Are you suck in making PowerPoint slides?

PowerPoint and other presentation software does not suck.

It is the speaker/designer/presenter who use it that suck.

The following slides from Jesse Desjardins explains 5 terrible mistakes in making presentation design with PowerPoint.

Look at to those slides carefully and read detail explanation below.

1. Too Much Information

The most common mistake people make is when they try to put too much information into a slide and overall presentation. This act will make your audience difficult to understand the meaning of your slide.

Remember, your audience has cognitive limitations. Especially when there is not much time provided in a presentation. That’s why you’ve got to select and summarize every information to include in your presentation slide carefully. Use visuals and short sentences. Make it simple but powerful.

If there is too much words displayed in a slide, the audience will focus their attention to read the slide and will ignore you as a presenter. People can not reading the words and listening to you at the same time. They have to choose between reading and understanding the slides or listening to you.

So, choose a brief, relevant, and precise word. Make sure that each slide has only one main idea, so it can influence your audience effectively.

2. Not Enough Visuals

Presentation slide is visual aids. Use slides to display fascinating visuals. Use pictures, diagrams, or videos that will inspire your audience.

Don’t make a slide that only contains bullet points. Your audience will get bored easily.

You can add some picture or image into your slide. There are many sites you can visit to get good picture both free and paid. Flickr or Compfight offer free images under Creative Commons license. You only need to put credit to the image’s owner. Alternatively, you can try high quality paid images from a site like iStockphoto.

When choosing an image, make sure it is relevant and supporting the message you want to deliver. An image is not for decoration. The more important function of an image is to reinforce your message. A good image will trigger your audience emotion.

Do this correctly, and your slide will become a means of visual communication.

3. Terrible Quality

Sometimes you have selected some images, diagrams or video to be included in your slide. But unfortunately the quality is terrible.

You’ve got to find some images with good quality. You can get high-resolution images easily from image-sharing sites like Flickr. You just need to spend some time to choose it carefully.

Another thing you have to note is the way you organize the image. Find a way to make it looks harmony in your slides. Make sure the image is not distorted. Discard non-essential parts of the image, to make it focus and having a powerful message.

Font is another visual aids to use. There are many kinds of font you can use beside the standard font. By browsing a little or going to a site like Dafont you can get a fine and attractive fonts. Make sure that the font you’ve chosen consistent with the theme of your presentation, not the other way around.

4. Messy Arrangement

A good presentation slide has to follow the principles of design.

Create contrast in your slide. It is important in a visual display. Arrange each element neatly and be sure it is linked to one another. Repetition on certain elements can help to integrate them. Bring closer mutually connected elements and give some distance to different elements.

Use consistent color in your slide. It would be better if you have chosen before a set of color palette containing of 3-5 different colors that you can use consistently in your presentation. This will maximize the appearance of your slide.

5. Lack of Preparation

This is the most common mistake people make in making a slide; creating a presentation slide in a hurry without sufficient preparation. You can guess the result: a presentation slide with pathetic quality.

According to a survey, 86% of top executives say that strong and clear communication has a direct impact on their careers and income.

Yet, only 25% among them spend more than 2 hours to prepare their important presentations.

Remember, the quality of your presentation has direct correlation with your preparation. If you think your presentation is important, set your time to make a good preparation.

That’s all the five terrible mistakes in making a presentation slide design.

Avoid these five mistakes and be an inspiring presenter.