I have been noticing a trend lately. One that I think is based on a big misconception in the presentation design industry. Today I am going to unpack the misconception and hopefully put to rest the belief that…
Content is King.
I’m sure some of you just about jumped through your computer screen at me and tell me just how wrong I am, so let me explain what I mean. Content is in fact extremely important to a presentation. If you have bad content, then your presentation will be bad. But when it comes to your presentation design less is more.
Far too often presenters pack their slides with bullet point after bullet point followed by paragraphs of information. This leaves the slides cluttered and difficult to follow. Cluttered slides means your audience will begin to feel a sense of overwhelmed disillusionment where they are simply no longer able to retain information. This style of slide design is indicative of a past need to have all the information represented on a slide so as not to miss anything.
However, in today’s culture people don’t need to see every fact or figure on the slide instead the presenter should be sharing those verbally helping to engage different learning styles.
If you want to be an effective presenter, you must shift from using your slides as an outline and instead use your slides as a way to emphasize what’s important. By using engaging visuals and minimal text you will see an uptick in retention and according to one study a 400% increase in learning.
Whether we like it or not visuals matter and as a presenter you have to take time to develop and invest in your visuals.
The truth is that there is almost always a way to present your information visually, you just have to get creative. Whether it is a slide filled with bold imagery and minimal words, an infographic communicating facts and figures, or photograph that pulls your audience into a story, visual will increase your audience engagement and as we have seen retention.
Not a designer? Don’t worry. The ethos3 team would love to help you take your next presentation to a new level visually check out some of our recent work and contact us to walk through how we can serve you.
