If you ask most presenters about why they chose to do something in their presentation, they’ll usually tell you “We’ve always done it this way”. The implication is that they’ve been told by their superiors to to make presentations that way.
Is It Ideal to Choose The Same Formatting Every time?
Creating presentations like this is probably the most convenient way. But, does this lead to Consistent Presentations? Yes, it does. However, does this lead to Good Presentations. Well, not really. Not unless you really need to stick to a specific format and people are expecting it that way. If you need to make a persuasive presentation, then you will have to think outside the box.
How Most People Prepare Their Presentations
When asked how they made their presentations slides, most presenters say that they started by using slides that their colleagues had already made. Or, by using slides that they themselves have made in the past. Now, there’s nothing wrong with using slides from past presentations. In fact, it can be a really good thing; saving both time and effort.
However..
Using older slides also leads to data dump presentations. Presenters usually think that this is okay because they’ve been told to give decision makers as much information as they can. The problem with this approach is that data like this is difficult to figure out. Your audience will much rather listen to a structured presentations where data is presented based on some analysis than a presentation where they do their own analysis.
Include More Information Without Crowding The Presentation
Many presenters realize that information overload is an issue, but they say that it is necessary. Because, what if someone from the audience has questions and we don’t have an answer for them in our presentation.
The solution is to focus on and cover important information. But, also to keep additional information in hidden slides just in case. You can show these slides if someone asks that question.
The Slide Title is Your Headline
Most presenters are used to keeping slide titles short and instead keeping all important content in their slides. They do this because thats what they’re used to doing.
What they should do instead is use the title of each slide as a headline. Make the title longer and and more descriptive. The reason why this approach works better is the same reason why it works for newspapers. People want to know the contents of the slide without having to read the whole thing. It gives them a reason to take the slide seriously from the beginning.
Too Many Bullet Points
Many presenters use bullet points in their presentations. The reason is because the presentation template usually allows them to enter information in bullet point format by default. Everyone follows this convention as a rule.
A better way would be to look at the points and determine how to present them visually. People respond better to visual representation, and there are ways to determine the type of visual from words as well. Presenters don’t need to know anything about design, all they need is a direction so that they can choose simple visuals to represent their data.
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