The design of a speaker's presentation is key to its success. In this section, you'll learn how to let the powerful ideas behind your presentation sing -- and ensure that technical difficulties don't get in your way.
Tips to make your presentation great:
- Less is more. A single, strong, graphic image or succinct line of text will tell your story better than a crowded collage or packed paragraph. Remember, people need to process everything you're saying while simultaneously absorbing your slides. Rather than one complex slide, show several slides, each with one idea, image or data point. Eliminate "headline and bullet-points" slides; they are tiring to read.
- Presentation screen: You can't always be sure what type of presentation screen you'll be dealing with. (And changes often happen at the last minute!) Build slides that will work in any of the following dimensions:
Widescreen HD (16:9 aspect ratio): 1920x1080 (hi res)
Widescreen HD (16:9 aspect ratio): 1280x720 (low res)
Squarescreen (4:3 aspect ratio): 1024x768 (hi res)
Squarescreen (4:3 aspect ratio): 800x600 (low res) - Text quantity: You rarely need more than six lines of text on a slide. Often, only a line or two will do. Sans-serif fonts (like Helvetica) are easier to read at a distance than serif fonts (like Times New Roman).
- Text size: Your text should be large enough to be legible to the person sitting farthest from the stage.
- Slide background: A simple background keeps your text readable. If you are using a dark or black background, make the text bold.
- Graphs, graphics and photos: Use visually arresting images, data and large words to serve as a mnemonic device so the audience has higher visual recall. You must properly license all images for TED's use in worldwide video and web distribution. Don't grab images from the web. Use high-resolution pictures and graphics. Full-quality photos from a digital camera will look better than images pulled off the web.
- You must properly license all images, music and video clips for TED's use in worldwide video and web distribution. Don't grab images from the web unless they are clearly licensed under Creative Commons for use.
Five great presentations
Here are five TEDTalks featuring effective presentation designs that worked brilliantly live at TED -- and online.
