 5.2 (below) show how text can be simplified. Both slides contain the same information. But in Figure 5.1, the eye gets tired of reading the slide, while in Figure 5.2 the eye is guided through the slide as the text builds on the screen.
This slide is a high-impact slide because it tells a story. The audience sees the picture of the children and thinks about how they felt when they couldn't do math. Then the audience learns that the Saturday Academies made a difference. The children began to feel competent in their math skills. Depending on how the speaker tells the story, the slide can also emotionally engage the audience in the lives of children who, over time, increase their self-esteem and competency in math. This example also shows how to take words and transform them into an image or picture. Most people absorb and process information more effectively when it is aesthetically conveyed. The creative challenge is to transform long text either into shorter text or into appropriate pictures.
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2. Keep the Slide Clear and Spacious Looking
Ask, "What is the main point I want to convey on this slide?" Then only put information on that slide that relates to the main point. For instance, cluttering a slide with numbers is common in many business presentations. To get around this, ask yourself, "What are the key numbers my audience needs to be able to read?" Then design the slide around that key point. This approach will invite the audience into the message and help them grasp and retain the important point, rather than walk out with a cluttered impression of endless numbers and tables.
Keep the slide uncluttered by following these guidelines:
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