How to Design Better PowerPoints
2. Designing Compelling Presentations
Designing Compelling Presentations
There are many ways to design effective presentations. The guidelines on this page are one approach that we’ve found helpful because they are easy to understand, remember and use.
The 10-20-30 Rule of PowerPoint
In 2005 Guy Kawasaki, venture capitalist and tech evangelist proposed the 10-20-30 Rule of PowerPoint. Watch this video to find out more.
Kawasaki advised that you should use only 10 slides, speak for only 20 minutes and use no font less than 30 points. Kawasaki has sat through hundreds of presentations pitching him ideas to invest in, so he’s probably a good judge of what works and doesn’t.
| Note: At 1.25 in the video, Kawasaski advises that you should only use black backgrounds with white text as this choice suggests ‘seriousness’. Having a dark presentation also shifts the focus onto the presenter as long as you are not also wearing black. However, you may run out of printer ink trying to print off lots of slides with black backgrounds, so think before you print! |
The 10-10-30 Rule - Kawasaski updated!
A lot has changed since Kawasaki first proposed his rule. For one, our attention spans are getting shorter. For this reason, we’ve adjusted the 20 minute talk time down to 10 minutes. This also better fits our academic context in which there may be hundreds of student presentations to review.
Use no more than 10 slides
According to Kawasaki, ten slides is the optimum number for a slide deck because a normal human being cannot comprehend more than ten concepts in a meeting. We like this rule because it forces you to identify and communicate the most important things in the story you want to tell. We believe, though, that you do not even need ten slides; why not nine, or eight or seven? So, we’ll leave this up to you, but definitely, no more than 10 slides.
Speak for no more than 10 minutes
As Mark Twain once wrote to a pen friend, “I apologize for writing such a long letter - I didn’t have time to write a short one. Do not fall into the trap of thinking a longer presentation will get you more marks. Usually an overly long presentation is a sign that you don’t really know what you’re talking about and hoping to bamboozle the audience with loads of facts, figures and unrelated ideas. Don’t be fooled - less is more.
Use no font smaller than 30
This rule forces you to reduce the number of words on each slide. presentation. If you use a smaller font, you’ll be tempted to read out loud what is on the slide. At that point your presentation is lost, as your audience will read the slide much faster than you can speak it.
Source: https://guykawasaki.com/the_102030_rule/
If you’d like to read about the relevance of the 10-20-30 Rule for Powerpoint to today’s audiences, read this: https://slidestore.com/blog/guy-kawasakis-10-20-30-rule-presentation/