Poor Slide Design [How to Identify & Fix]
- Ink Narrates | The Presentation Design Agency
- Apr 21
- 7 min read
While working on a product launch presentation for our client, Damien, the Marketing Manager at a leading tech firm, he asked us a fascinating question:
“How can we make sure our slides don’t overwhelm our audience?”
Our Creative Director immediately responded with a single sentence that summed it up perfectly:
“Slides should amplify your message, not compete with it.”
As a presentation design agency, we work on countless product launch presentations, corporate presentations, and investor decks throughout the year. With this volume, one thing becomes crystal clear: poor slide design is more common than it should be. Whether it’s too much clutter, inconsistent styling, or slides that confuse rather than clarify, poor slide design is something many presentations struggle with.
In this blog, we’ll dive into the most frequent signs of poor slide design and how you can fix them.
What Is Poor Slide Design?
Before we get into how to fix poor slide design, let’s first define what it is.
Poor slide design isn’t just about aesthetics or whether the slides “look good”; it’s about how well the design supports the communication of your message. In the world of presentations, the design should always serve the content, not overshadow it.
Here’s what poor slide design typically looks like:
Cluttered Slides
Too much text, too many images, or an overload of data packed into a single slide. When every element is screaming for attention, the message often gets lost.
Inconsistent Style
Different fonts, colors, and layout styles across slides make the presentation feel chaotic. It distracts the audience from the core message.
Unreadable Text
Small font sizes, contrasting colors that make text hard to read, or busy backgrounds that compete with the text. When the audience struggles to read your slides, they disengage.
Overuse of Bullet Points
Bullet points, while helpful in moderation, can often be a crutch for presenters. When overused, they reduce the impact of your message and make the presentation feel formulaic and uninspired.
Lack of Visual Hierarchy
Poor slide design often ignores visual hierarchy, making it difficult for the audience to know what’s most important on the slide. Without proper structure, the content feels like it’s all equally significant when, in reality, some points should stand out more than others.
In essence, poor slide design weakens your message. It doesn’t facilitate understanding, nor does it engage the audience. Instead, it distracts and confuses. Now, let’s take a closer look at some of the most common signs of poor slide design.
How to Fix Poor Slide Design
Fixing poor slide design requires a strategic approach that prioritizes clarity, consistency, and engagement. When done right, great slide design can turn an average presentation into a powerful communication tool. Here’s how to tackle the most common slide design issues.
1. Embrace Minimalism: Limit Text and Focus on Key Points
The first fix for poor slide design is minimizing the amount of text on each slide. When you have long blocks of text, it forces the audience to either read or listen to the speaker, but not both. To fix this, limit the amount of text and focus on key points that amplify your message.
How to fix it:
Use concise, impactful statements rather than full sentences. For instance, transform “Our company has been dedicated to helping businesses grow for over 25 years by providing exceptional products and services” into “25 years of business growth solutions.”
The 6x6 Rule: Keep text to no more than six lines per slide and six words per line. This helps in ensuring the content is digestible.
Visuals over text: Use icons, images, or graphs to communicate ideas. Visuals should support your narrative, not overwhelm it.
2. Create Consistent Design with Templates
Inconsistent design elements can create confusion. When fonts, colors, and layouts aren’t aligned, the presentation feels chaotic. To fix this, consistency is paramount.
How to fix it:
Choose a color scheme and stick with it throughout the presentation. Limit your color palette to 3-4 colors—primary, secondary, and a few accent colors.
Use templates: This is one of the easiest ways to ensure consistency. With templates, you can structure your slides to look cohesive from start to finish. Custom templates built with your brand’s identity in mind are the best choice.
Standardize fonts: Select 2-3 fonts at most. One for headings, one for body text, and maybe a third for emphasis. This avoids visual clutter and keeps your presentation professional.
3. Make Your Text Legible
Text that’s hard to read is one of the quickest ways to disengage your audience. Small font sizes or poor contrast between text and background can make your slides frustrating to read, especially in a large room.
How to fix it:
Ensure large, readable font sizes: Use at least 18-24 point font for body text and larger sizes for headings and subheadings.
Improve contrast: Use dark text on a light background or light text on a dark background. Make sure that your text doesn’t blend into the background. If the background is busy or complex, consider adding a semi-transparent overlay behind the text to make it stand out.
Test readability: View your slides on various screens to ensure the text remains legible in different settings, from laptops to projectors.
4. Limit Bullet Points and Add Visual Interest
Overusing bullet points can lead to monotony. While they’re a convenient tool for organizing information, they often reduce the presentation’s impact and make it feel dry.
How to fix it:
Reduce bullet points: Instead of listing everything in bullet points, try to integrate visuals. For example, use an image to represent an idea, or create a diagram to show a process rather than writing it out in a list.
Use visuals and diagrams: Incorporate infographics, charts, and diagrams to explain complex ideas. Visuals add depth to your message and help the audience grasp information more effectively than text-heavy slides.
Consider alternative layouts: Instead of a traditional bullet-point slide, use columns, sections, or visual storytelling techniques that engage the viewer and guide them through your narrative.
5. Implement a Clear Visual Hierarchy
When there’s no clear visual hierarchy, all the information on the slide appears equally important, which leads to confusion. A good visual hierarchy makes the content intuitive and easy to follow.
How to fix it:
Use size and placement: The most important information should be the largest and most prominent on the slide. For example, your main heading should be significantly larger than the body text. Likewise, the key message should stand out visually compared to supporting details.
Use bold, italics, and color: These formatting tools should be used sparingly to draw attention to key points. Make sure the most important elements stand out to guide the viewer’s eye through the content.
Add spacing: Leave ample space between sections of text or images. White space is an important design tool, as it makes the slide feel less cluttered and more organized.
6. Tell a Visual Story
Slides should follow a logical progression, creating a clear flow from one idea to the next. This is where many poor slide designs falter—they lack a narrative structure that keeps the audience engaged. To fix this, each slide should add something to the story.
How to fix it:
Design with flow in mind: Consider how each slide transitions into the next. Use visuals like arrows, lines, or simple animations (sparingly) to guide the audience’s eye from one section to the next. This creates a seamless flow.
Create a theme: Establish a narrative arc. For example, if you're presenting a case study, the slides should mirror the journey: the problem, the solution, and the results.
Use storytelling visuals: Integrate images, graphs, or illustrations that directly support the message of each slide. Visuals should tie into the story and help drive the narrative forward.
7. Minimize Distracting Animations and Transitions
Animations and slide transitions can add flair to your presentation, but they can also distract from your message if overused. Too many flashing effects or transitions create a showy display that doesn’t enhance your content.
How to fix it:
Keep animations simple: Use subtle effects that don’t distract the audience. Simple fade-ins or slide transitions are often enough to add a professional touch without being overbearing.
Purposeful transitions: Only use transitions when they add to the story. For instance, use an animated sequence to emphasize a shift in topics, or bring in a graphic gradually to emphasize a point.
Avoid overusing animations: Too many flashy transitions can make the presentation feel disjointed. Keep it clean and simple. Your focus should always be on the content.
8. Use Visuals to Enhance, Not Overwhelm
Visuals play an essential role in enhancing a presentation, but when overused or improperly placed, they can clutter a slide and dilute the message. Images, graphs, and icons should support your point, not compete with it.
How to fix it:
Choose relevant visuals: Only use images, icons, and graphics that directly relate to the content. A stock photo or illustration should feel like it’s reinforcing the message, not just filling space.
Optimize images: Ensure that all visuals are of high quality and fit well within the layout. Poor-quality or stretched images can make a presentation look unprofessional.
Balance visuals with text: Don’t rely solely on visuals to convey your message. Text should still be the primary method of communication, and visuals should enhance that message.
9. Ensure Accessibility
An often overlooked aspect of good slide design is accessibility. Your presentation should be easily understood by everyone, including those with visual impairments or cognitive challenges.
How to fix it:
Provide clear contrast: As mentioned earlier, ensure there’s enough contrast between text and background. Avoid color combinations that may be difficult for colorblind people to distinguish, like red and green.
Include alt-text for images: If you’re sharing your presentation digitally, make sure to add alt-text for all images so that screen readers can describe them.
Keep language simple: Avoid jargon or overly complex language that may alienate some viewers. Strive for clear, concise language that everyone can understand.
By implementing these fixes, you can transform poor slide design into an effective, engaging, and clear presentation. Good design is not just about making things look pretty, it’s about making your message clear and memorable. Each design choice you make should serve the purpose of better communicating your message and keeping the audience engaged.
Why Hire Us to Build your Presentation?
If you're reading this, you're probably working on a presentation right now. You could do it all yourself. But the reality is - that’s not going to give you the high-impact presentation you need. It’s a lot of guesswork, a lot of trial and error. And at the end of the day, you’ll be left with a presentation that’s “good enough,” not one that gets results. On the other hand, we’ve spent years crafting thousands of presentations, mastering both storytelling and design. Let us handle this for you, so you can focus on what you do best.