Avoiding Death by PowerPoint

I believed many of us have attended seminars and conferences where poor usage of PowerPoint killed our interest. The PowerPoint slides were crowded with too many texts, bullet points, animated gifs and others that distracted us. Apparently, this problem is so severe that the term ‘death by PowerPoint’ was coined to address it.

So, how to avoid ‘death by PowerPoint’? In your next presentation, I suggest that you use the tips below to make your PowerPoint presentation more impactful;

1. Contrast, contrast, contrast – Ensure that the fonts and background in contrast with each other. Personally, I prefer light font colors such as white or yellow against dark background such as black or dark blue.

2. Images as background – Do not use colorful images as background as you might be having difficulty trying to select the best font color to contrast it. Your audience will strain their eyes reading the texts on your slides.

3. Font size – How to ensure that your selection of font size is the right one? The best way is to sit at the last row of your function and ask yourself, ‘Can I read what is written on the screen? If you can’t, adjust the font size and try again.

5. Limit your bullet points – Limit the use of bullet points to six per page. The rule of thumb is, the lesser, the better. Too many bullet points per page will clutter your slide.

6. Using images – A picture speaks a thousand words. Use images to enhance the impact of your presentation. However, choose only images that are related to your topics and make sure that they are sharp, clear and large enough to be seen.

7. Use short sentences – Avoid writing all your script onto your PowerPoint slides and reading them to your audience. This is a sure way of killing your presentation. Instead, use keywords (I called them ‘trigger words’) to remind you of your speaking points. As with bullet points, maximum number of words per bullet point is six. (This is known as the 6 x 6 Rule).

8. Diagrams – When using diagram such as charts, ensure that it is properly labeled and is large enough to be seen by the people in the last row. Use combination of colors that can help to clarify borders and give meaning to your charts.

9. Animations – Ensure that your PowerPoint slides are free from animated gifs (moving cartoons or pictures) as they cause distractions. You can animate your key points for transition purposes but do not overdo it. Again, the rule is; the lesser, the better.