This post has a simple mission: stop making template-based “title + bullet point”-style slides for your presentation. Yes, most presentation software suggests this as a default, but that doesn’t make it any better. Instead, think about your slides as complementary to what you are saying.
Auditory–visual perception
Human perception is inherently multimodal, meaning that we continuously experience the world with all our senses. In a presentation, that means the audience is processing your voice, your slides, your gestures, and the room itself as part of one combined experience.
Two senses are particularly important when making standard presentations: auditory and visual. The auditory part is typically spoken, while the visual is presented on screen. However, recall that people will also watch you, making you part of the visual signal, and that your presentation may include sound, which would make it part of the auditory signal.
Crossmodal perception is an interesting subcategory of multimodal perception. It describes cases where one sensory channel directly influences how another is perceived. For example, what people see on a slide can shape what they think they heard, just as lip movements can change speech perception.
Don’t put too much text
I recall a professor advising their students, arguing that they should write all the text they wanted to say into their slides and then read them aloud at the conference. That is a terrible idea.
Using a slide deck as lecture notes may work for the presenter, but leads to a horrible experience for the people watching/hearing the presentation.
The problem is that your audience has finished reading your content before you have had time to speak it aloud. That means they are not listening to you while you read, and they get bored waiting for you to read the same text they just read.
Don’t use bullets
Using bullet lists to structure your presentation is better than writing the entire manuscript on your slides. Bullet lists look organised, and at best, when animated well, they can guide your storytelling. However, more often than not, they, too, split attention.
If you really want to highlight three things in a conclusion, you may add a bullet list. However, don’t use it as the default mode for all of your slides.
Use images
It is much better to use images or other visual elements on your slides. Strong illustrations will support your point and narration. They can also add an emotional touch to your slides.
Sometimes you need to explain a lot of things. These days, I present our new AI centre, MishMash, several times per week. There is a lot of content to convey, so the slides need to be complex. Still, I try to make the slides as simple as possible and animate the various elements so that they support what I say. Here is an example of how these slides may look like:
The 1-minute per slide rule
I typically vary the number of slides based on the duration of my presentation. A good rule of thumb is that you spend 1 minute per slide. However, this really depends on presentation style. I have held 45-minute presentations with two slides and 5-minute presentations with 30. It really depends on how you tell the story.
In sum
If you want better presentations, reduce text, increase intention, and commit to one message per slide. And use bullet lists sparingly. Then focus on telling your story.
Thanks to CoPilot for assisting with quickly making the thumbnail image overview from the PDF of the slides.