Design Effective Slides

A slide is a visual helper, not a script. Your audience listens to you and glances at the slide for support. If a slide is crammed with paragraphs, mixed fonts, and clashing colors, the audience reads instead of listening — and the message gets lost. Effective slides keep the spotlight on you.

Five Rules of a Clean Slide

1. One idea per slide — if you have two ideas, use two slides.
2. Title that names the topic — a few bold words at the top, not a sentence.
3. Short bullets — three to five phrases of about six words each.
4. One supporting image — a photo, icon, or chart that backs the message.
5. Plenty of empty space — let the eye rest, do not fill every corner.

Slide Elements and What They Do

• Title — names the topic of the slide in a glance.
• Bullet — shows one key idea using a short phrase.
• Image — supports the message with a visual cue.
• Chart — turns numbers into a shape the eye can compare.
• Caption — labels an image so the audience knows why it is there.
• Footer — gives the section name and page number for orientation.

Color, Font, and Contrast

• Pick two main colors plus one accent color — no rainbow.
• Use one font for titles and one font for body text — never five.
• Make text dark on a light background, or light on a dark background, for strong contrast.
• Keep title text around 28–40 points and body text around 18–24 points.
• Avoid red text on a green background — color-blind viewers cannot read it.