An explain article

I still clearly remember a time when presentations consisted of massive amounts of text, cliparts, and fonts like Comic Sans. Fortunately, that era is over. As a designer, I know that aesthetic slides add value to the selling of products and services.

Aesthetics unconsciously attract us, and so we only consume what exhibits a minimum of beauty. Imagine visiting an online shop. If it does not meet your visual standards, you probably won't buy anything. And that’s because the credibility you secretly expected isn’t there.

That's the moment when we understand the importance of design.

We are accustomed to seeing well-designed things. Anything below these expectations is not acceptable. Good design is not a nice-to-have. It is an essential component.

I remember my first presentation in front of 50 spectators. Back then, I worked with PowerPoint 2000. I needed a total of five floppy disks to save the presentation. It took 15 minutes to copy it onto the computer and install fonts I didn’t actually have. The audience was surprised because my presentation stood out visually. Yet it was still miles away from what is possible today. Sufficient for the purpose, but far from great. And the fact that it was spread across five floppy disks was not helpful either. To put it bluntly, it was non-functional.

18 years later, there are no more floppy disks. Nowadays, we can easily enrich our presentation with videos and photos. The many technological possibilities offer an unprecedented variety to display content in an exciting way. Yet it is a challenge to create a real enrichment with slides – for the speaker as well as for the audience.

For this reason, we have developed the explain quality criteria. They help us to qualitatively evaluate a presentation and improve it purposefully afterward.

#01 - It must be functional.

Functionality simply means: The presentation must run smoothly and fulfill its role as a communication element. We need to engage with the target audience beforehand. Because they directly influence the visual language and the type of visualizations. The design must convey messages understandably and effortlessly. Presentation slides are amplifiers of the messages we want to send.

Many presenters are under high tension before and during the performance. Notes provide security but are not a guarantee for a smooth process. Therefore, slides must support the speaker and guide the audience through the presentation. The challenge is to find the right balance between text, visualizations, and motion pictures. You quickly notice when slides overloaded with text resemble a Word document. In such a case, it would probably be better to send out the slides as PDFs instead of presenting them. Slides should never replace the speaker. Anyone competing with their slides automatically loses their audience's attention.

#02 - It must be aesthetic.

There is exactly one rule for good slide design: Keep it simple. Simplicity is the highest form of sophistication – Leonardo da Vinci already knew this. This principle is the foundation for aesthetic slides. Statistically, the viewer decides within the first three seconds whether they like the message, product, or service and want to engage further. This presumes they can grasp everything within a few seconds.

An aesthetic appearance makes products and services attractive and therefore desirable. That’s why companies generally invest heavily in the design of their products. The iPhone, for example, would sell only half as well if it didn’t look that good. This can also be adapted to presentations. A message must also be “sold” to the target audience. Many successful presentations use elaborate animations and slide effects profitably. To be successful, they must be well-thought-out and used in portions.

#03 - It must be style-defining.

Presentations must reflect the corporate design of the respective brand. A brand-compliant presentation design creates recognition. This not only strengthens the brand’s image but also ensures differentiation from competitors. A consistent brand appearance and the associated brand experience create a connection between a company, employees, customers, and potential investors.

It’s been 17 years since I designed my first presentation. If I had followed the quality criteria back then, it would certainly have turned out differently. Just as technology changes, experience evolves over time. But without the experiences of recent years, we would not have been able to define these criteria.