Whenever I visit my parents’ home, which is a two-hour drive from where I live now, I am constantly welcomed with loud bangs. There is always a worker hammering or fixing something in our family home.
As far as I can remember, my dad has always been renovating the house. He is always looking for perfection.
And I see the same attitude in our customers. They are always seeking to improve the look and feel of their PowerPoint Decks.
Renovation or repair work always happens. It can be an old or new deck. It can also be something with slides pulled out from here and there.
But what is the level of improvement a deck needs? That is where the 3 levels of presentation design come in.
In an earlier article, I talked about where you can use level 1. This article is a continuation of the series.
Level 2 presentation design is also known as Visual Makeover
Our existing customers just tell us to give their decks a Visual Makeover, and our designers get to work.
For those of you who are not familiar with the levels of presentation design, check out this infographic.
In addition to applying level 1 design to your slides, which includes basic formatting and design repackaging, level 2 involves:
- Complex animations with many layers in one single slide
- Revamping your template
- Coming up with a new look and feel for your PowerPoint slides
- Providing options/variations to an existing slide (in terms of layout and design)
Most of our customers come with this problem, and I quote;
We have an older PowerPoint presentation style that needs to be updated, along with many slides that need to be revisited.
Base on the requirement, we send the deck back designed to one of the three levels. And sometimes it is a mix of the 3 levels in the same deck. The team decides what is to be done by judging the type of slides and the kind of treatment they require.
Here are tips to help you decide on the design need of your PowerPoint deck
Where do you apply Level 2 Visual Makeover?
The decks given level 2 treatment are the most important decks that you would present to top management or directors or clients. So you would want to make it the best
deck ever.
1. CxO Level Presentations
CEOs, CTOs, CMOs do not have the time or space to listen to a long in-depth presentation. They only want to hear the beginning and the end of it.
So keep your decks strictly to the point!
Your deck could contain information about high profile projects that you are looking to get a nod for, from the group, you are presenting them to.
Or your deck could be an ongoing business proposal to which some last-minute change/improvements have been made.
And boy! It can be tough. The presentation needs to be extraordinary. You have to capture everything in 10 - 30 minutes.
The visual features of the slides should also contribute to the understanding of the content.
Adding animation as per the content and the flow of your presentation can help reduce the time you take to flip over each slide
These are the type of presentations that you don’t want to mess up.
2. Partner Facing Deck
Partner facing decks are presentations given to partners. Depending on your industry, you sell your product with various offers and solutions. And your deck makes it easier for your partner to sell to targeted customers.
You depend on your deck to generate interest in your joint solution and spark discussion.
The deck shows how you and your partner can work together to help the customers. It includes testimonials, benefits and solutions.
The deck is something you present to a partner, and it is the final output. The presentation must be very convincing to you as well as your customers.
You should be able to communicate the value of the product with the presentation.
If your product is greater, but the quality of your presentation is low, your sales could be affected.
Convince your partner and your customers to take some action using a compelling presentation that is made gripping with level 2 design.
3. Customer-Facing Deck
These are also sales pitch decks and are not very different from partner facing decks.
Such decks are mostly focused on customers’ pain points and present your product as the solution to those pain points.
To be convincing your deck should have good content which is communicated effectively. And the way to get that done is to opt for level 2 design.
Conclusion:
Like I said in my earlier article, there is no fixed rule as to where and when you apply which level of design. They can be applied to any types of decks.
It is the purpose of the deck that should determine the level of design.
You don’t want to spend too much time designing when you are presenting a rough draft.
However, as the project progresses internally as well as externally, it needs to transition from basic formatting to design repackaging to visual makeover.
Each stage has its unique feature and the content of the slides will change as well. Design changes should match the pace.
As you move from a proposal to the final product, you are more satisfied with what you have than when you first started.
Get it right with level 2!
Here are 15 ways to visualize corporate PowerPoint slides for presentations.
Leave me a comment if you have anything to add.
I would love to hear from you.
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