How to design a Better PowerPoint Presentation
Known your material - Organize your content in an outline
Pick (or design) a simple template that doesn’t distract from your story
Limit the text on each slide to 6 lines or less. You will be narrating these slides, so speak to your audience.
Make it readable on the screen -- Use San Serif Fonts, make sure your font is at least 24 point size, and use contrasting colors in a limited palette.
Avoid bullet points
Don’t use animation or transitions
Use meaningful high quality images that effectively support your story not distract from it
Use consistent fonts, colors, and types of images on all your slides.
Avoid visual clutter - use single image on screen or create visual interest with word art and organization with tables.
Choose a relevant slide design
Acknowledge your sources
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Presentations should compliment and augment your lecture; not overwhelm, distract, or confuse your students. There is lots of research on cognitive overload and working memory that supports some key design elements that will help create better presentations that allow your content to enlighten and connect with your students.
This video covers the basics on key presentation strategies when using PowerPoint.
Included in the video:
Determine the goals of your presentation and include a introduction, body, and conclusion.
Your introduction should have a clear topic and objectives, introduce terms and jargon, and establish a relationship with the audience. The body of your presentation must be logical, match your audience's level of understanding, and be clear, concise and correct. The conclusion will summarize, recommend actions, and show how the met the stated objectives.
Three Phases of Presenting
- Planning/Research
- Designing
- Delivering
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Library Resources
There is a wide range of Lehigh library research guides available for various subjects and classes, plus the availability of librarians to help do research and use proper citations in presentations.
For more information please see our guides are under "How to" on https://library.lehigh.edu/