PowerPoint is ubiquitous in the business world, but not always appreciated as much as it should be. Given the fast pace of enterprise, any tool that can convey complex ideas in a short amount of time is absolutely welcome. However, in order to realize this value, it is a good idea to inspect your presentations for the following signs that you may need a PowerPoint design specialist.
Presentations Are Nothing More Than Direct Summaries of Other Sources
This is a popular tactic of academic projects in which a team has to turn a research paper or major project into a presentation. When strapped for time, it is understandable that college students would copy and paste everything possible into a set of PowerPoint slides and declare themselves ready to present.
This may fly in such in an environment, but in the professional world PowerPoint presentations represent business value. They require company time to produce, and should offer a reader or viewer far more than what they could get from a cursory glance of a secondary source.
Presentations Are Cobbled Together With No Flow or Narrative
Even in professional environments, PowerPoint presentations usually form through group efforts. Each individual in a small team may have a distinct style of writing and design sense. However, under tight deadlines the team might cut corners. Often they assign someone to quickly compile the one or two slides made by each member into a presentation.
As a result the finished product fails to provide business value. An effective presentation follows a narrative, much like any book or film. Without a solid flow and engaging, logical presentation of information, the PowerPoint carries about as much value as a Windows folder full of documents.
Presentations Lack Cohesive Visual Design
In keeping with the need for narrative coherence, a PowerPoint presentation requires visual unifying principles. The integration of pictures, placement of text, headline choices, and visual accents all contribute to the communication power of the finished result.
Many organizations keep an official company template that at least identifies brand and unifies themes, but visual coherence must be considered on presentation-by-presentation basis.