10 tips on ways to improve your presentation

Slides should always come last…

Slides are there to develop on the audience’s knowledge of what you are presenting them. By providing slides to your presentation the audience will have some information to gather themselves by physically reading and looking at something rather than having to process information by just being spoken to.

Make sure you structure your main message first, its points to support it and then the slides last to back up the points.

Showing consistency in your slides

Make sure you use the same language and theme in your slides to show the audience that they consist of and relate to the same story you have been presenting.

You could also include a same

shade of colour on each slide, to

suggest you are talking about the

same topic.

Slide differentiation

Although it is ideal to show consistency in your slides, it can easily be mistaken for repetition. For example, colour coding the background of the slide can emphasise the topic you are on when speaking.

Therefore, once the colour has changed the audience will be aware that you have moved onto another subject.

This will ensure that the audience is up to speed and that not every slide is built of the exact same information.

Balance out the text on each side…

Including too much information on one slide is not ideal.

This is because the audience will focus on reading the information rather than what is being said. if there is too much to read in front of them…

This will then distract their focus and they will lose track of key information that is being said. If a lot of text is necessary, then arrange the information into shorter sentences and perhaps bullet points.

Use of photos

Photos can help improve on some meanings in parts of your presentation. Some photos can speak words better than texts itself, they are simple but a great part of expression.

Photos require less explanation which can result in the presenter still having the audience’s full

attention however at the same time

getting a substantial point

across.

Effects Effects and transitions can be used on slides, however they imply to the audience that the slide you are about to show consists of irrelevant information.

It is ideal that you use subtle effects if they are required, as exaggerated effects can make the audience uninterested.

Creating direct attention towards images…

You can use certain effects that can direct the audience’s attention to specific words, phrases or even images by highlighting them and blanking out the rest of the page.

Sometimes, you may not want the audience to see the entire page all at once…

Highlighting and circling specific information can create a slow step-by-step guide to the information you are presenting, which will enable you to present your information one at a time.

Viewing of images

In some presentations, you may want to include screenshots of different web sites. Instead of just adding a screenshot into a slide, using a chrome extension you can pan across the webpage as you present.

This portrays the exact information and sections you want to point out to your audience at the appropriate time

This prevents the audience reading ahead of you or reading irrelevant contents of the page, missing out on the point you are trying to express.

Do not use auto play…

Some presenters have experienced problems when using this feature as it often begins to delay when trying to play the video.

This will cause the presenters to click numerous times and therefore bringing them to the next slide.

This can be avoided by setting the video to click to play as you will be more likely to have larger control over the playback of your video.

Graphs and charts

Some graphs and charts can make the audience feel uneasy due to the lack of understanding of how it is presented. Labelling and making key information larger and brighter will allow the audience to gather a larger understanding of the information/data. Labelling and making key information larger and brighter will allow the audience to

gather a larger understanding of the information/data.