Slides & Presentations

I’m a huge believer of making presentation slides look nice. Well-designed, intentionally crafted slides, that are visually appealing, aid in learning and absorbing materials. I know all of us have been audience members with slides that were read word for word and/or had too many words to begin with. The experience(s) are not only boring, frustrating and lost potential for engagement. So with that in mind, here are some key tips:

• Less is more, or at least help the eyes. Having 3-5 key points is always stronger than having a wall of text. But in recognition that some research, especially ones that are qualitative, often necessitate large amounts of text, bold key phrases to assist what we should focus on.
  
  

• Visuals are your friends. Pictures can help capture your main takeaways. Symbols are a great way to draw people’s eyes to key takeaways or the main point. Likewise, having a chart, table, and/or graph is helpful in synthesizing your research. However, here are two caveats to consider:
  • Make sure to credit designers and artists. Please do not participate in the cycle of co-opting artwork or visual arts. Much like how we cite the literature and history of ideas, cite where your photos and designs are from.
  • Yes, pictures can tell a 1000 words, so make sure that these are the words you want. We’ve seen how photos can replicate (visual) microaggressions or the growing ways visual representations replicate blackface (see Pérez Huber & Solorzano, 2015). Visuals that are meant to be funny, might not always come across that way, so consider what messages are being replicated in what you decide to include.
  • In addition, a lot of images tend to assume digital whiteness (like how stock images are rarely People of Color). so make sure to check out Black Illustrators— "Beautiful, FREE illustrations of black people for your next digital project"

• Animations aren’t the villain. I will admit that for the first 10+ years of my presenting life, I hated any form of animation. I had too many years of unnecessary fades and spiraled inserts that made me feel motion sick while watching a presentation. But, a well-timed animation can be very helpful, so I would urge animations to be sparingly used, rather than having them for every slide transition.

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Along with these tips, here are two logistical tips:

• Need some cool templates? Look at SlidesCarnival and Canva. Slides Carnival offers free slide templates, both in PowerPoint and GoogleSlides. (Canva requires you to design on their interface.) Regardless, both are great places to get inspirations. In addition, SlidesCarnival templates include a bunch of vector images that you can incorporate (vector meaning that images don’t get grainy/pixilated when you enlarge them).

 

• Want to include a timeline, chart, or image? On GoogleSlides in particular, I’d highly recommend checking out the following path: Insert --> Diagram, where you can find templates for grids, hierarchies, timelines and more (as seen on the image on the right). You can adjust levels and colors. I’m sure there are equivalents for PowerPoint and Keynote as well. 

Lastly, remember to make slides accessible. Check out this resource about what this means and how to do it! And as always, if you have any additional tips, please comment~