A professional level presentation is clear, concise, free of mistakes, well structured and engaging.
Your goal is to create a professional, polished presentation.
This means that a standard design, or template is used on every single slide.
The colors chosen for letters, background and design have high contrast, make sense with your them or template and enable all users to easily read every slide.
Because a professional presentation uses slides for listening cues (not content), no more than 25 words are on any slide (including the title).
Sans-Serif (non-Roman) fonts are used on every slide. Decorative fonts (fonts that are stylized or pictures rather than letters) are only used when clear and for titles and decoration, never for the text of the slide itself.
No full sentences are used, because the listening cues, or visual cues to your information should be focused on key words, not on the narrative or sentences that the presenter is speaking.
Legibility is the most important element of your presentation. If the audience cannot easily read the slides, they will be distracted from your message. The key elements of legibility are contrast, margins, font, size, placement.
The highest degree of contrast is black letters on a white background or white letters on a black background. Does this have to be boring? No! Pictures, details and other design elements are easily added to black and white slides without distracting the audience from the key words and phrases on the slides.
Margins, or sufficient space around each side of the slide ensure that your audience can read all of the text and can see all of the design elements ON ANY SCREEN.
Fonts are important because some fonts are difficult to read. Sans-Serif fonts, or non-Roman fonts, are letters which do not have the small flags or lines at the end of each stroke of the letter. In a Roman letter "M" you can see the serifs on the top of the two peaks and at the bottom end of each vertical stroke.
The size of your letters is probably the most obvious, but most often overlooked aspect of legibility. Why is this? Because most people are creating their presentation on the computer screen which is only a few inches from their eyes. It's plenty big when you're sitting right in front of it! The problem comes when when it is on a big screen, dimmer because of a projector that is not as bright as your screen, with audience members sitting several yards from that screen with obstacles (like the back of people's heads) obscuring parts of the slide. Font size on the order of 30 points or better are the SMALLEST any font should be, and even then, this may be too small. Try instead making all letters 40 points. If you can't fit all of the information on any one slide at 40 points, you probably have too many words on the screen.Continuity is an aspect of your presentation which supports professional appearance. Continuity is the overall effect of threads that tie every slide to YOUR presentation. Just like choosing matching colors when you get dressed, colors and design support continuity. Strong continuity shows that you planned your presentation, and that you intent was to present a coherent, organized, easily understood presentation. The important elements of continuity are layout, colors
As with legibility, colors are important for professional appearance. When you dress for an important presentation, in most cases, you don't wear crazy outfits that make you look unprofessional any more than you would wear a clown suit to a job interview. Bright colors can keep your audience awake and interested, but can, just as easily make your presentation look more clown-ish than professional. Ask yourself if it is possible to look professional while still conveying your aesthetic and creativity.
Every slide should have a focal point. The focal point, or the first place you look at a slide, should be in a consistent place on every slide. Without a focal point, the eye of your audience will wander through the text and their perception of that slide will not be focused and coherent. Every artistic composition should have a focal point, and a professional presentation should have a focal point to maintain this thread of continuity and present a well-designed appearance to every slide. While you don't want your audience to be distracted by garish slides, you do want to keep your audience engaged.
Balance is a concept which actually affects the level of comfort that your audience has with your slides. If all of the information is off to one side, you have wasted space you could have used for larger text or pictures that support your information. Use all of the space on a slide for a specific purpose, even if it is empty/blank space that adds to the balance of your slide.
Professional appearance can depend on some details that many presenters don't realize are important. One critical mistake is the inclination of presenters to design slide that entertain the audience. The slides are not the show, YOU ARE! Your slides should enhance your presentation skills and information like a nice tie, scarf or necklace enhances your outfit. The core of your presentation is what you say and how you say it, NOT the slides. Because this is your goal, for a professional presentation, you want to think about what elements add to the meaning, and what elements distract from that meaning.
No animation! Animation is entertainment. Your professional slideshow is not designed to entertain, but to inform. Animation is rarely used to illustrate details from a presentation, but is more often used to joke or entertain. The movement, and usual low quality of animation.
Slide transitions – one style maximum. Like animation, slide transitions can be very distracting. Remember the rule that your mother taught you: you can't wear everything in your closet at once. You don't want to wear your best jewelry, belts, pants, skirts, sweaters, jackets and hats at once. One well placed, well-thought element can add just enough to make you look really sharp. If you are using cues for your text (only some comes in at a time when you click the mouse), never use slide tranistions. If you use slide transitions, make them quick. There is nothing more distracting than a five second sparkle transition from one slide to the next through the entire presentation. Tranisitions can add to your continuity if they are well thought out and consistent. Pick one and stick with it if you insist on using transitions.
No Fill Effects (gradient, word art, fills). Fill effects are design elements that rarely lend to continuity and legibility. Fill effects create gradient fills (colors that transition from light to dark) which make part or all of the text difficult to read because of low contrast. Using one letter or word which is Word Art or a fill effect can add to the design, but be careful and conservative in your use of fill effects and Word Art.
No more than one or two “features.” There are many features in presentation applications like PowerPoint. Sound effects, movies, charts and animation are only a few of the features that you could incorporate into your presentation. Just remember that, unless you are auditioning for lead presenter job, you don't need to prove to your audience that you can use every feature in your presentation software. You goal is to look professional. Judicious use of features is very important.
Structure. Structure. Structure. Introduction, hook, details, conclusion and insight are required elements in an organized body of information. You need to tell people what you are going to tell them, tell them, and then tell them what you told them. Repeat each detail, in some fashion, that you want your audience to remember THREE TIMES. If it is important, your audience needs to hear it more than once, no matter how well you emphasize a point, and three times is a magic number that allows most people to retain the information. The first time they think about it, the second time they recall it and understand that it is important, and then third time, the understand that it is very important and that they should remember it. Three is the magic number.
Once you introduce your topic and any vocabulary or terms you audience needs to understand, you can begin explaining your details. But wait! Is your audience interested at all in what you are saying? Do they have any interest in listening to you? Do they have any idea that the information you are about to share is important or relevant to them? If you want them to listen, you need to tell them why they should care. Even if you are convinced that they should care, you need to tell them. This is the hook. Make it interesting, make it unexpected, make it humorous if you wish, but make it interesting and make it important. If you are about take up ten or more minutes of time, which people value, you need to convince them why they should listen to you. If you can't do this, be quiet and sit down!
Details. Give enough details to illustrate your message, but not so many that your message gets muddled. Focus. Be concise. If you don't know what the word "concise" means, you need to study it for a while.
After your details, you need to repeat your message and emphasize what is important. Tell your audience why you took up their time, and why the information was important. And then, hit it home with...
Insight. Did you learn something from the process involved in developing your presentation? Did you learn anything valuable about your topic? If you didn't, you didn't do your homework. You just shoveled information from one place to another. If, on the other hand, you discovered something about your topic that you didn't know, you can share this sense of discovery, this insight, this new understanding with your audience. They will remember you for giving them something they did not have, and they will hear your voice, your individuality and hopefully, your professionalism.
What did you learn?
Finally, check, check and re-check. Then have someone else look over your presentation for the obvious mistakes. Then check it yourself again. There is no easier way to look unprofessional, than to have mistakes in your presentation. The only thing more critical that thoroughly proofreading your work is the skill and finesse a professional needs to accept and acknowledge the mistake that someone in your audience will find in your information. How you deal with this mistake determines how the entire audience views your professional conduct. It's the lynch-pin. Think about it.
