Don’t those look juicy? Don’t you just want to reach in and grab a couple and have them explode with flavor?
It doesn’t matter what platform you use, PowerPoint, Canva, Keynote, Prezi, Canva, or others; slides are meant to do one thing, and in our opinion, one thing only; Support the presenter. That’s it.
Yes, this brown slide was a purposefully created, unattractive slide. Unfortunately, we’ve seen them used. And too often.
Face it, we’re not all blessed with a great graphics feel. And there are differences in approaches to great slide decks for your presentations! But which design is perfect? The one that represents what you’re saying at the time it’s displayed. Nothing more. Nothing less. A point about this slide- however unattractive, it is clear and easy to read.
“But I’ve heard that things moving on the screen like animated GIF images, fancy text and graphic animations and neato slide transitions keep people’s attention better!”
We’ve heard that too.
Stop and think for a moment. Ever seen a great Ted-Talk? There are so many that don’t even show the slides, the projection screen, or only show them occasionally. Why? The speaker. The content. How dynamic the speaker is. How well the presenter engages the audience. Did we mention the speaker yet?
What if a friend called you and said, “Hey, there’s an Eagle’s reunion concert!” You’re ready to ask for details and they offer, “Yeah!” (they say with GREAT excitement) “they’ve got a new slide program playing behind them!!!!“
And you are thinking, “But what about the music!?”
Remember, the ONLY job a slide has to do is support the speaker. The moment you get “cute”, you’re taking HUGE strides in ruining your presentation and potentially losing your audience. We’ve seen presenters ‘sit’ on a slide for two minutes and more (not bad, length of time doesn’t matter really), but they’ve got this annoying GIF image on “endless loop”. We get it. Something happened. They are drawing attention to it. But now instead of listening to what might be a great speaker or presentation, we’re wondering what century it will be when they move on. Way. Too. Distracting!
What was the point of that wizz-bang thing that just went across the screen? Why did those words wipe right, those popped up from the bottom, now these just swirled in from nowhere. It’s a slide creator that opened up the software and said, “Toys! Look what I can do!!”
We’ve been training podium and presentation skills since, we’ll just say last century. One of our constant presentation rules is “cute” is for puppies and kids. The moment you add something and think, “That’s cool!”, enjoy it for a moment, then consider removing it. You’re welcome.
Last Century?!
Did we say since “last century”?
“Surely, your presentation training and thoughts on slides are out of date!?
The same skillset that made Aristotle, Abraham Lincoln, Sojourner Truth, Martin Luther King, Jr., Tony Robbins, and others notable, was there ability to connect to two things.
- Their passion for the content
- The people in the audience
THAT never changes
Badly produced graphics and slides might hurt a great presentation. On the other hand, great graphics and slides won’t ever save a bad presenter.