How to Avoid the Slide Deck Design Pitfalls
In the 32 years that I have been designing presentation slides, or slide decks as it is commonly referred to today, I have seen it all. Most people assume this process is as easy as falling out of a tree, but sadly, this leads to more people falling out of the bus than making an impact.
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7 Steps to Presentation Success
addVentures Academy will be hosting a FREE webinar on Thursday, 29 May 2025 where we will be working through the 7 Steps to Presentation Success. There is a lot of hype about AI that can make your life so much easier, but one thing that AI has not picked up on yet is how to help you to design slides that will actually sell you message while you are presenting, plus, and this is a big plus, will help your audience remember what you have said and lead them to act on your message.
We will be detailing the biggest blunders that people are doing while designing their slide decks. We will be discussing the how to on planning, including the target audience analysis, how to deliver with confidence and prepare handouts that will ensure people will remember your presentation and act on it.
The Biggest Slide Deck Design Pitfalls
White Slide Background
You would think that people would have picked up on this simple blunder, but somehow there are still people that have slide backgrounds that are white. There is an insane amount of research done one why a white background kills our eyes. If you are one of those people that still design their slides with a white background, you should not feel bad. I have been part of the Professional Speakers Association of Southern Africa for the past 12 months and there are still professional speakers who are designing there slides with a white background.
Yes, we will be discussing the research on this very simple blunder at the 7 Steps to Presentation Success at our webinar next week, so if you only attend the webinar for this detail, I can promise you that it will be all worth it!
More Design Blunders
Most people have way too much information on their slides. I was taught by our MD of Ideadata, the leading presentations company back in the 1990’s, Phil Wharton, that you should never use full sentences. Your slides are not a spelling competition.
Yes, you should limit the amount of text on your slide to the absolute minimum, but NEVER full sentences. The content on your slide is not a memo for you to remember your words. It is there to highlight the focus words that should create a picture in the memories of your audience. Your brain does not act on words, it acts on pictures. That is what is stored in your brain.
Yes, I can hear you say that things have changed from those days in the early 1990’s and that we have evolved. I know for a fact that the body you are in right now, works exactly the same way as the bodies of the people back in the days. Our eyes work on exactly the same principles and our brains and the memory that come with it, is still exactly the same.
In fact, I think we have an even bigger information overload than in the 1990’s. We should be even more vigilant with what we add to our slides.
If you want to get the insight on more slide design blunders, I do suggest you book your spot at our FREE webinar right now!!
