One of the biggest struggles of running a business is completing all the tasks you need to do but you don’t want to do.
These small projects may not be difficult, but they sure are time-consuming.
One of the most time-consuming – yet necessary – projects is slide deck design.
Whenever you’re giving a presentation or displaying content in a slide deck, you need to be able to hold and keep your audience’s attention. If your slide deck is poorly designed or uninteresting, your audience will never pay attention to what you have to say.
However, if you’re not a designer or you just don’t have the time to put into creating a quality PowerPoint, Keynote, or Google Slide, a project like this can feel incredibly frustrating.
In these cases, we suggest outsourcing your slide deck design.
Outsourcing takes the project off your hands so you can focus on the things you do best. By allowing an expert to design your slide deck – or at least your slide background images – you can proudly show off the content you’ve created.
But there are some variables to consider when creating a high-quality slide deck. Let’s take a look at some of the elements you need to consider when developing a slide deck – and what you should think about before outsourcing.
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The Key Elements of Slide Deck Design
Slide decks, such as those created in PowerPoint, Keynote, and Google Slides, can have many different purposes. While we commonly think of classic presentations, slide decks can also be used in webinars, reporting, and more.
How your slide deck will be used typically influences what elements are important. Here are a few elements you need to be sure to consider:
Amount of Text
You never want to display a side that is just a wall of text. However, you need to provide enough context so that your audience will understand you. This is especially true if you won’t be directly presenting the content, such as if you’re uploading a slide deck as a form of independent content.
Color and Text Size
Your text should be easy to read, yet it should fit comfortably on the screen. Your audience shouldn’t need to squint to read what is on each slide, but you don’t need to use the biggest font size, either. Additionally, color and text size should be consistent throughout the slide deck. Headers, body copy, and emphasis should be considered from slide to slide.
Images
Images and visuals should always be used when you’re trying to create an engaging slide deck. However, each image should have a clear purpose. Using high-quality images, graphics, and even video when appropriate can help you get your point across in a more efficient way, but they should always support your text.
White Space
Any designer will tell you that white space can be just as important as the content and images you display. Using white space on your slide deck can help direct your audience’s attention and ensure they stay focused. White space can also prevent your audience from feeling overwhelmed with information, helping them to retain more of what you have to say.
Bullet Points
Bullet points are commonly used to help keep content organized and punctual. However, they can quickly become overused. If your slide deck reads more like a bulleted list, your audience may not find it interesting. Instead, look for other ways to present the information, such as through a graphic, question, or simply a well-written paragraph.
Always consider your audience when deciding the amount of text, the font size and color, and the number of images you use in your slide deck. Focus on finding the best and easiest way to present your information rather than what you believe looks “cool.”
Outsourcing Your Slide Deck Design
It can be a tempting idea to outsource the entire slide deck creation process. However, when you’re working with an outside individual to create an entire presentation, there’s typically a lot of back and forth until you can get the design just right.
Working with writers and designers can add too many people to the project, making it complicated and frustrating to get the job done. Instead, we suggest outsourcing your slide deck design to us at Automation Agency.
Once you’ve planned out your slides, we can create the entire slide for you from start to finish. Then, you can simply insert it into whatever presentation platform you prefer.
While we don’t work in Powerpoint, Keynote, or Google Slides ourselves, we can create your presentation slide deck as a PDF or separate images per slide that you can use. If you need visual models in your presentations we can create those for you, too. Then, if you’d like to overlay text or any other elements you can, but it’s certainly not required.
If you’re an Automation Agency client, simply submit a task detailing what you’d like your slides to look like. (Keep in mind that multiple tasks may be required, depending on the number of slides involved.) We can design a slide deck template you can use to ensure consistency and a beautiful final presentation.
If you’re interested in learning more about the processes and tasks Automation Agency offers to our clients, download our 35 Task Ideas to get a small sample of what we do for businesses all around the world.
