Avoiding death by Powerpoint
It is necessary to build a PowerPoint presentation that indicates the desired message to the audience. The audience should clearly develop a connection between content in the slides and the topic of the presentation. Philips (2014) urges that it is essential to consider six principles to follow when creating a PowerPoint presentation.
The first principle is ensuring one message per slide. Having a single message per slide ensures that the audience’s attention is not diverted but rather concentrated one thing at a time. Two or more messages will distract the audience, and this makes it hard for the presentation to communicate. Being concise and straightforward is the only way to ensure the target audience understands your presentation.
The other principle is using PowerPoint for its intended purpose. The presentation material should be on the main slide, while the text message should be the documentation field. It ensures there is no confusion when explaining the content details. When the materials have a separate area from the explanatory c, it creates a clear understanding of the presentation.
The size of the content is another factor to put into consideration. Having a headline bigger than the explanatory material will divert the attention of the audience away from essential points and only focus on the headline. The most important part of the PowerPoint should have a larger size in fonts to ensure clarity.
The principle of contrast is an essential aspect of ensuring excellent presentation. Use contrast to emphasizing a message when presenting your PowerPoint,. It makes it easy for the audience to focus on the main item that is being presented at the moment.
The right background in representation defines the concentration of the audience. A white background will make the audience lose focus due to the straining of the eyes. The background should be dark, followed by a white font in the content written. It ensures that the audience is relaxed and not straining to read in between the content.
Lastly, a slide should have the right number of objects. The maximum number of points in a slide should be six. When they are seven or more, the audience uses more energy to read the content. Six objects in a slide will ensure more clarity and understanding of the presentation.