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The 28 mistakes people make when producing slides

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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.