Slideshows are a great way to present a topic or idea due to their audiovisual nature. However, not all slideshows successfully leverage that fact to their advantage, which will result in an uninterested audience that doesn’t find the presentation engaging.
If you want to start creating more effective slideshow presentations, there are three important rules that you absolutely must follow:
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One point per slide
Cramming lots of information into a single slide may seem like a good idea, but all it really does is ensure that the majority of that information is lost on the audience. That is why the most important rule of slideshow presentations is to limit yourself to a single point in each slide.
It should be noted that this does not mean that you should extend your presentation to absurd lengths by adding more slides. Instead, it means that you need to carefully structure your presentation so that it remains short, and each slide can focus on a single important point.
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Deliver the information visually
Try to take advantage of the visual nature of slideshows, and ‘show’ the point of each slide instead of ‘telling’ viewers about it. Depending on the point itself you may want to use photos, illustrations, graphs, or simple infographics.
No matter what type of visuals you use, the aim should be to make sure it is easy to digest and not too complicated. Don’t add too much text to the slide either in an attempt to ‘spell out’ the message – and deliver that explanation verbally instead.
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Make sure it is readable
Before you finalize your slideshow, go over each slide and make sure it is readable – from every angle. Any text should be large so that the audience can make it out even when they’re sitting right at the back.
Similarly, the images that are in your slideshow should be clearly visible as well. Essentially viewers should be able to make them out just as easily, and there shouldn’t be any minute details that will be lost on parts of your audience.
Considering slideshow presentations are so versatile, you may very well want to upload them online later as content – accompanied by a voiceover. As you may have noticed the rules listed above apply to that as well, and will ensure your presentation is effective regardless of the medium that it is presented in.
That being said, it is important that the software you use caters to the possibility of creating different types of slideshows. In particular, you may want a slideshow maker with music that can add in audio tracks, so you can insert your voiceover.
With the right approach , slideshow presentations can be an engaging and entertaining type of content that is able to deliver information in a highly effective form. The rules above will help you to achieve that goal – so be sure to follow them the next time you create one.
