If your presentation includes visuals, select them carefully. You’ll want to find images or tables that are visually appealing and emphasize key aspects of your work without distracting from what you have to say. Most importantly: strive for simplicity! Cluttering your slides with images and text can overwhelm your audience. On this page, you’ll learn tips and tricks for creating organized and memorable slides.
Pro Tip #1: Audiences love to see you at work! If you have photos of yourself doing research or photos that you took, use them in your presentation.
Pro Tip #2: To make your presentation stand out, step away from the generic PowerPoint templates and fonts.
Pro Tip #3: Check out this website for advice on making your presentation accessible to those who are color blind.
Read
- Slide:ology: The Art and Science of Creating Great Presentations, by Nancy Duarte (ebook)
- Presentation Zen, by Gar Reynolds
- 11 Design Tips for Beautiful Presentations, by Katy French
Watch
Explore
Below are some free resources and guides you might use when creating your visuals. Be aware of copyright when using images taken by another person.
- Free Fonts
- Free Images
- Tips for Adding Data Visualization
Next Steps
- Sign up for the Image of Research contest, which challenges students to share their work in one image. You can look through previous entries on the Library’s website.
- Sign up for the Graduate College’s Research Live! competition, which challenges you to give a compelling talk about your work in three minutes or less using up to two slides.
- Borrow a camera from the Media Commons and spend time taking pictures of your work. Ask a friend to take some photos of you working.
- Check out some LinkedIn Learning videos for PowerPoint design ideas.