How to Make Scientific PowerPoint Presentations [Complete Guide]
- Ink Narrates | The Presentation Design Agency
- Jul 28, 2024
- 7 min read
Updated: Aug 29
When we were building a scientific PowerPoint presentation for our client Shelly, she asked us something that made us pause and smile:
“How do you present data without boring people to death?”
Our Creative Director replied,
“By making sure the story speaks before the stats.”
As a presentation design agency, we work on many scientific presentations throughout the year. And in the process, we’ve noticed one recurring challenge: the message often gets buried under a pile of graphs, jargon and dense content.
So, in this blog, we’ll show you how to make a scientific presentation that actually holds attention and drives your point home.
In case you didn't know, we specialize in only one thing: making presentations. We can help you by designing your slides and writing your content too.
Why Most Scientific Presentations Don’t Work
Let’s not sugarcoat this. Most scientific presentations fail because they assume information alone is enough. It’s not.
The problem isn’t the data. The problem is how it’s delivered.
Too often, the slides are crammed with bullet points, graphs that need a magnifying glass, and explanations that sound like they were ripped out of a journal. It’s what we call the “data dump” approach. And it’s everywhere.
But here’s the thing: if the goal is to inform, you can just send a report. A scientific presentation is meant to communicate. You’re not just transferring knowledge. You’re shaping how people understand that knowledge.
Whether you’re sharing research with peers, pitching to grant committees, or educating a non-specialist audience, the mission stays the same: make the complex feel clear, not complicated.
Now, most scientists and researchers are trained to think critically, cite carefully, and speak precisely. But they’re rarely trained to present. That’s why so many scientific presentations are technically sound but forgettable.
We’ve seen brilliant minds lose their audience five slides in—not because the work wasn’t good, but because it wasn’t translated for human attention.
So, if you’ve ever walked out of a conference and realized you remember absolutely nothing from the last three speakers, you’re not alone. And if you're the one speaking, that should matter.
That’s why designing a scientific PowerPoint presentation isn’t just about slides. It’s about intention.
How to Make Scientific PowerPoint Presentations
Let’s get practical. We’ve worked on scientific PowerPoint presentations across fields: biochemistry, environmental science, AI research, neuroscience, pharma—you name it. While the content varies, the principles stay the same.
Here’s how we approach it every single time.
1. Clarity beats completeness. Always.
This is the hill we’ll die on. Your goal is not to show everything you know. Your goal is to make one big idea stick.
If you want your audience to remember anything, they need space to process. That means cutting out what doesn’t directly serve your message. You’re not deleting science—you’re refining how it’s received.
Here’s a rule we use internally:If a slide can’t be understood in 5 seconds, it’s not ready.
That doesn’t mean dumbing it down. It means designing for humans, not peer reviewers.
Ask yourself:
What do I want them to remember from this slide?
What’s the one sentence that sums up this section?
If you can’t answer that clearly, you’ll lose the room.
2. Use your data like a punchline, not wallpaper
We get it—you’ve spent months, maybe years, collecting data. It deserves to be shown. But how you show it matters more than how much you show.
Let’s talk graphs. Most of them in scientific presentations are unreadable. Axes are too small, legends too vague, colors too similar, and worst of all, there are four graphs on one slide with no explanation.
That’s not communication. That’s clutter.
Here’s what we recommend:
One chart per slide.
Label everything in plain language. Don’t rely on the legend to do the work.
Explain why the data matters. Don't just show a trend line. Tell them what it proves.
For example: Instead of showing a bar graph and saying, “Here’s the data from Experiment B.” Say: "This shows a 63% improvement after the compound was introduced—meaning the treatment actually works.”
You’re not just showing results. You’re walking people through your thinking. Big difference.
3. Build a narrative, not a collection
Scientific minds love structure. But structure is not the same as story. Most presentations follow the IMRaD format (Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion) because that’s how papers are written. Fair enough.
But humans don’t follow logic alone. They follow flow.
If you want your audience to stay with you, treat your presentation like a narrative. That doesn’t mean being dramatic. It means being intentional about how you reveal information.
Try this:
Start with the why: What problem are you solving? Why does it matter?
Then the what: What approach did you take?
Then the how: Your methodology and process.
Then the what it means: Results, implications, next steps.
Every slide should have a clear transition to the next. Think of it like chapters in a book, not slides in a deck.
And please, stop using “Agenda” as your second slide. Just tell the story.
4. Keep your slides clean and hierarchy-driven
We see this mistake constantly: text-heavy slides with no visual hierarchy. The eye doesn’t know where to go first. That leads to confusion, and confusion leads to tuning out.
Here’s how we fix it:
Use clear slide titles that say something, not just label sections.For example:Bad: “Results”Good: “Results show 2x increase in yield efficiency”
Use one font size for body text, and make sure it’s readable from the back of the room. No one should squint to read your content.
Use bold, whitespace, and alignment to guide attention. Don’t rely on arrows or animation gimmicks to do the work.
Avoid clutter. If it doesn’t serve a purpose, take it off the slide.
We treat slide layout like a science itself. And when done right, your audience doesn’t think about design—they just get the point.
5. Design for cognitive load, not aesthetics
Scientific PowerPoint presentations are not where you flex your creative muscle. They’re where you reduce friction.
Every slide asks your audience to process information. The more elements you throw at them—animations, dense text, unrelated visuals—the more mental effort it takes. That’s called cognitive load, and when it’s too high, attention collapses.
Here’s what we recommend:
Use consistent layouts throughout. Your title placement, text alignment, and color palette should follow a pattern.
Choose simple, readable fonts. Sans-serif. No cursive, no comic sans, no slide clutter from “creative” templates.
Use color intentionally. Don’t make your audience decode what red and blue mean every time.
Design isn’t about decoration. It’s about delivery.
If your slides are clean, consistent, and calm, your audience can focus on what matters.
6. Anticipate questions before they’re asked
Scientific audiences are sharp. Whether it’s a grant committee, peer group, or cross-functional team, they’ll challenge your assumptions. And they should.
Your job is to stay one step ahead. You do that by building in answers before someone has to ask.
For example:
If a result might be seen as an outlier, address it directly.
If a method has known limitations, mention how you handled them.
If there’s prior conflicting research, show how your work compares.
This doesn’t mean being defensive. It means being thoughtful. And thoughtful speakers build trust fast.
We often work with clients to build objection-handling slides that come at the end of the deck or are ready in the appendix. Just in case.
7. Know when to pause and let visuals speak
Not every insight needs narration. Sometimes, a visual—done right—says more than words ever could.
If you’ve got a breakthrough image, a critical comparison, or a before-after contrast, give it its own space. No talking over it. Just let the silence do the heavy lifting.
We’ve seen rooms go quiet when a slide lands well. And that’s not silence. That’s absorption.
Don’t crowd your “hero visuals” with noise. Give them room to work.
8. Rehearse like a pro (not like a robot)
The best scientific presenters we’ve worked with don’t memorize. They internalize. There’s a difference.
Memorizing makes you stiff. Internalizing makes you confident.
Here’s what we advise:
Practice your opening and closing the most. These are the parts that shape perception.
Record yourself and watch it back. You’ll catch things you never notice while speaking.
Time your pauses. Don’t rush through slides. Give space between ideas.
If presenting live, test your clicker, visuals, and any embedded videos well in advance.
Rehearsal isn’t just about delivery. It’s about owning the material so you can connect, not just recite.
9. Don’t hide the human behind the science
You’re not just a researcher. You’re a person who cares deeply about what you’re working on. That part should show.
One of our clients—a biotech researcher—once shared a 20-second story about why she chose this line of work. It wasn’t rehearsed. It wasn’t flashy. But it was real. And the room leaned in.
You don’t have to overshare. But even one moment of personal connection can turn a technical talk into something memorable.
Your audience isn’t just judging the quality of your research. They’re evaluating how much you believe in it.
Let that belief show.
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.