In a constantly evolving market, a designer cannot afford to take a one-design-for-all-decks approach to presentations. Every presentation deck is unique and needs a customized treatment.
The audience, the content and, latest design trends are but a few deciding factors for the level to which a deck should be formatted. A consultant might prefer a simple, polished look for her presentation. A marketing head presenting a strategy to clients might want a design repackaging for a presentation with icons, imagery, and animation. Requirements vary a lot.
As presentation designers, defining the levels of presentation design helps us understand our customer’s requirements and design preferences.
Level 1 presentation design, also known as Presentation Design repackaging
Level 1 design encompasses all basic formatting and creativity.
The slides are revamped by making variations to the original layout and design of the slides. This is almost aking to changing the positioning and arrangement of furniture in your living room. It is like when you move things around because you might want a fresher look or you just need that couch positioned better so that you have a better view from the window.
Icons, imagery and animations are included to add that zing factor to the slide.
This level of work requires a fair bit of creativity.
When or Where Would you Need Level 1 presentation design for your Decks?
Executive Summary Decks
The executive summary deck of a business proposal highlights every aspect of a project/proposal. It is the first deck your customer sees.
You have proposed a new deal and your client is ready to see what you have to offer. You want to impress your customer and walk him through the project so that both parties are on the same page.
The executive summary deck helps you do all this. So, it has to be very clear and compelling. This is the primary reason most of our customers opt for level 2 design in addition to level 1 for such decks.
Some customers opt for both level 2 and level 3 design on the deck as content on the slides might require different treatments to stress on certain topics.
Scenarios Decks
This deck is part and parcel of every consultant’s work life. They research and discuss their clients’ problems, market trends, and then work out plausible solutions.
These decks represent different scenarios of each industry/problem area. They outline the current state, and proposed solutions. They have to be visually compelling and engaging.
Scenario decks are given Level 1 treatment with images and icons added to make a striking difference. Simple animation is added as well.
Routine Deliverables
Certain decks have a quick turnaround time but are also used over a long duration depending on the size of a project. We classify these as routine deliverables.
Routine deliverables contain day-to-day tasks or activities. They could also comprise of products for your customers or reports for your employees.
So, these are decks that are regularly updated as and when project status changes.
Knowing how projects go, some of these deliverables might need more than just a quick clean up.
For e.g., a project plan that had to be changed to accommodate a new but unexpected risk factor, or a timeline that needed updating.
Such instances call for a change in layout or repackaging of these particular slides. They will need to fit in with the rest of the deck while still making way for the design repackage.
Such decks are perfect candidates for typical Level 1 PowerPoint design!
Field Decks
Most business organizations and marketing consultants use field decks to guide their clients when launching any new campaigns or products.
Such decks contain information about products, and have other related details.
The presentation is designed to convey messages in a simple and easy to understand way.
Level 1 design is applied to these decks.
However, some customers like to give level 2 design to field presentations because it will be used as a client-facing deck in the future.
What treatment you choose to give to the deck also depends on the content.
Conclusion:
Level 1 decks are not the ones that you present to your boss or customers for the final nod. They are the before and the after-stage decks.
If you plan to use a deck to make a presentation to your boss or to your end consumers, then we suggest you choose level 3 presentation design.
Get your copy of The 3 Levels of Presentation Design.
Preference for styles and designs may vary from customer to customer. We leave it to our customers to choose the levels of presentation design needed after giving them the options.
Do you have something to share with us on types of decks? We would love to hear from you.
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