6 of Our Favorite Blog Posts on Presentation & Slide Deck Design

The art of slide deck design isn’t so different from the principles used for infographics and other forms of visual communication. Successful visual content should include only as much text as is necessary to communicate your message, leaning mainly on visuals to tell the story. That’s because visual content is proven to be more engaging for audiences and to increase retention. 

This is one of the most important principles you should know as you prepare the slides for your next presentation. Why? It will ensure that audiences will pay attention to you and your message, instead of getting distracted trying to read a paragraph on each slide.

Still, keeping text to a minimum is just one way to ensure your slide deck design truly achieves your goals. So here’s our list of essential articles for anyone who wants to know more about effective, visual-first presentation design.

What visual communication components do you find in most successful infographics? There are many ways to answer that question. Yet among the most trademark qualities is a lack of excessive text. From a clear and effective layout to the careful use of icons, illustrations, photos, and other visual elements, the best infographics aren’t reading assignments. And the same goes for your presentation design. Learn how infographic-inspired design applies to slides.

Using too much text. Incorporating the wrong kinds of visuals. These are just some of many ways to create an ineffective presentation design. And in this article, Killer Visual Strategies founder and CEO Amy Balliett describes what she’s learned from speaking at more than 175 conferences around the world, and witnessing presentations of others at each of those events.

Every presentation deserves a killer slide deck. Yet, it’s not always clear how your slide design should work with and complement your talk. If you’re having trouble conceptualizing how to fit everything you have to say into clean and clear slides, you may need to step back and ask what type of story you’re trying to tell. Start by identifying a single, clear narrative can help you simplify your message as a whole. Then, the right design approach may be soon to follow.

The art of slide deck design draws from key principles of visual communication. However, there are also considerations that are unique to the medium. For example, presentations often have the benefit of an accompanying oral component — something few other types of content, aside from motion graphics with voiceovers, typically offer. So what do expert visual designers take into consideration when creating a powerful presentation design? Read this post to find out!

So you now know how to identify ineffective slide design. That’s great! But … how do you fix it? In this post, we explore common design challenges with slides, and provide examples of solutions. We also share some of our own presentation designs, and explain how they’ve met unique and diverse goals for clients in all different industries.

Successful infographic designers know their way around a layout. They know how to prioritize information. They know how to create clean sections. And they also know that data visualization is the key to really showing the impact of an important statistic. So this post covers why infographic designers are an ideal choice for your next slide deck design.

Can’t get enough? Check out some of our agency’s favorite presentation designs, and learn how to build a visual presentation that earns you some real ROI. After that, you’ll be all set to take your next conference or webinar by storm.