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Blog Data Visualization 18 Presentation Design Tips For Success

18 Presentation Design Tips For Success

Written by: Midori Nediger May 15, 2023

Bad presentations. We’ve all had to sit through them.  Heck, we’ve probably all given one or two. I know I have.

You know the type: twice as long as they need to be, slides chock-full of text, no visuals in sight. 

How can you ensure you don’t fall victim to these presentation faux-pas when designing your next presentation for your team, class, or clients?

In this blog, I’ll walk you through tips on how to design an impactful presentation along with presentation templates that can help you deliver it with style to leave a lasting impression.

Tips for designing and delivering an impactful presentation

What makes a presentation memorable?

It usually comes down to three things:

• The main idea.
• The presenter.
• The visuals.

All three elements work together to create a successful presentation. Just like how different presentation styles serve different purposes, having a good presentation idea will give the audience a purpose for listening.

Here are some top tips to consider to help you design and deliver an impactful presentation:

• Include less text and more visuals in your presentation design
• Identify one core message to center your presentation design around
• Eliminate any information that doesn’t immediately support the core message
• Create a strong presentation outline to keep you focused
• Use text to reinforce, not repeat, what you’re saying
• Design your presentation with one major takeaway per slide
• Use visuals to highlight the key message on each slide
• Use scaffolding slides to orient your audience and keep them engaged
• Use text size, weight, and color for emphasis
• Apply design choices consistently to avoid distraction
• Split a group presentation by topic
• Use a variety of page layouts to maintain your audience’s interest
• Use presentation templates to help you get started
• Include examples of inspiring people
• Dedicate slides to poignant questions
• Find quotes that will inspire your audience
• Emphasize key points with text and images
• Label your slides to prompt your memory

1. Include less text and more visuals in your presentation design

According to David Paradi’s annual presentation survey , the 3 things that annoy audiences most about presentations are:

• Speakers reading their slides
• Slides that include full sentences of text
• Text that is too small to read

The common thread that ties all of these presentation annoyances is text. Audiences are very picky about the text found in presentation slide decks .

In my experiences speaking at conferences and in webinars over the past few years, audiences respond much more positively to presentations that use visuals in place of text.

Audiences are more engaged, ask more questions, and find my talks more memorable when I include lots of visual examples in my slide decks. 

I’m not the only one who has found this. We recently surveyed nearly 400 conference speakers about their presentation designs and found that 84.3% create presentations that are highly visual.

A great example of a high visual presentation is the iconic AirBnB pitch deck design , which includes no more than 40 words per slide. Instead of repeating the speaker’s script on the slides, it makes an impact with keywords, large numbers, and icons:

Learn how to customize this presentation template:

To help you take your presentations to the next level, I’d like to share my process for creating a visually-focused presentation like the one above. I’ll give you my top presentation design tips that I’ve learned over years of presenting:

• Class presentations
• Online courses

You can then apply this process to our professional presentation templates  or pitch decks , creating unique presentation decks with ease! Our user-friendly editor tools make customizing these templates a breeze.

To leave a lasting impression on your audience, consider transforming your slides into an interactive presentation. Here are 15 interactive presentation ideas to enhance interactivity and engagement.

We’ll cover the most important steps for summarizing lengthy text into a presentation-friendly format. Then we’ll touch on some presentation design tips to help you get visual with your slide decks. Read on for the best creative presentation ideas .

2. Identify one core message to center your presentation design around

We know from David Paradi’s survey that audiences are easily overwhelmed with lots of text and data, especially when presentations are long.

(You when you see a presentation with lots of text and data and it’s long)

So unlike in a white paper , report , or essay , you can’t expect to tackle many complex ideas within a single presentation.

That would be a recipe for disaster.

Instead, identify a single central message that you would like to communicate to your audience. Then build your presentation around that core message.

By identifying that core message, you can ensure that everything you include in your presentation supports the goal of the presentation .

As seen below, a great presentation tells you exactly what you’re going to learn (the core message), then gets right to the facts (the supporting information).

To ensure you create an asset that’s clear, concise, impactful, and easy to follow, design your presentation around a single core message.

3. Create a strong presentation outline to keep you focused

Think of your outline as a roadmap for your presentation. The outline will shape the  presentation structure  and guide you through your content. Creating a strong presentation outline straight away helps make sure that you’re hitting all of the key points you need to cover to convey a persuasive presentation .

Take this presentation outline example:

• Introduction and hellos
• Vision and value proposition
• Financial profit
• Your investment
• Thanks and questions

These are all things that we know we need to talk about within the presentation.

Creating a presentation outline makes it much easier to know what to say when it comes to creating the actual presentation slides.

You could even include your presentation outline as a separate slide so that your audience knows what to expect:

The opening moments of your presentation hold immense power – check out these 15 ways to start a presentation to set the stage and captivate your audience.

4. Eliminate any information that doesn’t support the core message

Next, use that core message to identify everything that doesn’t belong in the presentation.

Aim to eliminate everything that isn’t immediately relevant to the topic at hand, and anything remotely redundant. Cut any information that isn’t absolutely essential to understanding the core message.

By cutting these extra details, you can transform forgettable text-heavy slides:

Into memorable slides with minimal text:

Here’s a quick checklist to help you cut out any extra detail:

Get rid of:

• Detailed descriptions
• Background information
• Redundant statements
• Explanations of common knowledge
• Persuasive facts and figures
• Illustrative examples
• Impactful quotes

This step may seem obvious, but when you’re presenting on a topic that you’re passionate about, it’s easy to get carried away with extraneous detail. Use the recommendations above to keep your text in check.

Clarity is key, especially if you’re presenting virtually rather than in-person. However, Lisa Schneider (Chief Growth Officer at Merriam-Webster) has had plenty of experience making that adjustment. She recently shared her tips for adapting in-person presentations into virtual presentations on Venngage that you can check out. 

Watch: How to design a presentation [10 ESSENTIAL TIPS]

5. Use text to reinforce, not repeat, what you’re saying

According to presentation guru  Nancy Duarte , your audience should be able to discern the meaning of your slides in 6 seconds or less.

Since your audience will tend to read every word you place on each slide, you must keep your text to an absolute minimum. The text on your slides should provide support for what you’re saying without being distracting.

Never write out, word for word, what you’re going to be saying out loud. If you’re relying on text to remember certain points, resist the urge to cram them into your slides. Instead, use a tool like Venngage’s speaker notes to highlight particular talking points. These can be imported into PowerPoint — along with the rest of your presentation — and will only be viewable to you, not your audience.

For the actual slides, text should only be used to reinforce what you’re saying. Like in the presentation design below, paraphrase long paragraphs into short bulleted lists or statements by eliminating adjectives and articles (like “the” and “a”).

Pull out quotes and important numbers, and make them a focus of each slide.

6. Design your presentation with one major takeaway per slide

As I mentioned above, audiences struggle when too much information is presented on a single slide.

To make sure you don’t overwhelm your audiences with too much information, spread out your content to cover one major takeaway per slide.

By limiting each slide to a single simple statement, you focus your audience’s attention on the topic at hand.

My favorite way to do this is to pick out the core message of whatever I’m talking about and express it in a few keywords, as seen in this presentation slide below.

This helps ensure that the visuals remain the focus of the slide.

Using the text in this way, to simply state a single fact per slide, is a sure-fire way to make an impact in your presentation.

Alternatively, pull out a significant statistic that you want to stick in your audience’s minds and make it a visual focus of the slide, as seen in this popular presentation by Officevibe .

This might mean you end up with a slide deck with a ton of slides. But that’s totally ok!

I’ve talked to many professionals who are pressured by their management teams to create presentations with a specific number of slides (usually as few as 10 or 15 slides for a 30-minute presentation).

If you ask me, this approach is completely flawed. In my mind, the longer I spend sitting on a single slide, the more likely I am to lose the interest of my audience.

How many slides should I use for a 10 minute presentation?

A good rule of thumb is to have at least as many slides as minutes in your presentation. So for a 10 minute presentation you should have at least 10 slides .

Use as many slides as you need, as long as you are presenting a single message on each slide, (as seen in the lengthy presentation template below). This is especially important if you’re presenting your business, or delivering a product presentation. You want to wow your audience, not bore them.

7. Use visuals to highlight the key message on each slide

As important as having one major takeaway per slide is having visuals that highlight the major takeaway on each slide.

Unique visuals will help make your message memorable.

Visuals are a great way to eliminate extra text, too.

You can add visuals by creating a timeline infographic to group and integrate information into visual frameworks like this:

Or create a flowchart  and funnels:

Or by representing simple concepts with icons, as seen in the modern presentation design below. Using the same color for every icon helps create a polished look.

Using visuals in this way is perfect for when you have to convey messages quickly to audiences that you aren’t familiar with – such as at conferences. This would also make the ideal interview presentation template.

You can alternatively use icons in different colors, like in the presentation templates below. Just make sure the colors are complimentary, and style is consistent throughout the presentation (i.e. don’t use sleek, modern icons on one slide and whimsically illustrated icons on another). In this example, presentation clipart style icons have been used.

Any time you have important stats or trends you want your audience to remember, consider using a chart or data visualization to drive your point home. Confident public speaking combined with strong visualizations can really make an impact, encouraging your audience to act upon your message.

One of my personal favorite presentations (created by a professional designer) takes this “key message plus a visual” concept to the extreme, resulting in a slide deck that’s downright irresistible.

When applying this concept, don’t fall into the trap of using bad stock photos . Irrelevant or poorly chosen visuals can hurt you as much as they help you.

Below is an example of how to use stock photos effectively. They are more thematic than literal and are customized with fun, bright icons that set a playful tone.

The content and visual design of a presentation should be seamless.

It should never seem like your text and visuals are plopped onto a template. The format and design of the slides should contribute to and support the audience’s understanding of the content.

8. Use scaffolding slides to orient your audience and keep them engaged

It’s easy for audiences to get lost during long presentations, especially if you have lots of slides. And audiences zone out when they get lost.

To help reorient your audience every once in a while, you can use something I like to call scaffolding slides. Scaffolding slides appear throughout a presentation to denote the start and end of major sections.

The core scaffolding slide is the agenda slide, which should appear right after the introduction or title slide. It outlines the major sections of the presentation.

At the beginning of each section, you should show that agenda again but highlight the relevant section title, as seen below.

This gives audiences the sense that you’re making progress through the presentation and helps keep them anchored and engaged.

Alternatively, you can achieve a similar effect by numbering your sections and showing that number on every slide. Or use a progress bar at the bottom of each slide to indicate how far along you are in your presentation. Just make sure it doesn’t distract from the main content of the slides.

You can imagine using this “progress bar” idea for a research presentation, or any presentation where you have a lot of information to get through.

Leila Janah, founder of Sama Group, is great at this. Her  Innovation and Inspire  talk about Sama Group is an example of a presentation that is well organized and very easy to follow.

Her presentation follows a logical, steady stream of ideas. She seems comfortable talking in front of a crowd but doesn’t make any attempts to engage directly with them.

9. Use text size, weight and color for emphasis

Every slide should have a visual focal point. Something that immediately draws the eye at first glance.

That focal point should be whatever is most important on that slide, be it an important number, a keyword, or simply the slide title.

We can create visual focal points by varying the size, weight, and color of each element on the slide. Larger, brighter, bolder elements will command our audience’s attention, while smaller, lighter elements will tend to fade into the background.

As seen in the presentation template above, this technique can be especially useful for drawing attention to important words within a long passage of text. Consider using this technique whenever you have more than 5 words on a slide.

And if you really want your audience to pay attention, pick a high-contrast color scheme like the one below.

When picking fonts for your presentation, keep this technique in mind. Pick a font that has a noticeable difference between the “bold” font face and the “regular” font face. Source Sans Pro, Times New Roman, Montserrat, Arvo, Roboto, and Open Sans are all good options.

The last thing to remember when using size, weight, and color to create emphasis on a slide: don’t try to emphasize too many things on one slide.

If everything is highlighted, nothing is highlighted.

10. Apply design choices consistently to avoid distraction

Audiences are quick to pick out, and focus on, any inconsistencies in your presentation design. As a result, messy, inconsistent slide decks lead to distracted, disengaged audiences.

Design choices (fonts and colors, especially), must be applied consistently across a slide deck. The last thing you want is for your audience to pay attention to your design choices before your content.

To keep your design in check, it can be helpful to create a color palette and type hierarchy before you start creating your deck, and outline it in a basic style guide like this one:

I know it can sometimes be tempting to fiddle around with text sizes to fit longer bits of text on a slide, but don’t do it! If the text is too long to fit on a slide, it should be split up onto multiple slides anyway.

And remember, a consistent design isn’t necessarily a boring one. This social media marketing presentation applies a bright color scheme to a variety of 3-column and 2-column layouts, remaining consistent but still using creative presentation ideas.

11. Split a group presentation by topic

When giving a group presentation it’s always difficult to find the right balance of who should present which part.

Splitting a group presentation by topic is the most natural way to give everybody the chance to attempt without it seeming disjointed.

When presenting this slide deck to investors or potential clients, the team can easily take one topic each. One person can discuss the business model slide, and somebody else can talk about the marketing strategy.

Top tips for group presentations:

• Split your group presentation by topic
• Introduce the next speaker at the end of your slide
• Become an ‘expert’ in the slide that you are presenting
• Rehearse your presentation in advance so that everybody knows their cue to start speaking

12. Use a variety of page layouts to maintain your audience’s interest

Page after page of the same layout can become repetitive and boring. Mix up the layout of your slides to keep your audience interested.

In this example, the designer has used a variety of combinations of images, text, and icons to create an interesting and varied style.

There are hundreds of different combinations of presentation layers and presentation styles that you can use to help create an engaging presentation . This style is great for when you need to present a variety of information and statistics, like if you were presenting to financial investors, or you were giving a research presentation.

Using a variety of layouts to keep an audience engaged is something that Elon Musk is an expert in. An engaged audience is a hyped audience. Check out this Elon Musk presentation revealing a new model Tesla for a masterclass on how to vary your slides in an interesting way:

13. Use presentation templates to help you get started

It can be overwhelming to build your own presentation from scratch. Fortunately, my team at Venngage has created hundreds of professional presentation templates , which make it easy to implement these design principles and ensure your audience isn’t deterred by text-heavy slides.

Using a presentation template is a quick and easy way to create professional-looking presentation skills, without any design experience. You can edit all of the text easily, as well as change the colors, fonts, or photos. Plus you can download your work in a PowerPoint or PDF Presentation format.

After your presentation, consider summarizing your presentation in an engaging manner to r each a wider audience through a LinkedIn presentation .

14. Include examples of inspiring people

People like having role models to look up to. If you want to motivate your audience, include examples of people who demonstrate the traits or achievements, or who have found success through the topic you are presenting.

15. Dedicate slides to poignant questions

While you might be tempted to fill your slides with decorative visuals and splashes of color, consider that sometimes simplicity is more effective than complexity. The simpler your slide is, the more you can focus on one thought-provoking idea.

16. Find quotes that will inspire your audience

A really good quote can stick in a person’s mind for weeks after your presentation. Ending your presentation with a quote can be a nice way to either begin or finish your presentation.

A great example of this is Tim Ferriss’ TED talk:

Check out the full talk below.

17. Emphasize key points with text and images

When you pair concise text with an image, you’re presenting the information to your audience in two simultaneous ways. This can make the information easier to remember, and more memorable.

Use your images and text on slides to reinforce what you’re saying out loud.

Doing this achieves two things:

• When the audience hears a point and simultaneously read it on the screen, it’s easier to retain.
• Audience members can photograph/ screencap the slide and share it with their networks.

Don’t believe us? See this tip in action with a presentation our Chief Marketing Officer Nadya gave recently at Unbounce’s CTA Conference . The combination of text and images on screen leads to a memorable presentation.

18. Label your slides to prompt your memory

Often, presenters will write out an entire script for their presentation and read it off a teleprompter. The problem is, that can often make your presentation seem  too  rehearsed and wooden.

But even if you don’t write a complete script, you can still put key phrases on your slides to prompt jog your memory. The one thing you have to be wary of is looking back at your slides too much.

A good presentation gets things moving! Check out the top qualities of awesome presentations and learn all about how to make a good presentation to help you nail that captivating delivery.

Audiences don’t want to watch presentations with slide decks jam-packed with text. Too much text only hurts audience engagement and understanding. Your presentation design is as important as your presentation style. 

By summarizing our text and creating slides with a visual focus, we can give more exciting, memorable and impactful presentations.

Give it a try with one of our popular presentation templates:

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Presentation design guide: tips, examples, and templates

Get your team on prezi – watch this on demand video.

Anete Ezera January 09, 2023

Presentation design defines how your content will be received and remembered. It’s responsible for that crucial first impression and sets the tone for your presentation before you’ve even introduced the topic . It’s also what holds your presentation together and guides the viewer through it. That’s why visually appealing, easily understandable, and memorable presentation design is what you should be striving for. But how can you create a visually striking presentation without an eye for design? Creating a visually appealing presentation can be challenging without prior knowledge of design or helpful tools. 

With this presentation design guide accompanied by Prezi presentation examples , templates , and AI functionalities , you’ll have no problem creating stunning and impactful presentations that’ll wow your audience.

In this guide, we’ll start by looking at the basics of presentation design. We’ll provide a simple guide on creating a presentation from scratch and offer helpful tips for different presentation types . In addition, you’ll discover how to organize information into a logical order and present it in a way that resonates with listeners. Finally, we’ll share tips and tricks to create an eye-catching presentation, and showcase some great presentation examples and templates you can get inspired by!

With our comprehensive guide to the best presentation design techniques, you’ll be able to develop an engaging and professional presentation that gets results!

What is presentation design?

Presentation design encompasses a variety of elements that make up the overall feel and look of the presentation. It’s a combination of certain elements, like text, font, color, background, imagery, and animations. 

Presentation design focuses on finding ways to make the presentation more visually appealing and easy to process, as it is often an important tool for communicating a message. It involves using design principles like color, hierarchy, white space, contrast, and visual flow to create an effective communication piece.

Creating an effective presentation design is important for delivering your message efficiently and leaving a memorable impact on your audience. Most of all, you want your presentation design to support your topic and make it easier to understand and digest. A great presentation design guides the viewer through your presentation and highlights its essential aspects. 

If you’re interested in learning more about presentation design and its best practices , watch the following video and get practical insights on designing your next presentation:

Types of presentations

When creating a presentation design, you have to keep in mind several types of presentations that shape the initial design you want to have. Depending on your presentation type, you’ll want to match it with a fitting presentation design.

1. Informative

An informative presentation provides the audience with facts and data to educate them on a certain subject matter. This could be done through visual aids such as graphs, diagrams, and charts. In an informative presentation, you want to highlight data visualizations and make them more engaging with interactive features or animations. On Prezi Design, you can create different engaging data visualizations from line charts to interactive maps to showcase your data.

2. Instructive

Instructive presentations teach the audience something new. Whether it’s about science, business strategies, or culture, this type of presentation is meant to help people gain knowledge and understand a topic better. 

With a focus on transmitting knowledge, your presentation design should incorporate a variety of visuals and easy-to-understand data visualizations. Most people are visual learners, so you’ll benefit from swapping text-based slides for more visually rich content.

3. Motivational

Motivational presentations try to inspire the audience by giving examples of successful projects, stories, or experiences. This type of presentation is often used in marketing or promotional events because it seeks to get the audience inspired and engaged with a product or service. That’s why the presentation design needs to capture and hold the attention of your audience using a variety of animations and visuals. Go beyond plain images – include videos for a more immersive experience.

4. Persuasive

Persuasive presentations are designed to sway an audience with arguments that lead to an actionable decision (i.e., buy the product). Audiences learn facts and figures relevant to the point being made and explore possible solutions based on evidence provided during the speech or presentation.

In a persuasive presentation design, you need to capture your audience’s attention right away with compelling statistics wrapped up in interactive and engaging data visualizations. Also, the design needs to look and feel dynamic with smooth transitions and fitting visuals, like images, stickers, and GIFs.

To learn more about different types of presentations and how to structure them accordingly, read our article on presentation types .

How to design a presentation

When you first open a blank presentation page, you might need some inspiration to start creating your design. For this reason, we created a simple guide that’ll help you make your own presentation from scratch without headaches.

1. Opt for a motion-based presentation

You can make an outstanding presentation using Prezi Present, a software program that lets you create interactive presentations that capture your viewer’s attention. Prezi’s zooming feature allows you to add movement to your presentation and create smooth transitions. Prezi’s non-linear format allows you to jump between topics instead of flipping through slides, so your presentation feels more like a conversation than a speech. A motion-based presentation will elevate your content and ideas, and make it a much more engaging viewing experience for your audience.

Watch this video to learn how to make a Prezi presentation:

2. Create a structure & start writing content

Confidence is key in presenting. You can feel more confident going into your presentation if you structure your thoughts and plan what you will say. To do that, first, choose the purpose of your presentation before you structure it. There are four main types of presentations: informative, instructive, motivational, and persuasive. Think about the end goal of your presentation – what do you want your audience to do when you finish your presentation – and structure it accordingly.

Next, start writing the content of your presentation (script). We recommend using a storytelling framework, which will enable you to present a conflict and show what could be possible. In addition to creating compelling narratives for persuasive presentations, this framework is also effective for other types of presentations.

Tip: Keep your audience in mind. If you’re presenting a data-driven report to someone new to the field or from a different department, don’t use a lot of technical jargon if you don’t know their knowledge base and/or point of view.

3. Research & analyze 

Knowing your topic inside and out will make you feel more confident going into your presentation. That’s why it’s important to take the time to understand your topic fully. In return, you’ll be able to answer questions on the fly and get yourself back on track even if you forget what you were going to say when presenting. In case you have extra time at the end of your presentation, you can also provide more information for your audience and really showcase your expertise. For comprehensive research, turn to the internet, and library, and reach out to experts if possible.

4. Get to design

Keeping your audience engaged and interested in your topic depends on the design of your presentation.

Now that you’ve done your research and have a proper presentation structure in place, it’s time to visualize it.

4.1. Presentation design layout

What you want to do is use your presentation structure as a presentation design layout. Apply the structure to how you want to tell your story and think about how each point will lead to the next one. Now you can either choose to use one of Prezi’s pre-designed templates that resemble your presentation structure the most or start to add topics on your canvas as you go. 

Tip: When adding content, visualize the relation between topics by using visual hierarchy – hide smaller topics within larger themes or use the zooming feature to zoom in and out of supplementary topics or details that connect to the larger story you’re telling.

4.2. Color scheme

Now it’s time to choose your color scheme to give a certain look and feel to your presentation. Make sure to use contrasting colors to clearly separate text from the background, and use a maximum of 2 to 3 dominating colors to avoid an overwhelming presentation design.

4.2. Content (visuals + text)

Add content that you want to highlight in your presentation. Select from a wide range of images, stickers, GIFs, videos, data visualizations, and more from the content library, or upload your own. To provide more context, add short-format text, like bullet points or headlines that spotlight the major themes, topics, and ideas in your presentation. 

Also, here you’ll want to make a final decision on your font choice. Select a font that’s easy to read and goes well with your brand and topic.

Tip: Be careful not to turn your presentation into a script. Only display text that holds significant value – expand on the ideas when presenting. 

4.3. Transitions

Last but not least, bring your presentation design to life by adding smooth, attractive, and engaging transitions that take the viewer from one topic to another without disrupting the narrative. 

On Prezi, you can choose from a range of transitions that take you into the story world and provide an immersive presentation experience for your audience.

5. Practice your delivery 

Even with a great presentation design, how you deliver it is crucial in leaving an impression. Practice your presentation’s timing to become familiar with the rhythm and pace. It might help to record yourself to pinpoint areas for enhancement. Practicing in front of a friend or family member can also offer insights. Keep in mind the more you rehearse, the more self-assured and at ease you’ll be when giving the presentation.

6. Engage your audience 

Engaging with your audience can enhance the impact of your presentation. You could prompt discussions, invite participation, or incorporate features such as surveys or puzzles. For instance, when introducing a marketing plan you could kick off with a survey to assess how well the audience grasps the subject. This boosts interactivity in your presentation and also fosters a connection with your listeners and sustains their interest throughout.

7. Use storytelling techniques

Using stories can be a way to captivate your audience and ensure that your message sticks with them. When creating a presentation, consider incorporating a narrative structure that incorporates a beginning, middle, and end. For example, when outlining a business strategy, kick off with a story that highlights a challenge in need of resolution. Then delve into your proposed solution before illustrating the results that can be achieved. This storytelling approach can foster a connection with your audience and enhance their grasp of the main ideas you’re conveying.

8. Prepare for technical difficulties

It’s common to encounter glitches, so being ready is key. Make sure you have a strategy in place if things go south during your presentation. For instance, store your presentation on devices like a USB drive and online storage, and keep hard copies of important slides handy. Also, get acquainted with the equipment and software you’ll use for the presentation. Planning ahead for any issues can help you navigate them smoothly and maintain the flow of your presentation.

9. Include high-quality visuals

Good visuals play a role in the success of your presentation. Incorporate top-notch pictures, graphics,3 and videos to ensure your slides are visually captivating and interesting. Steer clear of using low-quality images that may come off as pixelated and amateurish. When presenting data, think about using charts or infographics to present the information clearly. Prezi provides access to a selection of high-quality visuals that can elevate the design impact of your presentation.

10. Be unique

It’s crucial to make sure your design is original to set yourself apart from the crowd. If you’re a student, aim to craft a presentation that showcases your flair and avoid imitating others. This approach helps you differentiate yourself and ensures that your work is more memorable. In the business field, make sure that your design elements, such as colors, fonts, and overall aesthetics are different from those used by similar companies. Steer clear of templates that might give your presentation a generic feel. By developing a unique design, you establish your identity and leave a lasting impact on your audience.

For more practical tips read our article on how to make a presentation . 

Presentation design tips

When it comes to presentations, design is key. A well-designed presentation can communicate your ideas clearly and engage your audience, while a poorly designed one can do the opposite.

To ensure your presentation is designed for success, note the following presentation design tips that’ll help you design better presentations that wow your audience.

1. Keep it simple

Too many elements on a slide can be overwhelming and distract from your message. While you want your content to be visually compelling, don’t let the design of the presentation get in the way of communicating your ideas. Presentation design elements need to elevate your message instead of overshadowing it. 

2. Use contrasting text colors

Draw attention to important points with contrasted text colors. Instead of using bold or italics, use a contrasting color in your chosen palette to emphasize the text.

3. Be clear and concise

Avoid writing long paragraphs that are difficult to read. Limit paragraphs and sections of text for optimum readability.

4. Make sure your slide deck is visually appealing

Use high-quality images and graphics, and limit the use of text to only the most important information. For engaging and diverse visuals, go to Prezi’s content library and discover a wide range of stock images, GIFs, stickers, and more.

5. Pay attention to detail

Small details like font choice and alignments can make a big difference in how professional and polished your presentation looks. Make sure to pay attention to image and text size, image alignment with text, font choice, background color, and more details that create the overall look of your presentation.

6. Use templates sparingly

While templates can help create a consistent look for your slides, overusing them can make your presentation look generic and boring. Use them for inspiration but don’t be afraid to mix things up with some custom designs as well. 

7. Design for clarity

Create a presentation layout that is easy to use and navigate, with clear labels and instructions. This is important for ensuring people can find the information they need quickly and easily if you end up sharing your presentation with others.

8. Opt for a conversational presentation design

Conversational presenting allows you to adjust your presentation on the fly to make it more relevant and engaging. Create a map-like arrangement that’ll encourage you to move through your presentation at your own pace. With a map-like design, each presentation will be customized to match different audiences’ needs. This can be helpful for people who have different levels of expertise or knowledge about the subject matter.

9. Be consistent 

Design consistency holds your presentation together and makes it easy to read and navigate. Create consistency by repeating colors, fonts, and design elements that clearly distinguish your presentation from others.

10. Have context in mind

A great presentation design is always dependent on the context. Your audience and objective influence everything from color scheme to fonts and use of imagery. Make sure to always have your audience in mind when designing your presentations.

11. Use white space effectively

In slide design, whitespace, also known as negative space, refers to the areas surrounding elements. It plays a role in decluttering your slides, enhancing readability, and directing focus towards content. Utilizing whitespace results in a sophisticated appearance for your slides. Remember, simplicity is key – avoid overwhelming your audience with information on each slide.

12. Incorporate visual hierarchy

When it comes to visuals, the key is to organize elements in a manner that naturally directs the viewer’s attention towards the crucial parts of the presentation. Utilize variations in size, color, and positioning to establish a flow for the viewer to navigate through. For instance, opt for fonts to highlight headings, colors for significant points, and position essential elements at the top of the slide. These tactics aid in ensuring that your audience grasps the ideas promptly and effortlessly.

For more presentation tips, read the Q&A with presentation design experts and get valuable insights on visual storytelling.

Make the presentation design process easier by pairing up with Prezi AI 

Presentation design may not come naturally to everyone, and time constraints often limit our ability to dedicate hours to perfecting our designs. Enter Prezi AI , a tool that streamlines the presentation design process enabling users to prioritize content over appeal. Let’s explore some ways in which Prezi AI can elevate your presentation design.

• Template suggestions: Prezi AI provides a range of crafted templates that are customized to match your presentation’s theme, guaranteeing that your slides have a unified appearance with minimal hassle.
• Smart formatting: When using Prezi AI , your text and images will be formatted automatically, eliminating the need for layout adjustments. This results in a professional appearance without the hassle.
• Design consistency: Prezi AI ensures that your presentation maintains a design by keeping color schemes and fonts consistent, eliminating the need to fret over discrepancies.
• Image and media integration: Enhance the appeal and engagement of your slides by adding relevant images, videos, and graphics with the help of Prezi AI smart media recommendations.
• Customizable animations: Enhance your slides with custom animations using Prezi AI to create transitions and captivate your audience. These dynamic animations can emphasize points and ensure a smooth flow throughout your presentation.

Using Prezi AI allows you to simplify the design process and craft appealing presentations, even if you lack time or design skills.

Presentation templates

Creating a presentation from scratch isn’t easy. Sometimes, it’s better to start with a template and dedicate your time to the presentation’s content. To make your life easier, here are 10 useful and stunning presentation templates that score in design and engagement. If you want to start creating with any of the following templates, simply go to our Prezi presentation template gallery , select your template, and start creating! Also, you can get inspired by the top Prezi presentations , curated by our editors. There you can discover presentation examples for a wide range of topics, and get motivated to create your own. 

Business meeting presentation

The work desk presentation templates have a simple and clean design, perfectly made for a team or business meeting. With all the topics visible from the start, everyone will be on the same page about what you’re going to cover in the presentation. If you want, you can add or remove topics as well as edit the visuals and color scheme to match your needs.

Small business presentation

This template is great for an introductory meeting or pitch, where you have to summarize what you or your business does in a few, highly engaging slides. The interactive layout allows you to choose what topic bubble you’re going to select next, so instead of a one-way interaction, you can have a conversation and ask your audience what exactly they’re interested in knowing about your company.

Mindfulness at work presentation

How can you capture employees’ attention to explain important company values or practices? This engaging presentation template will help you do just that. With a wide range of impactful visuals, this presentation design helps you communicate your ideas more effectively. 

Business review template

Make your next quarterly business review memorable with this vibrant business presentation template. With eye-capturing visuals and an engaging layout, you’ll communicate important stats and hold everyone’s attention until the end.

History timeline template

With black-and-white sketches of the Colosseum in the background, this timeline template makes history come alive. The displayed time periods provide an overview that’ll help your audience to grasp the bigger picture. After, you can go into detail about each time frame and event.

Storytelling presentation template

Share stories about your business that make a lasting impact with this stunning, customizable presentation template. To showcase each story, use the zooming feature and choose to tell your stories in whatever order you want.

Design concept exploration template

Not all meetings happen in person nowadays. To keep that face-to-face interaction even when presenting online, choose from a variety of Prezi Video templates or simply import your already-existing Prezi template into Prezi Video for remote meetings. This professional-looking Prezi Video template helps you set the tone for your meeting, making your designs stand out. 

Employee perks and benefits video template

You can use the employee benefits video template to pitch potential job candidates the perks of working in your company. The Prezi Video template allows you to keep a face-to-face connection with potential job candidates while interviewing them remotely.

Sales plan presentation template

Using a clear metaphor that everyone can relate to, this football-inspired sales plan presentation template communicates a sense of team unity and strategy. You can customize this Prezi business presentation template with your brand colors and content.

Flashcard template

How can you engage students in an online classroom? This and many other Prezi Video templates will help you create interactive and highly engaging lessons. Using the flashcard template, you can quiz your students, review vocabulary, and gamify learning.

Great presentation design examples

If you’re still looking for presentation design ideas, check out the following Prezi presentations made by our creative users.

Social media presentation

This presentation is a great example of visual storytelling. The use of visual hierarchy and spatial relationships creates a unique viewing experience and makes it easier to understand how one topic or point is related to another. Also, images provide an engaging and visually appealing experience.

Leadership books presentation

Do you want to share your learnings? This interactive presentation offers great insights in an entertaining and visually compelling way. Instead of compiling leadership books in a slide-based presentation, the creator has illustrated each book and added a zooming feature that allows you to peek inside of each book’s content.

Remote workforce presentation

This is a visually rich and engaging presentation example that offers an interactive experience for the viewer. A noteworthy aspect of this presentation design is its color consistency and matching visual elements.

A presentation about the teenage brain 

Another great presentation design example that stands out is an engaging viewing experience. The zooming feature allows the user to dive into each topic and choose what subject to view first. It’s a great example of an educational presentation that holds the students’ attention with impactful visuals and compelling transitions.

Remote work policy presentation

This presentation design stands out with its visually rich content. It depicts exactly what the presentation is about and uses the illustrated window frames in the background image as topic placements. This type of presentation design simplifies complex concepts and makes it easier for the viewer to understand and digest the information.

Everyone can create visually appealing presentations with the right tools and knowledge. With the presentation design tips, templates, and examples, you’re equipped to make your next presentation a success. If you’re new to Prezi, we encourage you to discover everything it has to offer. With this presentation design guide and Prezi, we hope you’ll get inspired to create meaningful, engaging, and memorable content for your audience!

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30 Presentation Design Ideas & Tips to Impress Your Audience in 2022

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By Iveta Pavlova

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Update March 2022: Fixed broken links and added new presentation design idea examples

PowerPoint and its alternatives are multifunctional tools that serve a wide variety of purposes for both marketers and non-marketers. The popular software for presentation design holds unlimited powers of influence, as long you know how to use it right.

Today we’ll share valuable presentation design ideas and tips, so you can make the most out of your presentation. Before moving on to the actual design process, put your ideas on paper. This will help you clear up your concept and is crucial for building a high-quality presentation. Now, let’s begin!

1. Make Sure Your Eye-Catching Visuals Don’t Steal the Spotlight

The design of a presentation is supposed to support your information in more than one way. Overlooking your presentation design means throwing away all of your efforts to prepare a presentation in the first place. No matter the topic, you need to convey value. This means you need to make your presentation eye-catchy but try not to let your visuals steal the spotlight from the information itself.

• Presentation: Digital 2020 Global Digital Overview (January 2020) v01 by DataReportal

2. Go Simple and Witty

Simplicity is a highly advocated practice simply because it gives results. Now, there are simple and boring presentations, and there are simple and witty ones. The second one will win your audience to your side.

• Presentation: Marco Gold Standard by MarcoTechnologies

3. Prioritize Clarity Over Complexity

Push the boundaries but not too far. Obviously, clarity is a factor that definitely works in favor of your presentation’s success. A familiar pattern is a better approach than presenting the information in a completely new arrangement.

• Presentation: 10 Things your Audience Hates About your Presentation by Stinson

4. Turn your Presentation Design into a Story

We all know that design can provoke powerful emotions. But do you know which technique provokes even a stronger emotion? That’s right, stories. Use this double power for your presentation to influence your audience on a deeper level.

• Presentation: Apple Inc Case Study by Shail Daswani

5. Don’t Underestimate Power of Pop Culture References

Use the power of association to your advantage. When people connect new information with things they already know, they are more inclined to listen to you and accept your message.

• Presentation: The Art of the Presentation by Jeffrey Stevens

6. Leverage the Power of Whitespace

This is a blank space left between design elements in the composition. It is a great tool when you want to make a point and focus the viewer’s attention on a particular part of the design.

7. Apply the Rule of Thirds

3 stages, 3 steps, 3 points, 3 ideas… People tend to accept, understand and memorize these things better if they are narrowed down to 3. The audience simply loves this number, so all that’s left for you is to make the best out of this rule.

• Presentation: Achieving digital maturity: Adapting your company to a changing world from Deloitte United States

8. Use Minimum Text In Your Slides

A presentation design is created in order to help the presenter communicate certain information. Moreover, a presentation in front of an audience is meant to be listened to, and not read. This is why some professionals advise not to use more than 6 words per slide. Use more visual content, instead.

• Presentation: How to think like a startup by Loic Le Meur

9. Don’t Forget the Mobile Users

Mind this tip when designing a presentation that will also be watched on mobile devices. Big sections of text in presentation design are hard to read on small screens.

• Presentation: How to Master Difficult Conversations at Work – Leader’s Guide by Piktochart

10. Match the Presentation Design with the Topic

The topic of the presentation often dictates the theme of the design. For instance, a wedding-themed presentation suggests a soft, romantic color scheme, a business presentation is often designed in brand colors, etc.

• Presentation: How To Have Your Dream Wedding Without Burying Your Budget by DesignMantic

You’d probably like to learn  4 Invaluable Presentation Design Tips You Wish You Knew Earlier

11. Use Semi-Transparent Gradient Graphs

Different tools are used to present data. However, presenting it in a visually appealing way will bring more positives for you. Semi-transparency and partial overlapping are super trendy when it comes to presenting graphs. Choose different colors complementing each other, and apply semi-transparency increasing to the top.

• Presentation: Achieving digital maturity: Adapting your company to a changing world by Deloitte United States

12. Be Trendy with Gradient Overlays

Gradients and color transitions are still trendy. This means you can use them bravely in all of your designs including presentation design. White text on top works amazing for this kind of overlay.

• Presentation: 10 Insightful Quotes On Designing A Better Customer Experience by Yuan Wang

13. Use a Partial Overlay to Put an Accent

We already established that white lettering goes well with a colored semi-transparent background. Another technique is to use this background as an element and not a full background, so you can draw the eye to a certain area.

• Presentation: 500 Demo Day Batch 19: Gluwa by 500 Startups

14. Use Brand Colors

Choosing a presentation design style according to your brand is a smart move. This way, you will certainly differentiate your work from other presentations. Also, it’s wise to include your business’s branding – your logo in all of your slides.

• Presentation: How to Market your Charity in the Digital Age by Michael Horton

15. Try Bright Colors

Bright colors still rule the web in 2022, so there will be a lot of them in presentation design, as well. With these colors, it’s more than easy to catch the attention and make a statement. Combine them with 3D or flat illustrations and flattering text color (white works amazing) to make the presentation design pleasant for the eye.

16. Choose One Popping Color

If you want to keep the vibe of the bright colors but still make the presentation design elegant and classy, use just one popping color (it can be even neon) over a black-and-white themed background (or simply over muted colors).

• Presentation: 24 Design Tips from Real Designers by Edahn Small

17. Try Sticking to Black and White

Going black-and-white has always been trendy. This look can provoke a variety of moods depending on how you use it. The Black and white duo provokes nostalgia, drama, mystery. But it could also make your concept look elegant and simple.

• Presentation: A Guide to User Research (for People Who Don’t Like Talking to Other People) by Stephanie Wills

18. Use Trendy Pantone Colors

This presentation uses the Ultra Violet Pantone color of the year 2018 , but you can go with any annual Pantone color to vibe with the current. Now is the time to try Very Peri Color of the year 2022 .

• Presentation: Top Productivity Working Hacks by Jan Rezab

19. Use Simple Outline Illustrations to Explain a Concept

Using illustrations instead of pictures can help you emphasize a point. Illustrations are great conceptual tools, so when it comes to presenting, they can help you get your message across with ease. Flat outline illustrations, on the other hand, are simplistic enough to explain a concept and attractive enough to catch the viewer’s attention in a presentation design.

20. Flat Illustrations are Always a Good Choice

Flat has been the king of illustration in the graphic design world for so long, that we can’t make this list without it. The multifunctional simplistic shapes make this style suitable for both icons and conceptual illustrations in a presentation design.

• Presentation: The 12 Characteristics Of A Horrible Boss by Debra Ulrich

21. Mix Styles

You don’t have to limit yourself to using only one style throughout the whole presentation. Feel free to combine gradients with flats, outlines, and other styles to achieve a more attention-grabbing look.

• Presentation: 5 Storytelling Lessons From Superhero Stories by HighSpark | Visual Storytelling Agency

22. Use Art Illustrations

A fully illustrated slide is a move that pushes the boundaries of the ordinary presentation design. This approach, especially used as an opening slide, will certainly nail your audience’s attention from the very beginning, so it’s worth giving it a shot.

• Presentation:  Achieving digital maturity: Adapting your company to a changing world by Deloitte United States

23. Try Modern Low-Poly Illustrations

Low-poly is a style of illustration that has become modern in recent years. The style brings a futuristic vibe and makes the design look edgy. This style can be applied to the presentation design elements or even the background for a bolder look.

• Presentation: One Point Per Slide – Why It’s Important and How to Do It by Stinson

24. Use Geometric Shapes

Geometric shapes can totally make a design look modern, elegant, and more interesting. Whether circles, triangles, diamonds, or else, geometric shapes provide a wide field for experimenting. This means your opportunities are endless and the result could be an absolutely unique presentation design.

• Presentation: Designing For Emails: 8 Hacks To Design Emails That Are Eagerly Awaited by DesignMantic

25. Give Each Concept a Different Color

Colors are a perfect way to distinguish different ideas and concepts. Plus, they help the audience follow your thought more easily. Distinguishing your ideas from each other by using colors is a great way to focus on different messages in the same presentation. Just make sure to keep the style consistent.

• Presentation: 125 Clickass Copywriting Tips by Barry Feldman

26. Try Creative Typography

You should absolutely step outside your comfort zone and experiment with attractive new ways of presenting your lettering.

• Presentation: 14 Inspiring Paul Rand Quotes! by DesignMantic

27. Try Unconventional Fonts

With the huge diversity of fonts available online, don’t be afraid to try out new looks. A new font stands out and makes the presentation design feel completely different.

• Presentation: GAME ON! Integrating Games and Simulations in the Classroom by Brian Housand

28. Use Numbers to Mark Progress

Numbers are a great way to help your audience keep track of your thoughts. They help you take the viewer through the whole process and they boost the clarity. Numbers also give the feeling of a step-by-step process. They can simplify any idea and make it easier to be understood. In the following example, each slide is a numbered step. This is a provenly effective practice but you can experiment with expanding each number over a few slides.

• Presentation: 21 Hottest Productivity Hacks for 2016 by HubSpot

29. ABC of Anything

The ABC is a cool way to make your audience follow a list. Unlike numbering which could be infinite, this type of alphabetical bulleting does have an end obviously.  This technique engages the viewer a lot because, first of all, the viewer sees something familiar – the alphabetical order. Secondly, people like the feeling of completion which helps them keep their interest till the end of the alphabet.

• Presentation: The ABC’s of Living a Healthy Life by Dr. Omer Hameed

30. Call to Action

Don’t be afraid to tell your audience what to do next. A CTA button is rewarding your efforts spent on the presentation.

• Presentation: 4 Biggest Challenges for Creative Teams by Wrike

Presentation design doesn’t have to be boring. These 30 presentation design ideas and tips will help you breathe life into your presentation and win your audience’s attention. You are welcome to share more ideas in the comments below, so we can discuss what works and what doesn’t. Happy designing!

You may also be interested to read these related articles:

• The Best Free PowerPoint Templates to Download in 2022
• How to Calm Down Before a Presentation: 10 Practical Tips and Techniques
• Top Graphic Design Trends 2022: Raising the Game

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Iveta Pavlova

Iveta is a passionate writer at GraphicMama who has been writing for the brand ever since the blog was launched. She keeps her focus on inspiring people and giving insight on topics like graphic design, illustrations, education, business, marketing, and more.

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How to Deliver the Perfect Online Presentation

In this digital era, online presentations have become more and more common every day. And there are many things that distinguish them from traditional live presentations! To make the most out of them and to learn how to make effective online presentations, it’s important to learn the best practices that apply to this type of media. Here you’ll learn some tricks on how to deliver the perfect online presentation.

9 tips for making effective online presentations

There are many things on online presentations that work similarly to live ones. However, there are also extra aspects to take into account to make sure you deliver the best possible online presentation.

1. Use presentation slides!

Whether it’s PowerPoint, Google Slides, Keynote, o Prezi, presentation slides can truly take your presentation to the next level. Especially for online presentations!

Online presentations are always a challenge. In an online presentation, it’s impossible to control the distractions around your audience. A good slide design can help you channel your audience’s attention into your presentation with its visual aspect.

Presentation slides are a great way to illustrate your information and make it more digestible for the audience. Even better, a good slide design can also help your presentation be more memorable!

Make sure your presentation slides are there to complement your speaker, not compete with them. Avoid text as much as possible, and instead work with visual elements: icons, pictures, illustrations, and graphs.

To make the most effective online presentation possible, use your visual complements strategically. Ask yourself: What is the purpose of this visual? Avoid “filler” pictures, and instead, use visuals that will make an impact on your audience.

2. Take your time for the technical aspects

One of the main aspects people have problems with is the technical aspect of an online presentation. While a computer or projector can always fail on a live presentation is way less likely.

To deliver the perfect online presentation it is vital for you to make sure as much as you can that you’re not going to have any technical difficulties. There’s nothing worse than being in the middle of a video conference and losing the internet connection, or finding out your microphone doesn’t work.

Take some extra time to review that your internet connection, your camera, microphone, and any extra equipment you might need are working just fine. It’s important to check these points in advance, so you can have a backup plan in case you need it.

For example, an ethernet cable is a great way to reassure that you’ll have a stable internet connection instead of relying on wifi.

You should also try the video conference platform you’re going to use! While all of them have similar features, it’s important that you are fully confident about how to work with them. This way, you’ll be able to focus on delivering your presentation and not on where is the ‘share screen’ button!

3. Set the scene

And since you’re already taken some extra time to try out the place where you’ll be giving your presentation. Make things easier for your audience by removing potential distractions from your background.

If you don’t have a good option for a neutral background, many video conferencing platforms offer digital backgrounds! You should try them beforehand to make sure they work well for you, but they can be a great option.

Lighting is also an important aspect to take into consideration. Avoid as much as possible sitting in front of a window or a strong light source, as this will make your face too dark.

4. Avoid potential distractors

And talking about distractions, it’s also important to avoid distractions of your own! There’s nothing worse than being in the middle of a presentation and get a loud text message for all your audience to hear.

Try to deliver your presentation in a place that’s calm and quiet so there are no outside interruptions from your side of the screen. If you’re now able to find one, a headset with a microphone might be a good investment! This will help you isolate outside noises, and will make your own voice clearer for your audience.

You can also improve your online presentation delivery by making sure your desktop notifications are turned off! This way, you’ll reduce potential distractors when you’re going through your presentation.

5. Body language is key

Just like in a live presentation, body language can help you make a more effective online presentation! Body language helps you convey confidence, make yourself more approachable or likable to the audience, and overall improve your presentation.

Just like the previous points, however, online presentations require special considerations. Avoid setting yourself too far away from the camera (as this will be too impersonal) but also too close (intimidating!).

The best way to place yourself is so your camera gets all the way down to your shoulders. This way, you’ll look friendly while still being able to use your hands’ movements to emphasize key points.

You can also give your conference standing up! Giving your presentation standing up can actually improve your delivery and diction, as this will force you to stand up straight. Put your laptop on a counter or stack up books to make sure your camera is at the optimal height for you.

Another trick is to train yourself to look at the camera! Many people make the mistake of looking at the screen, as there’s where your audience is. However, they won’t get the connection made by eye contact, unless you talk to the camera!

6. Inject energy into your presentation!

Delivering a good online presentation can be especially difficult because of the gap between yourself and your audience.

By default, online presentations are less engaging than live ones, as the speaker feels more distant. That’s why it’s extra important to make sure your presentation is engaging enough to keep your audience hooked.

Humor is a great way to make your presentation more engaging and to make sure your audience is paying you 100% of their attention.

7. Engage with your audience

Making an effective online presentation is all about keeping your audience’s attention. And what better way to do this than to make them a part of it?

Asking questions, and having moments for your audience to participate is a great way to keep your audience invested in your presentation. You can even add a quiz to make your audience stay on their toes!

There are also a wide array of online tools you can use to make your online presentation more engaging. Tools like Slido and Metimetric allow you to get live polls you can easily integrate into your online presentations.

8. Practice makes perfect

Just like in a live presentation, the key to an effective online presentation is practice, practice, and more practice!

Make the most of your digital resources to make sure your presentations end up just like you want them to be. While you’re practicing, record yourself so you can mark what you should improve or change.

You might also like: What is a Pecha Kucha Presentation?

9. Share it with your audience!

One of the best things about an online presentation is that you have all the power of technology from the get-go! You don’t need any extra equipment to record it and share it.

Whether it’s a complete recording, a highlights video, a summary, or PowerPoint slides, you can easily share it with your audience through the video conferencing platforms.

Leave your slide design to us!

Preparing a presentation, whether it’s live or online it’s never an easy task. And most of the time, it’s hard work you must do on your own! So why not save some time to work on your delivery and your research, and leave the slide design to us? 24Slides works with some of the biggest companies all around the world creating amazing presentations. Our designers are specialists at creating outstanding slides that will catch your audience’s eye from the get-go, convey your message perfectly, and showcase your brand!

Create professional presentations online

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Presentation Design: Ultimate Guide for Beginners

Great presentation design is as important as presenting. Are you creating your own slide decks? Here are some must-follow rules for awesome presentations!

Table of Contents

One-stop for all your designs. Flat monthly price, unlimited requests and revisions.

Whether you are pitching a business idea, telling about your new research, or sharing important data with your audience, presentations are a visual aid essential for your success. You could have awesome presenter skills, and a fantastic idea for the content. But without stunning presentation design, the whole thing will fall flat. Learn how to make a good PowerPoint presentation design with these 10 tips.

Presentations: you’ve seen many of them, and you've probably made several yourself. An ultimate visual communication tool to get your point across, presentations are deeply integrated into the academic and business world.

However, many individuals and businesses still make the mistake of thinking that PowerPoint presentation design always comes down to dark text on a white background, with a few images and charts sprinkled in. Nothing could be further from the truth!

Presentation design shouldn’t be walls of text or extensive bullet point lists, but rather a way to tell a story and inspire the audience with a beautiful and balanced design. And it’s not just about communicating with your audience. Visme found that 91% of presenters feel more confident when using a professionally designed slide deck .

Want to learn how to make a good PowerPoint presentation design? We can help. In this article, we’ll cover the basics, such as:

What is presentation design?

• What types of presentations are there?
• 7 Tips to design presentation slides yourself.

{{PRESENTAION_BANNER="/dev/components"}}

Presentation design focuses on the visual look of your presentation as a tool to engage your audience. It is the way you present your information on the slide: the color scheme, combination of fonts, the way design elements are used as part of your slide. All of this comes together to present your message in a certain way.

Presentation design is about finding the perfect combination of design elements to create slides that will not bore or tire your audience, but rather engage them and glue them to the slides while attentively listening. Whether you are looking to inform your audience, entertain them, establish credibility, or something else, well-thought-out and executed presentation slides can help you achieve this.

Types of presentations

What is the first step in designing an effective presentation? Knowing what the presentation is for, of course.

Presentations have different purposes. A quarterly presentation you are making for the investors of your dropshipping business will not be the same as an employee training slide. In the first case, your aim will be to inform and report, in the second case, the goal of the presentation is to educate. Depending on what you are trying to achieve, there are 5 types of presentations. Let’s take a look at each.

• Informative - One of the most common presentation types, informative presentations aim to communicate important information with the audience and show new findings. Think of presenting company updates or planning a new project: informative presentations should be clear and straight to the point.
• Persuasive - As the name suggests, the aim of this presentation type is to use important data to not simply inform the viewers, but to persuade them to take a specific action. Persuasive presentations are what you should show to potential investors when telling them about the user acquisition growth speed of your company.
• Educational - Often confused with informative presentations, educational presentations are different because they aim to not simply inform, but to teach the viewers new skills and educate them about a new topic. Staff training slides or academic presentations are a great example of this slide type. You can go as far as making a tutorial video and including it in the slides, adding notes and key points next to it.
• Inspirational - Often used by managers and team leaders, inspirational presentations aim to cause a spark and motivate employees to work harder. Presentations of this type usually have a highly emotional message the aim of which is to inspire viewers to take a particular action.
• Problem-solving - This presentation type does a particularly good job at hooking the audience, as the key part of this presentation is the problem they are facing. Then, during the presentation, you are showing them how you are going to solve that problem. An example of this would be discussing how hard it is for large companies to hire qualified people by sharing statistics, then presenting your new HR automation tool and showing its benefits.

7 presentation design tips for beginners

Are you ready to jump into it? Here are 7 golden tips that will help you design presentation slides you can be proud of.

1. Outline your content and refine the key message

What is the first step in designing an effective presentation? You need to prepare your content and refine the key message. Try to understand what your audience wants to know, what they may already know, and what is more likely to keep them engaged. Then, keep this information in mind as you prepare your content for your presentation. What is the main takeaway from each slide?

Choose a working title and have a clear point for each of the slides. Understand what you want your slide to tell people. For example, instead of “Using hashtags for Instagram ” go with “Using hashtags for Instagram increases engagement by 12.5%.”

Keep your content specific and informative, but as concise as possible. Simplify your sentences, keep only the main point without writing an excessive amount of information on the slide. Below are two examples of a slide with the same information. Which one do you think is more readable?

2. Pick a framework

Now it’s time to pick the framework you are going to use to make your professional presentation design. Do you want to create a presentation from scratch, or go with something pre-built?

There are many terrific presentation design templates available online, on platforms like Canva, Visme, and Venngage. Still, you should never use a presentation template without editing it .

Changing the color scheme or fonts to match your brand may seem like a small detail, but it will greatly improve the overall impression of your presentation. It also helps to strengthen your brand identity (whether for a personal or business brand marketing ), and demonstrates professionalism and care.

Another important thing is not to limit your creativity to pre-built presentations. That’s why it’s also advisable to explore presentation designs on platforms, such as Behance, Dribble, and 99Designs.

Sure, most of these will have been done by professional designers, and may be a little challenging for beginners to recreate. However, understanding just how creative PowerPoint presentation design can be will help you shed your preconceptions and explore new creative routes.

3. Choose a color scheme and fonts

The best presentation design will be limited to a handful of options as too many colors will create chaos on your slide and make it harder for the readers to understand.

If you have a brand guide in place, it’s best to stick to colors and fonts used in your branding. However, remember that a PowerPoint presentation design is supposed to keep viewers engaged. So, even if your brand colors are soothing muted tones, a bright element here and there can work well to draw attention to the key messages.

4. Make it visual

Sharing your information only as texts and bullet points is a lazy way out. When you design presentation slides, consider how you can present information visually. This will help your audience understand and take in key messages faster.

A simple example of this is adding relevant icons instead of simple bullet points. Colored or outlined texts next to realistic and relevant photos make the presentation a lot more enjoyable and keep the viewers entertained.

Graphs and charts are a business presentation design staple. However, you can also think about different design elements that can be both surprising and effective. For example, a simple illustration instead of a dull stock photo will delight your audience and keep them engaged.

5. Pay attention to the layout

Your slide layout is the area where all of your presentation elements (photos, texts, icons, logo) are contained. Most presentation tools come with pre-built layouts you can use.

You can also create your own layout from scratch. In both cases, the main aim is to design a beautiful slide that doesn’t overwhelm the viewer. Include plenty of white space in your layout, don’t crowd it with too many text boxes and elements. If the elements are different, as they often will be, keep similar one close to each other. Keep your layout as clean and simple as you can.

6. Align and position

Nothing screams amateur more than jumping texts and layouts from slide to slide. Mismatching logos and design elements jumping here and there showcase a lack of professionalism and give an impression that you’ve put your presentation in a hurry. Not to mention that they are sometimes extremely annoying and distractive!

So, whenever you are working on your slides, always align and position them properly. No matter the presentation tool used, chances are, it will have an alignment tool.

Presentation software such as Keynote and Figma even offer an option to create background grids to help with the alignment. Below is an example of a slide, before and after aligning the texts and icons. Notice the difference?

7. Stay consistent

As you progress through the design of your presentation, it is essential that you stay consistent. No matter how many slides your presentation has, they are still part of one presentation. And you don’t always have to keep the same background color, or slide themes for this. Consistency in design can be achieved through design elements, color schemes, and similar illustrations.

Take a moment to look at these three slides. Although some of the slides seem to be styled differently from the rest, the color scheme of design elements holds the presentation together. It’s crucial to make sure that each one of your slides is visually connected to the previous one, to make sure your viewers don’t lose track of what you were saying.

Key takeaways

Now that you know the basics of professional presentation design, it's time to try them in practice! As with every other design type, there is no end to presentation design. Try to experiment with different tools, elements, and styles to find the one that works best for your audience. Research trends and best practices, and dedicate time to plan each slide thoughtfully. Don't be afraid to try new things, and you'll see the benefits a good presentation can have for your project in no time.

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12 Tips to Give an Amazing Online Presentation

Whether you’re new to giving online presentations or a seasoned veteran, here are some tips that will launch your next presentation into the stratosphere!

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Do you have an online presentation coming up? I’ve given hundreds of virtual presentations, ranging from YouTube presentations to presentations for Microsoft. And from my experience, online presentations are a different ballgame than in-person ones.

In this article, I’ll share my top 12 tips and tricks to save you the trouble and ace your next presentation.

An online presentation is a prepared speech or talk in which a person or group provides information, pitches a new idea, or introduces a new product or service through a video call. Online presentations are given to an audience, usually in a business setting.

Ready to take a dive into the tips? Let’s go!

Start With Momentum

Virtual presentations are like taking a flight on an airplane. The beginning and ending are super important, but the middle’s kind of a blur. 

That’s why, if you’re going to prioritize any part of your presentation, you are better off spending the majority of your energy on the first and last minutes. Let’s focus on the first moments.

The beginning of your presentation is critical because it sets the tone—a good first impression makes you feel confident and your audience relaxed. This forward momentum will carry onto the middle part of your presentation where you’ll be presenting the bulk of your data/statistics/information—so if you don’t nail your first impression, you won’t gain that forward momentum you need for the rest of your presentation.

And believe me, people judge you almost instantly! Here’s what the science has to say about first impressions:

A 2017 University of Toronto study found that observers take as little as 5 seconds to determine whether a person is charismatic or not!

So when you’re delivering a presentation online, you should try to make your beginning as error-free and smooth as possible. This includes being prepared and removing potential roadblocks:

• Fix computer errors: ALWAYS double- or triple-check your equipment before giving a virtual presentation. Make sure your microphone, webcam, and internet is working. If you have to fumble around with technical details during the video call, your audience may have the impression that you are unreliable.
• Eliminate distractions: Silence your phone, turn off desktop notifications, get rid of loud fan noises, and make sure your room is kid/dog free. Keep in mind that your audience will likely be listening through their headphones, so even the tiniest of noises might be heard.
• Dress appropriately: Here’s an easy one that some people actually neglect. Have you ever been in a situation where you feel like you should have worn something a little nicer ? If you are giving a business presentation, dress in business appropriate attire (yes, even the pants, too!). It’s best to match your audience—and if in doubt, err on the side of professional! It’s also important to wear a color to stand out from your background, but not a color that’s too distracting.
• Be happy: Like it or not, we can’t hide our emotions. Research shows that people can hear your mood from your voice. So if you’re not in a good mood, try boosting it! Watch some funny YouTube videos or give yourself a small pep talk . Sounding confident and happy is the key to success, so make sure you are in the right mood before you go live.

Open With IISSAAQQ

What does this really bad spelling of Isaac stand for? IISSAAQQ stands for the best ways to start an online presentation:

• Icebreaker: One of the best ways to open up your audience is to give a virtual icebreaker. I always keep an icebreaker on hand that can be done over the computer before starting any online presentation—it’s one of the best ways to connect with your audience!
• Illustration: You can say to the audience “Remember when…” and provide a picture, or paint a scene by telling the audience to imagine a scene when xyzzy occurred.
• Short story: A short personal story or story about someone else can really grip people, but the key is to make it short and not drag on.
• Statistic or surprising fact: A really good statistic can get people thinking and challenge their perspective.
• Aphorism: An aphorism is a common phrase or saying, such as “an apple a day keeps the doctor away.” Add a twist to the aphorism for added effect (“an apple a day keeps the doctor away… except if you’re sitting with an apple computer for 8 hours a day.”
• Analogy or metaphor: Saying an analogy (“User interface is like peeling an onion”) can really break down complex terms into more simpler ones, making it more digestible for your audience.
• Question: Starting with an engaging question can add a great amount of audience engagement, or even asking a rhetorical question can get them thinking out-of-the-box.
• Quote: A great way to start your online presentation is with a quote–but it should be related to your presentation and from a credible source.

End With a Bang

The ending is the part where your audience is (hopefully) happy that the presentation is over, and they feel like they’ve learned something or feel inspired to change. If you’ve made it this far in your presentation, the LAST thing you want to do is crash and burn. So here are some tips to make an amazing presentation that will remain in your audience’s mind long after it has ended.

• Have an easy solution: The last few slides of your presentation should not be too information-heavy. Keep that for the middle. Your last slides should be both convincing and easy-to-understand.
• Have a clear ending: Avoid the awkward “So, does anyone have any questions?” moment by providing an end slide to your virtual presentation. It can be a simple recap of the presentation, or a call to action.
• Include a digital goodie: Include a digital goodie at the end! Everybody loves getting things, and it shouldn’t stop just because you are online. Digital goodies might include a downloadable PDF or document that includes more statistics/research or a list of relevant sources related to your presentation.
• Lead with a call to action: Calls to action are driven by emotion. And they work because we often respond to emotion over logic. If your business is proposing a new solution to an existing problem, try focusing on the emotional benefits vs. the statistics—happier customers vs. less product returns, cleaner world vs. smaller carbon footprint, etc. You can also try this double method: start with the negative, which amplifies the potential bad that might happen if your recommendation is not taken. Then, you can add in the positive, which highlights the good that can happen when your recommendation is taken.
• End with humor: One of the best ways to end a presentation is to use humor. If you do it right, you can leave a HUGE impression on your audience that will last for days, weeks, or months! There are a few ways to end with humor. First, you can introduce a question in the beginning or middle of your presentation and answer it in a funny, surprising way at the end. Second, you can end a story you started but stopped in the beginning or middle of the presentation. Some really good people to draw inspiration from are stand-up comedians. One great example of callback humor is in the movie, Airplane! In the beginning of a movie, a passenger enters a taxi. The driver tells the passenger to wait for a bit, but the driver never comes back as he ends up on an airplane instead. In the closing credits, this scene is played, which recalls the intro of the movie in a funny but memorable way:

Show Your Face

Did you know that faces are attractive to humans? A study by Richard Fantz demonstrated that infants stare twice as long at human faces! We are just inherently born with an attraction to faces. In short: we love human faces, and yours is no exception.

If you’re giving an online presentation or even getting on video call for the first time with your new online networking contact, a super-easy bump in your likability factor is to simply show your face. Many video call programs such as Zoom or Skype allow you to share your screen while also showing your face. Here’s an example of my face in a webinar I hosted on how to thrive in a digital workplace:

Pro tip: you can even take it up a notch by backing up your webcam. This allows you to show your body language better! In fact, one of the most important nonverbal cues for charisma is your hand gestures . In the Toronto study mentioned earlier, the observers didn’t even need to hear a presenter talking; all they needed to do was see their body language! That’s how powerful body language really is. So push back your computer or phone or camera so your hands and upper torso are showing!

When you use your hands, you can also benefit from the following:

• Showing your wave hello (I ALWAYS do this!)
• Your explanatory gestures while you are speaking
• Visible hands while you are listening

Want more tips on how to make a better video call? Here are our 15 Tips for a Better Video Call !

Stand, Don’t Sit

Sitting is great. Standing is even better! One big mistake a lot of virtual presenters make is sitting down instead of standing. 

When you stand, you can utilize the full range of your deep breathing, therefore increasing your vocal power . You’ll be able to project your voice louder and deeper, and have stronger vocal variance when you stand. Standing also helps you naturally convey a more powerful posture if your chest is up and your back is straight.

If you can, try to utilize a standing desk to your advantage! If you don’t have a standing desk, you can use your kitchen counter or another higher position to place your laptop. If you absolutely must sit, remember to keep your back straight throughout the presentation.

Does your online presentation contain a juicy tip, great piece of advice, or free goodie?

Consider giving it out in the first 5 minutes of your presentation rather than keeping it until the end. This will give your audience a little dopamine boost of motivation to continue listening to your presentation!

“Simply put, people are obliged to give back to others the form of a behavior, gift, or service that they have received first.“ – Robert Cialdini, author of Influence

Leverage Visuals to Your Advantage

Have you ever wondered what is the best way to use visuals in your online presentation? Visual aids are used to:

• engage the audience
• allow the audience to remember the information
• axplain complex ideas in easier-to-digest ways
• add variety to your slides

I try to use visuals in ALL of my online presentations! The thing is, it’s really hard to keep your audience engaged and distraction free, especially if they are online. So if you’re boring your audience by using long lists of words… your message won’t be getting across. According to John Medina, author of Brain Rules :

• If we only read text, we are only likely to remember 10% of the information 3 days later.
• If we add in a relevant image, we are likely to remember 65% of the information 3 days later!

So there’s no easier way to have your information remembered than to add visuals! Here are some examples of visuals you can use in your presentations:

• stock photos
• Youtube videos
• hand-drawn pictures

In my articles, I like to use hand-drawn stick figure comics. That’s because they’re both funny and engaging! They also help nail down important bits of information I want my readers to take away. 

For example, here’s a random fact that you may not have known:

Alligators don’t only eat meat; they eat fruit, too!

Interesting, right? Now here’s an image to really drive in that fact:

I know, it’s not the best picture ever (I blame my lack of art skills!). But see how adding a simple image can really solidify a piece of information? You’ll remember this fact a lot longer by seeing an image rather than just by reading or hearing it. 

Now take the power of visuals and use it to your advantage—if you’re giving a business presentation online, sprinkling in a few key visuals throughout your presentation can help you drive in those really important points. 

If you’re debating whether you should use a visual, here’s a quick checklist to ask yourself:

• Does my visual help the main point of the slide?
• Is my visual appropriate for the audience?
• Is my visual too distracting?
• Does my visual help the audience understand complex information better?
• If a video, is it too long or short?

If your visual doesn’t meet one of the above checklist items, it’s best to cut it. And here’s something important you can write down for each visual you add into your slide:

The purpose for this visual is to ___.

If the purpose is not clear enough, consider removing the visual. Remember: visuals should only ADD value to your slide, not take it away.                                                                           

Add Interaction

A major downside to online presentations is that it’s hard to engage your audience. Besides nicely-placed visuals, you can add an element of interaction to your virtual presentations to make your audience more interested. Here are some interactive presentation ideas:

A great way to increase audience engagement is to use physical props. 

How do you use props in an online presentation? Props should be used to explain a difficult concept, demonstrate a product, create humor, or be memorable. They should always support your presentation, and not distract from it. And the key to using online props is to first make sure that people can actually SEE your prop.

This means if you are in a video call, avoid using small objects that everyone can’t see. If you need to, you can momentarily stop screen sharing and turn to your live video feed so the audience can focus on your prop. 

Pro tip: Don’t show the prop until it is needed. A bad move is to give away the goods and immediately take them away, causing your audience to remain in suspense and be distracted throughout your presentation!

Host Quizzes and Polls

One cool thing you could do during your presentation is to include your audience’s opinions using surveys. If I’m giving a presentation, I can insert a little quiz with a list of possible answers which my audience can then vote on. It’s really interesting to see how many people pick the right (or wrong) answer!

If you want to know how to create awesome quizzes for your presentation, check out our software section below.

Live Q&A’s

One technique I love to use for better interaction is to simply ask questions!

For example, if you have an existing product you are discussing, you might want to ask your team, “What are some common customer complaints about this item?” Your team will then give their answers, pitching ideas of some common customer complaints.

Here’s where it gets good…

You can then go to the next slide that addresses these problems individually. Bam! You’ve done two things: 

• You added interaction, and 
• You provided a nice transition to the next slide. 

Niiiice, a two-for-one combo!                

Cut the Presentation Bologna

What happens when you talk about the same things over and over again in a presentation? One bored audience, that’s for sure. And a whole lotta bologna on the side.

Repeating the same stuff. Facts that don’t need to be there. Extra words that make your eyes tired or are difficult to read.

I call this stuff Presentation Bologna. And it’s NOT the good kind of bologna (is there even a good kind?). Presentation Bologna includes:

• bullet points not relevant to the slide’s topic
• statistics or facts that reinforce already-existing data
• visuals that take up space rather than contribute value
• “fluff” words, or extra words that can be cut from a sentence without changing the original sentence’s meaning

Your goal is to make your presentation slides as small as possible, while retaining the most essential information possible. You can even write down notes on notecards to help assist you in explaining the points you have in your presentation or memorize what you will say altogether.

Online presentations should be simple and straightforward, like live presentations. The biggest difference here is that your audience will likely be straining their eyes, trying to look at their (potentially tiny) computer screens while you are giving a presentation.

That’s why it’s essential to cut the bologna. I usually do this step after creating the bulk of my presentation, but before practicing my presentation. Speaking of practicing, let’s move on to the next step…

#Screen Record Yourself         

The great thing about giving online presentations is that you can practice everything in the comfort of your own home. You can practice in the same room you’ll present in, with the same lighting, with the same computer setup, and everything. When practicing, make use of the screen recording feature! Screen record is an absolute must, especially for virtual teams . Most newer Mac and Windows computers have a built-in screen record feature already. 

When going over your video recordings, take careful consideration of the following:

• Do I use too many/not enough hand gestures?
• Is my body language unnatural or distracting?
• Do I sound loud and confident enough?
• Do I have any technical issues?
• Am I under the time limit or going over?

You can even send your presentation over to a friend or family member for them to review at their convenience. Yay for technology!                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

Pick Your Presentation Tools

When giving an online presentation, you have to have the right tools for the job. There are a lot of presentation tools out there—tools exist for: 

• making your own animations
• creating Infographics
• planning conferences
• creating mind maps
• finding great images for your slides
• making your entire presentation

Depending on your needs, you’ll need to choose the right tools for your virtual presentation. I recommend choosing one tool to create your presentation and adding in visual tools along the way, based on your needs. Here are 5 of my favorite online presentation tools I use:

Pixabay is by far my most favorite image-finding tool. This site has over 1.7 million free, high-quality stock images and videos you can use to insert into your virtual presentation. Using a stock image is a great way to break up text, add a little emotion, and make your presentations a little more exciting.

When I use Canva, I feel like I’ve been given a magic design wand. That’s because there are a ton of free infographics, logos, pictures, posters, and even presentation templates you can use and customize to your heart’s content. And they’re surprisingly high quality for being free! Canva  even has a section for Zoom Virtual Backgrounds that you can add to your video call when giving your online presentation!

Did I mention it’s free? I use the Premium version, although the Free version is great, too!

• Poll Everywhere

Here’s one that I mentioned earlier in the article. This is a great software I use to create live polls and quizzes for my virtual presentations! Whether it’s a multiple choice quiz, true/false test, or just a general Q&A poll, users can participate on their computers, phones, or tablets! It’s super easy to use and integrates easily with Keynote as well. 

Want to eliminate distracting noises completely? Sometimes that’s not possible. But the closest thing I have found to help is Krisp. Krisp is a software that’s free to use (up to 120 minutes a week!) and works by blocking out all background noises so only your voice can be heard by other conference call members. You can download and install it, but I use the Chrome extension! It’s seriously worth giving a shot if you’ve got loud noise in the house.

Here’s the golden question: Should I make a Keynote online presentation, or a Microsoft PowerPoint one? Since I have a Mac, I use Keynote. It’s intuitive, easy-to-use, and it’s built into all Mac computers already. Keynote has a ton of presentation templates you can use, and you can even create tables and charts in the app itself! For me, Keynote is a must for my presentation-creating needs.

I compiled a list of the best tools my team uses. You can check them out here:

15 Best Remote Tools

Embrace The Fear

Have you ever been skydiving? Even if you haven’t, you can just imagine that pit-in-the-stomach feeling of jumping out of an airplane. And if you shy or a natural introvert , giving presentations is not so different than skydiving.

After giving hundreds of presentations—both in-person and online—my best piece of advice to those with presentation anxiety is to give up on trying to get rid of that fear. That’s because that fear will probably never go away . 

But here’s the silver lining: the fear does get better. The more you give presentations and get comfortable speaking in front of people, the less giving presentations suck . If you hate giving presentations like I once did, you might even turn to love them—once you learn how to walk with confidence and have the power to influence the way people think, you feel like you’re on top of the world! 

And that pit-in-the-stomach feeling? It changes to a good fear—the kind that makes you look forward to giving presentations! And the more presentations you give, the better you get.

Life is better when you build your social skills. As a recovering awkward person, I was terrible at socializing—I would often lock myself in the bathroom at parties just to avoid conversation! But now, I want to inspire people to take charge of social situations because I know that social skills are the key to a happier, more productive life. That’s why I gave all my secrets about how to be ridiculously likable in Chapter 5 of my book. Interested? Here’s a free gift for you today– click here for the free first chapter of Captivate !

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Bonus: Other Creative Presentation Tips

Congratulations, you have arrived at your destination!

As a thank you for taking this Science of People flight with me, I’d like to share with you some bonuses to take your presentation skills to the next level. 

Here are some techniques you may want to master:

All too often we end up using the same old social scripts and asking people the same questions over and over again. If you want to do a team icebreaker before, during, or after your presentation, use my list of conversation starters:

57 Killer Conversation Starters

People who don’t feel confident often believe that confidence is something we are born with. It’s not . Confidence is a skill that can be developed. If you are nervous about your presentation, try boosting your confidence with these scientific techniques:

11 Scientific Strategies For More Confidence

Not everyone can work from home. But if you find a way to do it properly, you can reap some pretty amazing benefits. Check out the 7 Deadly Problems of working at home and how to combat them:

How to Work from Home Successfully in 7 Steps

Finally, I put together a guide on how to manage remote teams. If you’re leading a team of remote workers, this is one guide you shouldn’t miss! Check it out here:

12 Reliable Tips to Manage Remote Employees

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24 thoughts on “12 tips to give an amazing online presentation”.

I’ve never seen such a detailed guide anywhere else! Excellent! In recent months, probably almost everyone who works or studies remotely had to make online presentations. I like that you emphasized humor and the different visualization techniques that can be used to diversify the monotony of the narrative. I also find some of the platforms that you mentioned very useful. Thank you! I am preparing for a big and important presentation and hope to perform at my best!

Thank you so much Vanessa!

Love your article. So much to learn from! I’m preparing a presentation in few months and you gave all I needed.

Thank a lot Vannesa. You provide me excellent information.

Fantastic resource! I couldn’t ask for more.

I usually give some advice to my engineering students for doing good presentations. This is a powerful resource. Thanks for sharing the tips.

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11 Ways to Design Better Slides for Virtual Presentations

Creating clean and aesthetically pleasing slides should be your mantra when designing for any presentation. But the slides that work for in-person presentations don’t always work best in the virtual world.

With more presentations going remote and online , it’s important to consider how your presentation slides might be seen on a laptop or desktop screen, as well as a mobile device. Something that might seem fairly uncluttered for a large projection screen or even a laptop may not read as well on a screen that may only measures 5 inches high and wide (or less).

And it is not an unimportant consideration. Over the past decade, Americans who say they own a smartphone has increased to 81 percent from 35 percent. Further, nearly 40 percent of U.S. adults use a smartphone to access the internet – up by nearly double just six years ago. Today, one-in-five American adults say they own a smartphone but do not have traditional home broadband service, according to Pew Research Center .

When designing for smaller screens, such as those on phones and tablets, it’s best to be guided by scale and readability. Here are 11 tips to make your virtual presentation slides stand out:

11 Ways to Better Virtual Presentation Slide Design

1. increase the slide count.

Multiple photos and lines of text might work well enough on a slide that is being seen in a conference room, or even a large desktop monitor. When viewed on a smartphone, not so much.

It’s always been a good rule of thumb to stick to one point or idea per slide. When scaling for a smaller screen, that design concept is even more imperative. You may need to stretch an idea over multiple presentation slides to ensure you are not forcing your audience to struggle to read the fine print or make out your image.

Here’s an example:

Here’s how it looks on a mobile:

Here’s are the revised slides for smaller-screen viewing:

2. Vary the visuals

Simply increasing your slide count is just part of the story. Your slides also need to be distinct and interesting. As a vocal monotone might put your audience to sleep, a visual monotone of similarly designed slides will have the same effect. Your slides provide the visual interest that helps to break the pattern so you can regain and retain audience attention – which is even more imperative during a virtual presentation when you are competing against multiple multitasking distractions. Try for a mix of slides – vary text, images, illustrations, quotes, and easy-to-read graphs and charts.

3. Pick the right font

Readability, particularly on smaller screens, is made easier by the font you choose. Try to avoid fussy or decorative fonts whether using PowerPoint or another slide presentation software. (On older mobile devices, the fonts may not show up as you intended – and default to less ornate font styles.) Serif and sans serif tend to work better across a range of resolutions and screen sizes. Even within those broad categories, some fonts look good on a large screen but fail to scale properly for a mobile device (which is why it is always good to test your presentation on multiple devices). For instance, if the lettering is too delicate, it may be harder to read on a small screen. The Purdue University Online Writing Lab (OWL) has some good examples of serif and sans serif fonts.

Also, keep to only one or two fonts to avoid a typographical fun house with too many designs and shapes. You don’t want your audience to become distracted by the design and fail to remember your main points and key concepts.

4. Go big on text size

For in-person presentations, it’s suggested to keep the font size large enough so that a person in the back of the room doesn’t struggle to see. For a virtual presentation slide, you may get away with a somewhat smaller font for a laptop or desktop monitor, but don’t go too small for mobile.

Keep titles to a minimum of 36 (see examples below). The size of your text – along with graphic emphasis, such as bold letters – can help your audience to better understand the information that is the most and least important. Titles convey overarching ideas, while the body text provides the details – the text size should be adjusted accordingly.

Test out your virtual presentation slides on the smallest possible screen to see if you need to bump it up. Also, check the titles on a smaller device before you go “live” to make sure the screen doesn’t compress the width, forcing words onto the next line and causing an overlap.

5. Let your words breathe

Avoid running large blocks of text across the slide, which are harder to read (in-person and in the virtual world), and make sure there is enough white space between your lines of text. In typographical design, they call that leading. You also want to avoid going to the edges of the slides, since display settings may differ among mobile devices. Finally, strive to be concise. If you say more with less, you will inevitably increase the white space.

6. Line it up

Try to avoid mixing multiple text alignments. Left-aligned text for titles, subheads, and labels tends to look cleaner. Also, if your presentation is seen on multiple screen sizes, centered text might not appear as you intended, possibly appearing off-center.

7. Assess your need for charts and graphs

Smaller screens are not likely to be a great canvas for charts or tables with copious amounts of data. (Few screens – small or otherwise – benefit from a chart with data that is not immediately clear to comprehend.) If you decide to include charts and graphs, consider whether you can winnow down the information to a cleaner graphic. You can always send more data-dense handouts to your presentation audience through email – or offer a link where they can get the background material.

Here’s an example of a slide for an in-person presentation:

Here’s how it looks on a small mobile device:

Here’s how you can adapt it for a small mobile device. Text size has been bumped up and some other changes make it easier to read:

8. Avoid a Rainbow

Color is an effective tool to highlight and emphasize your most important points or key concepts. If your color palette is consistent, it helps your audience to quickly assess data across your slides. For instance, you can make all your titles one color and your body text another. Or, you can highlight key words or points with a consistent color throughout your slides. If you decide to incorporate some simple bar charts, you do not need to include a legend for each if the colors of the categories remain the same (i.e., deep purple equals sales from 2020 and orange is projected sales for 2021).

9. Employ contrast in your design

You also can effectively use color contrast to make data pop off the screen or signal a shift to a new topic or point (as can be seen in the example below). Just remember that some pairings are hard on the eyes. For instance, green on red would be a struggle for someone who is color blind. There are several online resources to help you avoid that pitfall, including Adobe Color , Vischeck,  and Check My Colours.

Some additional tips:

• Make sure there is enough of a contrast between colors. Color settings or resolution on another device might be different from yours or more easily wash out. So, make sure there is enough of a distinct difference, rather than subtle variations.
• Test your slides in a well-lit and dimly lit room to determine if the lighting might require you to tinker with the design.

10. Incorporate effective images

Given the social photo sharing app Instagram has more than 1 billion monthly active users, it’s clear we like our pictures. So, find some images, such as photos or illustrations, that can reinforce your points, whether literally or more conceptually. Finding an effective image for your PowerPoint presentation takes time, but a compelling image (such as the one below) can do more to reinforce your key point than words can do alone.

11. Keep it simple

Depending on the internet connection, animations, transitions, and videos could cause problems. This particularly becomes a challenge if someone is accessing your presentation on a mobile device and using a network with unreliable or spotty connections. This could cause a case of digital hiccups that will be as annoying as their natural counterparts.

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Best practices for virtual presentations: 15 expert tips that work for everyone.

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In today’s COVID-19 world, virtual meetings and presentations have become the norm. While many presentation skills and best practices apply to both in-person and virtual presentations, expert virtual presenters understand the importance of adjusting their approach to match the medium. With in-person presentations, you more or less have a captive audience — you still need be engaging, but your audience is kind of stuck with you for the duration. But with virtual presentations, your audience has a greater opportunity to stray. You now have to compete for their eyes, ears, hearts, and minds against diminished attention spans, increased home and work life distractions, and conflicting priorities. 

Here are 15 expert tips to set you up for success in your next virtual presentation:

1.     Get the Lighting Right:  As a presenter, it is essential that people can see you well. Make sure you have good front light—meaning the light shines brightly on your face. If your back is to a window, close the shades. While natural light is often the best choice, if your home office doesn’t have natural light and you do a lot of virtual presentations, consider purchasing supplemental lighting to enhance your image.

2.     Choose the Right Background:  Try to use a background that enhances your professional image and is aligned with your message. Avoid a cluttered background or anything that can be distracting. Learn whether your presentation platform enables you to use virtual backgrounds (like Zoom) or whether you can blur your background (like Microsoft Teams). Your background can either add to your professional presence or detract from it.

3.     Know the Technology:  Nothing kills a presentation faster than a presenter who fumbles with the technology. This is a performance, so make sure you know how to make it work. A dry run is essential so that you’re comfortable with the platform features. It’s best to have a co-host (or producer or moderator) assist you with the technology so that you can focus on your presentation. Make sure you practice with the same technical set up (computer and internet connection) that you will use when you deliver the presentation.

4.     Play to the Camera:  When you are the one speaking, look directly into your computer’s camera , not on the screen or at the other participants. This takes some practice, but it makes the viewer feel as if you are looking right at them. Some presenters turn off their self-view so that they aren’t distracted by their own image. Put the camera at eye level . Try not to have your camera too far above or below you. If it’s too low, then you run the risk of creating a double chin. A camera too high makes it difficult to maintain eye contact, as you may find your gaze dropping as you speak. If you are part of a panel or a team of presenters, make sure you are aware of when your camera is on. If you are not speaking but your camera is on, make sure you look like you are paying attention! Powerful presenters understand the importance of making eye contact with their audience, so this means you have to simulate the same effect virtually.

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5.     Get Close (But Not Too Close).  You want the camera to frame your face, neck, and shoulders. People are drawn to faces, so you don’t want to lose that connection by being too far away, but you also don’t want your face to take over the whole screen like a dismembered head because, well, that looks weird. Practice your positioning and distance.

6.     Stand Up:  If possible, use a standing desk or position your laptop so you can stand at eye level with your computer. Standing up provides a higher energy level and forces us to put our body in a more presentation-like mode. If you have to sit, lean forward as you would if you were presenting at a real meeting or as if you were a TV news anchor. Avoid slouching away from the camera, as that sends a signal that you are disconnected from the audience.

7.     Be Animated:  Just like in a live presentation, you want to present with a little energy and animation. Too slow or too monotone in your voice makes it easy for folks to disengage and tune out. Keeping people engaged virtually requires you to actually be engaging.

8.     Pace Yourself:  Without real-time visual audience feedback cues, getting the pacing right can be difficult. Even though you want to infuse some animation and energy into your presentation don’t pump up the speed too much. If you tend to be a fast talker in real life, practice slowing down just a bit. If you’re a slow talker, you may want to speed up just a bit.

9.     Do A Sound Check:  If your sound is garbled, people will tune out. While people may forgive less than perfect video, if they can’t clearly hear you, they will leave. Practice with someone on the other end of the presentation platform. Make sure your sound emits clearly. Sometimes headphones or external microphones work better than the computer audio, sometimes not. Every platform is different, so make sure your sound quality is excellent every time. And again, you should practice with the same technical configurations and location that you will use for your presentation.

10.  Plug into Your Modem:  If possible, plug your computer directly into your modem using an Ethernet cable. This will give you the strongest signal and most stable internet connection. The last thing you want to happen during your presentation is to have a weak or unstable internet signal.

11.  Incorporate Redundant Systems.  If using slides, make sure someone else (another webinar co-host or producer) also has a copy of the slides just in case your internet goes wonky and you have to present by calling in. If you are using slides, make them visually appealing. Use high-quality graphics and limit the amount of text on each slide. It’s your job as presenter to deliver the content. The slides are meant to enhance your spoken words, not replace them.

12.  Engage Your Participants. Just as if you were doing an in-person presentation, craft your presentation to engage the audience. Incorporate chats, polls, raised hand features, etc. Try not to speak for more than ten minutes without some sort of audience engagement. Use the participant list to interact with your participants by name. Have people chat or raise a hand if they want to speak. Keep track of the order of people and then call on them to invite them to turn on their mics or cameras. 

13.  Let Someone Else Check the Chats.  Don’t get sidetracked by the chats during your presentation. You’ll be shocked at how distracting it is to your train of thought if you attempt to read the chats while speaking. Instead, have your co-host or producer monitor the chats. If you ask people to chat you answers or comments to a question you’ve posed, then pause your talking and engage directly with the chats by acknowledging them, reading them out loud, and commenting on them. 

14.  Evaluate and Enhance:  If possible, record the session and take the time to play back and look for areas that worked well and areas that you might want to improve upon. Great presenters, whether virtual or in person, understand the value of continually honing their craft. Be sure to acknowledge your strengths as well as your areas of improvement.

15.  Be Yourself and Have Fun:  Again, just like in face-to-face presentations, audiences connect to authenticity, so be yourself! Let your personality show through. Have fun. If you look like you’re enjoying the presentation so will others. Research shows that happy people retain information better than bored or disinterested people, so model the energy that you want to create. The audience takes its cue from you.

Remember, whether you are presenting in-person or virtually, all presentations are performances. And all performances are in service to your audience. Their time is valuable, so honor that time by delivering the best presentation you can. No matter what kind of presentation you are giving, you must find ways to create authentic audience connection, engagement, and value.

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Interactive slides contain clickable hotspots, links, buttons, and animations that are activated at the touch of a button. Instead of reading or watching passively, your audience can actively interact with the content.  

Genially’s interaction presentation software allows you to combine text, photos, video clips, audio and other content in one deck. It’s a great way to condense more information into fewer slides. 

If you’re a teacher, you can share multiple materials in one single learning resource. Students can create their own projects using digital media and online maps. For business or training, try embedding spreadsheet data, PDFs, and online content directly in your slides. 

An interactive slide deck is more user-friendly than a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation or Google Slides document. That’s because you can break information down into chunks with pop-ups, labels, voiceovers and annotated infographics.  

The other benefit of interactive content is increased engagement. It’s easier to keep your audience’s attention when they’re actively participating. Try Genially’s presentation software and free slideshow maker to see how it’s better than other presentation websites. You won’t go back to standard presentation apps!

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• Present asynchronously on your own time, at your own pace. Let your colleagues watch it at their convenience.

More Great Features of the Presentation Maker

• Stunning presentation themes and premade templates
• Millions of stock photos and icons to choose from
• Input your brand fonts and colors to create branded company content
• Easy drag-and-drop design tools, made with the non-designer in mind
• Search for slide layouts that match your presentation content
• Easily present online or share with your peers

Share Your Presentation

Visme makes it easy to create and share presentations online. Our presentation software allows you to present online by generating a link to access your presentation, share privately by sending a password protected link to friends and colleagues, or even turn your presentation into a lead generation tool by requiring email sign-in before viewing.

LEARN ABOUT PRESENTATIONS

What is a Presentation ?

A presentation is a sequence of slides that tell a story or teach an audience about a topic. These are often used in business as ways of demonstrating something and in the classroom as teaching aids. While PowerPoint long dominated the presentation industry, Visme’s free online presentation maker allows you to create even more beautiful and engaging content.

With Visme's engaging presentation maker, you can start with a template, dive into one of our themes with various slide ideas, or mix and match slides from different templates to create your own masterpiece.

Use the presentation maker to take the trouble out of presentation design.

Creating a slide deck for an important presentation can take several hours, if not days. Our free presentation maker provides a searchable slide library with 900+ layouts that you can fully customize. With so many options, you can easily find the exact slides that you need instead of searching for the right template or building a slide design from scratch.

EVERYTHING YOU NEED + MORE

More Than a Presentation Maker

Visme’s online presentation tools allow you to create an interactive online presentation that will blow your audience away. Add interactive elements, animate your slides and create a presentation that will have your viewers talking for days to come.

MAKE IT ENGAGING

Interactivity

Create interactive presentations with popup and rollover effects that allow your viewer to interact with your design to learn more information.

VISUALIZE YOUR DATA

Charts & Graphs

Share data, statistics, simple numbers and more in your presentation slides with Visme’s easy-to-use charts, graphs and other data widgets.

BEAUTIFY YOUR CONTENT

Stock Photos & Graphics

Choose from over a million stock photos, icons, illustrations, characters, lines, shapes and more to create an engaging presentation design.

HOW IT WORKS

Make Presentations in 5 Steps

Whether you’re creating a presentation to pitch your business, to inform your industry or to update your team or supervisors, you want your slideshow to be equal parts beautiful and informative. Visme makes it easy with our powerful presentation maker.

Mix and match template styles and slide ideas, customize with your own ideas, insert design elements from our asset library, present online with presenter notes and more.

• Sign up for free or log into your Visme account and create a new project.
• Choose one of our beautiful themes under the Presentations content category or select a pre-designed presentation template.
• Add new slides from our theme library to help guide your presentation design.
• Customize text boxes, fonts, colors, photos, icons, charts, data visualization tools and so much more within your slides.
• Quickly and easily share or present your slideshow by clicking Share in the top navigation bar and viewing our share options.

How to Use the Presentation Maker

Before creating your slide deck, make sure to create an outline with all the major points that you need to include within your presentation.

Start creating your slides. You can easily use our free presentation slides and templates to help you create a well-designed and informative presentation.

Easily replace any image with millions of free images within our editor, as well as diagrams, charts, icons, illustrations and maps.

Insert your own text by clicking on any text box and typing in your own information (or you can simply copy and paste it from your outline).

Our free presentation maker online also comes with built-in animation effects. Add transitions, audio, pop-ups, rollovers and interactive buttons to wow your audience.

Use the Presenter View to rehearse your delivery. Use the timer to make sure you don’t go over the allotted time. You can easily add presenter notes that only you will see while you present.

Generate a public or private URL to share with anyone or embed your slide deck on your website or blog by clicking the Share button in the Visme editor.

Download as an editable PowerPoint or in HTML5 to keep all of your animations and interactivity intact for offline presenting.

Who can benefit by using our presentation maker?

Business professionals.

• Create ready-to-use presentations instantly for important meetings or pitches
• Save time from designing and let AI do the work for you
• Customize templates to match your brand or industry
• Create interactive slides that keep your students engaged through sessions
• Break down complex topics with informative and fun presentations
• Design educational presentations in minutes, not hours

Sales Teams

• Create a library of customizable templates for team members to use
• Design slides that professionally showcase your products and services
• Customize presentations to suit different prospects and sales use cases

Consultants

• Generate presentations that will impress VCs and investors
• Use data-driven design to get the best presentation design options
• Create presentations that are built with your brand and mission in mind

Event Planners

• Design presentations to outline event schedules, details and budgets
• Generate easy-to-follow slides so teams are informed on event details or changes
• Prepare persuasive sponsorship decks without any design skills
• Save time and quickly craft client and prospect presentations
• Add strategies and recommendations with minimal design effort
• Customize each presentation to your client's branding

Questions About the Presentation Maker

How can i create an account with visme, how much does it cost to create a presentation with the presentation maker app, can i create animated projects, is it possible to make interactive projects with the presentation maker, how do i present my slide deck, how can i create a slide deck in a few minutes, what our users say about us.

“After trying tools like Canva and Adobe Spark, we picked Visme. Nothing else matched the flexibility, capabilities or ease of use.”

“Visme is cost efficient and helps in saving time. As a small organization, we have limited resources, and Visme has been a good solution for that.”

Your presentations deserve to be beautiful and so does the rest of your content

Sign Up Free

5 Essential Instructional Design Tips to Create Better Online Training

Boost e-learning course quality and outcomes with these simple strategies from instructional design experts.

What is instructional design?

If you’ve ever looked for ways to create better online training, you’ve likely come across the term instructional design. Below, we’ll demystify its meaning and, hopefully, make instructional design a little less intimidating. 

Instructional design (ID) is the art and science of making learning easier and more effective. It involves studying how to deliver information to your audience in a way that’s interesting and increases retention. If you’ve ever taught someone something new, then you’ve already engaged in a simple form of instructional design.

Different ID approaches exist, but you don’t need to be an expert to use them to build better online training. This post covers five essential instructional design tips to help you create top-quality online courses that deliver workplace training results.

Key Takeaways

• Instructional design (ID) is the art of creating effective learning experiences or materials.
• The field emerged from research studies on how adults learn and retain new information.
• Anyone can apply basic instructional design principles to improve their online training outcomes, regardless of experience or skill level.

What are instructional design best practices for online learning?

1. know your target audience’s training needs.

Great training starts with understanding your target audience and catering to their learning styles and training needs. You can think about the importance of this step through a catering analogy. Just as a skilled caterer tailors the menu to suit the event and guests, effective trainers customize the learning experience for their work environment and employees. Neglecting to do so can lead to irrelevant and ineffective training.  

Get to know your audience for workplace training by researching:

• Who will take this training? Analyze their demographics, backgrounds, current knowledge or skills, and training use cases.
• What are their job performance expectations and goals?
• Where are their knowledge or skill gaps? What’s causing those gaps?
• Do they have any specific learning needs? Consider time constraints, disabilities, language requirements, and technology or skill prerequisites.

2. Determine your learning objectives 

Next, establish learning objectives to clarify the training scope and separate the nice-to-know from need-to-know information. Having clear learning outcomes gives your course direction and prevents information overload. These course benchmarks answer the question:

What should employees know or be able to do after completing this training? 

For better results, make desired learning outcomes actionable and specific. For instance, a sales course about upselling and cross-selling might include learning objectives like: “identify relevant upselling vs. cross-selling opportunities” and “pitch suggestions effectively.” 

3. Follow a logical course structure

Training structure, or how you organize and sequence information, is also crucial. A well-structured course and lessons are clear and easy to follow, while poorly organized content can confuse learners. 

So, how can you improve your course structure? Start by arranging training materials in a logical order. Build foundational knowledge before progressing to advanced concepts, and avoid skipping steps or leaving gaps in understanding. Also, remember to add transitions to explain relationships between ideas and ensure training flows seamlessly from one section to the next.

4. Present information in an engaging way

Now that you’ve identified an audience and what you’ll teach them, focus on how to make your training program engaging. Here are a few ways to do that in an online environment: 

• Add media elements. Capture employees’ attention with striking images, lively animations, and compelling audio or video.
• Make content interactive. Interactive elements invite learners to engage with instructional materials in some way. For example, you could include click-to-reveal content, drag-and-drop activities, games, or immersive decision-making scenarios.

Consider this customer service training example: Instead of using a written conversation description with an upset customer , you might immerse learners in a realistic role-play scenario with authentic audio clips. Not only is a role-play scenario more compelling, but it’s also sure to make de-escalation tactics more meaningful.

5. Incorporate knowledge checks or practice scenarios

Finally, don’t forget to let your audience practice what they’ve learned. People learn from their mistakes, and online training offers a no-risk growth environment. 

There are several different techniques to test your learners’ understanding. For example, you might include multiple-choice questions, fill-in-the-blank responses, or even an interactive practice activity—such as the role-playing scenario we mentioned in the previous section. Quizzes also help you measure employees’ progress as they pick up new skills.

Master instructional designer basics 

Instructional design is a broad field, but even mastering the basics can take your training program to the next level. Before you dive into creating online courses, ensure you know the audience and understand their training needs. Then, organize the essential information in a clear, logical structure. Finally, add dynamic interactive elements and meaningful knowledge checks to boost learner engagement. With these tips in your toolkit, you’ll be well on your way to creating more compelling and effective online training.

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