A crappy presentation slide isn't necessarily an ugly slide.
It is a slide that makes the audience work unnecessarily hard to understand what the presenter is trying to communicate.
Too much information is one common cause. But a slide can also be difficult to follow because there is no obvious message, everything is given equal visual importance, or the information has simply been transferred from a document onto a presentation slide.
So before adding more design, animation or decoration, start with these five things.
1. Have a clear objective
Before you start designing your slides, be clear about what you want your presentation to achieve.
Without a clear objective, it is very easy to include information simply because you have it. Background information, research findings, supporting details and interesting facts gradually find their way into the presentation until the audience has to work out what is actually important.
Your objective gives you a filter.
For every piece of information, ask:
Does my audience need this to understand or act on what I am presenting?
If it doesn't contribute to the objective, perhaps it does not need to be included—or at least does not need the same prominence.
A clear objective helps you decide what belongs in the presentation before you start worrying about what the slides should look like.
2. Focus on the key message
Every slide should have a reason for being there.
Ask yourself:
What is the one thing I want my audience to understand from this slide?
Once you know the answer, design the slide around that message.
If you are presenting a chart, for example, don't simply show the chart and expect the audience to work out what is interesting about it. If the important finding is that sales recovered strongly in the final quarter, make that finding easy to see.
Supporting information can still be included, but it should support the main message rather than compete with it.
This creates a visual hierarchy. The audience sees what matters first and then the information that supports it.
3. Draw your ideas
Presentation slides are a visual medium.
Instead of automatically turning your thoughts into sentences and bullet points, ask whether some of those ideas can be shown rather than written.
Drawing your ideas does not mean you need to be an illustrator.
A process might become a sequence of simple shapes. Three alternatives might become three visual groups. A comparison could be shown with two objects placed side by side. A relationship between ideas might be easier to understand with arrows, lines or positioning.
Start by sketching the idea roughly on paper or arranging simple shapes on the slide.
Ask:
Can I show the relationship instead of describing it?
Thinking visually can often reveal a much simpler way to communicate something that originally required several sentences to explain.
4. Remove unnecessary content
Once the important message is clear, look at everything else on the slide.
Does each element help the audience understand that message?
Slides often accumulate unnecessary content: extra labels, repeated information, footnotes, decorative lines, shadows, colours, unrelated images and other details that compete for attention.
Removing them gives the important information more visual space.
But simplification does not mean removing information blindly. Some details provide necessary context and should remain.
A useful test is:
Does this element help the audience understand the message, or does it compete with it?
If it contributes nothing useful, remove it.
5. Keep it simple
After removing what isn't necessary, look at the slide as a whole.
Can the audience quickly understand how the information is organised and what they should look at first?
A simple slide does not have to be an empty slide. It can contain several pieces of information and still feel simple if the visual hierarchy and relationships are clear.
Use fewer competing colours. Group related information together. Give important elements enough space. Avoid adding visual effects unless they serve a communication purpose.
The objective is not minimalism for its own sake.
It is to make the slide easier for the audience to see, understand and follow while you are presenting.
Start with the communication
Better slides don't begin with choosing a template, adding graphics or making everything look more attractive.
They begin with deciding what you want to communicate.
Have a clear objective. Identify the key message. Think about how you can show the idea visually. Remove what isn't helping. Then keep the final communication as simple as you can.
Do those five things consistently and you will already have eliminated many of the problems that create crappy presentation slides.
