What a perfect presentation looks like

A lot has been said and written about how to make a presentation. Despite this, today students and high school students grab their heads, receiving the task to prepare a presentation for their project. And then - and teachers with teachers, watching dozens of template slides and reading microscopic text written in red letters on a bright green background. What to do?

It is enough to look at the world's best samples. To do this, head over to Slideshare.net - a site with 70 million monthly audience dedicated exclusively to presentations - and select the best works of all time and in all categories. These are not only presentations that have been watched by 100 thousand to 3.5 million people, but also those that are most often shared by users, marked as liked and downloaded. Let's try to find what unites them in terms of design, content and in general.

Design

1. Photos are used much more often than diagrams, diagrams and other graphic elements. Moreover, the pictures do not directly depict what is said in the text, but develop the symbolic meaning of words (freedom is a bird, a novelty is a light bulb, and so on). A large number of photographs are emotional faces.

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2. The palette of the 15 most popular presentations in the world is dominated by warm shades (yellow, red, orange, brown) on a white or light gray background of slides. It is noteworthy that the color and emotionality of the content coincide. For example, light web colors in a calm presentation about Google and emotive reds in "What the hell is this social media ?!"

What the fuck is social media (one year later)

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3. Using one or two types of fonts and the same size of text throughout the presentation (larger for headings, smaller for body text). The trend towards sans-serif fonts is evident (13 out of 15 presentations use serif fonts).

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Content

1. The golden ratio of slides to text - 69 slides of 25 words each. This is the average number of words and slides for all presentations. Minimum: 22 slides, one word per slide. Maximum: 224 slides, more than 80 words per slide.

2. Ambiguous intriguing headlines that create the effect of mystery ("Mobile ate the world", "… a secret empire", "Nobody really knows what …", "How to find the meaning of life …"). In the headlines of 8 of the 15 best presentations in the world, there is a question: "How does it work?", "What would you do?", "What is needed?" etc.

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3. Information is broken down into parts. For this, numbered lists are actively used, as well as the "one slide - one thought" rule. Another interesting feature was found: in nine presentations, the authors divide sentences into phrases, simulating pauses in a live conversation. The viewer has time to ponder the line as the next slide switches.

General features

1. Grab attention at the beginning of a presentation. The technique is remarkably repeated in all 15 presentations: the first 3-10 slides identify the problem and prove its scope and significance. "Every second 350 presentations are made in the world … and 99% of them are bad"; “Who works with social media correctly? Dell, Starbacks … what about you?”; "Did you know that..?"; "Why do we need to know what a strategy is?" After that, the author proposes a solution, says, “I know how to solve this problem. Here are 10 tips to help …”.

2. Simplicity in everything - fonts, colors, pictures, words used, language, and so on. The most complex ideas are presented as simply as possible, broken down into clear, unambiguous theses, and the authors avoid using terminology.

3. A concept or unifying idea is found in all the best presentations in the world. And this is the most important thing. The concept is the thing that interests the viewer. A simple sincere conversation or a pretentious emotional speech, sarcastic frankness or a benevolent explanation of the smallest details. The concept can be traced in the way information is presented, speech and visual accompaniment. Creates an image that sets this particular presentation apart from thousands of others.

The found criteria are a guideline. The main thing in any presentation, as in any other speech, is the author's charisma and confident knowledge of what he is talking about.