11.3 Designing Your Presentation
Suzan Last and Robin L. Potter
How you organize the contents of your presentation and how you design your slide deck will help to determine whether or not your message is conveyed in its most powerful form. This chapter will focus on speech structure and on slide design.
Speech Structure
You are by now familiar with the conventions of business correspondence and report structure: introduction, background, details, conclusion. This structure forms the backbone for most messaging in business. Many presentations are created using this simple structure as well, often melding the introduction and background together to save on time. The key message would constitute the high point of the presentation, followed by information that supports that point. This “triangle-shaped” structure is used commonly.
To determine how your presentation should be constructed, consider your purpose. In business, the purpose often falls within the following (adapted from David McMurrey, 1997-2017):
- Informative purpose: A presentation can be primarily informative. For example, as a member of a committee involved in a project to expand your department, your job might be to give a presentation on the rationale behind the expansion, how financing will occur, and what infrastructure will be needed.
- Directive or instructional purpose: A presentation can be primarily directive. Your task might be to direct employees on how to perform their tasks using a new process or method, or you might instruct employees on how to use a new customer relations platform.
- Persuasive purpose: A presentation can be primarily persuasive. You might want to convince members of local civic organizations to support a city-wide recycling program. You might appear before city council to persuade its members to reserve certain city-owned lands for park areas, softball and baseball parks, or community gardens.
When creating a presentation that has a persuasive message, you have structural options. You can organize your content using the traditional “triangle” method, or you can use the “what is, what can be” comparative method shared by Nancy Duarte in her presentation below: The Secret Structure of Great Talks (2011). In this presentation, which offers a great example of effective persuasive presentation structure and design, Duarte reveals that speeches that have changed society make use of this “what is, what can be” structure, which compares what the current situation is to what the situation can be in its improved form after your great idea is implemented. Keep this structure in your toolbox for times when you want to persuade the reader to implement a new procedure, accept a proposed project, or sell a new product, for example.
A Brief Overview of PowerPoint
Even the most dynamic speakers often make use of visual aids to accompany their presentation and help illustrate their ideas. Having well-designed visuals as part of your presentation is one way for presenter