Presentation Design Skills: Are They Worth the Time to Learn?

Have you ever attended a presentation in which a great presenter was criticized due to his dull, uneventful, lifeless slide deck? Or a presentation disrupted by vibrant, out-of-place, and amateur clip art and visuals? Without a doubt, we have all seen some examples of presentation designs gone wrong, and those occasions have stuck with us. That is because our brain readily accepts good design, and we do not notice it. However, the seemingly wrong designs stick out and skew our entire experience. As you know, a presentation becomes successful because of both the slideshow and the speaker. This means neither the speaker nor the deck can be of any use without each other.

Therefore, the importance of a well-designed presentation is not in question. However, learning all the skills required to craft a visually appealing presentation can often seem like a daunting task. In this article, we will go through some of the reasons we believe this investment of your time and effort is worth it. So, read on!

1. Makes Your Deck Appealing

The most trivial and fundamental reason to begin gaining presentation design skills is to make your slideshow appealing and exciting. If a presentation exudes professionalism and creativity, it reflects your competency and effort as a presenter and helps you build trust and thoroughly engage your audience. Whatever they see in the presentation is the image they create of you. Thus, it is imperative to impress them from the get-go. This is because the first impression lasts, isn’t it?

2. Helps You Make Your Presentations Memorable

Imagine a run-of-the-mill presentation with no sense or purpose. Quite unpleasant, isn’t it? On the other hand, imagine a presentation that looks and feels like it was crafted with a purpose in mind.

We, as an audience, are sure to remember the latter. Futile and lifeless presentations do not encourage action. Instead, they are forgettable, and we wait to get through them. However, presentations that perfectly fit the context create a lasting impact in our minds. To create such a presentation, the speaker must be competent enough to know his way around a slide deck so as to get his ideas out into the world firsthand.

3. Makes it Easier to Understand

Research shows that we perceive and understand visuals much easier than we do text. And diving a bit deeper into how we are wired, we learn that humans perceive 90% of the information visually. Thus, making a well-designed presentation is instrumental to your success.

Therefore, if you put some effort into learning fundamental design skills, including layout, composition, and color contrast, and then prepare your presentation accordingly, you can capitalize on this excellent opportunity to make the most of the visual medium.

4. Makes it Uniquely Yours

It is true that pre-made templates are a great way to create compelling, engaging, and appealing presentations. But if you have design knowledge, you can add a personal touch to it. If you are a professional, incorporating your brand’s design language into your presentation will instantly improve how it is perceived.

5. Helps You Convey Your Story Beautifully

We know that the primary purpose of a presentation is to communicate your point as clearly as possible and intriguing visuals such as infographics, graphs, and images help the audience connect with your message. However, the secret to crafting a truly effective slideshow is storytelling.

The way you begin, the facts you list out, the questions you ask, and all the little pieces of content you insert – all contribute toward creating a story. If done well, the story is informative and immersive; if not, the result is just a messy list. Designing slides that speak out to the audience and entertain them results in presentations that convey your story perfectly.

6. Instrumental in Establishing Credibility

Let us illustrate this with an example. It is a natural phenomenon that we trust people who look decent, smart, and professional more than we do shabby and unprofessional people. The same goes for brands and organizations. The more polished they are, the more we trust them. Further, people prefer to only interact with the brands they truly connect with and trust.

Thus, a meticulously designed slideshow that looks appealing and polished is crucial to exude competence and establish trust. Here, your design skills can help a lot!

7. Helps You Understand the Power of Consistency and Clarity

Another huge factor when trying to win the trust of the audience is consistency and clarity. For instance, if you see a brand be fun, light-hearted, and modern on Instagram but be drab, monotonous, and solemn on LinkedIn, wouldn’t you question their authenticity?

Likewise, to be understood and accepted by your audience, your slides need to be consistent throughout the deck. To do so, you might have to unlearn some ideas you might already have, thereby showcasing the importance of learning the art of crafting beautiful slides.

(Pro Tip: Learning design skills does not require spending a ton of money or time, you can begin today with your computer and basic YouTube tutorials!)

Conclusion

To wrap up, design skills are essential for creating compelling and engaging presentations. By understanding the different aspects of design, you, as a presenter, can create presentations that are both pleasing to the eyes, easy to understand, and persuasive. Additionally, incorporating custom branding elements, such as colors and fonts, can make a presentation more cohesive and memorable.

With various tools and resources available for learning presentation design skills, it is now easier than ever to become a pro! We would like to reiterate that the returns on these skills will be far more significant in value than what you spend to learn them. We hope that now you are aware and will be ready to reap the benefits of learning presentation design skills.

Please feel free to drop any feedback in the comments below. All the best!