1. Template for slides (16:9 wide format), plus advice for designing slide presentations
Melissa Clarkson
Assistant Professor, University of Kentucky

2. Title slide with alternate heading for University of Kentucky
Melissa Clarkson
Assistant Professor, University of Kentucky

3. These slides will help you create clean and consistent typography
Type size and weights:
Title on title slide is 44 point, bold weight, black
Other text on title slide (name, affiliation, ) is 32 and 24 point, regular weight, black
Title at top of each slide is 40 point, bold, wildcat blue (#0033a0)
Text in body of slide is 28 point, regular, black
Alignment: Align titles and body text to the left
Fonts: Use Helvetica or Arial

4. These slides demonstrate the “assertion-evidence” format
Each slide has two parts:
An assertion in the headline, formatted as one sentence that occupies one or two lines of text.
The evidence in the body of the slide that supports the assertion.

5. Assertion-evidence is the most effective format for slide design
Empirical evidence suggests this approach leads to:
better comprehension and recall by the audience
a deeper understanding of the content by the presenter
JK Garner and MP Alley. (2013) “How the design of presentation slides affects audience comprehension: A case for the assertion-evidence approach” International Journal of Engineering Education, 29(6): 1564– 1579.
JK Garner and MP Alley. (2016) “Slide structure can influence the presenter’s understanding of the presentation content.” International Journal of Engineering Education, 32(1A): 39–54.

6. This format requires more effort to prepare
The standard slide format of “topic–subtopic” allows the author to type headings and body text without carefully considering what they want the audience to know or why that information is important.

7. This format requires more effort to prepare
The standard slide format of “topic–subtopic” allows the author to type headings and body text without carefully considering what they want the audience to know or why that information is important. The format of “assertion-evidence” requires the author to construct a series of small arguments that build into a larger argument.

8. This format requires more effort to prepare
The standard slide format of “topic–subtopic” allows the author to type headings and body text without carefully considering what they want the audience to know or why that information is important.
The format of “assertion-evidence” requires the author to construct a series of small arguments that build into a larger argument.
If you find that you cannot make an argument, you may not be ready to present your work.

9. Slide design vs. Presentation design

10. Slides are not the presentation
Slides are supporting media. A presentation is the process of presenting information to an audience—the presentation is your delivery of the information.

11. Presentation design has two stages
Developing the content
What are you going to present?

12. Presentation design has two stages
Developing the content
What are you going to present?
Developing the methods to present the content
How are you going to present it?

13. The “What” stage consists of four steps
Consider these three questions:
Who is the audience?
What is the context?
What are your goals?
Collect ideas
Storyboard to develop a linear, logical narrative
Get feedback, make changes

14. The “How” stage focuses on communication strategies
Developing an effective slide presentation requires you to:
Integrate…
spoken words, text, and images
what your audience is hearing and seeing
you and your supporting media (the slides)
Get feedback, make changes

15. Avoiding common blunders in slide presentations

16. Slide presentations suffer from four common syndromes
Presentation-as-document syndrome*
Cause: The presenter has created slides crammed with information.
Effect: Audience members’ attention bounces awkwardly between the slides and the presenter, with neither communicating clearly.
Note: If this slide set was used during a presentation, it would have this syndrome. This slide set is much too text-heavy to be effectively in that way. This information should instead be put into a document with paragraphs of text. You are reading this as slides because I needed content for the slide template, and I hope you read it before you design your presentation.
* a term developed by Jerry Weissman

17. Slide presentations suffer from four common syndromes
Slides-as-teleprompter
Symptom: The presenter reads his or her slides to the audience.
Effect: Because audience members can read slides faster then the presenter can read them out loud, they experience an “out-of-sync” effect that distracts from the flow of the presentation. They may also question whether the presenter has sufficient understanding of the topic to speak without relying on the slides.

18. Slide presentations suffer from four common syndromes
Presentation-as-scripted-performance
Symptom: The presenter reads his or her notes to the audience.
Effect: Because reading to an audience reduces the expressivity of speech, audience members will find the presentation less interesting and may be lulled to sleep. They may also question whether the presenter has sufficient understanding of the topic to speak without relying on pre- written text.

19. Slide presentations suffer from four common syndromes
Slides-as-showcase-for-clipart-or-stock-photos- or-overly-complicated-graphs
Symptom: Slides display images that do not have a clear connection to the topic, are not explained by the presenter, or are much too complex for a slide presentation.
Effect: Audience members’ attention is focused on trying to decipher the meaning of the images, instead of following the argument of your presentation.

20. Melissa Clarkson Assistant Professor University of Kentucky