It’s not that the presentation failed to communicate effectively. It’s that the slides weren’t developed with a strategic message in mind. Even before the presenter utters a single word, the slide’s structure will already tell us if the message will be clear or confusing. Slides filled with information copied from a report, or a series of unrelated facts and figures will lack a core message. It will require too much from the audience to discern what’s important. And the more effort people need to make to understand something, the less they will pay attention. Even a great idea won’t get noticed.
It’s tempting to use your slides as a place to store information rather than using them as a way to communicate it. To do the former is to use long paragraphs, lots of bullets, and tiny text in an effort to save everything. But when it comes to communication, less is always more. The key to communication is in choosing what’s important to share, not to accumulate. By taking the time to figure out what you want each slide to convey, you create a framework that helps the audience make sense of the information. This exercise is not easy, because it involves having to throw out some of your favorite points to make the main point.
The second reason is because having to adjust to different colours, graphics and fonts in every slide distracts and requires the viewer to expend unnecessary amounts of energy to readjust. Having a consistent visual language makes a presentation feel secure because it allows people to learn once and apply many times, without having to exert effort, and as a result focus on the information. This in turn makes your message appear more cohesive, no matter how complicated your message is.
In addition, the time plays a role even before the presentation starts. Slides that don’t account for the time the speaker needs to explain the content are either filled with too much information for the given time, or too little, which leads to too fast or too slow presentations. Too fast, you don’t catch all the relevant information; too slow, you have dead moments. By adjusting the content of your slides to your speaking time, you guarantee that there’s a reason for every slide. You create clear, specific situations in your presentation.
In the end, I think great slides are the result of a design attitude. It’s the attitude of designing an experience instead of merely recording data. It’s about designing an experience that allows your audience to effortlessly derive meaning and see the steps along the way to get to the place you are leading them. And when you design great slides, it’s far easier to deliver your message. The slides support your every move, the slides do not distract or compete with you. So the effect that a presentation has on the audience is largely designed before the presentation ever begins.