The University of Manchester Library
My Learning Essentials
Present like a pro:
Visual victory
CHEAT SHEET
@mlemanchester
Introduction
Once you’ve planned the content of your presentation, it’s time to get started designing your slides.
Ever heard of “Death by PowerPoint”? In this resource we’ll look at how to avoid it!
You’ll learn how about a number of different tools you can use to create your visual aids, what to
consider when selecting what to display on your slides, and some key design tips to help you to
design slides that won’t send your audience to sleep.
Deciding what to use - introduction
Microsoft PowerPoint is most people’s go-to tool when creating a presentation, but it’s not the only
option! In this section we’ll look at some of the key tools available, and examine some of their
strengths and weaknesses.
Comparing visual aids - PowerPoint
PowerPoint and other slide-based presentation tools have developed a bad name for themselves, but
can be extremely effective if used well.
Blaming PowerPoint for a bad presentation is like blaming Word for a bad essay.
Good for
Quickly generating a good-looking set of slides
Image-based presentations
Bad for
Non-linear presentations
Watch out for
Built-in templates, Smart Art or anything else you’ve seen in dozens of other presentation
Tips
Think of it as a blank canvass
Comparing visual aids - Prezi
Prezi is an online presentation tool which uses a zooming function and canvass to convey messages
rather than slides and bullet points.
Good for
Non-linear presentations and Illustrating processes and relationships
Bad for
Presentation can be viewed by anyone online unless you pay for membership.
Watch out for
Zooming. Don’t go overboard with it, or you’ll risk making your audience seasick.
Tips
If you’re using images in your Prezi, make sure they’re high-resolution; Prezi’s zoom feature can cause
lower quality images to pixelate.
Comparing visual aids - infograhics
Infographics are graphic representations of data. They can be an effective means of displaying
complex information in a simple and clear manner in your presentation.
Good for
Data-driven presentations
Bad for
Anything else
Watch out for
It can be very time consuming to create a good infographic.
Tips
Works well in conjunction with Prezi or PowerPoint to reveal focus on one area of the graphic at a time
Comparing visual aids – no visual aids
Not using visual aids can be very effective if you want your audience use their imagination e.g., if you
are telling them a story.
Good for
Confident speakers and Short presentations
Bad for
Presenting data or complex idea - in these circumstances it’s useful to use visual aids to help your
audience to understand your meaning.
Watch out for
Visuals can make explaining your examples easier. If you choose not to use them it is at the risk of
your audience not understanding some of your points.
Tips
Use cue cards with your key points on them if you’re concerned about forgetting what you want to
say.
Deciding what to use – further help
If you would like some further help with any of these presentation tools take a look at our
recommended links here:
http://padlet.com/MLEManchester/present-links
Selecting what to display - introduction
When you come to design what is displayed on screen, consider the presentation trinity.
What you know: your background knowledge and research into your presentation topic. This bubble
is the biggest; you should always have thoroughly researched your topic.
Even though all of the information won’t make it into your presentation, you’ll be fully prepared when
it comes to taking questions.
What you say: what you actually communicate during your
What you know
presentation. This smaller than what you know because you’ll only
communicate the information that is directly relevant to your specific
What you say
What you show
presentation topic, not everything you know about the area.
What you show: visual aids that you display to the audience during
your presentation. This is the smallest: visual overload is not fun for
your audience. Keep your slides clear by only highlighting one key
quote, image, statistic or diagram in each slide.
Selecting what to display – the purpose of your slides
Your slides are a visual aid for your audience; they are there to help to communicate
your meaning by assisting your audience in understanding it during your talk.
Each of your slides should focus on just one key message.
Your slides are not your script
Your slides are not your hand out
Selecting what to display – the purpose of your slides
Your slides are not your script
DON’T…
BECAUSE…
read from your slides
people read a lot faster than you can speak; if you are reading verbatim
from your slides, people will finish reading them before you finish speaking
INSTEAD…
use your slides as a prompt with key words
Selecting what to display – the purpose of your slides
Your slides are not your hand out
DON’T…
try to use your slides for two purposes.
BECAUSE…
trying to make your slides useful both within the session as a hand out will
end up with them being useful for neither purpose.
INSTEAD…
create a separate hand out that will be meaningful to your audience when
read outside of the session.
Selecting what to display – activity
Imagine you are giving a presentation on the impact that The Beach Boys had on American culture. In
your introduction, you want to give some background information to highlight how successful they
were.
This is your script for that part of your talk:
“The Beach Boys are an American rock band, formed in Hawthorne, California in 1961. The Beach Boys have
often been called "America's Band” by National Review in 2002. The group have had over eighty songs chart
worldwide, thirty-six of them United States Top 40 hits (the most by an American rock band), four of those
reaching number-one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The Beach Boys have sold in excess of 100 million
records worldwide and are listed at number 12 on Rolling Stone magazine's 2004 list of the "100 Greatest
Artists of All Time”.
Think about what might display; text, image, chart, infographic?
Design Basics: introduction
You don’t have to be a graphic designer to create a presentation that looks good.
Good presentation design should accent what you’re communicating; you don’t want to distract your
audience with too many visual stimuli. You want them paying attention to what you say, not trying to
many sense of your slides.
In this section we’ll look at some of the fundamentals of good presentation design.
Design Basics: presentation design
There are four key elements to designing a good set of slides.
Clarity
Fonts
Colours
Images
Design Basics: presentation design
Clarity
•
Keep it simple! Remember that your visual aids should support your message, not distract from it.
Focus on communicating just one key message per screen. Limit the use of animations to ensure
they have impact.
•
Keep text to a minimum; your audience can’t read lots of text and listen to you at the same time. If
you must have your audience read a key quotation or piece of text, stop talking and give them a
moment to do so before continuing.
•
Be intentional. The size and placement of slide elements create meaning as to their significance
and relationships; bear this in mind when designing your slides so that you don’t imply meaning
that doesn’t exist.
Design Basics: presentation design
Fonts
•
Pick a few good fonts and use them consistently throughout your presentation. Your presentation
should have no more than two fonts; any more than that looks messy and inconsistent.
•
Consider the context of your presentation when choosing your fonts. Fonts have personality;
ensure that the fonts you choose convey the appropriate tone for your audience and purpose.
•
Avoid common fonts such as Times New Roman and Arial, and steer clear of Comic Sans at all
costs.
Design Basics: presentation design
Colours
•
Choose a simple colour scheme and stick to it.
•
If in doubt, a black or white background with one other colour works well.
•
Consider the contrast of your colours; you need to ensure that the content on your slide is easily
legible. You can use a colour contrast checker if you’re not sure.
•
Your colour scheme might relate to the theme of your presentation.
Design Basics: presentation design
Images
•
Use high-quality images, particularly if you’re using Prezi as images can pixelate on zooming if
they’re not high enough resolution.
•
Avoid cliché images. As a general rule, if you’ve seen an image used in a presentation before, don’t
use it!
•
Use photographs rather than clip art. There are loads of websites you can use to find great images
that are free to use.
•
When resizing images, make sure you keep the original aspect ratio. As a general rule, only ever
use the corner handles when resizing images. This will preserve the aspect ratio and ensure that
you’re not standing in front of squashed or expanded images.
•
If your image doesn’t fit your slide, you can crop it. Most presentation tools have in-built cropping
features: use them!
Design Basics: slide design
When it comes to individual slides, there are a number of approaches you can take to
maximise their impact. Have a look at these examples:
Design Basics: slide design
Example 1
Design Basics: slide design
Example 2
Design Basics: slide design
Example 3
Design Basics: slide design
Example 4
Design Basics: slide design
Example 5
Design Basics: slide design
Example 6
Design Basics – critiquing slides
Have a look at these sample slides, and think about what you think is good and bad about each.
Design Basics – critiquing slides
Example 1
Design Basics – critiquing slides
Example 2
Design Basics – critiquing slides
Example 3
Putting it all together - activity
Now that we’ve looked at all of the key areas in designing your presentation, it’s time to put it all
together.
Why not practice creating a slide or two to represent the following information:
“The Beach Boys are an American rock band, formed in Hawthorne, California in 1961. The Beach Boys have
often been called "America's Band” by National Review in 2002. The group have had over eighty songs chart
worldwide, thirty-six of them United States Top 40 hits (the most by an American rock band), four of those
reaching number-one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The Beach Boys have sold in excess of 100 million
records worldwide and are listed at number 12 on Rolling Stone magazine's 2004 list of the "100 Greatest
Artists of All Time”.
Summary – next steps
To improve your design skills you need to practice and experiment. We have created a wall for you to
share your slides or alternatively just use it as a source for inspiration.
MLE presentation examples wall:
http://padlet.com/MLEManchester/pres-examples
Keep in touch!
Related resources
Present like a pro: Planning your way to success
Present like a pro: The art of delivery
Useful links
Counselling Service website
[email protected]
@mlemanchester