Supporting content
Often a presentation will be accompanied by a supporting aid. This could be a handout, a piece of music, an image or the use of presentation software such as PowerPoint or Prezi.
The supporting aid should complement the content, and the audience should be able to see or hear it clearly.
With specific reference to presentation software, slides should generally:
- use a consistent font
- use consistent backgrounds
- use a font size that is big enough to read by those sitting in the back of an audience
Be careful to avoid certain pitfalls. Slides should:
- not use low-resolution or Images that are displayed as too large or too small so that they become unclear. images
- not use capitalised text (except for titles)
- not have slides that are overcrowded with text - the slide is a prompt to enhance the words that are being spoken
Clear, high-resolution images like the image on the right make a much better impression in presentations than low-resolution images like the one on the left
Question
What should you avoid when designing presentation slides? Try to think of at least five different examples related to font, words, images and colours.
Answers could include the following:
- avoid too many images that do not add anything to the presentation
- avoid images placed over text, so the text cannot be read
- avoid spelling mistakes
- avoid inappropriate use of capital letters
- avoid font colour being too difficult to read
- avoid too much text on slides
- avoid different fonts
- avoid different font sizes
- avoid a font that is difficult to read
- avoid busy or fussy backgrounds that make the text difficult to read