The 7 Rules of Presentations You Need to Follow

We’ve all heard of and experienced ‘Death by PowerPoint’, here are seven guidelines or rules to make sure that your presentation is memorable for the right reasons!

#1 – Put your audience first

The most important thing to remember is that you’re presenting to an audience of real people.

They might or might not be physically present, but you need to ensure that you’re talking to them, not at them.

Remember to speak their language, by that I mean to use the words that they use and understand, be careful of acronyms, technical language or “swallowing a dictionary”.

#2 – Focus on your topic

It’s really easy to want to include everything in your presentation.

But you need to stop, ask yourself “Does this help make my point or get my topic over?”

If the answer is no, leave it out. You can always have more information in a follow-up message (file or email) if you really want to share it.

#3 – Make it readable

Unless you want to pause at the beginning of each slide, make sure that the text is a size that can see easily seen and read.

This will also to help make it more available for an inclusive audience.

Also consider the colour contrast between your text and the background.

#4 – Less text is better

Following on from #3 – how many times have to seen the slide filled with text?

One advantage of larger text is that you have a limit on the text, which makes you focus on what you are writing on each slide.

A great rule to work to is more more than 5 lines of text per slide – although less is better.

#5 – Limit the animation

With each new version of the presentation programs we’ve been given more and more animations – more options and ways to make our content ‘whizzy’.

Yes, they can a be lot of fun, but, again ask ‘does this animation add to the point I’m making?’

There’s a pretty good chance your answer is going to be ‘no’, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have any animation – try to stick to one, maybe two animation types across the slides to keep a consistent look.

#6 – Don’t just read your slide

On this list of ‘rules’ this is probably the biggest one!

If all you’re going to do is read the text on the slides – why do they need to be presented, why do they need you? They can just be shared with your attendees.

Instead, the slide deck should highlight the key words or concepts. While you can use them as prompts, if you’re sharing the presentation file afterwards then it should be enough information to remind the audience of your topic.

#7 – A picture says a thousand words

We’ve all heard this so many times – only because it’s true.

Is there a picture or simple chart that will get your point across instead of paragraphs of text?

Think infographic – they are nicer to look at, and can make the point in a way that so many people understand.

#8 – Write to be accessible

One extra tip… and rules we should all use.

With some much of our work now being put online – take into account that your audience can be anyone and everyone.

Make sure that you write/design/include options to be inclusive whomever your audience is:

• High contrast colours
• Use boxes behind text to make it clear to see (especially if you have an image as the background)
• Alt text for any images
• Ensure that each slide has a title
• How well will the presentation sound to screen readers?
• If it’s being recorded – add audio and/or captions

What rules will you be following the next time you design your presentation?

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