Don’t make these 10 mistakes when designing presentations
Are you looking forward to your next extraordinary presentation session? I am always excited and looking forward to sharing my ideas in a presentation. It doesn’t matter what type of presentation. Sometimes it’s a webinar presentation. Sometimes it’s presenting for a training session. Sometimes it’s presenting to offer my services to a new client.
Having a chance to present allows me to engage with my audience and often attracts new clients.
It’s impossible to win over an audience with a bad presentation.
You might have the next big thing with great ideas, but if your presentation is terrible, naturally, your ideas will be terrible too and not be considered.
The 10 common mistakes to avoid when designing presentations—what are they?
Mistake 1. Too much content on a single slide.
This has to be the number 1 most made mistake by presenters. 95% of the presentation sessions I attended had slides that were cluttered with too much information and data. This makes the slides challenging to see and looks like a mess.
The rule of thumb is to keep it simple. Don’t try to cramp too much information on a single slide. Use more slides if needed to spread information across the slides. Ensure that your audience can see the information on the slide in a snap.
Mistake 2. Reading from the slide.
Reading from the slide is one of the things that audiences hate most in a presentation. If you can read, so can they.
Why do they need to attend your presentation to have you read the slides back to them?
This will also mean that you did not prepare for the presentation. You had just simply copied and pasted raw information onto the slides and read back those information during your presentation.
Instead, analyze the information and internalize them. Then show only key data on the slide while you speak to the audience elaborating on those information. Never ever read the content of the slide back to your audience.
Mistake 3. Ending with a “Thank you” slide.
This is a really big mistake, and I see almost all presenters do this — ending the presentation with a “Thank you” slide. A “Thank you” slide has no value, and it takes up valuable exposure and real estate of your presentation session.
The last slide of the presentation usually stays on the screen while you stay on to answer questions from your audience. Your audience ended up looking at the last slide for the whole duration while you were responding to their questions.
This will also mean that the last thing your audience sees and remember from your presentation is “Thank you”
We should put something valuable on the last slide other than “Thank you”, “The end”, or “Q&A”.
Mistake 4. Using bad slides.
Slides that are poorly designed can make the presenter looks unprofessional. Bad slides are also kind of challenging to see and understand. For example, a slide that has bad color contrast will not be pleasant to the eyes.
Slides that objects are not correctly aligned will be confusing. If your slide deck has bad slides, it’s time to redesign your slides.
Take time to go through your slides and ensure that everything is neat and aligned and that they look pleasant to the eyes.
Mistake 5. Speaking off-topic.
We often get excited during the presentation session and forget the key purpose of the presentation. And this is when we get carried away and start speaking of unrelated content.
We need always to be aware of the objective of the presentation and stick to the topic. One technique to stay on topic is to have lesser information on each slide.
Spread out information across more slides so that we know we need to speak about what’s related to the current slide content when we change slides. This will indeed keep us on topic.
Mistake 6. Not preparing enough.
This is one mistake that I see committed by many presenters. We often think that we already know the topic and there is no need for extra preparation. In fact, the more we think we know enough, the more we need to prepare.
Remember that every presentation is different. The environment is different; the audience is different. It doesn’t hurt to be prepared a little more.
Rehearse, research, and rework your presentation to ensure you have covered everything.
Mistake 7. Not sure of the environment or equipment.
Things are getting more sophisticated today. Presenting is no longer just the presenter and the slides. The environment is enhanced with technology. Presenting virtually involves technology and equipment.
All these are part of the presentation we cannot ignore. Not being familiar with the new environment, equipment, and technology used can be a downfall of the presentation session.
Being sure of the environment we are presenting at, the equipment and technology used is key to a successful presentation.
Mistake 8. Avoiding eye contact.
Eye contact is a powerful way to build engagement during the presentation. Constant eye contact gives the audience an indication that you are speaking to them.
Constant eye contact will also give you, the presenter, a sign of whether the audience is agreeable to the things you are sharing in your presentation. Always keep your eye contact with the audience. Avoiding it will be a great mistake.
We always need to know how the audience is responding to our presentation. The best way to know this is through constant eye contact.
Mistake 9. Rushing through the presentation.
Sure, we have lots of things to share, so we rush through the 15 minutes presentation. This is also another mistake I see quite often. Presenters are rushing through the presentation.
If we rush through the content when presenting, the audience likely didn’t register any of our shared content. The audience needs time to digest what they see and hear. Rushing through the content quickly is not good and strongly discouraged.
Instead, reduce the amount of content based on the time given for the presentation. Do not squeeze the content of a 30 minutes presentation into a 15 minutes presentation.
Mistake 10. Presenting beyond the given time.
I know I was given 20 minutes to present the proposal, but in reality, I needed 35 minutes for my presentation. This is again a very common situation. Many presenters overrun their given presentation time — a huge mistake.
Never take more time than your allocated time. Not only that you contribute to the overall messed up of the session timing, but you are also robbing time from the next presenter.
I consider this very rude and unethical when presenting. If you need more time, request that more time be allocated to you from the organizer during the planning stage of the session. Otherwise, reduce your presentation content and stick to the allotted time.
So, these are the 10 common mistakes that I see many presenters make. I just wanted to share this with you so you don’t make those same mistakes when you next design your presentation.
Designing an excellent presentation requires careful thinking and planning — the presentation slides’ design and how we link those slides together to tell a compelling story.
In the end, we want the audience to have a great experience attending the session.
