A beautiful presentation might wow your audience for the first few slides, but if you don’t have the content to back it up, you’re going to lose them fast. That’s why one of our favorite presentation design tips is to put content first, and let design follow.
Often, people obsess over selecting images, tweaking layouts, or finding the best way to cram in those 4 slides their colleague says are essential. While those are all useful practices, the issue is that they are missing the forest for the trees.
If you want a strong, convincing, and compelling presentation, you need to start by honing your content into a cohesive story. And in our experience, the best way to do that is to focus on the content alone, and let design and other details come in later.
There are lots of ways to do this. You can build an outline on a whiteboard, break out your slide ideas on notecards, or simply write it out on blank slides.
However you choose to work, the essential thing is to see your content as a whole, finesse your story, and let that drive the design and visuals of your presentation.
Learn more about this powerful presentation design tip in our mini-training video.
Looking for more PowerPoint design tips, tricks, and hacks? Browse our resources for more ways to elevate your presentations.