How to Create Engaging Slide Show Presentations

We all have been there: we are in class or at a public talk and we are bearing witness to the world’s worst slideshow presentation. The slides are white with paragraphs of long, boring text, there’s complicated graphs and barely any pictures, the speaker is droning on and on about tiny seemingly unimportant details…it is all we can do to stay awake!

If you haven’t seen this example of terrible science communication, prepare to be wowed by just how bad it can get: Undergraduate Students Unwittingly Subjected to World’s Worst Research Presentation  

Luckily, most of us are already able to put together better presentations than this example, and for those who would like to improve our presentation skills, we have created this guide to make your slide show presentations more effective.

When you are assigned to create a presentation with accompanying slides or visuals, there are generally some steps you can take, before even starting your slide show, to make sure that you are creating the best communication piece you can:

Considerations before starting your presentation:

Think about your audience.

• Let’s say you’re giving a presentation to a group of high school students. The background knowledge you’ll need to cover, as well as the language and communication style you will use, will likely be very different than if you were giving the same presentation to a group of conservation professionals.
  • With high schoolers, you’d want to use language and examples they can relate to. Maybe throw in some memes or pop culture references to keep them engaged.
  • For conservation professionals, you may focus more on data and success stories from the field.
• Considering your audience before you make anything will set the tone, pace, and starting place for your presentation.

Define the main goals or objectives of your presentation.

• Instead of just rambling about a topic, have a clear goal in mind. Ask yourself:
  • What are we trying to accomplish by giving this presentation?
  • Why are we giving this presentation to this audience specifically?
• For example: “By the end of this presentation, teenagers who need to help their parents with younger siblings will know how to make a grilled cheese sandwich.”
• Defining goals and objectives for your presentation will help you keep your messaging on track and targeted throughout your talk.

Create an outline to know where you’re going. 

• Don’t just wing it! Having an outline is like having a roadmap for your presentation. It’ll help you stay on track and organized, kind of like having a GPS for your slides.
  • Oftentimes when we wing it, we can start going down rabbit holes and tangents that may stray from our central goals and message. 
• An outline helps us ensure that we stay on topic while covering all the necessary content, making for more effective presentations.

Best practices for creating your slides and visuals:

Keep it simple

• Nobody wants to see a slide that looks like a novel with long paragraphs to read through or complicated visuals that aren’t being explained.
  • Keep it clean and simple, with just the key points highlighted. Think of it as the “less is more” approach to slide design.

Use Visuals Effectively

• A picture is worth a thousand words, right? Use cool graphics, charts, or even funny memes to illustrate your points.
  • Just make sure they’re relevant and not just there for the sake of it.
  • Also make sure if you’re using scientific graphs and figures that you take some time to explain what these visuals are representing.

Use Text Wisely

• The recommended word limit for a slide varies widely, from 6 to 40 words. Some recommend keeping text to a minimum, with 6–8 lines per slide.

Maintain Consistency

• Consistency is key! Stick to the same font, color scheme, and layout throughout your presentation.
  • This practice will make your presentation look more polished and professional, like you really know your stuff.

Tell a Story

• Instead of just listing facts and figures, weave your content into an engaging story. It’ll make your presentation more memorable and fun, kind of like watching a movie instead of reading a textbook.
  • For example, when talking about your research project, you may tell a personal story of how you became interested in the topic, or the story of a local community member impacted by the topic to draw your audience in.

Now it’s time to present!

Prepare a script

• Have you ever had to do public speaking and gotten stage fright, freezing and not knowing where to start? When you develop a script for your presentation you can avoid this by giving yourself a place to begin and get into a rhythm.
  • Use your script to remind yourself of important discussion points and to keep yourself on track.
  • For example, you might create a script for each slide and add notes to yourself to make sure you explain your figures and include funny, engaging anecdotes.

Engage Your Audience: 

• Don’t just “talk at” your audience, talk to them by making your presentation interactive! 
  • Ask your audience questions, do a quick poll, or even have them participate in a fun activity. 
  • Points of engagement keep your audience awake and engaged, instead of zoning out or scrolling on their phones.

Practice and Rehearse

• Practice makes perfect, right? Run through your presentation a few times, timing yourself and getting comfortable with the flow.
  • Practice will help you feel more confident and polished on the big day, allowing you to get comfortable with showing your personality and engaging your audience.
  • If you have the time, you could even ask a friend or family member to help you run through your presentation and give you feedback!

If you need to record your slideshow presentation and are seeking guidance on best recording practices, see the following guide: How to Make Great Screencasts and Online Oral Presentations

Some concepts and wording in this resource were adapted from Claude, an AI assistant by Anthropic. Images from Storyset.