How to Design Better PowerPoints

Five Principles of Good PowerPoint Design

In this TEDxTalk,  David JP Phillips presents some PowerPoint design principles that you should know by now, and some new ones: 

And here they are:

1. Keep to only one message per slide - keep it simple
2. Don't overload the audience’s working memory with too much information to process on each slide - avoid reading out loud what is written on a slide
3. Use size to signal the most important thing or things on a slide - perhaps the heading should NOT be the biggest thing on the slide
4. Use contrast to focus the audience's attention - use dark backgrounds on your slides!
5. Only six objects on each slide

Final Thoughts

Source

In this module, you’ve encountered a variety of principles and tips on how to design more effective PowerPoint presentations.   There is no one formula for designing good PowerPoint presentations, but there are definitely things you should avoid, like trying to cram too much information into your presentation.  Know what your story is, keep that story simple, and try to present it so the slides support you, the presenter, rather than you supporting the slides. After all, what you say should be the main part of your presentation and what is on the slides should support what you are saying.