If the thought of giving a presentation is daunting you because you are afraid that you might not be able to make yourself heard, then just read on and discover a few very useful tips for designing and delivering presentations like a pro. Everyone has to give an important presentation at one point in their lives, so it’s best to be prepared to overcome that challenge. Here are a few very useful tips for designing and delivering presentations that you should keep in mind to catch your audience’s attention:
In my opinion, this is one of the most useful tips for designing and delivering presentations. I couldn’t agree more with what Harrison Monarth said on this matter: “Life happens in the narratives we tell one another," so try to use stories in your slides, because "Data can persuade people, but it doesn’t inspire them to act; to do that, you need to wrap your vision in a story that fires the imagination and stirs the soul.”
To keep your audience interested, you should create a simple design template. Make sure you use appropriate font and size and try to establish consistent contrasting colors for the text and for the background. Poorly designed slides can distract people and they might not understand the message you’re trying to convey.
When you’re designing your presentation, make sure that you keep your slides as simple as possible. Too much information may distract the audience, they might get bored and they might not pay attention to what you have to say. In some slides, you can even use a very suggestive image or a very clear graph and that will do.
To deliver your presentation like a pro, make sure you explain your graphs well. Try not to add too many graphs on one slide, so you won’t overwhelm your audience. Make the labels for the charts and for the graphs understandable and you’ll keep your audience focused on the content of your presentation.
To keep your audience interested, make sure you use good quality images that would reinforce and complement your message. Don’t use too many images because this will only clutter your slides. Also, make sure you test your images in order to see if they retain their quality when projected to a large screen.
If you want to design your presentations like a pro, make sure you don’t use too many special effects, because they might distract your audience from the message you are trying to convey. Also, they might reduce your level of professionalism, so you should use them to impact your presentation and not to distract your audience.
Take into consideration Matteo Cassese’s advice and “Provide your audience with a summary, a bird’s eye view of the material that you’ve covered." This way, you will reinforce the meaning of the things you've presented, you will help people make sense of your material and you will also help them remember the important parts of your presentation.
During your presentation, make sure you monitor your audience’s behavior and use the information you learn from that experience to improve your future presentations. Do you know any other useful tips for designing and delivering presentations? Please share your thoughts with us in the comments section!