The advantage of working on presentations in a team is the opportunity to get some feedback about design from more experienced colleagues and, of course, to learn something new. We decided to help and share the experience with those, who don't have the team of designers at hand but want to get feedback about their slides and learn how to make better presentations.
In September, we made a post about collecting presentations for analysis. In this article we introduce you a result of our assay with a couple of converted slides from "Children Create Country" presentation used to attract partners.
So, on such real examples we will constantly analyze, how to make your presentations more attractive, and what mistakes can be easily avoided.
About the project
The program "Children Create Country" was created to support and activate children-leaders who would try to create Ukraine of their dreams with their thoughts, intentions and actions. Program participants: 9–13-year-olds from Ukraine and children of Ukrainian origin abroad.
How the presentation will be used?
Here is how the project author, Lilia Tkachenko, answered this question: "In order to find the resources and organize a congress, it's necessary to create a marvelous presentation that would make our potential partners contribute willingly."
What is wrong with the original presentation?
Lilia's answer: "We need a piece of advice on how we can improve it and where to focus?"
The original presentation:
Since the task is clear, let's start analyzing the slides.
In the original presentation, the font Poiret One was used. Using this kind of font is a good idea, as a light sans-serif font can transmit the atmosphere of presentation, where the project for children is described. But in this presentation there are slides with a lot of text which is difficult to read. Compare, how you read two texts typed with two different fonts:
We decided to select the Quicksand sans-serif font. Now it's important to understand what font sizes should be used for the title, subheading and main text. We took the most
text-filled slide (it's a slide from the previous picture), and saw that 16pt-size works well with this amount of text on the slide. For the subtitle and title, the sizes were 24pt and 36 pt, respectively.
The background has two issues: it "absorbs" the text and it is too ruffled. It is better to use a neutral color on all slides.
At the same time, it can be individualized. We used thematic elements to create a subtle pattern on the background, and the information was placed on a white base
— so the text can be easily read, and the eyes will not get tired of all the colors. We used our custom-made icons for this pattern, but if you are not a designer, you can take them at any free database. Previously, we wrote a post with resources that we use ourselves.
It's time to set the accents, add more colors and graphics. It is important to think about the sequence in which people will perceive information from the slides: where they will look first and second. To separate titles from other levels of text, we changed the color of the title to pink and made a slightly thicker outline .
Next, we'll concentrate on each slide separately:
For the first slide, the font size in the title was increased and the name was placed to the right side of the photo. Now the audience sees the photo first, thus we have added some personal touch to the presentation. Then the audience looks at the name of the project and then - the signature to the photo. In the original file, the picture had a poor quality, so we downloaded the high-resolution photo from the FB-profile of the project author.
The second slide reveals the goal of the project. It only contains one phrase, so we have put it in the center along with the name of the project to make it look pretty.
On a slide with three points we have added icons. They were drawn by us, but you can get them on special resources as well.
For a slide with a lot of text, we'll add an accent on numerical information and make the list marked. You can also regroup the information to make the accent on numerical information.
The remaining slides of the presentation are similar in structure to those that have already been analyzed, so there is no sense in looking at separately.
Let's summarize the main mistakes of the original presentation:
1. The background was not contrasting enough to the text.
2.Unfortunate font choice — it was difficult to read in a large massif of text.
3. There were many small images and icons, which cluttered up the slides visually and didn't hold any value.
As a result, we have:
1. Picked up a readable font.
2. Added accents using colors, icons and information layout.
3. Picked up the background in such way that the information is easier to perceive (on a white base) and it adds a mood to the presentation (pattern with pictures).
Here are the slides before and after analysis
In this article, we didn't consider the work with content. Here we showed how using several simple principles you can significantly improve the design of slides.
At the same time, working with content is also very important, so we will consider it in the following articles.
Thanks Lily, for venturing to send the slides for analysis.
Dear friends! We are waiting for your presentations. We will share our knowledge. We will show you how to improve your slides by real examples.
Send them to us by emailing our marketing specialist Dasha to daria@reprezent.ua
Enjoy your slides!
Let us help you highlight your product to its best advantages.
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