How do you create a slide that people understand instantly? Usually we see slides like this:

It takes an incredible amount of time for someone to decipher what this is trying to explain. (The worst part is that this is an actual slide from a cross cultural psychology talk). The clutter in this type of slides hinders our understanding of the message.

When we give a presentation we should always keep in mind that what we are trying to do is communicate a message. Every slide should support that message, should complement our story. Why do you think children’s books are full of pictures? It’s the best way to tell a story! If you can create a slide in which people can identify the core concept at first glance, then their attention will shift from the slide to you, paying more attention to your message.

Creating concept slides should be fairly easy for those who have identified the core message of their presentation. Once your message I clear to you, then you can decide which topics you are going to address. Take those topics and reduce them to concepts, make them simple. Reduce them to a word or concept. Now take those concepts and try to express them in a different way, with a picture, a diagram, or even a hand drawn picture. Those picture or diagrams are what you have to include on your slide, no text, no bullet points, no titles and definitely no footers! The aim is to create a slide which conveys an emotion or idea that people capture instantly.

The trick is not to settle for the first idea that comes to mind, try to push your imagination further. Why settle for a normal slide, when you can take it further?

Here’s an example:

This is a common image in presentations, a man who is bored with his job, but if you are trying to make a point, you would want to associate this idea to something else, for example:

This slide would make people instantly understand your point and get a laugh from the audience at the same time. It compliments the message much further associating of ideas.

Try this approach in your next presentation, capture your audience by supporting your story with concept slides.

Until next time,

Byron Stanford for Project Presentation.

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