Creating Good Slides: Designing Presentations People Remember

Admin Loy · · upskilling
Creating Good Slides: Designing Presentations People Remember

Slide design principles that help audiences understand and remember: one idea per slide, sentence headlines, visuals, a deck structure and a pre-talk checklist.

Have you ever sat through a presentation where every slide is packed with text and the presenter reads it line by line? Five minutes in, people pick up their phones because reading is faster than listening. The problem is not the content but that the slides are doing the wrong job. A good slide is not the most beautiful one. It is the one that helps your audience understand what you are saying faster.

What makes a good slide?

Think of it this way: you are the presenter, the slide is your assistant. Slides are there to show what words alone cannot make clear, such as charts, images, sequences of steps, or a key line you want people to remember. If people can read your slides and not need to listen to you at all, the slides are stealing your role, or they should be sent as a document instead.

Five design principles

1. One slide, one idea

If you have ten points, ten clean slides beat three crowded ones. The number of slides does not make a talk long. Unclear content does.

2. Write headlines as sentences that state the conclusion

Instead of the headline "Q3 sales", write "Q3 sales grew mainly from online customers". Someone who reads only the headline gets the point immediately.

3. Keep text short and let your voice explain

Use keywords instead of long sentences. If a bullet wraps onto several lines, cut it or split the slide. Keep the detail in your speaker notes.

4. Use images and charts when they aid understanding

One good chart can replace a full page of tables. Match the chart to the message, such as lines for trends and bars for comparisons, and highlight in colour only the point you want people to look at. Images should relate to the content, not just fill space.

5. Make it readable from the back row

Use text large enough for the back of the room, strong contrast between text and background, no more than two fonts, and the same tidy alignment on every slide.

Example: before and after

Before: the headline "Performance", eight bullets, monthly sales figures and a small table in the right corner.

After: the headline "Sales grew steadily in the second half after we launched online", a single line chart highlighting the month the new channel opened, and one key number in large type. The presenter tells the rest, and the full table moves to the appendix.

A structure that works for almost any presentation

  1. Open: the title and why the audience should care.
  2. Overview: the three main points you will cover.
  3. Body: one point per slide, each following on from the last.
  4. Close: a short summary and what you want the audience to do next.

Tools that help

Common mistakes

The best slide is one your audience understands at a glance, then turns back to listen to you.

Where to start: a pre-presentation checklist

  1. Write the main message of the whole presentation in one sentence.
  2. Read only the headlines of every slide in order. If they tell a continuous story, the structure is good.
  3. Cut everything that does not support that slide's point.
  4. View it on a real screen or step back from your monitor and check it is readable.
  5. Rehearse with a timer at least once.

Once your slides are ready, practise your delivery too. Read Presenting with confidence, and if you are presenting to executives, see Communicating with executives, or browse more courses from our learning partners.