Interesting and thoroughly thought out slides carry a talk, and the audience feels the difference immediately. Nevertheless, some presenters prepare their keynotes in a rush.
Winning webinar slides
How to make a great webinar presentation?
On the other hand, some people go to the opposite extreme and try to make their slides look too "beautiful," which makes the entire webinar less effective. The key is to find the right balance and design slides that both grab the audience’s attention and motivate them to take action.
Step 1. Elaborate presentation structure
The presentation structure needs to be extremely clear. You’d better note down the plan of the future presentation on paper or using any text editor. Otherwise, use your mental map to make the structure of your report.
Step 2. Select software for slide creation
In case you admire Microsoft PowerPoint, you can simply omit this step. But in case you are sick and tired of the standard patterns of this software, it is high time to look for something more creative. On an Apple computer, for instance, you could reach for Keynote instead.
If you would rather not install anything at all, stick to an online solution. Among them are Haiku Deck, Prezi and Google Slides. You can make slides using online services for presentation creation and edit them from any device.
Step 3. Prepare slides
Stick to 4 principles that will help you avoid the typical mistakes and build a deck worth sharing.
Principle 1. Style unification
The appearance details should match each other. When you use consistent contours, colors, sizes, and shapes throughout your presentation, everything comes together as one unified design. If you or your company already have a corporate style, you can and should use it when creating your presentation.
Principle 2. One idea is one slide
Never put all the information into just ten slides. Each slide should show a single idea, with one clear statement and something that supports it, such as an image, a chart, or a short text.
Any slide presentation shouldn’t be restricted to a single idea that you reflect on every slide. Instead, your goal is to come up with as many topic ideas as your presentation has slides. What’s more important, a slide presentation must be visually appealing. It should attract your audience’s attention. How to make a slide presentation eye-catchy? Foremost, make sure that every slide represents a topic idea that you suggest in the form of an infographic, chart, or other types of visual content. Furthermore, you can apply different creative presentation ideas that will help you make the presentation diversified. Among these ideas, you’ll find suggestions to use:
- Monochrome palette
- Neon colors and duotones
- Isometric illustrations
- Thick and bold fonts
- Scrunched paper background
- And many more
If you happened to think that all these visual elements would make your presentation hard to absorb, you are wrong. By adding visuals to your slide presentation, you will have more chances to retain the audience’s attention. However, don’t overwhelm the presentation with tons of information. Make it simple. That we’re going to cover next.
Principle 3. Simplicity
People do not read slides, they scan them. A slide crowded with text and graphics is hard to take in, and most people cannot read and listen at the same time. Simplify your slides.
Remove everything that is not needed. Limit yourself to one or two fonts and no more than three colours. Avoid complicated effects and animations. A slide should be terse and understandable at a glance.
Principle 4. Accent
Stress the main things in the slide. Without any accents made, slides do not draw attention. Focus on the main idea of the slide using color, underlining or fonts. Remember that text set entirely in capitals pushes attention away rather than drawing it in.
Stick to these simple rules when you create presentations, and you will be able to make them simple and easy for comprehension.
Summary of creating a webinar presentation
A clear structure, the right tool, and the four principles above turn a deck from visual wallpaper into the spine of your talk. Keep the style consistent, give each slide one idea, strip out whatever is not needed, and put the accent where the meaning is. What you end up with looks like your brand and respects the attention of the people watching, which is the whole point.
FAQ
How should I plan the structure of my webinar presentation?
You should write down your plan or use a mental map so that your presentation has a very clear flow and audience can follow it easily.
How do I choose the right software to create slides?
If you like Microsoft PowerPoint, use it. Otherwise pick an online tool such as Google Slides or Prezi, so you can edit your slides from any device.
What design principles should I follow when preparing slides?
Keep the style consistent so all your slides look unified, give each slide a single idea, and simplify the text so your audience can scan it rather than wade through long paragraphs.
Why is simplicity important for webinar slides?
Because people scan slides rather than read them, minimal text and clear visual aids help your audience understand your message better.
How do I emphasize the key message on a slide properly?
You can draw attention to the main idea with colour contrast, underlining or a change of font. Avoid writing everything in capitals, because that pushes attention away rather than attracting it.
