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Let’s be honest, PowerPoint doesn’t have a great reputation in the professional world. Excessive misuse has made the application’s name synonymous with dull corporate slides.
But Manchester-based presentation designers Buffalo7 hold fast that in the right hands, PowerPoint can be used as premium design tool to produce incredible, impactful presentations.
They’ve outlined the 5 essential elements most often overlooked in presentations below. Build these components into your next deck to pull your slides out of humdrum mediocrity and into the world of amazing, persuasive communication
Buffalo7’s piece on the things missing from your PowerPoint design covers:
1. A Compelling Story
Storytelling in presentations is key because it speaks to us more than analysis and numbers ever could. It allows audiences connect emotionally with your message, which is essential for communication, persuasion and retention. Your presentation content shouldn’t be a boring onslaught of facts and figures – pick key ideas and communicate them as an exciting narrative, stripping back any peripheral detail.
2. Professional Typefaces
Mundane fonts that your audience see and use every day have no place in your presentation. There’s a whole world of beautiful typefaces out there to explore, so go beyond pre-installed system fonts. But remember to limit yourself to just a few per presentation to keep things looking uniform.
3. Powerful Visuals
Don’t let good presentation content become marred by poor slide visuals. Plan your content and visuals for every slide with post-it notes to keep each one succinct and reduce clutter. Source quality stock images from sites like Pexels and Unsplash, and match them with economical use of text so each slide can be understood at a glance.
4. Information Hierarchy
Related information should certainly be positioned close together, but you also need to use hierarchy to show audiences how elements relate to each other and which are the most important. Employ use of scale, colour, typeface and negative space to achieve this.
5. Use of Design Principles
Keep high-level principles of design at front of mind when crafting your slides. Make sure different elements look distinct from each other using contrast. Employ repetition of design elements to create visual uniformity. Ensure alignment of text, images and shapes to establish balance. Place elements that have related meaning in close proximity.
For more in-depth analysis on essential yet oft-overlooked presentation elements, visit: http://buffalo7.co.uk/things-missing-from-powerpoint-design