When PowerPoint presentations are designed with purpose and clarity, they can be a powerful and visually stimulating way to convey information. Putra & Kayen (2025) explained, “The effective presentation delivery in the academic area is essential for conveying knowledge, demonstrating understanding, and engaging an audience” (p. 65). Using key elements of effective presentation design can enhance audience comprehension and focus.
Conveying Knowledge
One reason PowerPoint can be so effective is that it combines words and visuals in ways that support comprehension and recall. Effective presenters capture attention by clearly and memorably highlighting ideas (Ratliff et al., 2024). Utilizing design principles ensures you convey your knowledge clearly, which increases your credibility.
Make Slides Easy to Read
Clear visual design helps your audience process information quickly. Instead of relying on flashy templates, simple designs with a sharp contrast between text and background will make your presentation easier to read. Limit your color schemes to two or three complementary colors to improve visibility and support accessibility for viewers with low vision or color blindness (Microsoft, n.d.). For more information on choosing a color scheme, check out Lane’s (n.d) “Combining Colors in PowerPoint – Mistakes to Avoid.”
Font choice matters too. We recommend using Arial or Calibri, but any sans-serif font (without the “feet” attached to the letters) is the easiest to read (Purdue University Global 2023). A 24-point font size for the body of slides (and a larger font size for headings) will ensure your presentation is visible from far away. Even though PowerPoint offers several options for text animations, “fly in,” a simple animation, will transition the audience from one point to the next without distraction.
Provide Attribution
Including citations not only demonstrates academic integrity, but it also reinforces your credibility. Similar to in-text citations for a paper, any sourced material in a presentation requires a citation on the slide where it appears. A final References slide will gather all those sources in one place. The American Psychological Association (2020) explained that the same style guidelines used in papers would also be applied to presentations, including source attribution and inclusive language.
Demonstrating Understanding
An effective presentation reflects your awareness of both content and audience. For example, a student creating a cultural artifact presentation on moussaka chooses a light blue text color and Greek temple background, which makes her text difficult to read. This highlights an important point: design choices need to work for the audience, not just for the presenter. Consider how your presentation will look to your audience from across the room, not just from the screen.
Keep Content Short
Each slide should focus on one main point, and the fewer items on the slide the better. One slide often equates to one minute of speaking time, which is why concise bullet points and short phrases work best. Keep in mind the 6 x 6 rule in PowerPoint: no more than six lines of text per slide, and no more than six words per line.
Similarly, simple animation can guide your audience by revealing information one point at a time. “Limiting what is shown prevents the audience from reading ahead and limits confusion regarding statements visually presented that have not yet been discussed, thus retaining focus on what the presenter is saying in the moment” (Zhornitskiy et al. 2020, p. 1893). Slides should support the spoken message rather than replicate it word-for-word.
Use Complementary Graphics
Visuals are most effective when they reinforce your message rather than distract from it. The student who used the Greek temple on each slide detracted from her main topic, a classic Greek dish. Had she chosen a simple photo of moussaka on a white background, her message would have been clearer to the audience. Instead of using clip art, graphics from pexels.com, pixabay.com, or unsplash.com (along with any design elements in PowerPoint) provide high-quality visuals that can be used without permission.
Engaging an Audience
PowerPoint allows your audience to retain information by using multimedia to highlight key points. By allowing the inclusion of video, audio, and multiple slides, PowerPoint creates an interactive experience for the audience. You should also consider headings for accessibility so your audience can engage with your presentation.
Use Specific Headings
Just as topic sentences guide readers through a paragraph, specific slide headings guide audiences through an argument. For example, instead of using the heading “Results,” provide the main point of the slide as the heading, such as “False-positive rates are highly sample specific” (Naegle 2021, p. 2). Naegle (2021) explained that by using specific headings, the audience will “come to the same conclusion sentence as your header at the end of the slide” (p. 3). The more specific a presentation is, the easier it will be for your audience to stay engaged.
Make It Accessible
Accessibility improves presentations to reach a broader range of viewers. Seven million people in the United States have some type of vision loss (U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2024). For that reason, adding alternative text for all images allows audiences with varying abilities to access content. The Helen Keller Center for DeafBlind Youth and Adults (n.d.) recommended being objectively specific and briefly descriptive in all alternative text, providing information that a sighted person would gain from each image. The center also recommended adding closed captioning to videos and saying “Next slide” when transitioning between slides.
Those with visual challenges often use a screen reader to read the information on each slide Microsoft n.d.). Therefore, it’s important to ensure the contents of each slide can be read in order. Use the Accessibility Checker, which runs automatically in the background of PowerPoint, to alert of any errors in the organization of the written material on each slide. Designing with accessibility in mind reinforces inclusivity while strengthening overall presentation quality. For more information, please read Microsoft’s (n.d.) “Make your PowerPoint Presentations Accessible to People with Disabilities.”
Conclusion
Effective PowerPoint presentations require deliberate design, which can be time-consuming. However, “A well-delivered presentation reflects not only mastery of content but also clarity of thought, logical organization, and the ability to adapt messages to diverse academic audiences” (Putra & Kayen 2025, p. 65). While there are other platforms for creating presentations, including Google Slides, the video on “APA style (7th edition) Formatting in PowerPoint” is very helpful for creating polished, professional presentations.
References
American Psychological Association (2020). PowerPoint slide or lecture note references. https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/references/examples/powerpoint-references
Helen Keller Center for DeafBlind Youth and Adults (n.d.). Accessible PowerPoint guidelines or best practices for effective and accessible presentations. https://www.helenkeller.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Power-Points-Guidelines-1.2025.pdf
Lane, R. (n.d.). Combining colors in PowerPoint – Mistakes to avoid. Microsoft. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/combining-colors-in-powerpoint-mistakes-to-avoid-555e1689-85a7-4b2e-aa89-db5270528852
Microsoft (n.d.). Make your PowerPoint presentations accessible to people with disabilities. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/make-your-powerpoint-presentations-accessible-to-people-with-disabilities-6f7772b2-2f33-4bd2-8ca7-dae3b2b3ef25
Naegle K. M. (2021). Ten simple rules for effective presentation slides. PLoS computational biology, 17(12), e1009554. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1009554
Purdue University Global (August 24 2023) APA style (7th edition) formatting in PowerPoint. Ask ASC. https://purdueglobalwriting.center/apa-style-formatting-in-powerpoint/
Putra, O.P. & Kayen, H. S. (June 2025). Enhancing university students’ academic presentation skills through mnemonic-based strategies. Pedagogy: Journal of English Language Teaching 13(1), 64-76. https://doi.org/10.32332/NKAHT604
Ratliff, M., Sya’ban, S.N., Wazir, A., Haidar, S., Keeth, S., & Horneffer, P. (2024 April 5). Effective presentations: Optimize the learning experience with evidence-based multimedia principles [incl. seminar]. Lecturio. https://www.lecturio.com/inst/pulse/effective-presentations/
U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2024 May 15). Fast facts: Vision loss. https://www.cdc.gov/vision-health/data-research/vision-loss-facts/index.html
Zhornitskiy, A., Nguyen, A. & Kaunitz, J.D. (2020). PowerPoint to the people: The four secrets to delivering a great medical talk. Digestive Diseases and Sciences, 65, 1892–1894. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10620-020-06273-8
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