5.6 The Slide Deck Report
Learning Objectives
After studying this unit, you will be able to
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- understand the difference between a slide deck, presentation, and written report
- understand the importance of slide decks
- know the steps in the slide deck design process
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Introduction
In the modern day business environment, reports are also delivered as digital documents called slide decks. Slide decks are digital reports that can be delivered via email or uploaded to an online site. Slide decks are a midway point between traditional presentations and written reports. Although a slide deck is a presentation, it is meant to be read by the receiver, not presented by the sender. These characteristics make slide decks more inviting to read and easier to understand than written reports while providing more information than a typical presentation. For this reason, more and more professional fields are using slide decks to organize, summarize and present information on a wide range of business functions and trends.
Designing a Slide Deck
In the video below, a pioneer in the field of slide deck presentations, Nancy Duarte, provides some tips on designing slide decks.
Why Use Slide Decks
Slide decks have become popular in business for several good reasons.
Pre-meeting Document: Slide decks present information in a short, easy-to-read, accessible format. It’s normal to provide information in advance to meeting attendees. The accessible characteristic of a slide deck allows everyone time to preview the issues and come to the meeting ready to share their views and make decisions. Therefore, a slide deck serves as a pre-meeting document that informs participants of the important point
Independent Reading: A presentation requires a speaker to explain the information presented. However, a slide deck provides just enough information to clearly communicate the main ideas presented. Thus, a slide deck allows for independent reading and study at the receiver’s pace, consequently allowing a degree of convenience normal presentations do not.
Informative Handout: Providing a handout after a meeting or presentation serves to reinforce the main messages presented. A slide deck can contain the traditional main point highlights, but it can also contain interactive elements, video, and web links so the audience is able to explore all aspects of the information.
Visual Impact: Visuals help us communicate information quickly to different audiences. Visuals have the capacity to make complex information accessible. Thus, the visual aspect of a slide deck ensures that a larger segment of our audience is more likely to understand our message.
Steps in the Design Process
Choosing a Presentation Software Application
A slide deck is a presentation. Thus, different types of presentation software can be used to create your slide deck. Although the most popular presentation software maybe PowerPoint, other presentation software options such as Keynote, Google Slide, ClearSlide,