Presentation slide design mistakes (and how to fix them)

We’ve all been there. Sitting in a room, fighting to stay awake while a presenter stands up front and reads each bullet point on their slides out loud. To make matters worse, the font is so small that you feel like a 90-year old who needs coke bottle glasses just to see the words. 

So you tune out the presenter and turn to Candy Crush to pass the time…thinking, “If they’re just gonna read their slides to me anyway, I can do that on my own later.” 

Now it’s time for an honest gut check. Are you that person? 

Even if you don’t put every word on your slides, it’s possible you’re creating “beautifully designed” slides that are better suited for reading than presenting. 

Regardless of where you fall on the spectrum, chances are nobody ever taught you how to properly design presentation slides. So really, it’s not your fault. 

Today I’m going to show you a couple of examples of what I see on a regular basis, and what you can change to create beautifully designed slides that support your message and engage your audience. 

EXAMPLE 1: TEXT OVERLOAD

This is the slide most people create. And even if you’re only unveiling one bullet point at a time, that one line of text is still too much. 

The fix isn't shrinking the text or picking a punchier bullet style. It's asking what that slide is actually for. One slide can't hold eight ideas and still let your audience follow you, so it shouldn't try to. 

THE FIX:

Create a section header slide (like the one below) and then break each bulleted idea into its own slide, each with its own image doing the work a sentence or paragraph used to do. More slides, less text.

The human brain processes images almost instantly, long before they'd finish reading a sentence. So a slide like this isn't just easier to look at, it's actually giving people something to hold onto while they listen to you instead of splitting their attention between reading and hearing. 

And that same image becomes your cue too, thus eliminating your need for lengthy text or notes. You don't need a script when the picture tells you what to say.

EXAMPLE 2: THE SNEAKY DISTRACTOR

This one's trickier because it doesn't look wrong. A nice, muted color palette, a short paragraph, and a graph with a legend and clean labels. If you emailed this as a leave-behind, it would hold up fine. Someone could sit with it, read it, zoom in on the graph, and take their time to absorb it.

But nobody's sitting with a slide. They're glancing at it while you talk, and this one asks for more than a glance. 

• A paragraph of small text that’s hard to read.

• A graph with 4 data series competing for attention and tiny labels.

• Black text against the slate blue background, creating low contrast. 

Contrast matters more than people think, and it's not just about looking sharp. Some of your audience may be colorblind, and every projector or monitor renders color a little differently, so what looks fine on your laptop might wash out entirely on the big screen.

THE FIX:

If you genuinely need a chart, one line and one clear point beats four lines and a legend every time. Pick your one number that matters most and build the graph around it. This is not about stripping the data, it’s about selecting what to focus on. 

Alternatively, you can do what I did in this example (above). Five numbers with five simple icons, drawing attention to important information. There's always more than one way to show data, and simpler almost always wins in the room.

Good slide design isn't decoration. It's the difference between reading off a screen and actually engaging with your audience.

Feeling like your slides could use a little TLC? It's not your fault, but you can do something about it. Learn how to give your slides a makeover in SlideLab on September 17th. Spots are limited, so grab yours before they're gone!