Designing slide decks for online courses and presentations.

1. BEST PRACTICES
FOR DESIGNING SLIDE DECKS

2. LAYOUT & DESIGN TIPS

3. Use wide screen slides
More space!
(16:9)

4. Don’t include your whole presentation on one slide. Your audience didn’t come to read.
Don’t include your whole presentation on one slide. Your audience didn’t come to read.
Don’t include your whole presentation on one slide. Your audience didn’t come to read.
Don’t include your whole presentation on one slide. Your audience didn’t come to read.
Don’t include your whole presentation on one slide. Your audience didn’t come to read.
Don’t include your whole presentation on one slide. Your audience didn’t come to read.
Don’t include your whole presentation on one slide. Your audience didn’t come to read.
Don’t include your whole presentation on one slide. Your audience didn’t come to read.
Don’t include your whole presentation on one slide. Your audience didn’t come to read.
Don’t include your whole presentation on one slide. Your audience didn’t come to read.
Don’t include your whole presentation on one slide. Your audience didn’t come to read.
Don’t include your whole presentation on one slide Your audience didn’t come to read.
Don’t include your whole presentation on one slide. Your audience didn’t come to read.
Don’t include your whole presentation on one slide. Your audience didn’t come to read.

5. Planning the presentation
• Start with the takeaway
• What do you want your audience to remember, feel, or ACT upon?
• Then focus on
• WHO is your audience
• Talk to someone in your audience for feedback
• WHY do they care
• Your challenge: How to get them to care
• STORIES
• " We all love stories. We're born for them. Stories affirm who we are. We all
want affirmations that our lives have meaning. And nothing does a greater
affirmation than when we connect through stories.” - Andrew Stanton
• Make your message stick
• simplicity
• unexpectedness
• concreteness
• credibility
• emotion

6. Planning the presentation
• Start with the takeaway
• What do you want your audience to remember, feel, or ACT upon?
• Then focus on
• WHO is your audience
• Talk to someone in your audience for feedback
• WHY do they care
• Your challenge: How to get them to care
• STORIES
• " We all love stories. We're born for them. Stories affirm who we are. We all
want affirmations that our lives have meaning. And nothing does a greater
affirmation than when we connect through stories.” - Andrew Stanton
• Make your message stick
• simplicity
• unexpectedness
• concreteness
• credibility
• emotion
No….

7. WHY?

8. It’s too much information to take in

9. INSTEAD…

10. document slide
Try to stick to one idea per slide

11. If including multiple points on
one slide, keep bullets limited
in length and quantity
• Point one
• Point two
• Point three

12. If your slide is starting to get long…

13. break it up into multiple slides.
If your slide is starting to get long…

14. COPY & PASTE
supporting points into a new slide

15. LIKE THIS!
COPY & PASTE
supporting points into a new slide

16. So your audience stays with you
LIKE THIS!
COPY & PASTE
supporting points into a new slide

17. As long as the essential information is included,
it doesn’t matter how long you slide deck is

18. Use white space

19. It calls attention to the important points you’re making
Use white space

20. Your slide design
DOES NOT NEED
to be fancy

21. Simplicity is best.

22. Use a consistent color palette

23. TYPOGRAPHY TIPS

24. Don’t use more than 1 or 2 fonts

25. Easy to read typefaces…
Serif Sans serifOR

26. Decorative ScriptOR
Not as easy to read…

27. Vary font weights

28. Vary font weights
and sizes

29. Vary font weights
to emphasize key takeaways
and sizes

30. Make sure text is large enough to read
ESPECIALLY FOR SMALLER SCREENS

31. Recommended font sizes*
Header text - 90pt
Body text - 70pt

32. Recommended font sizes*
*Think of these as a baseline. Adjust sizes as needed to fit your content!
Header text - 90pt
Body text - 70pt

33. IMAGE TIPS

34. Images can be full size…

35. or only part
of the slide.

36. Always make sure the text is
readable on full screen images.

37. Always make sure the text is
readable on full screen images.
Here are a few ways to do that…

38. ONE

39. Choose an image with
plenty of white space

40. TWO

41. Add the text on top of
a solid colored shape

42. THREE

43. 1. Add a colored rectangle on top of the image
Reduce the opacity of the rectangle so the
image peeks through, but the text is legible
2.

44. FIND GREAT PHOTOS AT
unsplash.com pexels.com

45. do this!
CAN
you

46. You DO NOT need to
be a designer to
implement these tips!

47. TO MAKE YOUR SLIDE DECKS, USE
PowerPoint Keynote Google Slides

48. OR

49. FIND PRE-MADE, EDITABLE TEMPLATES AT
creativemarket.com canva.com

50. HAVE FUN!