How to write a good presentation?

Those familiar with me know of my passion for lectures, workshops, and any event that offers an opportunity to enrich my knowledge and skills. This week, I eagerly attended a lecture with a promising title that piqued my interest and got me to explore its contents.

However, my initial excitement quickly turned into disappointment. The presentation accompanying the lecture failed to enhance the experience, not even in the slightest. The excessive amount of text, the inconsistent fonts, the pixelated images, and the lack of design cohesion rendered the presentation unprofessional, and the speaker’s charisma was too little to overshadow the sense of embarrassment.

Recognizing that creating presentations isn’t my forte, I’ve compiled a set of tips for you…

12 Tips for Creating a Professional Presentation that will Enhance any Lecture or Presentation.

1. Proper Planning

Before writing the presentation, take a moment to think. There’s a whole stage before that – the planning stage.

2. Who is the Target Audience?

Think carefully about who your target audience is and what content world they come from. To illustrate this, imagine a presentation intended to be accessible to children in grades 3-6 about using a camera. The presentation is in black and white only, accompanied by nude artistic photos and terms from the world of photography. Although the presentation can be stunning, it is not suitable for the target audience who will watch it.

We need to understand the target audience, their needs, the academic or theoretical knowledge they come from, and their expectations from our presentation.

Tips for Creating a Presentation: Who is the Target Audience?

3. What is the Message/Objectives to be Conveyed to the Audience?

After understanding who my audience is, I need to think carefully about the goals and messages I would like to convey. There is a difference between a presentation designed to provide practical tools, a presentation intended to enrich the audience, or a professional presentation for professionals.

After clarifying the messages and objectives, I will consider in what ways I convey these messages through the presentation and what stories or visual aids will support and promote my goals.

4. How will the Presentation be Delivered (Face-to-Face/Online)?

In face-to-face presentations, there’s a unique power and energy that doesn’t always translate through a screen. Conversely, online presentations offer technological aids and effects that may be utilized but are less advisable in offline lectures. I recommend delving deeper into this topic.

Before crafting the presentation, carefully consider what message you intend to convey. What narrative do you wish to weave through it, and how will it contribute to the objectives of the lecture?

Outline a storytelling blueprint for the presentation, and predefine the examples, aids, visuals (including videos), and data that will best serve your purpose.

5. Presentation Design

Presentation design doesn’t come out of thin air, and the presentation itself is not a collection of data that happened to come together.

There is deep thought about the presentation design. The decisions you make will categorize you according to templates and tell a story for you. So to which criteria should you pay attention?

6. Consistent Template

The first thing is to build a consistent template that will accompany us throughout the presentation. The design language you choose is important and will help you build a professional presentation that is easy to follow.

Choose a consistent background that will accompany your presentation, with a preference for simplicity. Choose either a light background or a dark background. A background in the middle will swallow any text placed on it.

Consider whether a frame is something that will benefit you or not, whether there is a specific structure that includes a picture on each slide and in general, what are the fixed design details that will be in each slide.

7. Shape, Font, Size, Color, and Other Vegetables

Your consistent template will be accompanied by text (a little text!). Use the limited number of words in the presentation for emphasis. Use a maximum of 2-3 different fonts in the presentation and define clear roles for them (title font, example font, quote font…).

Choose colors that go well together and speak to one another. If you haven’t yet familiarized yourself with the color palette and the color wheel – do it now. Color combination is critical and not all shades are suitable for one another or contribute to the purpose of your presentation.

If I’m giving a presentation on beets – I won’t design it in black and red but in pink and white. Or if I use red, I probably won’t use green and yellow. 

In terms of font size – be consistent. All titles should be in the same size. All subtopics in the same size (and color!).

Want to learn how to prepare a presentation with a story? Click here.

8. One Idea per Slide

The presentation as we knew it in the 90s, where each slide was filled with text and hard to read and follow – has passed away. The death of the 20th-century presentation gave birth to the presentation of the new world, where UX (User Experience) reigns.

Each slide contains a maximum of 8 words and is accompanied by an image or visual aid that helps the message be retained in our memory. This leads us to visualization.

9. Visualization

You can create a professional presentation that meets all the criteria for creating a presentation and not even use a single image. Visualization begins with the colors, fonts, color, and emphasis lines chosen. Modern visualization likes to use icons instead of text, images, videos, and other additional visual aids.

It is important to ensure that all these are in a pleasant resolution to the eye and are not pixelated. In addition, if we started using icons and images, it is important that they speak to the other visual aids we chose for the presentation.

A mix of several content worlds and visuals can create chaos and not pass the scrutiny of the many skilled eyes of educators and designers.

10. Text

The presentation should give you a clear structure and remind you of what you want to say and tell. Its role is not to allow you to read a whole text from it. People who come to your lecture expect to hear from your knowledge and experience. They also know how to read. Give them the respect they deserve and present them with original content in your style.

Condense the text in the presentation to headline level.

11. Branding

As professionals giving lectures – give yourselves credit.

My first rule of thumb is that in every presentation of mine, there is my logo. In every slide. Small.

Another thing, all my presentations (except for one and there is a reason for that) are designed the same. I want to have a consistent language that will be an association with my brand. Of course, my presentations also speak to my website and my business card.

12. Storytelling

I deliver lectures using the storytelling method. I found it to be the most effective way to convey messages that are absorbed, and the method generates great interest throughout the audience.

Storytelling is an art in itself and needs to be learned. It’s about soft skills that allow us to mediate and translate facts, data, and information in an interesting way that leads to audience engagement. But not only that, part of storytelling is the appearance, body language, and facial expressions that need to support our story.

Want to develop a presentation in the new world? Click here.