example of good and bad presentation

This simplistic presentation example employs several different colors and font weights, but instead of coming off as disconnected, the varied colors work with one another to create contrast and call out specific concepts.

What I like: The big, bold numbers help set the reader's expectations, as they clearly signify how far along the viewer is in the list of tips.

10. “Pixar's 22 Rules to Phenomenal Storytelling,” Gavin McMahon

This presentation by Gavin McMahon features color in all the right places. While each of the background images boasts a bright, spotlight-like design, all the characters are intentionally blacked out.

What I like: This helps keep the focus on the tips, while still incorporating visuals. Not to mention, it's still easy for me to identify each character without the details. (I found you on slide eight, Nemo.)

11. “Facebook Engagement and Activity Report,” We Are Social

Here's another great example of data visualization in the wild.

What I like: Rather than displaying numbers and statistics straight up, this presentation calls upon interesting, colorful graphs, and charts to present the information in a way that just makes sense.

12. “The GaryVee Content Model,” Gary Vaynerchuk

This wouldn‘t be a true Gary Vaynerchuk presentation if it wasn’t a little loud, am I right?

What I like: Aside from the fact that I love the eye-catching, bright yellow background, Vaynerchuk does a great job of incorporating screenshots on each slide to create a visual tutorial that coincides with the tips. He also does a great job including a visual table of contents that shows your progress as you go .

13. “20 Tweetable Quotes to Inspire Marketing & Design Creative Genius,” IMPACT Branding & Design

We‘ve all seen our fair share of quote-chronicling presentations but that isn’t to say they were all done well. Often the background images are poor quality, the text is too small, or there isn't enough contrast.

Well, this professional presentation from IMPACT Branding & Design suffers from none of said challenges.

What I like: The colorful filters over each background image create just enough contrast for the quotes to stand out.

14. “The Great State of Design,” Stacy Kvernmo

This presentation offers up a lot of information in a way that doesn't feel overwhelming.

What I like: The contrasting colors create visual interest and “pop,” and the comic images (slides 6 through 12) are used to make the information seem less buttoned-up and overwhelming.

15. “Clickbait: A Guide To Writing Un-Ignorable Headlines,” Ethos3

Not going to lie, it was the title that convinced me to click through to this presentation but the awesome design kept me there once I arrived.

What I like: This simple design adheres to a consistent color pattern and leverages bullet points and varied fonts to break up the text nicely.

16. “Digital Transformation in 50 Soundbites,” Julie Dodd

This design highlights a great alternative to the “text-over-image” display we've grown used to seeing.

What I like: By leveraging a split-screen approach to each presentation slide, Julie Dodd was able to serve up a clean, legible quote without sacrificing the power of a strong visual.

17. “Fix Your Really Bad PowerPoint,” Slide Comet

When you‘re creating a PowerPoint about how everyone’s PowerPoints stink, yours had better be terrific. The one above, based on the ebook by Seth Godin, keeps it simple without boring its audience.

What I like: Its clever combinations of fonts, together with consistent color across each slide, ensure you're neither overwhelmed nor unengaged.

18. “How Google Works,” Eric Schmidt

Simple, clever doodles tell the story of Google in a fun and creative way. This presentation reads almost like a storybook, making it easy to move from one slide to the next.

What I like: This uncluttered approach provides viewers with an easy-to-understand explanation of a complicated topic.

19. “What Really Differentiates the Best Content Marketers From The Rest,” Ross Simmonds

Let‘s be honest: These graphics are hard not to love. I especially appreciate the author’s cartoonified self-portrait that closes out the presentation. Well played, Ross Simmonds.

What I like: Rather than employing the same old stock photos, this unique design serves as a refreshing way to present information that's both valuable and fun.

20. “Be A Great Product Leader,” Adam Nash

This presentation by Adam Nash immediately draws attention by putting the company's logo first — a great move if your company is well known.

What I like: He uses popular images, such as ones of Megatron and Pinocchio, to drive his points home. In the same way, you can take advantage of popular images and media to keep your audience engaged.

PowerPoint Presentation Examples for the Best Slide Presentation

Mastering a PowerPoint presentation begins with the design itself.

Get inspired by my ideas above to create a presentation that engages your audience, builds upon your point, and helps you generate leads for your brand.

Editor's note: This post was originally published in March 2013 and has been updated for comprehensiveness. This article was written by a human, but our team uses AI in our editorial process. Check out our full disclosure to learn more about how we use AI.

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10 Presentation Design Mistakes to Avoid (With Examples)

One of the most important aspects of a successful presentation is designing an effective slideshow. Unfortunately, it’s also a part most professionals often neglect or don’t pay attention to.

This is why most of the bad presentation designs share a pattern. They are usually made using the default PowerPoint templates. They use the same default fonts as every other presentation. They also include terrible stock photos. And try to stuff as much information as possible into a single slide.

We noticed all these mistakes and more while exploring some of the most popular presentations on SlideShare. They were slideshows with thousands and even millions of views. But, they were riddled with mistakes and flaws.

In this guide, we show you how these mistakes can be harmful as well as give you tips on how to avoid them. Of course, we made sure to include some examples as well.

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1. Adding Too Many Slides

One of the biggest mistakes you can do when designing a presentation is adding way too many slides. This not only makes your presentation unnecessarily long but it can also affect the audience’s engagement. After a few slides, your audience will surely lose interest in your presentation.

Rand Fishkin is a well-known entrepreneur in the marketing industry. This is one of his presentations that received over 100,000 views. And it features 95 slides. We believe it could’ve generated more views if he had made the presentation shorter.

A presentation with 95 slides is a bit of an overkill, even when it’s made for an online platform like SlideShare.

Solution: Follow the 10/20/30 Rule

The 10/20/30 rule is a concept introduced by expert marketer Guy Kawasaki . The rule recommends that you limit your presentation to 10 slides, lasting only 20 minutes, and using a font size of 30 points.

Even though the rule states to limit the presentation to 10 slides, it’s perfectly fine to design a 20-slide presentation or even one with 30 slides. Just don’t drag it too far.

2. Information Overload

Statistics and research data are important for backing your claims. Even in your presentations, you can include stats and data to add more validity and authority. However, you should also remember not to over-do it.

A good example is this popular SlideShare presentation with more than 1 million views. Since this is a tech report slideshow, it includes lots of stats and data. But the designer has made the mistake of trying to include too much data into every slide in the presentation.

If this slideshow were to present to a large audience at a big hall, most of the audience won’t even be able to read it without binoculars.

Solution: Visualize Stats and Data

A great way to present data is to visualize them. Instead of adding numbers and long paragraphs of text, use charts and graphs to visualize them. Or use infographics and illustrations.

3. Choosing the Wrong Colors

How long did it take for you to read the title of this slide? Believe it or not, it looks just the same throughout the entire slideshow.

The biggest mistake of this presentation design is using images as the background. Then using colors that doesn’t highlight the text made it even worse and rendered the text completely unreadable.

Solution: Create a Color Palette

Make sure that you start your presentation design by preparing a color palette . It should include primary and secondary colors that you use throughout each slide. This will make your presentation design look more consistent.

4. Using Terrible Fonts

Fonts play a key role in improving the readability in not just presentations but in all kinds of designs. Your choice of font is enough for the audience to decide whether you’re a professional or an amateur.

In this case, the slide speaks for itself. Not only the font choice is terrible but without any spacing between the paragraphs, the entire slide and the presentation is hardly readable. How did this presentation generate over 290,000 views? We’ll never know.

Solution: Avoid the Default Fonts

As a rule of thumb, try to avoid using the default fonts installed on your computer. These fonts aren’t designed for professional work. Instead, consider using a custom font. There are thousands of free and premium fonts with great designs. Use them!

5. Adding Images from Google

You could tell by just looking at this slide that this person is using images from Google search. It looks like the designer lazily downloaded images from Google search and copy-pasted a screenshot onto the image. Without even taking the time to align the screenshot to fit the device or removing the white background of the image.

Or he probably added a white background to the images after realizing the black iPhone blends into the black background. Most of the images used throughout this slideshow are pretty terrible as well.

Solution: Use High-Quality Mockups and Images

The solution is simple. Don’t use images from Google! Instead, use high-quality images from a free stock image site or use a premium source. Also, if you want to use devices in slides, make sure to use device mockup templates .

6. Poor Content Formatting

There are many things wrong with this slideshow. It uses terrible colors with ugly fonts, the font sizes are also too big, uneven shapes, and the list goes on.

One thing to remember here is that even though apps like PowerPoint and Keynote gives you lots of options for drawing shapes and a color palette with unlimited choices, you don’t have to use them all.

Solution: Use a Minimal and Consistent Layout

Plan a content layout to be used with each and every slide of your presentation. Use a minimalist content layout and don’t be afraid to use lots of white space in your slides. Or, you can use a pre-made PowerPoint or Keynote template with a better design.

7. Writing Long Paragraphs

Adding long paragraphs of text in slides is never a good way to present your ideas to an audience. After all, that’s what the speech is for. The slides, however, need to be just a summary of what you’re trying to convince your audience.

Don’t make the mistake of writing long paragraphs that turns your slideshow into a document. And, more importantly, don’t read from the slides.

Solution: Keep It Short

As the author Stephen Keague said, “no audience ever complained about a presentation or speech being too short”. It takes skill to summarize an idea with just a few words. You should always try to use shorter sentences and lots of titles, headings, and bullet points in your slideshows.

8. Not Using Images

This entire presentation doesn’t have a single image in any of its slides, except for the company logo. Images are a great way to keep your audience fully engaged with your presentations. Some expert speakers even use images to add humor as well.

The saying “a picture is worth a thousand words” is popular for a reason. Instead of writing 200-words long paragraphs, use images to summarize messages and also to add context.

Solution: Use Icons, Illustrations, and Graphics

You don’t always have to add photos or images to make your presentations look more attractive. Instead, you can use other types of graphics and colorful icons. Or even illustrations and infographics to make each slide more entertaining.

9. Designing Repetitive Slides

This presentation about Internet Trends is one of the most popular slideshows on SlideShare with more than 4 million views. If you go through the slides you’ll notice the entire presentation is filled with nothing but charts and graphs.

Your audience will easily get bored and lose attention when your presentation has too many slides containing the same type of content.

Solution: Use a Mix of Content

Make sure to use different types of content throughout the slides. Add text, images, shapes, icons, and other elements to create each slide more engaging than the other.

10. Using Complex Infographics

Even though images and graphics are great for visualizing data, it’s important to use the right designs to showcase the data without confusing the audience.

For example, this slideshow made by HootSuite is filled with stats and data. Most of which look fine. Except for a few slides that include complicated designs filled with information all over the place.

Solution: Design Simpler Graphics

There are many great online tools you can use to design your own infographics and visuals. Use them. But, also remember to use simpler designs that are easier to understand for all audiences.

In Conclusion

There’s no such thing as the perfect presentation design. Every slideshow has its flaws. But, if you learn to avoid the common mistakes, you’ll have a much higher chance of winning over your audience and delivering a more engaging presentation.

If you don’t have any slideshow design experience, consider picking one of the bee PowerPoint templates or best Keynote templates . They feature designs made by professionals and you won’t have to worry about making any mistakes again.

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• February 23, 2022

4 Main Differences Between Good and Bad Presentation

Written by Tom Caklos

Presentation designer

If you are reading this, there’s a chance that you are trying to nail your presentation.

As a presentation designer , I feel like I can give you a few interesting tips, that will dramatically improve your presentation.

No matter if it’s a presentation for an event, employees, or a school project. You can apply these literally in any industry.

Let’s kick off with the first point:

1. The amount of copy on each slide

When it comes to making a good presentation, it’s very important that you limit your copy on each slide.

Nobody wants to read a long essay on every single slide. It is simply boring.

Try to limit the amount of copy you have on each slide. For example, instead of writing a whole paragraph, you could probably put it in a few short bullet points.

As Seth Godin (marketing expert) once said: “no more than 6 words per slide!”. Of course, that’s a bit extreme and it takes a lot of storytelling skills in order to do that.

But if you can, try to limit the usage of the words on every slide and you will improve your presentation drastically!

2. Visuals & design

Now, since I am working as a professional presentation designer – it could sound like I am trying to sell you something.

But the reality is that humans are more likely to remember visuals than texts. We also respond better to visual-rich slides, so why not improve your design? The beautifully designed presentation also gives the vibes that you really care about your audience.

However, there is a one downside when it comes to design. It is very time-consuming. For ex. it takes me around 45 minutes to design every single slide.

So usually it takes me around 30 hours to design a presentation that is 45 slides long. It’s very time-consuming and exhausting process if you have to do it all by yourself ( if you need help, feel free to contact me ).

3. Easy-to-follow structure

Another difference is very easy-to-understand structure.

You need to align your slides with the storytelling – so your audience gets the message that you are trying to convey.

It’s very bad practice to jump from one topic to another when presenting, so that might confuse your audience.

4. Storytelling

Good storytelling can make the difference if you close a new client or no. It is a difference between getting new investors or continuing to struggle.

If you are presenting your deck only by reading from your slides – that could put many people off. It shows that you are not prepared.

That’s why you need to be able to basically talk to the audience as you would to your friends in a bar.

Making a connection with an audience is the hardest thing – but with good storytelling, this could be the easiest part of your presentation.

So these are only a few differences between good and bad presentation – but the most important ones.

If you are making your presentation in Powerpoint , Keynote or Google slides – feel free to reach out to me and I will be more than happy to give you some feedback & critique!

Thanks for reading my article! When I write, I always try to bring as much value as I can. If you're having any questions, or if you need any help, feel free to reach out to me!

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7 Unique Presentation Examples That Will Inspire You

After a while, all PowerPoint presentations look exactly the same, don’t they? Wrong! The way a PowerPoint is designed can really change the feel of the whole presentation. The world is filled with bad PowerPoint presentations. But precisely because of that, a good PowerPoint will stand out even more. Check out these amazingly good presentation examples to get some design ideas for your next PowerPoint.

Why presentations are important

Before we go through the presentation examples, it’s important to talk a little about what makes a PowerPoint presentation really good. It’s a common mistake to think that the design of your PowerPoint is a secondary factor in a presentation. Content and information are definitely vital, but the design also affects the overall way people react to your presentation. Sometimes even more that you could imagine.

Think about it this way: you probably won’t go to an important presentation dressed as if you just got out of bed. If it’s a really important one, you’ll probably even worry about looking your best. You probably won’t think twice about spending a little more time grooming yourself and making sure you look good. And this is because appearances do matter. Whether we like it or not, people unconsciously read many things from the way we present ourselves visually. And these ideas can stick for a long, long time in people’s minds. And, even more, they are built incredibly fast. According to Forbes, first impressions are made in the first 7 seconds of a meeting .

Business presentations are exactly the same. There are many things your audience can read from your presentation design alone. For once, the way your presentation looks will probably give them an impression of how professional you and your business are. A plain, all-white presentation can give the impression that you’re lazy or that you did it last minute. The way a presentation looks can certainly influence how trustworthy you look, or how committed to a project, or how relatable you are.

Characteristics of a good presentation deck

People can read many things from a presentation, and it’s your duty to work on the image you want to project. A bad presentation can make you look unprofessional, yes. But a presentation is also a great opportunity to establish your brand visually and to make sure it stays on your audience’s minds. It’s up to you to take advantage of the possibilities presentations offer you.

It’s definitely easier said than done, though. Making a unique PowerPoint design demands creativity and imagination. So before you check out the presentation examples, look at this short list of design ideas. Hopefully, you could use these as inspiration for your next PowerPoint. They’ll surely take any plain presentation to the next level.

Title slides

You probably have experienced this: You get distracted from a presentation for 5 seconds, and suddenly you have no idea of what the speaker is talking about. You’ve gotten yourself lost, and it’s pretty difficult to get back on track when you don’t even know what new topic you’re talking about. Title slides are a great way to show your audience in what section of your presentation you’re on.

Even if you don’t have title slides for each section, you should certainly have a presentation starter Title slide. This slide is vital because it’ll set the feel for all the rest of the presentation. Just as with yourself, people tend to judge a presentation right from the start. It’s incredibly important that you showcase what you want to showcase (professionalism, relatability, etc.) on your title slide.

You want your audience looking forward for the rest of the presentation, not to feel dread and boredom. Make it eye-catching without going over the top, and make sure the topic is clear. You can check out some of our other presentation examples to see how a high impact first slide is done.

Cohesive color palette

There is no easier way to make your presentation look unprofessional than to go overboard with colors. Even if the speaker isn’t necessarily the one that has designed the PowerPoint presentation, he or she will be automatically connected to it. That is why a “Rainbow” presentation will give the feel that the speaker doesn’t really know what they are doing. Even if the speaker is doing a good job, the picture that will remain in the audience’s minds will be of the PowerPoint presentation. And if this one looks improvised or unprofessional, that will also reflect on their idea of the presenter.

Finding good colors for your presentation can be a tricky task. The overall general rule is to pick colors that complement each other, and that have good contrast. This way, the presentation will not be eye-straining while still being easy to read. The easiest way to apply this is to pick one of the premade color schemes from Microsoft Office.

However, you probably have some extra requirements, like for example to use your brand’s colors. Things like this can make it harder to find a good color palette. There is no easy way to handle colors in a presentation. But the easiest tip is: when in doubt, keep it simple.

If you want to know more about colors and how to use them, you can check out how to pick the right colors for your next presentation .

Data representation

PowerPoint presentations are, above all, a visual aid. That’s why you should take advantage of the visual potential they have. Many business presentations include some kind of data to illustrate a certain point or prove something. For example, growth or sales rates, or consumers per country, and so on. Many presentations’ main sin is that they try to showcase all this data in a written way like it’s a report. It’s one of the easiest ways to bore your audience and make them lose focus.

If you’re saying exactly the same that is written in the PowerPoint, why should they listen to you? You should aim to show something in a different way that will make them understand the things you’re saying easier. For example, if you want to share some percentages concerning some specific aspect of your business, the list of numbers will probably bore pretty quickly your audience. But if you show it visually, in a pie chart for example, your audience will be able to understand it easily.

Captivating visuals

“Captivating visuals” do not mean only photos and pictures. Sure, customized illustrations are great, as you will see in some of our presentation examples. But you don’t need them to create a great presentation. Many people think that it means adding at least one stock picture or something similar to every slide. Truth is, what presentations really need is visuals that complement smartly the information display.

This can be done by many different ways. Illustrations and pictures are a great option for this. They exemplify one or more points, but most important, they break the “all-text” image that is so frustrating for the audience. And to achieve this, illustrations and pictures are not the only way to do so. As has been said before, graphs and charts are a great way to represent data. And these elements also help to break the “all-text” effect. Other great options to do this are to use icons and geometrical. These can help to highlight your points, while still being sober and not very intrusive.

But the most vital thing to consider visually is the layout . The way you organize the information inside a slide can make all the difference between a plain slide and a professional looking one. The more your presentation looks like a textbook, the more difficult it’ll be for your audience to focus in it. Break down your information in smaller parts and see how they can fit into the slide. It’s a difficult thing to learn, but once you see the presentations examples, you’ll see exactly what I’m talking about.

What not to do when designing a presentation

You can also check these bad PowerPoint examples , to know what to avoid. Some times, it can be just as useful to know what not to do! But right now, let’s go through some of the things that can really make a difference in turning your presentation from plain to spectacular.

Presentation Examples

Here you’ll find some amazing presentation examples done by our designers here at 24Slides. Hopefully, these will give you the inspiration you need to make a more unique, eye-catching presentation. Even the plainest, most boring presentation has a solution. It’s just a matter of knowing how to make it really stand out.

In 24Slides, our designers divide their styles into three categories: Corporate, Creative and Playful. This way, customers can pick the style that they feel they fit best with their brand and their presentation. To know more about these 3 styles and to see how they differentiate from each other, you can look out other of our professionally redesigned PowerPoint examples . You will find the original presentation and how it was remade in all 3 of these styles. This way, you can really see the difference between them, and pick the one that fits better your needs!

But for now, let’s go straight to the presentation examples! Here you’ll find some of the best Before-and-After transformations. This way you can really see how much of a difference a well-designed PowerPoint can really make.

This presentation was redesigned in a Creative style. This style is in some way the perfect middle between the other two. It’s more serious and business-like than the Playful style, but more flexible and casual than the Corporate one. This Adidas presentation is the perfect example of the Creative style. It showcases all the information in a professional way, but still keeping it visually attractive.

Adidas has a difficult color scheme to work with since it’s a brand that works mainly with blacks, greys, and white. It’s easy to make a boring presentation with that palette, as you can see with the all-grey background of the original presentation. Our designers change it for a more visually striking photo-background. But they kept the background photos at a high transparency percentage to make sure they didn’t hinder the text. They also added the brand logo with the back lines. This slide really shows how a slide layout can really change the feel of a presentation.

This slide is a perfect example of improving data visualization. Why put everything in written sentences, when you can show it in a much more effective way as a graph?

b) Linkedin

The Playful style is my personal favorite. Playful PowerPoint designs are proof that presentations don’t have to be boring or dull. This style is great for catching your audience’s attention. It includes a lot of personalized illustrations that will really make a presentation pop. This style is certainly less serious, but no less professional. You can see the effort that has been put into these slides, and how carefully crafted they are.

Check out the difference between these two slides. While the original one is certainly more serious, it’s the redesigned one that looks like a professional presentation. Dark backgrounds are great start to give a presentation a professional look, but it’s not enough. Anyone can change the background color. This PowerPoint example, despite not having a dark background, looks way more professional. It looks customized and detailed. Our designers took Linkedin colors to make a slide that really represented the brand. The effort put into it it’s what makes it a really unique-looking presentation.

This slide is also a good example of the importance of title slides. If you see the original one, you’ll probably brace yourself for a long and boring presentation. With the fixed one, you give the presentation a whole new feel. The customized illustration reflect perfectly the presentation topic and intrigues you enough to make want to hear more about it.

Finally, we have the Corporate Presentation style. This one is certainly the most serious of all three of them. This is the kind of presentation you want to show your boss to prove how reliable and rigorous you are with your job. It’s a great style for presenting data and cold hard facts.

The original presentation had a theme, with the blue lines in the upper and lower sides of the slide. But the use of different colors made it look a little improvised and overall just dated. The new design, on the other hand, looks clean and stylish. Something as simple as adding a visual element, like the central photo, can do a huge difference. Instead of highlighting text with different colors, the designers focused on separating the information in sections and using a monochromatic color scheme. This way, the audience can distinguish easily each part of the slide, while still keeping the design sharp.

Even something as simple as bullet points change completely when you use a more professional layout!

d) McDonald’s

This MacDonalds’ presentation is an amazing example of what a Playful presentation is all about. Vibrant colors, unique illustrations, and a distinctive layout. If you look at the original SWOT Analysis of this presentation example, it is completely plain and forgettable. But the fixed slide is truly unique. It conveys the information in a way that could not have been done for any other company in the world. It’s original and entertaining while still showcasing all the information needed.

This PowerPoint is also a good example of and amazing use of color. The original presentation was clearly trying to follow the brand’s official color scheme of red and yellow. But in practice, it made the presentation look pretty amateur. Our designers, on the other hand, made a customized color palette that made the presentation look not only professional but unique. They kept the red and yellow tones, but didn’t use them as the main colors. Instead, they created a whole scheme of colors that complimented them, and that allow them to add so much more detail into the presentation.

The customized icons are one of those things that really can make a difference. In the new presentation, you can be sure that the data being shown is from a fast food company. Making sure your presentation reflects your company is more than just pasting a logo in every slide. This presentation is a great example of how to do it right. Every single slide reflects its product in a playful, innovative way.

Oracle’s PowerPoint is another great presentation of example of the creative style. This presentation takes a plan, boring PowerPoint and transforms it into a unique one.

Check out how much a professional layout can change a slide. In the original one, all the element are crammed together. It’s even a little bit uncomfortable to read. There are too many things happening at once. The fixed slide conveys the exact same information, but in a way more organized, professional way. This is a great example of how to showcase data smartly. The designer used all their tools (shapes and colors to make divisions, icons, etc.) to convey the information in a visually attractive way.

Creative style is all about thinking out of the box, so this slide transformation is a perfect presentation example. While the original slide is not that bad, it’s a little dull. But if you change the layout and add a more interesting color scheme, the slide will look much better!

Here is another great presentation example of the creative style. Creative is actually the style more in demand by our customers, since it looks both sharp and fun. And this Amazon’s presentation really shows that.

Details do matter. While in the original slide there were graphs, the colors clashes, and it looks pretty cramped. Our designers changed the color palette to reflect the brand, the bar graphs for pie charts and adding a soft-edged caption box. Just with this, the slide looks more cohesive and with an intended design.

This slide is another example that visuals and layout matter. Having slide after slide filled with bullet points becomes boring very quickly. Think about in which other ways you could represent the information, and build your layout accordingly.

Finally, here’s another presentation example of a corporate style PowerPoint. This serious, straightforward style is ideal when you want a more sober, business-like presentation.

As much as a good minimalist style , less is not always more. The original slide with just a quote looks kind of empty, rather than minimalist. As has been said before, a basic gradient background will not fool anyone into thinking that there was time put into that presentation design. Adding “stunning visuals” don’t necessarily mean having custom icons or vector illustrations. Sometimes something as simple as a complementary picture and some geometrical detail, as in this slide, can really make the message stand out.

Make better presentations

Hopefully this presentation examples will inspire you when you have to do your next PowerPoint. Presentation design takes time and effort, but practice makes perfect. Do not expect a PowerPoint that looks from a professional designer’s portfolio at first try. Design is not something you can learn overnight.

However, if you don’t have the time to spend in learning how to design your own PowerPoints, or you want a really professional finish, you should definitely contact put team of designers here at 24 Slides. Your presentation will be as unique as anyone of these examples, and will reflect perfectly your brand and what you want to convey.

And depending how much time you invest a week in doing PowerPoints, it’ll probably even be more cost-efficient to hire presentation designers. This way you get better presentations that you could have done on your own, and at the same time, save time for your other tasks. So ask yourself: do you really need to learn how to design presentations? Or is it just another task taking time and energy from other more important things to do?

If it’s just taking time away from you, why not let the professionals so what they’ve been trained to do? Here at 24Slides we have incredible designers that will make sure that your presentations is everything you want it to be. You can focus on your tasks at hand, and receive your presentation ready within 24 hours, and more professional-looking than ever.

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What It Takes to Give a Great Presentation

• Carmine Gallo

Five tips to set yourself apart.

Never underestimate the power of great communication. It can help you land the job of your dreams, attract investors to back your idea, or elevate your stature within your organization. But while there are plenty of good speakers in the world, you can set yourself apart out by being the person who can deliver something great over and over. Here are a few tips for business professionals who want to move from being good speakers to great ones: be concise (the fewer words, the better); never use bullet points (photos and images paired together are more memorable); don’t underestimate the power of your voice (raise and lower it for emphasis); give your audience something extra (unexpected moments will grab their attention); rehearse (the best speakers are the best because they practice — a lot).

I was sitting across the table from a Silicon Valley CEO who had pioneered a technology that touches many of our lives — the flash memory that stores data on smartphones, digital cameras, and computers. He was a frequent guest on CNBC and had been delivering business presentations for at least 20 years before we met. And yet, the CEO wanted to sharpen his public speaking skills.

• Carmine Gallo is a Harvard University instructor, keynote speaker, and author of 10 books translated into 40 languages. Gallo is the author of The Bezos Blueprint: Communication Secrets of the World’s Greatest Salesman  (St. Martin’s Press).

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Blog > Common mistakes in PowerPoint and what makes a bad presentation

Common mistakes in PowerPoint and what makes a bad presentation

08.09.21   •  #powerpoint #tips.

Creating and giving a good presentation is actually not that difficult. If you know how to do it. Otherwise, no matter how much effort you put into it, it can quickly turn out to be a bad presentation.

Here we show you some examples of bad PowerPoint slides and common mistakes that are often made in presentations so that you won’t make them in your next presentation and avoid "Death by PowerPoint".

1. Reading aloud instead of speaking freely

One aspect in bad presentations is often that the text is simply read out. Prepare your presentation so well that you can speak freely. The goal is to build a connection with your audience and get them excited about your topic. However, this will hardly be possible if you only read from a piece of paper or your computer the whole time. Your audience should feel addressed, if you just read off, they will be bored and perceive your presentation as bad, even if your content and your PowerPoint are actually good.

2. Technical Problems

The sound of the video you inserted on a slide is not on, your laptop does not connect to the beamer, or your microphone does not work. These are just some of the problems that could occur during your presentation.

But nothing is more annoying than when technical problems suddenly occur during a presentation or even before, when everyone is waiting for it to start. It interrupts your flow of speech, only distracts the audience from the topic and breaks concentration. So before you get started with your presentation, it is important to first start your PowerPoint in the place where you will give it later, practice there and familiarize yourself with the technology.

• Don't forget the charging cable for your laptop
• Find out beforehand how you can connect your laptop to the beamer. Find out which connection the beamer has and which connection your laptop has. To be on the safe side, take an adapter with you.
• Always have backups of your presentation. Save them on a USB stick and preferably also online in a cloud.
• Take a second laptop and maybe even your own small projector for emergencies. Even if it's not the latest model and the quality is not that good: better bad quality than no presentation at all.

3. Losing the attention of your audience

One of the most common mistakes in presentations is to lose the attention of your audience. Especially in long presentations it is often difficult to keep your audience’s attention and to avoid “Death by PowerPoint”. Anyone who has had this experience knows how uncomfortable it is to give a presentation where you notice that no one is actually really listening to you. Especially if your presentation is an eternally long monologue, it is difficult to get the topic across in an exciting way and to captivate the audience.

Our tip: Include interactive polls or quizzes in your presentation to involve your audience and increase their attention. With the help of SlideLizard, you can ask questions in PowerPoint and your audience can easily vote on their own smartphone. Plus, you can even get anonymous feedback at the end, so you know right away what you can improve next time.

Here we have also summarized further tips for you on how to increase audience engagement.

4. Avoid eye contact

You want your audience to feel engaged in your presentation, but if you avoid eye contact the whole time, they certainly won't. Avoid staring at just one part of the wall, at your paper or your computer. If the participants have the feeling that you are just talking to the wall, it is a bad presentation. Speak to your audience, involve them in your presentation and make it more exciting for them.

But also make sure you don't always look at the same two or three people, but address everyone. If the audience is large, it is often difficult to include everyone, but still try to let your eyes wander a little between your listeners and look into every corner of the room.

5. Speaking incoherently

Avoid jumping from one topic to the next and back again shortly afterwards. Otherwise your audience will not be able to follow you after a while and their thoughts will wander. To prevent this, it is important that your presentation has a good structure and that you work through one topic after the other.

Nervousness can cause even the best to mumble or talk too fast in order to get the presentation over with as quickly as possible. Try to avoid this by taking short pauses to collect yourself, to breathe and to remind yourself to speak slowly.

6. Many colors mixed with each other

Make sure that your presentation is not too colorful. If you mix too many colours, bad presentation slides will result very quickly. A PowerPoint in which all kinds of colors are combined with each other does not look professional, but rather suitable for a children's birthday party.

Think about a rough color palette in advance, which you can then use in your presentation. Colors such as orange or neon green do not look so good in your PowerPoint. Use colors specifically to emphasize important information.

It is also essential to choose colors that help the text to read well. You should have as much contrast as possible between the font and the background. Black writing on a white background is always easy to read, while yellow writing on a white background is probably hard to read.

7. Too minimalistic design

Even though it is often said that "less is more", you should not be too minimalistic in the design of your presentation. A presentation where your slides are blank and only black text on a white background is likely to go down just as badly as if you use too many colors.

Empty presentations are boring and don't really help to capture the attention of your audience. It also looks like you are too lazy to care about the design of your presentation and that you have not put any effort into the preparation. Your PowerPoint doesn't have to be overflowing with colors, animations and images to make it look interesting. Make it simple, but also professional.

8. Too much text

The slides of your presentation should never be overcrowded. Write only the most important key points on your slides and never entire sentences. Your audience should not be able to read exactly the text you are speaking in your PowerPoint. This is rather annoying and leads to being bored quickly. Summarize the most important points that your audience should remember and write them down in short bullet points on your presentation.

9. Many different animations

To avoid bad presentations it is important to never use too many animations. It looks messy and confusing if every text and image is displayed with a different animation. Just leave out animations at all or if you really want to use them then use them only very rarely when you want to draw attention to something specific. Make sure that if you use animations, they are consistent. If you use transitions between the individual slides, these should also always be kept consistent and simple.

10. Too many images

Bad presentation slides often occur when their design ist unclear and unorganised. Images and graphics in presentations are always a good idea to illustrate something and to add some variety. But don't overdo it with them. Too many images can distract from your presentation and look messy. Make sure that the graphics also fit the content and, if you have used several pictures on one slide, ask yourself whether you really need all of them.

11. Too many or unreadable fonts

Never combine too many fonts so that your presentation does not look messy. Use at most two: one for headings and one for text. When choosing fonts, you should also make sure that they are still legible at long distances. Script, italic and decorative fonts are very slow to read, which is why they should be avoided in presentations.

It is not so easy to choose the right font. Therefore, we have summarized for you how to find the best font for your PowerPoint presentation.

12. Images as background

To avoid bad presentations, do not use images as slide backgrounds if there should be also text on them. The picture only distracts from the text and it is difficult to read it because there is not much contrast with the background. It is also harder to see the image because the text in the foreground is distracting. The whole thing looks messy and distracting rather than informative and clear.

13. Reading from the slides

Never just read the exact text from your slides. Your audience can read for themselves, so they will only get bored and in the worst case it will lead to "Death by PowerPoint". You may also give them the feeling that you think they are not able to read for themselves. In addition, you should avoid whole sentences on your slides anyway and only have listed key points that you go into more detail then.

14. Turn your back

Never turn around during your presentation to look at your projected PowerPoint. Not to read from your slides, but also not to make sure the next slide is already displayed. It looks unprofessional and only distracts your audience. In PowerPoint's Speaker View, you can always see which slide is currently being displayed and which one is coming next. Use this to make sure the order fits. You can even take notes in PowerPoint, which are then displayed during your presentation. You can read all about notes in PowerPoint here.

15. Forgetting the time

Always pay attention to the time given. It is annoying when your presentation takes much longer than actually planned and your audience is just waiting for you to stop talking or you are not able to finish your presentation at all. It is just as awkward if your presentation is too short. You have already told everything about your topic, but you should actually talk for at least another ten minutes.

Practice your presentation often enough at home. Talk through your text and time yourself as you go. Then adjust the length so that you can keep to the time given on the day of your presentation.

16. Complicated Structure

The structure of your presentation should not be complicated. Your audience should be able to follow you easily and remember the essential information by the end. When you have finished a part, briefly summarize and repeat the main points before moving on to the next topic. Mention important information more than once to make sure it really gets across to your audience.

However, if the whole thing gets too complicated, it can be easy for your audience to disengage after a while and not take away much new information from your presentation. So a complicated structure can lead to bad presentations and "Death by PowerPoint" pretty quickly.

17. Inappropriate clothes

On the day of your presentation, be sure to choose appropriate clothing. Your appearance should be formal, so avoid casual clothes and stick to professional dress codes. When choosing your clothes, also make sure that they are rather unobtrusive. Your audience should focus on your presentation, not on your appearance.

18. Inappropriate content

Think about who your audience is and adapt your presentation to them. Find out how much they already know about the topic, what they want to learn about it and why they are here in the first place. If you only talk about things your audience already knows, they will get bored pretty soon, but if you throw around a lot of technical terms when your audience has hardly dealt with the topic at all, they will also have a hard time following you. So to avoid "Death by PowerPoint" in this case, it is important to adapt your presentation to your audience.

You can also ask a few questions at the beginning of your presentation to learn more about your audience and then adapt your presentation. With SlideLizard , you can integrate polls directly into your PowerPoint and participants can then easily answer anonymously from their smartphone.

19. Too much or unimportant information

Keep it short and limit yourself to the essentials. The more facts and information you present to your audience, the less they will remember.

Also be sure to leave out information that does not fit the topic or is not relevant. You will only distract from the actual topic and lose the attention of your audience.

20. Monotone voice

If you speak in a monotone voice all the time, you are likely to lose the attention of your audience. Make your narration lively and exciting. Also, be careful not to speak too quietly, but not too loudly either. People should be able to understand you well throughout the whole room. Even if it is not easy for many people, try to deliver your speech with confidence. If you are not enthusiastic about the topic or do not seem enthusiastic, you will not be able to get your audience excited about it.

Examples of bad presentations to download

We have created a PowerPoint with examples of bad presentation slides and how to do it right. You can download it here for free.

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About the author.

Helena Reitinger

Helena supports the SlideLizard team in marketing and design. She loves to express her creativity in texts and graphics.

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• Business Plans

15 Bad Business Presentation Mistakes (And How to Avoid Poor Results)

• Bahasa Indonesia
• العربية/عربي

You've got to inform and persuade those around you daily. They need to believe in your vision (and more importantly, believe in you) to get more money, notoriety, or internal resources.

Sometimes you're trying to win new customers. Other times, you're trying to get new investors or land press at a conference. And sometimes you're simply providing the quarterly numbers to your boss. 

One of the best ways to persuade people is through a presentation.

Presenting complex information in an easy-to-digest format isn't easy.  To make matters worse, it's rarely taught in any formal schooling either—which means you're left to fend for yourself (and mess up often).

Sure, having a good presentation design is a nice place to start. The right  PowerPoint presentation template  can give you a tremendous head start.  

However, there are a ton  of other variables that ultimately determine if your presentation will be a success or failure. It's all too easy to put in a lot of effort, only to end up with a bad presentation.

15 Common Mistakes to Avoid in Business Presentations

Here's 15 of the most important presentation ideas to avoid critical mistakes, along with a few tips to improve each issue. Learn how to address proper presentation writing, quality of design, common speech mistakes, audience engagement, and more.

But first, if you want to take these tips further, be sure to download our free eBook: The Complete Guide to Making Great Presentations . It'll help you master the complete presentation process.

The last thing you want to do is deliver a bad presentation, so let's make sure to avoid these poor presentation mistakes: 

Mistake 1. Not Scripting Your Presentation

All good presentations and speeches start with a tight script.

Believe it or not, there’s some method to this madness when writing out a professional presentation.

It’s somewhere between an outline and a full document that helps you lay out the foundation or groundwork, before providing supporting materials and finally transitioning into the conclusion.

Don't make the mistake of not writing out your presentation first. There's a reason why CEOs sound so polished giving keynotes and presidents craft their speeches. Learn more about the presentation writing process: 

Note: That’s especially true when you’re going to be giving a more formal, structured presentation like with a business plan .

Mistake 2. Reading, Not Speaking

The goal of the presentation, whether there’s two people you’re meeting with or 100, is to make a connection. You want each person to feel like you’re speaking directly to them; building the audience’s confidence in both you and the information you’re speaking about.

However, all that connection and credibility disappears when your head drops, your eyes look down, and you begin speaking in a monotone voice, reading directly from paper, your slides, or note cards.

First and foremost, if you've got to read the content on the slide, there’s too many words ( but we’ll come back to this in a second ).

The big sin is the disengagement that happens, as people’s eyes glaze over when they’re hit with a barrage of information. This can lead to a bad presentation that doesn't make an impact.

You should work to avoid that, though, and aim to make a  presentation that persuades . 

That being said, you’re not expected to memorize the entire thing either. Instead, highlight three to five major talking points and get comfortable speaking off the cuff to add in context and examples.

Mistake 3. Not Practicing Enough

Writing out a basic script or outline for your speech is a nice start. But it won’t come off smoothly until you actually sit down and practice it.

A speaker once told me that you should practice or rehearse around one hour for each minute of a speech. Twenty-minute speech? Twenty hours!

While that seems on the high side, running through your speech with notes (at first), and later without notes, from beginning to end, over-and-over-and-over, will drill the information into your memory and make it become second nature.

With repetition, you also start noticing the little details that can make a big difference in a presentation. For example, the transitions between different sections. The pauses to highlight key points. And even the ‘blocking,’ or getting used to how your stance, movement, and gestures will look on a stage. 

If you need more presentation practice and are having some anxiety about public speaking, you should know that's a normal feeling. Lean how to overcome it:

The other benefit of frequent practice is that you should be able to easily spot...

Mistake 4. Going Over (Or Under) Time

...your timing.

Nothing reeks of amateurism more than a speaker who fails to hit their time mark.

In a large setting, being way under time and not having enough material is one of the fastest ways to erode your credibility. And in smaller settings with a client or boss, not respecting their time by trying to hold too them long can be a deal killer.

If you’ve been practicing frequently, you should start using a timer as you get more proficient to see where your material lands.

Sometimes you might have to go in and add a few more examples or stories to illustrate your points (and drag out the time a little). While other times you might have to cut entire slides or sections, and speak a little quicker, to make sure you’ll be under.

The key isn’t to guess. You should know, before you even get to presentation day, exactly how long your presentation will take to deliver ( within a minute or two ).

Mistake 5. Boring, Unprofessional Design

It only takes people about 50 milliseconds to form a first impression, and incredibly about 94% of that comes down to your design. 

In a presentation, that means your slide deck is the obvious starting point. 

Chances are, those investors or savvy conference attendees have already seen that same default PowerPoint template hundreds of times over the past few years.

Fortunately, we’ve got you covered with a few simple, modern PowerPoint presentation templates  with premium-quality designs: 

Case-in-point: look at this creative PowerPoint presentation template, Sparrow . As you can see from the screenshot, the slides have little text and use mostly images and visual elements to illustrate the point.

Using a professionally made PowerPoint template is a great way to ensure you avoid some of the most common presentation mistakes. For example, almost all of the templates on Envato Elements use the best presentation practices and have an attractive design as well as making sure that no slide is overcrowded with text or uses clashing colors.

Another good business presentation template example that'll help you avoid giving a bad presentation is the Oriola template , which uses professional typography that'll enhance the readability of your presentation.

Mistake 6. Not Working Out the Technical Kinks

There are two things you can count on when giving a presentation.

The first, is that you’ll undoubtedly be nervous. That’s only natural, and the good news is that you can harness that nervous energy to help propel your performance.

The second is that there'll be some error or technical miscue.

Professional sports teams will commonly travel a day or two early to a location and take practice on the exact field they’re playing. They’ll even go so far as to use the locker rooms and do a ‘dress rehearsal’ in the location to work out any kinks.

If you're unfamiliar with the venue or location, try to get access to the specific location you’re speaking a day earlier if possible.

That way you can practice a few times in front of all those empty chairs to get a feel for how the audience will be laid out, along with how your positioning a movement should adjust accordingly.

You can also practice with any computer connections, microphones, and other audio/visual equipment.

Ideally, when you show up on the day of the presentation, you should only be thinking about doing a great job (and not stressing over about whether you forgot that HDMI cable).

Mistake 7. Cluttered, Text-Heavy Slides

The best presentation slides are also usually the most simple and straightforward too.

That means no flashy transitions. No overloaded bullet points. And little-to-no extras likes sounds or videos.

One trick is to try and use one slide to deliver only one message or point. That'll keep your delivery streamlined, helping the audience to focus in on your message.

And another added bonus is that it'll help you eliminate using long text paragraphs altogether.

Avoid bad presentation design. Instead, think of each slide as a visual support; aiding or showing an example of what you’re talking about for each point.

A good business presentation example includes relevant graphs or charts that instantly illustrate the key message behind whatever it is you're talking about (like using a green, up-and-to-the-right arrow to equate success).

Discover more professional PowerPoint designs, with numerous slide layout and infographics options:

Mistake 8. Neglecting the Audience’s Background

Jargon can be good or bad.

If you’re speaking to people with technical backgrounds, going on and on about GIT is great. It gives you a common bond, and immediately lets those people know that you understand exactly what they do.

However, if not, mentioning a single piece of technical jargon will make sure you lose the audience within a few minutes of opening your mouth.

In an ideal world, your content should be created (or adapted) with the audience’s background and preferences in mind. If it’s a client, ask your internal champion or whoever introduced the two of you. If it’s a larger event, ask the organizer for some details on who the audience is, what their interests and pain points are, and the type or style of content they’re interested in.

Sometimes that'll be detailed case study information, while others it'll be more surface-level actionable tips. Presenting one, to the other, is a common misstep—even if your content is still good!

Mistake 9. Failing to Hold Your Audience’s Attention

The length of your speech can have a huge bearing on whether the audience is going to pay attention to the entire thing.

Your delivery—which includes everything from your volume, pausing, pacing, body language, and more—can also help captivate or bore your audience.

For example, noticeably raising or lowering the volume of words you're saying can not only make a presentation more interesting to listen to, but also add an emphasis to certain words or phrases. 

The same goes for speeding up, slowing down, and inserting longer-than-usual pauses to give people an extra second to digest what you just said. A key difference between a good and a bad presentation is hitting your timing and delivery.

Beyond those little tricks and dramatic gestures, your content itself should emotionally hook people too. 

For example, don't just launch into the 'solution' or tips. Instead, spend some extra time at the beginning—and throughout—putting this information in a larger context that relates back to the major problems or pain points in your audience's life that can be resolved.

Discover additional techniques on how to deliver an engaging presentation: 

Mistake 10. No Takeaways or ‘Next Steps’

Chances are, your audience will hit information overload.

If you’re speaking at a conference in the afternoon or it’s day three , they’re most likely already mentally exhausted.

So, make sure your presentation is easy to follow.

Start with a simple outline of the agenda at the very beginning to give people a step-by-step overview of what you’re going to cover.

If you make a key point, repeat it. Multiple times.

When you’re about to transition into a new section, reiterate what they just learned and give them a preview of what they’re going to find out in the next section.

And last, but certainly not least, give them a key takeaway or ‘next step’ to do after you’re done speaking.

The best business presentations are meant to inspire action. And ending after reciting just the facts, without organizing that information into context or explaining how (and why) they should do something with it, will make your speech fall flat.

Learn more creative techniques on how to inspire your audience to action: 

Mistake 11. Avoiding Eye Contact

Feeling nervous before your presentation is normal. However, don’t let that be an excuse for avoiding eye contact with your audience. Avoiding eye contact is one of more common presentation mistakes that happens for a variety of reasons, which include feeling nervous as well as poor preparation.

If you spend most of your time staring at your notes or at the presentation slide, your audience will quickly lose interest not to mention they'll feel like you’re not really familiar with the topic.

Establishing eye contact with your audience, even if it’s just a quick glance, is often enough to keep your audience engaged and creating a personal connection with them.

Take a look at this recording of a presentation about code architecture in WordPress. As you can see, the presenter, Mario Peshev, is not only great at moving around the stage, but also establishes eye contact with the audience ever so often.

If you’re presenting in front of a small audience, try to establish eye contact with each person in the room. If your audience is large, focus on a few key people instead.

Mistake 12. Inappropriate Humor

Using humor is a good way to break the ice and reduce the tension for yourself during a presentation. But if you’re not careful, inappropriate humor could backfire and offend your audience, which then leads to a bad presentation overall.

When it comes to humor, it’s important to remember that humor is very culture-dependent. What's funny in some parts of the world, might be highly offensive in other countries and cultures.

That’s why it’s crucial that you know your audience well before getting on stage and use humor carefully and sparingly. If you’re not that familiar with the audience, using other methods to break the ice is recommended.

Mistake 13. Speaking Incoherently

Another common presentation mistake is speaking incoherently. While you might not have any problems when speaking to your colleagues or friends, keep in mind that speaking to an audience is a whole other ball game. Nerves can get even the best of us, which leads to mumbling or rushing through the presentation to just get it done and over with.

However, neither mumbling nor rushing will help you get more sales. In fact, they'll result in a poor presentation. To avoid this, proper preparation is key as well as remembering to breathe and slow down instead of rushing ahead. If you find yourself rushing, pause for a moment to compose yourself. Take deep breaths, focus on speaking slowly, and don’t forget to enunciate each word for better clarity.

Listen to how Matt Abrahams clearly enunciates each and every word in his presentation Think Fast, Talk Smart:

Mistake 14. Dressing Inappropriately

The star of your presentation should be your topic and your slide deck, not your dress or your suit. The best advice you can apply is to dress conservatively so your audience can focus on what you’re saying.

There's nothing wrong with expressing your individuality through fashion in private. But unless your presentation is in front of a hip, fashionable audience, it’s best to stick to a professional dress code.

Men should avoid wearing flashy shirts and shorts while women should avoid low necklines, flashy jewelry, and short skirts. And no matter what, avoid wacky hairstyles.

Mistake 15. Forgetting to Introduce the Topic

Finally, don’t forget to introduce the topic of your presentation at the beginning. Don’t assume that your audience will know what your presentation is about, even if they know the title. After all, there are so many different ways to present any given topic.

In this presentation example, speech coach and speaker Steve Bustin, clearly explains what the topic of the presentation is:

As such, jumping straight in without explaining who you are, what your presentation is about, and why the topic is important is the best way to confuse your audience. Instead, take time at the beginning to share a few words about your presentation topic. This will not only help you pique your audience’s interest, but it'll also help you have a good business presentation.

Follow These 15 Good Business Presentation Tips - For Better Results

While you may have been taught years ago how to give a basic speech or presentation, an important business presentation with real money on the line is a completely different animal.

The problem is that common mistakes, like reading your cluttered, amateurishly designed slide deck in a boring monotone completely undermines your credibility. You lose the audience the moment you open your mouth.

• Script your presentation beforehand to lay out the foundation for the presentation, which will help come up with supporting materials and decide on the key takeaway and next steps your audience should take.
• Avoid reading directly from the slides. Your presentation will flow more naturally and you'll be able to better connect with your audience.
• Don’t forget that practice makes perfect. So, allow for plenty of time before the presentation. This will help you become super familiar with your topic and your slide deck. It'll also help you be more confident the day of the presentation.
• Be mindful and respectful of your audience’s time. Avoid going over or under the allotted presentation time.
• Consider using a professional PowerPoint template to avoid having to deal with a boring and unprofessional slide design. This common presentation mistake will result in your audience losing interest and having a poor impression of your brand and business.
• Be sure to test your microphone, computer, projector, and any other technical equipment needed for your presentation. Making sure that your equipment works is the best way to avoid any technical issues during your presentation.
• Keep your slides easy to read by keeping the text to a minimum. While you’re at it, use a larger font size and a font that’s easy to read.
• Your content should be created with the audience’s background and preferences in mind. Before the presentation, familiarize yourself with some details on who the audience is, what their interests and pain points are, and the type or style of content they’re interested in.
• On top of making sure your presentation isn't too long or too short, pay attention to your intonation and your body language. Doing so will help you hold your audience’s attention throughout the presentation.
• Once you’re done with the presentation, let your audience know what’s the next logical step. This will help you accomplish the main goals of your presentation and ensure you land that pitch or sell your product.
• Maintain eye contact with your audience throughout the presentation. This will help you establish a personal relationship with the audience.
• Avoid using humor unless you’re very familiar with the audience and their culture. Inappropriate humor can offend your audience, which will have a disastrous effect on your presentation.
• Take deep breaths, pause, and enunciate words carefully and clearly in your presentation.
• Dress appropriately for the venue and the setting of your presentation.
• Always remember to introduce and explain your topic before diving into your presentation.

Fortunately, you can avoid delivering a bad presentation. Start by tackling the tips above ( and add a whole lotta practice ) to make sure your next business presentation goes off without a hitch.

If you're looking for an easy place to start, check out this guide on PowerPoint templates  to make sure you've got the design basics down before progressing on to more advanced presentation techniques.

Here are a few more resources and tutorials to help you master your presentation:

Start Making Great Presentations Today

Take the tips you learned in this article further with our new eBook:  The Complete Guide to Making Great Presentations . Grab it now for FREE, along with a subscription to the Tuts+ Business Newsletter.  

Disorganized content, unclear design, and poor delivery can hinder even the best presentation ideas. Don't design a bad presentation that fails to deliver. 

Instead, learn how to write your presentation, design it like a pro, and prepare it to present powerfully. This 30-page eBook with helpful PDF checklist will walk you through the complete presentation process.

Apply These Tips to Avoid Presentation Mistakes 

Now you know some of the most common presentation mistakes and how to avoid making them. The tips in this article will ensure your presentation goes smoothly and you won’t leave a bad impression on your audience.

However, before you start working your presentation, you need to make a beautiful and engaging slide deck first. Start by checking out our beautiful PowerPoint presentation templates over on Envato Elements .

This tutorial was originally published in September of 2016. It's been comprehensively revised to include new information—with special assistance from  Brenda Barron . 

Speech Analysis | Storytelling

15 bad speeches we can learn from.

Written by Kai Xin Koh

If you’ve been an avid reader of our blog and generally presentation content on the internet, you’ll likely have been exposed to golden standards of presenting. (Think Steve Jobs) But how often have you encountered bad speeches that you can learn to avoid? Part of being a great public speaker or presenter is knowing what NOT to do so you can safeguard your reputation and speech.

Here are 15 bad speech examples for you to learn from:

Michael Bay quits Samsung

Have you ever forgotten your script, or perhaps experienced a faulty projector while presenting? Well, Michael Bay sure did. At the Samsung CES press conference in 2014, he failed to promote the new Samsung curved TV. After an error with the teleprompter, he apologized and walked off the stage, leaving the audience speechless and confused.

To avoid facing an awkward situation, pay close attention to certain key messages while practising. It will guide you through the presentation and help you recall the points, which could buy you some time to sort your cues.

Questioning Round: Miss Teen USA

In the Miss Teen USA 2007 question and answer round, Caitlin Upton struggled to answer her question: “Recent polls have shown that ⅕ of Americans can’t locate the US on a world map, why do you think this is?” She stumbled through her 30 seconds with an answer that barely made any sense.

You may come across some difficult questions when doing a Q&A session after a presentation. The best way you can deal with an unfamiliar question is to get back to the person after finding the answer. Always think through before replying and if you are unclear, ask them to repeat, or explain their question further. Failing to do so can lead to dire consequences on stage (usually an embarrassing time) if you rush through the question.

Emmy Awards 2013

The chances of winning an Emmy Award is probably one in a million, and award winners typically thank their families, producers and so on. However, all Merritt Wever had to say was “thank you so much. okay, I got to go. Bye.” The audience was baffled at the situation.

One thing that we can definitely learn from this is to have a prepared speech if you know you are being nominated. It may come off as rude if you don’t do so as you will leave the audience hanging, expectant of a thank you speech.

Melania Trump’s Republican National Convention Speech

Melania Trump’s speech at the Republican National Convention 2016 caused a huge controversy and uproar. Many observers were able to tell that her words were extremely similar to former First Lady Michelle Obama’s previous speech.

There may be days when you are inspired by others, and decide to put their speeches into yours. Do give the owners credit for it, which simply be done by mentioning these phrases, “quoted by”,”mention by” or “from”.

Theresa May’s Calamitous Conference Speech

This may be one of the most catastrophic speeches of all. The conference was to address and reassure her party’s political members about Brexit and Britain’s future. Amongst this seriousness, a comedian rudely disrupts her by handing over a resignation form and props behind were falling apart. Besides that, she was coughing endlessly into the mic, trying to proceed with the speech.

Props to her for trying to keep things together after an interruption, but coughing into the mic may seem unprofessional and unhygienic. One way to tackle these bad speeches is to turn away from the mic while coughing, though it would be best to hold it in. If you are losing your voice, do clear your throat first before speaking into the mic.

Santa Cruz City Council

One way of improving your city is to have people volunteer their ideas. Here is an example of a poorly executed speech with little structure and redundant hand gestures. It is natural to feel anxious when presenting in front of people with authority, however, it is important to keep your cool and practice before a speech.

A method to counter such anxiety is to have a list of things to be covered according to the flow of the speech. Having a specific structure helps both you and your audience understand the thought process better. Another way you can go about doing it is by practising in front of the mirror, which helps to boost your confidence and eliminate bad fidgeting habits.

Politician Rallying Votes

Being passionate and believing in yourself is important when you’re trying to convince people. Nevertheless, being overly zealous could potentially scare your audience, harming your chances to be voted. Looking at the video, you can probably tell that yelling makes it hard to hear your speech, and the tone of your speech affects the way your audience reacts.

One way to prevent this is to have your family members or colleagues listen to your speech beforehand. Have them pinpoint out specific mistakes such as voice projection, posture, and tone . Through this method, you will have a sense of what your audience will feel, and improve to make your speech better.

Pitching for 1million Pounds on Dragons’ Den

Asking for and receiving a million pounds is no easy task. Bathomatic failed to secure a deal with any of the dragons. In his pitch, he mentioned the problem, the solution and how he came up with this idea, however, there was something missing. He did not mention any benefit statement or justification for a large amount of money.

During a pitch, it is important to address your audience’s concerns. Questions such as “why should they invest in you?”, “what can you bring to the table for them?” can guide you in making a much more persuasive speech.

Common Mistakes Made

Here is a group of 4 students attempting to do a presentation on Apple. Throughout the video, we spotted numerous errors commonly made by presenters. Here are 5 mistakes which you should take note of:

1. Reading off the slides with your back facing the audience This is where cue cards come into play. If you are having a hard time remembering your script and need pointers to remind you, cue cards are a good alternative to solve that. They prevent you from back facing the audience and increases the engagement rate, but remember not to rely on them for the entire presentation!

2. Redundant animation sounds Just like sound effects in movies, they’re used to emphasize certain motions. Excessive use of this defeats the purpose and may be seen as annoying. Try to avoid using sound effects during a serious presentation as it destroys the atmosphere of a meeting or a pitch.

3. Teammates standing around This could be one of the toughest problems that group presenters encounter during a presentation. Teammates who are not presenting maybe fidgeting or look disinterested, which could distract your audience. In order to stop it from happening, have your team members nod in agreement to what you have to say. However, if they’re not involved, get them to join your audience instead.

4. Long paragraphs of information Based on a study done on 439 people by Dave Paradi, more than half felt annoyed when full sentences are used in Powerpoint. The solution to this is to break down sentences into shorter points, and every slide should only have one message. For example, if you are presenting a new product, separate the functions into different slides. This aids your audience in understanding and gives them a clear focused message.

5. Chewing on sweets/gums Take a look at the boy standing at the far right. Do you notice something?

He has been chewing on a gum since the start of the presentation all the way until the end!

While you’re enjoying your gum, others may see it as ill-mannered. Avoid eating any candies, chocolate, and gum right before your presentation. Chewing on something while presenting will not only be seen as disrespectful, but it will harm your voice projection as well. The best is to keep away from such sweet treats until the end of the presentation.

Nervous Breakdown During Business Presentation

This is a scene from Billable Hours, where Robin suffered a stage fright presenting in front of her peers. Despite having cue cards, she struggled to hold her presentation together.

The greatest takeaway here is to always practice your script beforehand. Practicing helps you retain and generate a flow of key messages. While practising, generate a structure that is easy for you to remember when you’re presenting. It makes you less dependent on cue cards and increases your chances of having eye contact with your audience.

Science Communication Workshop Presentation

Here is a spoof of a science communication workshop presented by Dr Fisher-Kat. Besides the noticeable clutter of words and pictures on a single slide, she was rambling on about the different scientific terms. At 2:10, a lady asked a question, however, she received an insulting reply.

When you’re presenting to people, especially a general audience, it is best to keep things simple. Removing and simplifying terminology will help your audience in understanding. If such terms are needed, explain them in layman terms.

Dealing with questions can be difficult, especially when you’re given a time limit. Using “Can I get back to you later?”, helps you kill two birds with one stone. You will be able to proceed on with your presentation while giving your audience a peace of mind that they will be answered. You can have a short chit-chat with the person after the presentation or simply drop them an email.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIPFrZY–30

Pitching Without Prepared Product

Whether it is pitching to your customers or investors, the most crucial parts are your services and products. But what happens when one fails to work? In this episode of Dragon Dens, an aspiring entrepreneur attempts to demonstrate his service. However, it did not work in his favour, leaving the dragons uninterested and speechless.

The biggest turn off for the investors is when you’re pitching something that does not work. To prevent this from happening, always do checks before going up on stage to do your grand pitch. Similarly, if your pitch requires help from others, remember to remind them of it. Being prepared definitely saves you from embarrassing situations.

Forgetting Your Script

There are two contrasting sides of this presentation, one being an engaging presentation, the other being a really confusing one. We also noticed that he forgot his script for a second in the middle of the presentation. How can we prevent ourselves from being seen as unprepared and confusing?

One way to go about doing this is by structuring your presentation. Stating the purpose of your presentation at the start would definitely help your audience understand better. This can be followed up with points supporting your key messages, and a summary of your main points. A presentation is just like writing an essay, there has to be a logical flow in order for your audience to understand better.

Sean Penn’s 2004 Oscar Speech – For Um-ing Too Much

A speech with flow often comes with tons of practice, but what happens if it is an impromptu speech? How do we give a speech without pausing for too long?

Impromptu speeches may be one of the hardest things to pull off. Besides thinking on your feet, you will have to speak in front of an audience with professionalism. However, these mistakes may seem minute when you’re fully focused on your presentation.

In this example, Sean seems to pull off his thank you speech pretty well except the countless number of times when he paused with an “um”. Though it is said subconsciously, it can make your speech choppy.

One method to avoid excessive pauses is to prep beforehand. You might want to know the background of the situation better before heading up to the stage. This way, you will have a rough idea of what needs to be covered when you’re on the stage.

For example, you will need to give an impromptu speech about your product to a group of investors. You can structure it by starting off with an introduction of yourself and your product, followed by benefits and lastly, sales and thank you. With a rough outline in mind, it could save some awkward pauses on stage and it might eventually impress the investors too.

IABC 2012 World Conference in Chicago

Buzzwords used in corporations around the world were collected and presented by Gerard Braud as an example of what no employee wants a CEO speech to sound like.

Simplifying terms used in your speech helps your audience to digest your content much easier as compared to the different unheard terminologies. When presenting to a general crowd, it is essential to understand that they might not entirely think the same way as you do.

One way to avoid miscommunication and confusion is to think in the audience’s perspective or get your family and friends to listen to you. If they don’t get the message you’re trying to convey, there is a high chance that the actual crowd may not understand it as well. Edit the speech accordingly, practice and you’re good to go!

Were you cringing while watching some of those bad speeches? You’re not the only one. To avoid a similar situation happening during your next speech or sales presentation, follow these tips based on learnings from the bad speeches above:

• Understand your audience
• Structure your key messages in a logical flow
• Prepare and check your props beforehand
• Practice Practice Practice
• Be calm when you face unforeseen circumstances

Prepare for the worst and you’ll never fall victim to a technical, or memory fault.

Article Written By: Kai Xin Koh

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Home Blog Presentation Ideas 10+ Outstanding PowerPoint Presentation Examples and Templates

10+ Outstanding PowerPoint Presentation Examples and Templates

Nobody said it’s easy to make a PowerPoint presentation . There are multiple design decisions to consider, like which layout is appropriate for the content you have to present, font pairing, color schemes, and whether to use animated elements or not. 

Making these choices when working under the clock is overwhelming for most people, especially if you only intend to make a report more visually appealing. For this very reason, we curated a selection of 11 good PowerPoint presentation examples categories in different niches to give you insights into what’s valued and how to take your presentations to a professional quality. All the templates used on each case will be linked for easy access.

Table of Contents

General Guidelines for Professional-Quality PowerPoint Presentations

Business pitch powerpoint presentation examples, marketing plan powerpoint presentation examples, company profile powerpoint presentation examples, quarterly/annual results presentation examples, project proposal presentation examples, training presentation examples, change management presentation examples, industry analysis presentation examples, financial planning examples, inspirational presentation examples, academic presentation examples, final words.

Before introducing our presentation slide examples, we need to discuss a list of factors that transform an average slide into a professional-quality one. 

Design Principles

For any professional-level slide deck, a consistent layout, color scheme, and font pairing are required throughout the presentation. The slides should remain uncluttered, with proper care of white balance across their composition, and stick to the 10-20-30 rule of presentations ’s concept of one concept per slide. 

Contrast between text and background color must comply with web design accessibility standards , meaning to work with a 4.5:1 contrast ratio for normal text, with exceptions for larger text. You can find more information in our article on accessibility for presentations .

A general rule in any graphic design project is to stick with fonts with ample legibility, like Arial, Helvetica, or Calibri. These are known as sans-serif fonts, and they work better than serif ones (i.e., Times New Roman) for larger text blocks.

Avoid using more than two different font families in your presentation; otherwise, the overall design will lose cohesion. Since you ought to ensure readability, the minimum size for body text should be 18pt, opting for larger variations and/or bold text for titles.

Using a combination of font pairing and font sizing helps create a hierarchy in your slides’ written content. For more insights on this topic, browse our article on fonts for presentations .

Color Scheme

Sticking to a color palette selection is one of the first design decisions to make when creating a custom slide deck . Colors have their own psychological impact on presentations, as explained in our article on color theory , so presenters must stick to 3-4 colors to avoid mixing up content in the slides. That being said, the colors have to be carefully selected according to the typical color scheme configurations, and using contrast to highlight key points on presentation slides.

Slide Layout

We can apply multiple graphic design guidelines to create professional-quality presentation slides, but in order to simplify the process, here are the key points to take into account:

• Grids and Guides: Divide your slide into sections using guides in PowerPoint or Google Slides. Then, you can build a grid that helps place elements and catch the viewer’s interest as they follow a logical flow while looking at the slide.
• Whitespace : Empty space is not your enemy. Slides shouldn’t be dense or feel hard on the eyes to read; therefore, work with a minimum of 30% whitespace.

Multimedia Elements

According to our expertise, video presentations and animation effects certainly increase the retention rate of the content you present. This is because they reduce the tiresome 2D presentation layout and add dynamism to the slides. Testing their functionality across different devices is a must to incorporate these elements into your presentation, especially if we consider that not all PowerPoint animation effects are compatible with Google Slides animations . 

Sound can be distracting in many scenarios unless you opt for an interactive presentation and require an audio track for an exercise. Action buttons in the form of quizzes or multiple-choice questions are fine examples of how we can integrate hyperlinks in interactive presentations.

The first professional PowerPoint example we will cover is when creating a problem slide business pitch. This selected business pitch PPT template has a 50/50 image-to-content balance that allows us to add images from our organization (or stick to the corporate placeholder image design) and quickly summarize the issue or need that our business aims to solve.

Remember that the selected colors for the text background area and text color are not 100% pure values—they are slight variations to reduce eye strain, making this slide a perfect choice for any kind of meeting room. Ideally, you can present up to three different problems to solve; otherwise, the text will look too small.

Another fine example of a PowerPoint presentation comes at the time of delivering an elevator pitch . As we all know, this concise presentation format requires a considerable amount of presentation aids to briefly expose each point in the speech under the allotted time frame. In this Revenue Model slide, we can find the answers to typical questions that help us shape the speech, all of them with icons and cues to remember from which areas the information comes.

If we aim to create a sponsorship pitch deck , it is important to bring proof of past sponsorship experiences to build our credibility in front of prospective sponsors. With this best PPT template tailored for sponsorship pitch presentations, we can display such data in an attractive visual format. The neat layout balances whitespace with content, with three distinctive KPI areas to talk about your history in sponsorship experiences. 

Talk about the market segmentation strategies of your marketing plan with this creative infographic template. This slide clearly illustrates that not all examples of PowerPoint presentations follow the same structure in terms of graphics-to-text balance. You can introduce data on how purchasing habits, user status, and brand loyalty influence buying decisions. Present key information about demographic & geographic segmentation and how psychographic information can provide deeper insights into consumer motivations to purchase.

Another PowerPoint example comes in the format of presenting market opportunities in marketing plans . You can list up to four points, which can be extracted from the outcomes of a SWOT analysis or from retrieved data from polls or stakeholders’ insights. The icons are entirely editable, and the crisp layout makes readability much easier.

Marketing agencies can benefit from this presentation PowerPoint example, which illustrates how easy it is to customize the content and repurpose slides for different client meetings. This and the other slides of this marketing plan slide deck allow professionals to discuss their expertise, past projects, and proposals for their target clients. In this case, the agency in question is offering insights on their work ethics through a clean slide layout with icons to flag key areas.

Our next PPT presentation example is suited for a Company Profile presentation in which we have to disclose key financial data. Thanks to the pie chart, presenters can segment revenue streams or do a balance between investments and profit. Additionally, the box placeholders allow us to deepen our knowledge of precise areas of interest.

Organizations who are looking to create a company profile can opt for a one-page arrangement to introduce the team members in charge, the overall services or products, the business model, the market, competitors, and relevant strategy information. The text boxes placed in the right area are a perfect opportunity to highlight KPIs.

In any company profile presentation, we have to introduce the organization’s Mission and Vision Statements. This presentation sample slide allows us to creatively discuss those topics. Including icons, users can summarize the primary aspects of their mission statement in one single, professionally styled slide.

Quarterly reports don’t need to be depicted as boring PDF files. We can work with clean layouts that provide information in an easy-to-follow format that focuses on the core elements of the report. This quarterly report presentation example is perfect for detailed reports as we cover all essentials in a one-page format for an employee’s performance review.

If, instead, you opt for a department-by-department approach, this slide presentation example illustrates two out of four quarters in the annual report. You can compare the product’s performance by production, allowing room to perform further optimizations based on sales behavior.

The construction industry requires a detailed presentation that covers all planned and contingency strategies for a project. Such an approach builds trust in the client, and that’s why we believe this PPT template for contractors is an essential tool for securing business deals. This presentation example template shows how to deliver a project proposal in style with accurate cost estimates.

A generic PPT project proposal template allows us to repurpose the slide for many projects—ideal for agencies, consultants, and academics. With this visual project proposal timeline, you can discuss the different stages of a project, plan for resources (both material and workforce), seek funding, or prepare for contingencies.

Once the project proposal’s core aspects are approved, teams must align efforts for project deliverables, acceptance criteria, and delivery format. This PPT presentation example illustrates a slide in a multi-team meeting to fine-tune aspects of the project deliverables, with an accurate representation of the due date and expected products.

Team training requires a framework in which the objectives of the workshop, coaching, or mentoring programs are laid out for management. HR teams can benefit from this presentation example by summarizing the objectives about missed business opportunities or expansion plans for the organization.

Before even delivering a training program, HR teams discuss the content to cover with the head of each department, mainly to spot any missing area of knowledge required for optimal operations. Presenters can repurpose this slide for that kind of training proposal presentation or the training presentation itself.

Intended for the early planning stages of a training program, this diagram is a well-rounded presentation example of how to discuss all points in one single slide, from the training budget to how to process employee feedback. We can expand each of these six topics in companionship slides.

Companies undergoing change management processes can opt to apply the DMAIC or the ADKAR frameworks to orient the workforce. This presentation slide allows management to compare both methodologies and pick the one best suited for their organization.

Since data sharing is delicate in charge management situations, implementing an information flow diagram is a good practice to orient your team, get the new owners or management the required information, and exchange information between departments.

For change management directed at process optimization, this example slide allows management to stress the importance between the current situation and the expected improved state. This PPT template can also introduce the different milestones per stage and involve the management parties per area.

Startups often present their industry analysis to procure investment from venture capitalists. This industry analysis presentation example showcases a typical FinTech segmentation. Presenters can describe the different types of crowdfunding, credit, and factoring services and provide examples of companies or platforms in each subcategory. They can discuss areas like asset management, payments, and other relevant aspects in detail, with successful stories from referents that helped shape their business model.

STEEPLE stands for Social, Technological, Economic, Ethical, Political, Legal, and Environmental factors. This framework allows us to perform a multidimensional industry analysis in which stakeholders can evaluate the appropriate approaches for venturing into a new business niche, renewing their overall strategy, or pursuing new goals based on recent industry changes, even those we don’t initially acknowledge.

The Gap Analysis concept compares a company’s current status to a desired future state. By doing so, organizations can identify deficits or areas that require improvement in alignment with the future state. Presenters can work with this metaphorical gap analysis template and express the need for a plan that bridges such a gap.

The next example of a PowerPoint presentation is oriented to the financial area, in which a consultant can refer to an organization’s asset management. By Scope, we imply the extent and boundaries of the asset management activities within an organization. It outlines what will be included in the asset management plan and what will not. On the other hand, Inventory points to a comprehensive and detailed list of all the assets owned by an organization. It includes essential information about each asset to facilitate effective management.

In financial presentations, the information must be clearly arranged so decisions can be made easily. In this case, we observe how a financial dashboard template can represent an organization’s relevant KPIs.

Think about TEDx presentations or Pecha-Kucha . They all have one factor in common: quality graphics to talk about inspirational stories. Graphics can feel overwhelming for some presenters, which ends in picking low-quality pictures or stock images unsuitable for the context of your slide deck. For this reason, we highly recommend you implement vector illustrations into your motivational presentation slides. Easy to customize, they are a valuable asset to mix & match PPT templates and create your custom deck.

Aligning efforts toward a common goal requires a powerful visual communication language. Images are easier to retain than words, so imagine adding a storytelling factor and turning a goal into a mountain to conquer. Presenters can work with this mountain PPT template and signal the different milestones to reach prior to fulfilling a significant goal for the company/organization.

Another take in inspirational presentations is when we need to share our success stories with investors or in networking environments to inspire others. With this roadmap PPT template, presenters can go stage by stage and present the key stages that made them reach their success, or even project for expected goals to achieve.

Academic presentations don’t have to look dull or excessively formal. We can incorporate a sleek layout into our slides and use icons to highlight key points. In this case, we observe a project overview for a research project, and the icons represent the main aspects to cover in this research.

A thesis presentation requires properly introducing the methodology to demonstrate the hypothesis. Rather than adding complex figures, we can work with a minimalistic slide design and briefly describe the research methods. This slide deck is suitable for thesis presentations as well as academic projects, research papers , and more.

As we can see, counting with a professionally designed slide deck makes a difference in how your presentation is perceived by the audience. By working with SlideModel PowerPoint templates, we can reuse and repurpose our slide templates as often as required or mix elements from different slides seen in these PowerPoint presentation examples to create uniquely styled slide decks.

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• INNOVATION FESTIVAL
• Capital One

06-06-2024 CAREER EVOLUTION

How to give a presentation that doesn’t feel cheesy or self-serving 

An expert shares four steps that can help you give a more authentic and impactful presentation.

[Source Photo: Fauxels /Pexels]

BY  Kris Flegg 4 minute read

When presenting in front of an audience , you’ll probably think about what you want to gain—and that’s okay. You’ve got a sale to make, investors to convince, minds to change. But to make an impact, all of that must come second. Whatever your needs are, to give a truly successful presentation, you need to align with the audience’s needs. If you can’t, either keep thinking or don’t give a presentation at all. Don’t waste their time and yours.

I am a presentation expert, and one of the sentences I most hate to hear from clients is, “We need to tell them about X without referencing why we’re bringing it up.” But a presentation isn’t a brochure. Your audience can Google an advertisement. When we aren’t our audience’s humble servants, it’s easy to get stuck in arrogance and talk about problems instead of solving them.

Most of us are sick of being yelled at and sold to. In the normal course of the day, we’re dealing with billboards, Facebook ads, pop-ups, and sponsored content. As a result, our ability to block out advertisements can be phenomenal. And your audience will put up this same barrier to block you out if they think you’re being cheesy or self-serving.

The word servant may trigger you. Your ego may get upset. But it’s critical to move past this. One of the less helpful techniques we’ve been told to use to deal with nerves is to “puff out our chests” and prove ourselves with inflated confidence . Trust me, this is bad advice. It only inflates our egos. Confidence is important, but a huge ego hurts a good presentation.

As an audience member, how would you feel if you were watching a presenter who was truly there for you? Who was tuned in to your needs, wants, fears, and questions? How much more likely would you be to respond to their message, take the next step with them, or ask a meaningful question?

Here are four easy steps to help you shift your mindset from being self-focused when you are giving a presentation —and to making the audience your priority. 

Ask questions to understand your audience’s needs

Become an expert in your audience’s problems. Dive in and speak to them directly. If you can’t connect with them one-on-one, then think about them. Ask: What’s important to them? What are their fears and drivers? What do they know? What are their knowledge gaps? Talk, engage, post on LinkedIn—do whatever you need to do to ask the questions you need answers for. It’s very easy to assume we know these things already, but the power of continuously asking questions to understand your audience’s needs is that you will learn how best to serve them. 

Work out how to address your audience 

After you ask questions to understand your audience’s needs, you should establish what is the best way to communicate with your audience. First, consider what their preferred communication styles are and aim to match them. 

Next, determine what issues your audience needs solving. It might not be possible to solve all of their issues, so don’t overextend the scope of what you’re offering. Instead, focus on how your solution addresses the issues it does solve. To address their issues, you may be asking your audience to change their way of thinking. Instead, try to guide your audience to the conclusion you want them to reach. Hopefully, it’s one that shows them how you can address their needs. This shows you’re on their side.

Prove you can solve their issues 

If you know what your audience’s needs are and can meet those needs, show you can do so in a credible and effective way. It’s not about telling people what you can do, it’s about showing them. Use case studies, stories, and products to prove that you can solve their issues. Build people’s confidence to follow you, to believe in you, and to be open to your ideas. This builds a commonality and shared purpose—and doesn’t come across as cheesy or self-serving.

Don’t make assumptions about what your audience knows

Imagine you’re a novice at whatever topic your presentation is on. View your content through a fresh set of objective eyes. Consider these questions:

• How much of your content has a prerequisite understanding that everyone listening to you might not have?
• Is there anything that you are addressing that needs a prior explanation?
• What assumptions have you set in place about your audience? 
• Are you taking steps to make sure that you’ve eliminated the obstacles for an audience to understand?
• When it comes down to it, are you sure your presentation will make sense to everyone listening?

By following these four steps, you can come across as a humble servant while giving a presentation. These steps can help you transform the approach and flow of your presentation. Ultimately, these practices will help you live in your audience’s world, where you can think like them, you can connect, and you can make a true impact. 

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Kris Flegg started his career in the banking sector before becoming the founder and director of Presentation Design Co. and a certified Platinum Prezi Expert.  Flegg has personally conducted face-to-face workshops for over 3,500 people, led the development and design of high-stakes presentations, and authored a book titled "The Presentation Playbook.”   More

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Presentation Skills: 16 tips for effective presentations

A successful presentation requires good presentation skills and effective presentation techniques. Here we provide you with 15 presentation tips for effective presentations. Whether you are an experienced presenter, or just starting out, there should be ideas here to help you improve your presentation skills.

Presenting successfully: 16 tips to improve your presentation skills and give a killer presentation 

How do you give a good presentation this is how to succeed.

In order to be able to present successfully, not only the layout and the content of the presentation must be convincing. The decisive step is to convey the content of the presentation to the audience in the best possible way by presenting it correctly. The tips listed below should help you do this by improving your presentation skills. The most important thing to keep in mind is a healthy combination of the tips listed below. (The order of the tips does not give any information about their importance).

Not every tip will lead to a successful presentation. What is important in a presentation?

As mentioned earlier, you should try to implement a combination of the tips to give a successful presentation. It should be noted that not every one of these tips needs to fit in your own presentation. In addition, too many of these tips can make the presentation look overloaded and too "rehearsed". Therefore, think carefully in advance about what you want to pay particular attention to.

Here are 16 tips for killer presentations:

Tip 1: maintain eye contact while presenting and smile.

In order to give each of your listeners the feeling of being important and to make them feel personally addressed, it is particularly important to maintain eye contact with the audience during the presentation. Not only does this exude confidence, but it also helps your audience to connect with you and your subject. It also helps you feel less nervous.  Easier said than done right? Here's what can help:

Find someone in the audience who seems to be genuinely interested in the topic and is listening attentively (for example, your lecturer). Make eye contact with this person at the beginning of the presentation. Once you start feeling more calm and confident let your gaze drift over the audience to address the other listeners as well. Keep returning your gaze to the initial person to stay calm throughout the whole presentation.

Another alternative is to find a fixed point in the room (preferably on the wall behind the audience) which you fix at the beginning of the presentation. Similar to the first example, after you have achieved confidence, you can let your gaze wander over the audience and return to the previously selected fixed point again and again.

Don't look at the screen! Don't look at the floor! Don't just look at your index cards! Don't just look at the laptop!

Tip 2: Use of gestures and facial expressions

To emphasize the content of your presentation, it is advisable to use appropriate gestures and body language to get your message across. Avoid crossed arms, hands behind your back, or in your pockets during a presentation.  Always stand up straight, and try not to appear tense or stressed. You can do that by using your hands and arms to emphasize what you are saying and get your message across.  Your facial expressions should always be friendly and open. Smile and show that you enjoy the topic and you are confident in the information you are presenting.

Tip 3: Avoid distractions

Often you will not be able to avoid the use of aids. For example, you may need to use a laser pointer to show something on the screen, or you may need to use a pen to write something down on a flipchart. To avoid distractions for you and the audience, get into the habit of putting down tools you don't need! That way you will not be tempted to deal with them in the first place. You will also have your hands free for gestures.

Tip 4: Be prepared: Practice makes perfect

Practice makes perfect, right? If you prepare well before the presentation, you will feel more relaxed and confident while presenting and it will also improve your body language. 

Here are some ways to help you prepare for a presentation:

Rehearse in front of a crowd

Time yourself

Record yourself

Tip 5: Be confident

By appearing self-confident, you convey to the listener that you are confident in your topic and have prepared yourself sufficiently. Try to relax and not appear too stressed or nervous. Another tip for advanced speakers: Step out in front of the podium and walk around the room and get closer to the audience. This also exudes self-confidence and helps in attracting your audience's attention.

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Tip 6: Effective beginning/end

Good presentation skills can help you in captivating your audience straight away. In order to do that, you should start your presentation with a bang. Many studies show that if you can capture someone’s interest straight away, there’s a good chance they’ll listen to the rest of the presentation. Shock the audience, ask them to imagine something or think of a what-if situation, share a personal story, share a joke, u se a quote, or a video. You should also give an overview of the time and structure of your presentation. This outline should run through your presentation so that you can always assign the individual contents to an outline point. It is also helpful for your audience to have the outline displayed in a slimmed-down form during the whole presentation.

How you end the presentation is as important as how you start it. A weak ending will leave the audience uninspired. But a good ending will motivate them and help them walk away on a positive note. For example, include a call to action, end the presentation with a memorable quote, or a personal story, and don't forget to thank and acknowledge the audience. 

Tip 7: Speak freely

The headline speaks for itself. To make the presentation as lively and enjoyable as possible, you should avoid reading it off. Speak freely, slowly, and clearly. If you are not yet confident in what you are presenting, try using note cards. But keep in mind: No continuous text, but only short, concise bullet points! If you use note cards to support you, it is especially advisable at this point to memorize at least the beginning and end of your presentation, as eye contact is crucial at these points.

Tip 8: Avoid filler words

In order to make your presentation flow as smoothly and confidently as possible, you should avoid using filler words such as "um," "so," and so on. For your listeners, these words convey insecurity and inadequate preparation.

Tip 9: Bring along something to share

In addition to a handout, other small takeaways can also significantly improve your presentation. For example, if you are giving a presentation on gummy bears, why not offer some to your audience? If you are giving a presentation about your fishing hobby, why not show the audience your fishing equipment?

Tip 10: Use different types of media

A presentation can quickly become boring and monotonous. To avoid this, it is advisable to use different types of media. For example, combine videos and flipcharts, use the whiteboard, or show something practical on a model. This will increase the attention of your audience enormously and will help in keeping them engaged until the end.

Tip 11: Use effective pauses

When giving a presentation, you should keep in mind that you have already heard the content several times - your audience probably hasn't! Therefore, give your audience enough time to read and understand the content of your slides.

Effective use of speech pauses is a master technique. It is one of the most versatile tools in a presenter's toolbox. Yet very few people perform it well. A pause, if used correctly, can add a great deal to your presentation or speech. Pause before, during, or after saying something that you would like to emphasize. Pausing between two different parts of your presentation can indicate to the audience that something new is coming. A quick pause could also help you in remembering your next point, without the audience noticing that you forgot what to say.

Tip 12: Speak the language of the audience

When creating your presentation, you should already think about your target audience. This will help you present successfully later on. It is especially important that you speak the language of the audience. Use appropriate and relevant examples. Use "strong" and meaningful words in short sentences to avoid losing the audience. Make sure to use appropriate analogies and anecdotes and avoid foreign words, empty phrases, and clichés. If you have to use foreign words, explain them in a handout or footnote within the presentation.

Tip 13: Engage with the audience

Always try to keep the attention of your audience and keep them engaged during a presentation. To do this, it is advisable to regularly involve the audience. One way to do this is to ask questions. Deliberately ask "easy" questions so that can easily be answered by your audience. Another way to involve the audience in your presentation is by interacting with them. To make a point clearer, you can use an example to explain it in more detail, using a person (whose name you should know). You can address participants directly and refer to their work.

Tip 14: Don't fight the stage fright & take deep breaths

Stage fright is one of the biggest enemies of a presentation, yet you shouldn't let yourself be a victim of your feat. Do not fight it, rather address your fear and try and accept it, and transform it into positive enthusiasm. Don't let your stage fright get you all worked up and nervous. Take a couple of deep breaths to get oxygen to your brain and relax your body.

Tip 15: Choose the right angle on standing during a presentation

One of the most frequent questions that speakers ask themselves during a presentation is, how do I best position myself, and where do I stand in front of the audience?

You have a free stage without a podium

In many cases, you will be facing your audience in a "free space", without a podium. This gives you a lot of room to move, but at the same time, it creates uncertainty because you don't know how to position yourself properly or how to move. Avoid standing frontally in front of the audience! This frontal facing is unconsciously perceived negatively by the audience. It is perceived by the audience as a kind of frontal attack and causes stress in your audience. Make sure to stand slightly to the side of the audience. If you notice during the presentation that you are again standing frontally in front of your audience, simply move your right or left foot 20 cm forward.

You have a podium at your disposal

A podium makes it easier to decide how to position yourself and where to stand in front of the audience. In order not to make your presentation too monotonous, it is advisable to leave the "safe position" behind the lectern from time to time, e.g. to walk to the other side of the screen or to show something on the flipchart. This brings movement into your presentation and helps keep the connection with your audience.

Tip 16: Create something with the whiteboard during the lecture

PowerPoint is no longer the tool of choice for a successful presentation. Photo collages, company logos on every slide and flashing text boxes often distract from the essentials. A presentation convinces the audience especially when they witness how something is being created. In addition to the classic flipchart, the whiteboard is recommended for this purpose. This is because diagrams, keywords and the results of a brainstorming session are written in real time on a whiteboard. Board markers allow a wide range of colors and the magnetic property of pinning additional information. The result of the presentation produced in this way is remembered longer than ready-made slides.

Björn Rolleter

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Bad Design vs. Good Design: 5 Examples We can Learn From

Looking at examples of bad design alongside counter-examples of good design is not only fun but also draws important lessons for designers. They highlight pitfalls for designers to avoid and let us understand how to translate design theories into solutions that work in the real world. Jared Spool, the American writer, researcher and usability expert, once said: “Good design, when it’s done well, becomes invisible. It’s only when it’s done poorly that we notice it.” So, let’s look at five examples of obviously bad designs, shine the light on how good design makes it work, and distil some lessons so we can all create great and invisible experiences for our users.

1. Information overload

The bad: parking signs in los angeles.

Parking signs in Los Angeles (LA) have been the epitome of information overload for decades. They’ve always been notoriously hard to understand, because the traffic rules are complex, resulting in the need to convey a lot of information in a small area.

How confusing are these signs? Traditionally, very —look at this example from the 2010s:

As LA parking signs go, this example is already a pretty simple one.

Imagine you are a driver along this road on a Tuesday morning at 9 a.m. Can you park at this spot? What sounds like a simple question takes a lot of mental processing to answer.

As designers, we’re often faced with situations where we have to design for a lot of information to be displayed in a small space. The parking signs in LA might be an extreme case, but many times designing for mobile apps means facing the same problems. Is there a way out—for both the parking signs and designers in general?

The Good: Nikki Sylianteng’s Parking Sign

Designing a sign to display all the information, while being easy to understand, sounds like an impossible task. But that’s exactly what Brooklyn designer Nikki Sylianteng did.

Nikki’s proposed parking sign was eventually used in LA as part of a trial run.

Part of why Nikki’s design1 works well is that it is user-centred: Nikki realised drivers simply want to know whether they can park at a spot. Yes or no—that’s all drivers needed, and that’s all the parking sign shows.

Her design also made use of visuals, rather than text, to convey information. The result is incredibly intuitive: green for OK, red for No Parking. It’s even designed for the colour blind, with stripes for No Parking.

Now when you look at the sign, you’ll know that on Tuesday at 9 a.m., parking is not allowed. The bars show what’s what at a glance—simple.

Lessons Learnt: Best Practice

Understand what your users need , then design based on that. This helps reduce information overload.

Have lots of information to convey to your users? Try using visuals instead of text. Learn more about data visualisation here.

2. Mystery Meat Navigation

The bad: lazoroffice.com.

Coined in 1998 by Vincent Flanders of Web Pages That Suck2, the Mystery Meat Navigation (MMN) refers to cases where the destination of a link is not visible until the user clicks on it or points the cursor at it. The term “mystery meat” was a reference to meat served in American public school cafeterias that are so processed that their exact type is no longer discernible.

MMN is bad because it reduces the discoverability of navigation elements. This adds cognitive load to users, because they now have to guess how to navigate or what clicking something does.

While most MMN are found in older websites, they’re surprisingly prevalent in modern websites. Take Lazor Office, a design firm that creates pre-fabricated homes, for example.

LazorOffice.com has a grid of MMN images on its home page. As you can see, this tableau gives precious little indication as to where to go. Instead, nine images just sit, leaving some of us pondering an enigma rather than interacting with a page.

Below the fold of their home page, a grid of image thumbnails lie waiting. Are they clickable? Well, yes—if you move your mouse cursor over an image, it changes to a pointer. But what happens when you click on an image?

“Click to find out!” is never a good User Experience (UX) solution. Chances are, your users are going to abandon their navigation and find an alternative solution in a competitor’s site.

The Good: Course Cards on Interaction Design Foundation’s website

Thankfully, MMN problems are easy to solve. The key is to be aware that you must clearly label links. Simply adding “View project” that appears on mouse hover will improve the usability of Lazor Office’s page above.

Our course cards are as un-mysterious as links go.

For the Interaction Design Foundation’s course cards, we not only have “View Course” at the bottom of each card to indicate the action that will happen, but we also have a hover state with the text “Go to course”. Many websites follow a similar convention, and you should too, to maximise the usability of your website.

Lesson Learnt: Best Practice

Always label your links! You wouldn’t like to eat mystery meat—and similarly, your users wouldn’t like to click on mystery links.

3. Adding Friction to User Actions

The bad: ifly50.com.

As designers, we should add friction to user actions with extreme caution, unless the point is to dissuade users from performing that action. Sometimes, however, we might even unintentionally add friction to user actions (mostly due to aesthetic or novelty reasons) that result in detrimental UX.

One example is iFly50.com, created for the anniversary of the iFly magazine by KLM. iFly 50 is a vertical scrolling website showcasing 50 travel destinations, and in some destinations (such as the one below), a button near the bottom asks users to click and hold for a few seconds to view more photos.

iFly 50 expects its users to click and hold for a few seconds every time they want to see more photos.

The act of adding a few seconds of friction to each action can result in tremendously poorer UX. Imagine if, instead of clicking to load a page instantly, you’ve now got to click and hold for two seconds for every link you clicked in your browser. You’ll quit exploring the internet altogether after a few click-and-holds.

Many times, we designers tend to get carried away with the newest interaction styles or actions, but it is critical that you always exercise caution when your design could add friction to user actions. Most of the time, tried and tested conventions (for example, simple clicks or swipes) work perfectly.

The Good: Elastic Scrolling on iOS

Interestingly, mindfully adding friction to user actions can result in great design. One of Apple’s most popular inventions in their mobile operating system, iOS, is the creation of elastic scrolling, where in certain situations (such as at the end of a webpage) scrolling becomes increasingly difficult.

Author/Copyright holder: Interaction Design Foundation ApS. Copyright terms and licence: Fair Use

In iOS’s elastic scrolling, friction is deliberately added in some situations.

You can see this in action above, where increased friction occurs when the user scrolls to the end of the webpage. Friction was added to indicate situations where scrolling is no longer allowed: and the effect is an intuitive experience.

Lesson learnt: Best Practice

Avoid adding any kind of friction to user actions as far as you can—and carefully implement it when you have no alternative.

4. “Clever” Design that Ignores Usability

The bad: bolden.nl.

Sometimes, clever designs can be detrimental to UX. What makes this mistake more dangerous is that we designers love clever designs. They’re tiny graphical wonders that bring a smile to our faces. Sadly, the majority of humans are not designers. Even sadder, not all clever designs are good designs, especially when they create accessibility , discoverability or usability problems.

Take Dutch strategic design and development studio Bolden’s website, for example:

Can you tell what their home page is trying to say? No? Well, that’s because you’ll have to move your mouse to the corner of the page so as to see the messages properly.

Is this a clever design? Yes, definitely. But is this bad design? Absolutely!

This is a great example of designing for the designer , rather than the user: the website seriously reduced the legibility of its headlines in its creators’ determination to deliver a novel design. Whoever designed this also left out text to tell users that they’re supposed to move their mouse to the corners, which means the discovery of the headlines relies on happenstance . Furthermore, even when the headline is revealed, the contrast between the text and the background is poor due to the point that you can still see overlapping text. This all adds up to create a user- un friendly website.

The Good: CultivatedWit.com

Cultivated Wit’s website is a great counter-example of how clever design need not put a strain on usability.

Cultivated Wit’s homepage displays an illustrated owl.

In Cultivated Wit’s homepage, the illustration of the owl winks when your mouse moves over it:

Surprise! The owl winks at you when you point the cursor at it. Note the wise allocation of whitespace , too.

The key difference here is that this does not form an essential part of the website, so it does not diminish the usability even if the user does not discover this clever design element.

Furthermore, they have a clear downward-pointing arrow to suggest something lies below the fold. And when you scroll down, you’ll see this:

And websites can be clever without sacrificing UX.

The copy (which is legible and has good contrast) creates a sense of wit—not unlike what Bolden was trying to achieve—without diminishing the UX of the website. The only small problem is the text “Join our email club” should be more visible, but taken as a whole, Cultivated Wit’s website is a great example of delivering a clever design without creating poor UX.

Clever designs should always be made as foolproof as possible, and/or tested on actual users. Sometimes, clever designs can backfire and hurt usability.

5. Superfluous animations

The bad: paypal receipt concept on dribbble.

Animations are a crucial element of interaction design, but they should always serve a purpose. They should never be done for animation’s sake. Unfortunately, designers tend to have a love affair with animations, partly because animations are so fun to create that we might not know when to stop.

Vladyslav Tyzun’s animation concept for a PayPal email receipt, posted on Dribbble, is an example of animation done wrongly:

Author/Copyright holder: Vladyslav Tyzun. Copyright terms and licence: Fair Use.

The animation is pretty, but superfluous. In total, it takes a whopping 3.5 seconds to see the transaction details. A simple fade-in of the receipt would be more elegant, and because it takes up less time, better for the user as well.

This problem becomes dangerous when designers seemingly cannot get enough of animations. As of 2016, Vladyslav’s animation would receive more than 500 likes and 8,000 views. This shows a misguided appreciation that designers have towards animation for animation’s sake. Having insight into the designer’s tendency to prefer swooping epics over more direct representations and catching yourself before you give in to animations will save you a lot of time and prevent many headaches. Remember, users come to sites for a purpose—we want to show them what they are after in a short space and time, not detain them in a grand tour of the gallery.

[[widget__template:bad- ui-design -mistakes-and-how-to-avoid-them]]

The Good: Stripe Checkout’s Animation

When we do animation purposefully , however, the results can be great. Look at Stripe Checkout’s animation when the user receives a verification code:

Author/Copyright holder: Stripe, Inc. Copyright terms and licence: Fair Use.

Stripe uses animations to make things seem faster than they are: it provides users with updates (like “Sent”) even though they might not have received the SMS yet. This prevents users from feeling frustrated at having to wait, and provides assurance that an SMS is on its way right now.

Rachel Nabors, an invited web animations expert at the W3C, suggests five principles to keep in mind when designing animations3:

Animate deliberately : think through each animation before you create it.

It takes more than 12 principles : Disney’s 12 principles of animation work for films, but not necessarily for websites and apps.

Useful and necessary, then beautiful : aesthetics should take the back seat to UX.

Go four times faster : good animations are unobtrusive, which means they run fast.

Install a kill switch : for large animations such as parallex effects, create an opt-out button.

Always make your animation purposeful: too much can kill the UX of a product. Beauty has to pull its weight and be functional.

The Take Away

Isn’t it fun looking at examples of bad design? Thankfully, it’s educational as well. Here are the key lessons and best practices from the five examples of good and bad designs:

Understand what your users need , then deliver that information.

If you’ve got lots of information to convey, try using visuals instead of text .

Always label your links ! Users don’t like mystery links.

Avoid adding any kind of friction to user actions, unless they’re meant to dissuade the action.

Test your clever designs and include them cautiously.

Animation is like cursing. If you overuse it, it loses all its impact.4

The next time you frown at an instance of bad design, stop to think: understand why the design failed, find examples of designs that did things right, and make a mental note of the lesson you’ve learnt. And then share the love: share your lesson with other designers in our discussions forum !

Visual Design: The Ultimate Guide

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Important Communication Skills and How to Improve Them

Communication skills in the workplace include a mix of verbal and non-verbal abilities. Learn more about the importance of communication skills and how you can improve yours.

Communication involves conveying and receiving information through a range of verbal and non-verbal means. When you deliver a presentation at work, brainstorm with your coworkers, address a problem with your boss, or confirm details with a client about their project, you use communication skills. They're an essential part of developing positive professional relationships.

While it might seem like communication is mostly talking and listening, there’s more to it than that. Everything from your facial expression to your tone of voice feeds into communication. In this article, we'll go over what communication skills at work look like and discuss ways you can improve your skills to become a more effective communicator. 

4 types of communication

Your communication skills will fall under four categories of communication. Let's take a closer look at each area. 

1. Written communication

Writing is one of the more traditional aspects of communication. We often write as part of our job, communicating via email and messenger apps like Slack, as well as in more formal documents, like project reports and white papers.

Conveying information clearly, concisely, and with an accurate tone of voice are all important parts of written communication.

2. Verbal communication

Communicating verbally is how many of us share information in the workplace. This can be informal, such as chatting with coworkers about an upcoming deliverable, or more formal, such as meeting with your manager to discuss your performance.

Taking time to actively listen when someone else is talking is also an important part of verbal communication.

3. Non-verbal communication

The messages you communicate to others can also take place non-verbally—through your body language, eye contact, and overall demeanor. You can cultivate strong non-verbal communication by using appropriate facial expressions, nodding, and making good eye contact. Really, verbal communication and body language must be in sync to convey a message clearly.  

4. Visual communication

Lastly, visual communication means using images, graphs, charts, and other non-written means to share information. Often, visuals may accompany a piece of writing or stand alone. In either case, it's a good idea to make sure your visuals are clear and strengthen what you're sharing.  

Why are communication skills important?  

We use our communication skills in a variety of ways in our professional lives: in conversations, emails and written documents, presentations, and visuals like graphics or charts. Communication skills are essential, especially in the workplace, because they can:

Improve your relationships with your manager and coworkers

Build connections with customers 

Help you convey your point quickly and clearly

Enhance your professional image

Encourage active listening and open-mindedness

Help advance your career

 17 ways to improve your communications skills in the workplace

Communicating effectively in the workplace is a practiced skill. That means, there are steps you can take to strengthen your abilities. We've gathered 17 tips to provide actionable steps you can take to improve all areas of workplace communication. 

1. Put away distractions.

Improving your overall communication abilities means being fully present. Put away anything that can distract you, like your phone. It shows others that you’re respectfully listening and helps you respond thoughtfully to the conversation.  

2. Be respectful. 

Be aware of others' time and space when communicating with them. Thank them for their time, keep presentations to within their set time limits, and deliver written communications, like email, during reasonable hours.  

3. Be receptive to feedback.

As you’re working to improve your communication skills, ask your colleagues for feedback about areas you can further develop. Try incorporating their feedback into your next chat, brainstorming session, or video conference. 

4. Prioritize interpersonal skills. 

Improving interpersonal skills —or your ability to work with others—will feed into the way you communicate with your colleagues, managers, and more. Interpersonal skills have to do with teamwork, collaboration, emotional intelligence, and conflict resolution, and often go hand-in-hand with communicating.  

Written and visual communication tips

Writing and imagery share a lot in common in that you're using external mediums to share information with an audience. Use the tips below to help improve both of these communication types.

5. Be concise and specific.

Staying on message is key. Use the acronym BRIEF (background, reason, information, end, follow-up) to help guide your written or visual communication. It's important to keep your message clear and concise so your audience understands your point, and doesn't get lost in unnecessary details.  

6. Tailor your message to your audience.

Your communication should change based on your audience, similar to how you personalize an email based on who you're addressing it to. In that way, your writing or visuals should reflect your intended audience. Think about what they need to know and the best way to present the information.

7. Tell a story.

When you can, include stories in your written or visual materials. A story helps keep your audience engaged and makes it easier for people to relate to and grasp the topic.

8. Simplify and stay on message.

Proofread and eliminate anything that strays from your message. One of the best ways to improve communication is to work on creating concise and clear conversations, emails, and presentations that are error-free.

Verbal communication tips

Remember that verbal communication goes beyond just what you say to someone else. Use the tips below to improve your speaking and listening abilities.

9. Prepare what you’re going to say.

If you’re presenting an idea or having a meaningful talk with your supervisor, take some time to prepare what you’ll say. By organizing your thoughts, your conversation should be clearer and lead to a more productive interaction. 

10. Get rid of conversation fillers.

To aid in your conversational improvement, work to eliminate fillers like “um,” and “ah.” Start listening for these fillers so you can use them less and convey more confidence when you speak. Often these phrases are used to fill the silence, which is a natural part of conversation, so try to embrace the silence rather than fill it. 

11. Record yourself communicating.

If you need to deliver a presentation, practice it in advance and record yourself. Review the recording and look for places to improve, such as catching the conversational fillers we mentioned above or making better eye contact with your audience.  

12. Ask questions and summarize the other person's main points.

Part of being an active listener is asking relevant questions and repeating pieces of the conversation to show that you understand a point. Listening makes communication a two-way street, and asking questions is a big part of that.  

13. Be ready for different answers.

Listen without judgment. That’s the goal of every conversation, but especially if you hear responses that are unexpected or different than you anticipate. Listen to the person openly, be mindful of your body language, and don’t interrupt. 

14. Make sure you understand.

Before ending a conversation, take a moment to ask a few follow-up questions and then recap the conversation. You can finish by repeating what you've heard them say and confirming that you understand the next actionable steps.

Non-verbal communication

Lastly, your body communicates a lot . Use the tips below to become more mindful about your body language and other important aspects of non-verbal communication.

15. Work on your body language.

Body language comes up in a range of scenarios. When you're listening, try to avoid slouching, nod to show you hear the person, and think about your facial expressions. If you're speaking, make eye contact and use natural hand gestures.  

16. Be aware of your emotions.

How you're feeling can arise non-verbally. During a conversation, meeting, or presentation, stay present with your emotions and reflect on whether your body language—and even the loudness of your voice—are conveying what you want them to.    

17. Use empathy.

Consider the feelings of others as you communicate with them. Part of having a meaningful conversation or developing a meaningful presentation is being aware of others—bein empathetic, in other words. If you try to put yourself in their shoes, you can better understand what they need and communicate more effectively.  

Read more: What Are Job Skills and Why Do They Matter?

Further enhance your communication skills with Improving Communication Skills , part of the Achieving Personal and Professional Success Specialization from the University of Pennsylvania, or the Dynamic Public Speaking Specialization from the University of Washington. 

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Frequently asked questions (FAQ)

How does communication play a role in career development ‎.

One of the most essential workplace skills that a manager looks for when promoting from within is communication. Communication, coupled with problem-solving skills and time management, are the top three qualities hiring managers look for, according to TopResume [ 2 ].  ‎

How can you practice your communication skills?  ‎

Every conversation that you have can serve as practice. You can also ask to take on more communicative roles at work, like offering to lead a meeting or presenting the teams’ findings.  ‎

How does attitude play a role in communication? ‎

People listen and respond to coworkers or supervisors who have a fair, positive attitude. Try to stay upbeat, smile when you talk, and remove yourself from conversations that put others down.  ‎

Keep reading

Coursera staff.

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This content has been made available for informational purposes only. Learners are advised to conduct additional research to ensure that courses and other credentials pursued meet their personal, professional, and financial goals.

Reference Examples

More than 100 reference examples and their corresponding in-text citations are presented in the seventh edition Publication Manual . Examples of the most common works that writers cite are provided on this page; additional examples are available in the Publication Manual .

To find the reference example you need, first select a category (e.g., periodicals) and then choose the appropriate type of work (e.g., journal article ) and follow the relevant example.

When selecting a category, use the webpages and websites category only when a work does not fit better within another category. For example, a report from a government website would use the reports category, whereas a page on a government website that is not a report or other work would use the webpages and websites category.

Also note that print and electronic references are largely the same. For example, to cite both print books and ebooks, use the books and reference works category and then choose the appropriate type of work (i.e., book ) and follow the relevant example (e.g., whole authored book ).

Examples on these pages illustrate the details of reference formats. We make every attempt to show examples that are in keeping with APA Style’s guiding principles of inclusivity and bias-free language. These examples are presented out of context only to demonstrate formatting issues (e.g., which elements to italicize, where punctuation is needed, placement of parentheses). References, including these examples, are not inherently endorsements for the ideas or content of the works themselves. An author may cite a work to support a statement or an idea, to critique that work, or for many other reasons. For more examples, see our sample papers .

Reference examples are covered in the seventh edition APA Style manuals in the Publication Manual Chapter 10 and the Concise Guide Chapter 10

Related handouts

• Common Reference Examples Guide (PDF, 147KB)
• Reference Quick Guide (PDF, 225KB)

Textual Works

Textual works are covered in Sections 10.1–10.8 of the Publication Manual . The most common categories and examples are presented here. For the reviews of other works category, see Section 10.7.

• Journal Article References
• Magazine Article References
• Newspaper Article References
• Blog Post and Blog Comment References
• UpToDate Article References
• Book/Ebook References
• Diagnostic Manual References
• Children’s Book or Other Illustrated Book References
• Classroom Course Pack Material References
• Religious Work References
• Chapter in an Edited Book/Ebook References
• Dictionary Entry References
• Wikipedia Entry References
• Report by a Government Agency References
• Report with Individual Authors References
• Brochure References
• Ethics Code References
• Fact Sheet References
• ISO Standard References
• Press Release References
• White Paper References
• Conference Presentation References
• Conference Proceeding References
• Published Dissertation or Thesis References
• Unpublished Dissertation or Thesis References
• ERIC Database References
• Preprint Article References

Data and Assessments

Data sets are covered in Section 10.9 of the Publication Manual . For the software and tests categories, see Sections 10.10 and 10.11.

• Data Set References
• Toolbox References

Audiovisual Media

Audiovisual media are covered in Sections 10.12–10.14 of the Publication Manual . The most common examples are presented together here. In the manual, these examples and more are separated into categories for audiovisual, audio, and visual media.

• Artwork References
• Clip Art or Stock Image References
• Film and Television References
• Musical Score References
• Online Course or MOOC References
• Podcast References
• PowerPoint Slide or Lecture Note References
• Radio Broadcast References
• TED Talk References
• Transcript of an Audiovisual Work References
• YouTube Video References

Online Media

Online media are covered in Sections 10.15 and 10.16 of the Publication Manual . Please note that blog posts are part of the periodicals category.

• Facebook References
• Instagram References
• LinkedIn References
• Online Forum (e.g., Reddit) References
• TikTok References
• X References
• Webpage on a Website References
• Clinical Practice References
• Open Educational Resource References
• Whole Website References

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