Presentation Slides Should be Simple

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We try our best at our annual user’s conference every year but inevitable one issue always crops up: way too many words on presentation slides. It’s frustrating to sit in the middle of the room and have a hard time paying attention to the speaker because the current slide has 100 words on it in a small font.

Here are some simple rules to follow:

• Reduce the number of words per slide as much as possible, and then cut them in half
• Follow Guy Kawasaki’s rule that the font size should be no smaller than half the age of the oldest person in the audience (e.g. a 60 year old person present would result in a font no smaller than 30 point)
• Shoot for no more than 10 words per slide, if possible
• Remember that presentation slides are different than slides that you email to people, which can be fancy and detailed
• Include a photo or visual cue for each slide to add visual interest

What else? What other tips do you have for presentation slides?