Blogs /  
Tips & Tricks

10 Rules for Designing Professional Presentation

Lisa Tatum
June 30, 2022

What makes a good professional presentation? A professional presentation consists of two parts: textual content and visual content.

Two aspects of the killer PowerPoint: textual and visuals

The textual content conveys your point, while the visual content images, animations, videos, etc. helps you communicate your point to the audience.

Visual effects are the first step to making ppt professional

The text itself is boring, but the visuals can help you subtly convey your point in PowerPoint. Remember, catching your audience's eye is the first step to a professional presentation.

Rule1. Less text, More Visual Effects

Delete the big paragraphs of text on your slides! A common mistake you make as a PowerPoint producer is to just copy your large text into the ppt. And you change the font or slide background at best, and then get an unattractive slide.

rule-one-less-text-more-visual-effects

Try to put your copy in different expressions, such as pictures, videos, GIFs, and other visual content. For example, if you want to create a business presentation on the performance of your marketing department this quarter, a data chart would be a smart choice!

If you want to create an online training presentation to introduce a certain methodological technique, then an instructional animation is the right visual choice.

No one can stay focused on a text-laden slide for long.

 

Rule2. Voice-over is necessary

Ever thought of voicing a slide show? Besides visual effects, auditory effects can also help your presentation look more professional!

If you have learned Tip1 then you must be asking, I still have a lot of content that I haven't expressed in the presentation, what should I do? Let the out-of-picture voice convey it for you!

rule-two-voiceover-necessary

A 500-word paragraph may take only 20 seconds if you convert it to voice expression! How does it work? It's so easy, you don't even have to record the audio yourself, let this tool do it for you!

You may be interested in the following article: How to add voice over to ppt online

 

Rule3. Insert Spokesperson

The PowerPoint animations are clichéd, it's too common, you have a more professional and easy-to-use option: adding a virtual 'real person' to present in the slides.

As Tip2 mentioned, you can add an extra voice to PowerPoint, so what if you had a virtual speaker in the slide to help you get your point across? That would be even more uplifting.

rule-three-insert-spokesperson

You just type in what you want the avatar to say, and he will say it in your presentation, matching the perfect diction and accent.

You may be interested in this article: How to create a spokesperson on the video

 

Rule4. Color matching

You need to confirm a primary color for the PowerPoint, and then choose the color that will be used for this presentation by the primary color.

How to determine the main color of the ppt? For example, if your presentation is about finance then dark blue is a good choice (dark blue will give the audience a subconscious cue to 'be trusted'), if your content is about food and beverage then orange or yellow is a good choice, this color will stimulate your appetite...

rule-four-color-matching-on-persentation

Once you have chosen your primary color, you can apply it to the title color or background color of each slide.

color-match-on-presentation

Of course, one color is not enough, here you should also choose some colors that match the primary color, I believe the following color matching table will help you.

Is it hard for you? Let the PowerPoint templates help!

powerpoint-templates

Rule5. Appropriate animation effect

Don't let the animations become too dazzling. Proper transitions and text appearances are necessary, but redundant animations can distract the presentation audience.

rule-five-appropriate-animation-effect

Simply add intro animations to important text or chart content, and time the intros to match your presentation's outro. For example, have the presenter talk about the data effects and then turn on the intro animation after the summary of the presentation.

 

Logic textual is the key in structuring a presentation

Rejects divergent thinking. Using coherent and logical relationships to tie together different content is a key to the killer presentation content. Following the idea of whole-to-part-to-whole is a universal formula for building the structure of presentation content.

 

Rule6. Stick to one theme

You should write a concise outline for your presentation and always remind yourself of what your content theme is centered around throughout your presentation.

rule-six-stick-to-one-theme-on-present

Remember, the topic is the focus. The content of all slides always revolves around the topic. If you are presenting personal work experience, there is no need to attach an analysis of industry trends, which may seem useful but is useless.

 

Rule7. The top-down process on the slides

The logical relationship between the top and the bottom is the basis for making content specialization smooth. This slide content relationship can be cause-and-effect.

rule-seven-top-down-process-on-slides

For example, if the first slide introduces a phenomenon, the second slide needs to introduce what causes the phenomenon.

There are other copywriting logic relationships for reference: comparative, sequential, juxtaposition, etc...

 

Rule8. Words should be concise

More generalizations and fewer statements. Don't write two sentences if you can distill the ideas into one.

rule-eight-words-should-be-concise

In a professional presentation, there is not much place for words, so you should pay extra attention to the distillation of textual content. Use short words to express core ideas.

 

Rule9. Quoting the classics

More quotes and less narrative. How can you convince people of your point of view? Quoting a famous person or a classic case can make your point more convincing.

rule-nine-quoting-classics

 

Rule10. Data aids opinion

Opinions are subjective, data is objective. Maybe you can't convince the audience through your PowerPoint, but if you corroborate your point of view through data graphics, you can make the audience coincide with you.

rule-ten-data-aids-option

 

Conclusion

How should be a professional PPT? The above article shows you these ten tips that will help you to be a professional ppt designer, and if you need more tutorial, I believe the following video will also help you.