Mastering Google Slides Design With Golden Rules and Best Practices
Humans always have, and will always, place a premium on physical attractiveness. Whether we're talking about prehistoric cave paintings or the works of the Renaissance, art has always been highly regarded by society. We're still the same people, but our methods have evolved.
Top-notch presentations are about three things regardless of the presentation software: a competent presenter, informative material, and attractive visuals. And while many presenters attempt to pack in as much information as possible and hone their oratory skills, others seem to forget the importance of the visual aspects altogether.
In this article, we’ll walk through - how to add design components to Google Slides and why it is helpful.
Why does presentation design matter?
Your audience is constantly bombarded with content throughout the day, whether in the form of news, social media feeds, videos, chats, etc. Over time, the brain becomes accustomed to the constant barrage of daily stimuli and begins to ignore most of them. Each night, you reflect on the day's best moments.
It's the same deal with speeches and other presentations. Putting a lot of time and energy into your presentation can get you points and increase your proposal's likelihood of being "sold." You'll need something more, like a pinch of salt, to turn your presentation from decent to great.
A presentation's visual appeal can have a significant impact on its reception. Imagine running into the same person on the metro one day wearing an old jacket and dirty jeans and all dressed up the next day. What is the best time for them to ask you for a favor?
Why are visually appealing presentations on Google Slides so valuable?
Whether you're a professor, a student, or a business professional, you require convincing justifications to incorporate visuals into your presentation. Changing the themes on Google Slides templates and adding shapes and animations takes effort. Little by little, before you've spent hours on the presentation. To make up for this delay, you must find out how making your Google Slides presentation more visually appealing helps your presentation succeed.
How to Create Professional-Looking Google Slides.
Make use of pre-made slideshows for your next presentation.
The expression "time is money" is apt. Though it's possible to make design improvements with each new presentation you make, doing so would be a huge waste of time. Repeating previous actions is not a good tactic. To help with this, you can use pre-made templates. Rather than starting from scratch, you can just fill in the content and, depending on the nature of the presentation, make minor adjustments to the template.
You can select a pre-made template from the twenty-plus that come standard with Google Slides. After that, the Theme builder is only a color editor. You can edit individual slides, but remember to maintain a unified color scheme and layout.
Some people would instead go with the third to last choice. You can avoid starting from scratch by downloading a pre-made template and making minor adjustments. Google Slides has a large number of free templates available. If you give presentations frequently, investing in premium templates may be worth it.
Either way, remember that the designers behind the paid and free templates spent much time perfecting their work, so you should stick to making minimal tweaks. Font compatibility, color contrast, and other little but potentially frustrating factors are handled automatically.
Choose the proper palette.
Every aspect of our lives can benefit from the insights of the Color Theory. It doesn't matter that you used Google Slides for your presentation. Color choices should be made with consideration for the presentation's subject matter. You might use a combination of red and white on a light blue background for advertising a financial service. Green and brown are more earthy colors that work well in presentations about nature and biology.
Experiment with other font colors as well. Darker presentation backgrounds require lighter fonts with bolder accents. Making the writing much darker and bolder against a white or very light background is essential.
One of the most noticeable aspects of a brand is its color scheme. Using the brand colors might help draw attention to your product and increase its perceived worth in a Google Slides presentation showcasing the business's items.
Take note of the typefaces.
The mood of your presentation will depend on the typefaces you use. The process of including typefaces involves numerous variables. Fonts such as Roboto, Arial, Helvetica Neue, and Garamond are appropriate for more serious presentations such as medical presentations; nonetheless, it is important to ensure that the topic and the typefaces used are compatible. Google Slides makes it simple to incorporate premium free fonts into your presentation.
Yet, there is one crucial point to remember: you shouldn't utilize more than two or three fonts in your presentation. You can quickly lose your audience's attention if you violate this rule. It's also important to stick to a consistent style when selecting fonts; using too many fonts that are too close to one another (resulting in a lack of visual hierarchy) or too many fonts that are too distinct from one another are both mistakes.
If you're having trouble deciding between fonts, stick with those from the same family or use a serif for the title and a sans-serif for the body copy.
Fill in the gaps
The ability to create professional-looking Google Slides presentations is crucial. The alterations are also smooth. Locating the sweet spot between over-supply and a complete lack of something is essential. There should be no more than one transition on each slide. Consistency is key; thus, you should apply the same effect to each presentation.
You should avoid employing Cube and Gallery transitions to save time and effort. There's just a little too much of them. The use of object animations is also possible. In cases where you need to draw attention to a chart, they prove to be highly useful.
Adopt infographics
Using infographics (a combination of information and pictures) is a fantastic strategy for simplifying complex sets of information for your target audience. They are a preferred approach to communicating information because they allow you to show rather than tell and are visual representations of the information you want to convey.
Instead of using two long paragraphs to describe something on a slide, where viewers may get lost, you could use a basic radial chart in Google Slides and put it in front of the rest to make your point clearer.
It's important to note that infographics are not restricted to mere charts. Information, such as process steps, past values, etc., can be displayed. Get the proper infographic to represent your data. You may find it helpful to use a Gantt chart or sequential infographic to illustrate the project's scope when discussing it. A piece of pie helps illustrate what portion of the whole something is. And remember, even if you come up with a great infographic layout, you'll still need a legend to explain it to the masses.
Upload and embed videos.
Previously, we covered the steps necessary to add a YouTube video to a Google Slides presentation. Millennials and Gen Z generations are big consumers of online videos. Using relevant videos will help you leave a long-lasting impression on your audience. The good news is that the movies may be edited so that they just see the parts that pertain to the slide content. You risk losing your audience if you spend more than 2 minutes for each slide streaming. Show no more than three videos in your presentation; they are meant to supplement your talk, not replace it.
Because of Google's ownership of both YouTube and Slides, embedding videos from the video-sharing site is a breeze. But if you want to use videos that aren't already on YouTube, you can easily download them (Vimeo provides this option) and then use Google Drive to add them.
Insert animated GIFs
GIFs combine the best features of still images and moving videos. They are an excellent tool for focusing on key points in your presentation. A fun feature of Google Slides is the ability to insert GIFs into your presentations. As GIFs are just animated still images, they can be uploaded just as quickly from a web address or straight from your PC.
GIFs help draw emphasis to specific words or sections of an infographic. Using a GIF to demo a process is possible, which may then be used in guides. However, GIFs should be used sparingly. Abuse of these graphics will lead to diminishing results, as the viewer will become distracted, and the GIFs will not be effective.
You should avoid using internet memes. While you might get a good reaction, the more likely outcome is that you will lighten the mood of your presentation and even switch gears entirely.
Incorporate dimensional figures
Whatever the context, design is design, be it for a PowerPoint presentation or a user interface. The time and effort you put into making your Google slides look nice will pay off in the long run, but remember that design trends come and go and that using a too-old design will leave a wrong impression. In addition, a 3D image may be more relevant and easily understood than a simple 2D graphic, especially if the presentation concerns architecture or engineering because 3D shapes are an inherent component of modern design.
While Google Slides does not now have its 3D shapes and charts, it is simple to insert ones from elsewhere, such as your computer (if you have it there), a URL address, or a Google Drive file shared with you.
Conclusion
Your audience is picky, and they want to hear someone who is assured in presenting something that is aesthetically appealing; therefore, it's in your best interest to learn how to make Google Slides seem beautiful. If you know how to make the most of Google Slides, you may create stunning visuals for your presentations and receive well-deserved praise at the end.