How to make a good presentation: slide design rules

Step 1

Start with the story, not the slides

Put the app aside and answer three questions: who's listening, what they should remember and what they should do afterwards. Then write the outline as titles, one per slide. A good title states an idea: not "Survey results" but "Two thirds of users can't find the pay button", if that's really what your data says.

• •read only the titles in a row: if the story makes sense without the rest, the structure works;
• •remove slides that don't change the conclusion;
• •for a pitch, a useful benchmark is Guy Kawasaki's 10/20/30 rule: 10 slides, no more than 20 minutes and no font smaller than 30 points.

💡 The 10/20/30 rule was made for investor pitches, not as a law for every presentation. But its logic is worth borrowing: fewer slides, less time, bigger type.

Step 2

Grid, margins and slide layouts

A consistent deck is about repetition: the title always in the same place, the same margins from the edges, the same spacing between elements. Set up a few layouts in the template or slide master: title slide, section slide, title with text, title with image, a slide with one big number or a quote.

• •leave generous margins: text pressed against the edge looks cut off;
• •align everything to a few shared lines instead of by eye;
• •don't fill every corner: empty space helps people see what matters.

Step 3

Text and fonts

A slide people can read instead of listening to you competes with you. Keep key words, numbers and conclusions on the slide and move the full text into the speaker notes. Use one or two fonts with Cyrillic and separate levels by size and weight.

• •the title is clearly bigger than the body text;
• •only a few short points per slide; split a long list across several slides;
• •left-align text: centring only works for short titles;
• •don't shrink the font to make things fit: it's a sign the slide holds too much.

Step 4

Color and contrast

Pick a limited palette: background, text color and one accent color for what matters most. An accent only works when there's little of it. Check contrast: the WCAG accessibility standard requires at least 4.5:1 for normal text and 3:1 for large text. On a projector or a big screen in the room, colors can look different from your laptop, so extra contrast helps.

💡 Look at your slides in greyscale. If the hierarchy holds without color, color will only strengthen it.

Step 5

Images, charts and a final check

An image should explain the idea, not decorate the slide. In charts, keep only what supports the conclusion: remove extra grid lines, label data directly on the chart and highlight the key value in the accent color. Before presenting, go through a checklist:

• •every slide has a unique title: Microsoft recommends this because people using screen readers navigate by titles, even when the title is hidden;
• •in PowerPoint, run the accessibility check (Review → Check Accessibility);
• •open the deck on another device and make sure the fonts weren't replaced;
• •rehearse the talk out loud with a timer at least once.

💡 Show the deck in the community before you present and ask what people remembered. If the answer doesn't match your main conclusion, rework the titles.