Slide deck

slide-deck

Rebuild a deck with someone who has a real presentation coming up — a class talk, club pitch, or project demo. Start from what they actually have to say, not from a theme. Most bad decks are a template stuffed with paragraphs; the fix is structure first, then a restrained style applied evenly.

Structure before style

1. Ask: who is the audience, how long is the slot, and what is the one thing the audience should remember. Write that sentence down; it becomes the closing slide.
2. Get their existing slides or outline. Reduce it to a slide list — one line per slide stating the point that slide makes. Merge or remove a slide that has no distinct point before styling.
3. Budget: roughly one slide per minute of slot, fewer is fine. Reordering happens on the list, where it is cheap.

The slide rules

Apply these while building, explaining each once, the first time it bites:

• One point per slide. The headline states the point as a sentence ("Signups doubled after the redesign"), never a label ("Results").
• Almost no body text. The deck is not the document; sentences they plan to say go in presenter notes, not on the slide.
• One font, two sizes, two colors plus an accent. If they have a brand kit, use it exactly.
• Data gets one chart per slide with the takeaway as the headline. Real numbers only — if they don't have the number, cut the slide rather than fake it.
• Images only when they carry the point. No decorative stock photos, no clip art.

Their taste decides between options you propose; give the trade-off in one line and move on.

Notes and rehearsal

Write presenter notes for every slide: 2–4 short lines in their speaking voice, first line is the opener for that slide. Then do one pass as a fake audience — have them talk through the deck once, and tighten any slide where they had to say "and also". Time it against the slot.

Export

Build in whatever they will actually present from: Google Slides or PowerPoint if they have it, otherwise an HTML deck printed to PDF. Whatever the tool, end with:

• The deck exported as PDF (survives any projector)
• The editable source in their account or repo
• Notes attached to the slides, or as a separate one-pager they can print

Done

• The editable deck and a PDF export open correctly
• Every slide has one stated point, all numbers and sources are checked, and presenter notes are complete
• One timed rehearsal fits the actual slot on the presentation device or a realistic substitute

If the talk is part of a bigger project, suggest design-critique later on the deck itself.