So I thought for my first article on the website I’d help you to hit the ground running with a list of some of the most common mistakes people make when putting together a slide presentation. There’s probably a whole bunch more but I decided that 28 was plenty to be going on with!
I will expand upon a lot of these points in future articles and explain how you can do things better to make your slides really work for you when giving a presentation. So here, in no particular order is the list:
- Too much text on the slides
- Too much clutter on the slides
- Boring design
- The text says what you are saying
- Use of poor quality images
- Use of clichéd stock images
- Illegally used images
- Putting the date on the slide
- Putting a logo on every slide
- Having a slide number on every slide
- Superfluous design elements on the slides
- Using over-complex diagrams
- Text too small
- Use of boring standard fonts
- Lack of contrast
- Slides not square on the screen
- Slides too small on screen
- Not using video when you should be
- Not using images when you should be
- Using slides in the first place!
- The slides don’t enhance or reinforce what you are saying
- Overuse of animations and transitions
- No standard style used throughout
- No differentiation between sections of the presentation
- Not using builds when it would be best to do so
- Not knowing how to use or set up the equipment
- Being under rehearsed
- Bad spelling and grammar
That should be enough to be going on with. Next time you put together a presentation, take a quick look at this list to help you see where you might be going wrong.
