What is a "good" slide?

So: what makes for a good slide in a PowerPoint presentation?

Each slide should act as a supportive visual aid. It should prioritise clarity, and reinforce our message: not be a standalone document, or simple decoration (Duarte, 2016). An effective slide is constructed based on principles of one point/slide; clear signal; billboarding; low word count; and legible typography (Duarte, 2016).

1. One point per slide: like paragraphing, each slide should cover one key point, which should help to prevent the audience being overwhelmed (Duarte, 2016). The gap between each slide gives a breathing and processing space
2. Clear signal: each slide element is a "signal" to deliver information, while unnecessary ornamentation is "noise" - or "chartjunk" - obscures our message (Duarte, 2016). We strip away extraneous noise, or "Phluff" (Tufte, 2003). PowerPoint templates themselves often have only 30% to 40% of slide deck space available for our unique content; the rest is gobbled up by Phluff: branding, logos, decorative bullets, and frames (Tufte, 2003). Dump the Phluff, because less is more
3. Billboarding: if we think of slides as "glance media," like a billboard, it will ensure we strip our slides back to the minimum we can process in approximately three seconds while driving past (Duarte, 2016)
4. Low word count: good slides are not a presenter "teleprompter" (Duarte, 2016). If a slide has too many words, it effectively becomes a document - or "slideument" - no longer effective as presentation support
5. Legible typography: use a minimum font size of 24 points to ensure readability from the back of a room (which also means the creator will have to use fewer words). Apparently sans serif fonts provide maximum legibility (Duarte, 2016); though they are not very visually attractive!

Another further point is about our delivery, not really about our slide deck. Expanding on the teleprompter note under "Low word count" in the list above, we should not stand and read aloud from our slides (Duarte, 2016). This treats the audience like "stupefied" children and wastes both their time and ours (Tufte, 2003). We are not indulging in story time: we are persuading our audience of our compelling argument.

Overall, if we think of a slide deck as providing audience cues, while what we say is packed with meaning, we won't go too far wrong.

Sam

References:

Duarte, N. (2016). slide:ology: The Art and Science of Creating Great Presentations. O'Reilly Media.

Tufte, E. R. (2003). The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint: Pitching Out Corrupts Within. Graphics Press LLC.