Once you’ve downloaded the slide template of your choice, you can customize it to fit your content. While the design and layout need to adhere to MIT Sloan’s brand standards, there’s still room for personalization. Add images, text, and other visuals to make the slides uniquely yours.
Prioritize Visual Content
In Multimedia Learning, Richard Mayer’s research-based guide to multimedia instruction, the Multimedia Principle states that “People learn better from words and pictures than from words alone” (as quoted in Davis & Norman, 2016). How can you optimize your video for this principle?
- Include images to illustrate key points.
- Make sure all images enhance or clarify meaning rather than being purely decorative.
- Use simple graphs, charts, and infographics to convey complex ideas in a way that’s engaging and easy to understand.
Remember that visuals should always support and enhance your spoken words, not overshadow them.
Keep It Simple
Less is more when it comes to designing slides for studio presentations. As Mayer describes in Multimedia Learning, learners benefit most from streamlined content free of extraneous material (as cited in Davis & Norman, 2016). Aim for a minimalist design that helps your audience concentrate on the key takeaways.
- Use a clean layout with plenty of white space to highlight the essential points.
- Limit the text to key phrases or bullet points
- Use a large font size (at least 18pt) for easy readability.
- Where possible, make sure the text on your slide exactly mirrors what you say out loud. This helps your slides support rather than compete against your spoken presentation.
