How to Design TED Worthy Presentation Slides: Presentation Design Principles from the Best TED Talks

by Akash Karia

“Reading this book changed my presentation style and my slides, both for the better - and I've been a professional speaker for over 30 years.” ~ Becki L. James “How to Design TED-Worthy Presentation Slides” is your secret to designing sexy presentations How to Design (and Deliver) TED-Worthy Presentation Slides is a short, practical and step-by-step guide to creating sexy slides. It is based on an extensive analysis of some of the best TED speakers, such as Brene Brown, Daniel Pink, Amy Cuddy, Larry Lessig, Seth Godin, Bill Gates and many, many more. Included in the book are sample sexy slides from TED talks, as well as from across the web, to help you master the art of presentation design. Learn how to breathe life into your slides, instead of draining it out of your audience By the end of this guide, you too will be able to create sexy presentation slides that keep your audiences mesmerized. More importantly, you will be able to design presentations that breathe life into your slides, instead of draining it out of your audience. Not convinced yet? Here’s just a taste of what you’ll learn inside the •The most common mistake most presenters make – and how you can avoid it •The one principle that will make you better than 90% of most speakers •How to quickly create a presentation storyboard •Bill Gates’ trick for transforming his slides from dull to dashing •The Seth Godin presentation formula •The importance of contrast •Locating and using sexy fonts •Spicing up your presentations with video •Displaying data without being dull •Ensuring consistency between slides •How to deliver a great TED talk (or any other speech or presentation) •And much, much more… “A must read...An essential tool for preparing effective, interesting and "sexy" presentations...a must read for any professional who wants to improve his communication skills.” ~ Rosalinda Scalia “The lessons shared in this short book will a go a long way to helping a person give better public presentations. The insights shared by Akash are like golden nuggets in a river full of info!” ~ Alan Portugal “I have been teaching workshops at universities and Fortune 500 Campuses up and down the East Coast on building better presentations. Akash hits all the right notes in this book. A must read for anyone wanting to build powerful presentations.” ~ David Bishop “Excellent for those who want to really engage their audience. I incorporated many of the principles within and developed a more effective product presentation.” ~ Tom Tipps “Right on the mark. Just what I was looking for as a non-designer.” ~ Erik J. Zettelmayer “Make a greater impact with your presentations. While reading this book I was mentally reviewing my talks where I use PowerPoint slides. I am now changing some of those slides to make a greater impact on the listeners. These tips are easy to implement and make sense.” ~ John C.

Genres: Business, Communication, Nonfiction, Reference, Design, Self Help

208 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 14, 2013

About the author

Akash Karia is a professional speaker who has trained thousands of people worldwide, from bankers in Hong Kong to yoga teachers in Thailand to senior executives in Dubai. He is an award-winner trainer who has been ranked as one of the Top 10 Speakers in Asia-Pacific.

He writes books on public speaking and success, sharing proven tools and techniques for the price of a cup of coffee. What separates him from other authors is that his books are based on hundreds of hours of intensive scientific research. All these tools are delivered in a simple, easy-to-read, step-by-step format that you can implement immediately.

Reviews

[Charmin]

HIGHLIGHTS:
1. MISTAKES:
- Instead of seeking perfection, accept that you will make some mistakes and you will stumble over your words.
- This will remove pressure off you, and ironically, this will result in a more authentic and powerful presentation.

2. STATISTICS & PICTURES:
- One powerful way to make your statistics even more interesting is to combine them with pictures.
- Speakers who speak without slides are usually more passionate and dynamic when speaking.

3. BACK DROP OF SLIDES:
- Consider using a visually stunning image as the backdrop upon which you place your statistic.
- Side note: It’s important that you embed all new fonts into your presentation software, otherwise they won’t display properly on other computers.
- Another option would be to save your presentation as a PDF.

4. PHOTOGRAPHS:
- Use only high-quality photographs.
- Don’t grab random images off the web because it might result in copyright issues.
- Never stretch a small image to fit your slide because it will result in low quality, pixelated image.

5. THE THREE-SECOND RULE:
- your audience should understand your slide within three seconds of seeing it.

6. CORE MESSAGE:
- You should be able to write your core message in less than ten words.
- If your core message is not crystal-clear to you, it won’t be clear to your audience.

7. SLIDE QUALITY:
- Slide design isn’t about making your slides look pretty.
- It’s about eliminating clutter, promoting simplicity, and enhancing the effectiveness of your message.

8. SLIDES:
- If your slides are high quality and beautifully designed, your audience will be enthusiastic about listening to you.

9. ABSORB EVERYTHING:
- Believe it or not, your audience members have a difficult task – they have to absorb everything you’re saying, while also making sense of your slides.
- If you have complex slides that contain a lot of text and a lot of points, you’re making it very difficult for your audience to stay interested in your presentation.

10. GOOD PRESENTATION:
- Simplicity and consistency are the keys to a good presentation.

[Freya]

Presentation Zen is much better. This is self-published dreck.

[Iyad M.]

Simple, straightforward and practical

I found the book simple and straightforward, covering a lot of points to improve slide preparation for any presentation.
I recommend it to anyone who presents in any field, but probably focus on some area or recommendations more than others, depending on you area of expertise.

[Thomas Jr.]

This is the best presentation book with an audiobook version. Read Presentation Zen first.

[André Coelho]

Direct and helpful, full of practical guidance and examples of what to do and not to do. It had an immediate impact on my slide-making in high education. I recommend.

[Chris Hounslow]

Felt like a long blog post, rather than an in-depth and connected discussion of the topic.

Good tips here and there but lots of space taken up by screenshots and the text is a little confusing/repetitive at times.

[Nithin Thompson]

See my review: http://www.sojournintoexile.com/how-t...

[Nick Murray]

Just Ok

While the writing is well done and easy to read, the content was fairly intuitive to anyone with experience in presenting. It does serve as a great refresh though.

[phnuog]

Cô đọng, dễ hiểu, lối viết rõ ràng, rất hữu ích cho bản thân mình.

[christina vogel]

Worth the ebook read

The best way to absorb this is to watch the video links as they come up. You absorb more and it keeps you interested. And this is well written! No AI here!!!

[Rene Cizio]

Basic best practices.

[Lan Le]

Cuốn sách giúp bạn có cách tư duy thiết kế slide sao cho hiệu quả hơn. Đúng như lời giới thiệu, sách ko trình bày tất cả về PowerPoint nhưng có nhiều tips hữu ích, định hướng cho bạn thiết kế slide trong 1 số tình huống điển hình.

[Julia Doherty]

I enjoyed this quick read. I am presenting more and more now-a-days, so I am trying to digest as much information as I can, and the famous Ted Talks seems like an obvious place to start.

Did I learn much? There were some old rules that were good to have a refresh, such as:-

1. One message per slide
2. Images work better than bullet points
3. Think of the person at the back of the room
4. Fonts! - consistently in family of fonts.

There was really nothing new in the book, but it was great to go back over the points.

[Daniel Nyairo]

I bought this book because a client of mine wanted me to write a blog about making an effective presentation. It didn't disappoint.

That is despite it being very short (You can read it in one seating). A few of the ideas I took away from the book include; sticking to one core message, not treating slides as the heart of a presentation and how to use images (and why).

I would say it is a handy book if you want to stop boring your audience to death with flat presentations.

[Heiko]

A very good introduction to slide design.
The book encourages the reader to re-evaluate the often taken approach to building a presentation and delivers good examples on how to improve.
The book is quite short but with the additional examples the depth of the tips is sufficient.
If you are new to building presentations or are tired of doing the same format over and over again this is definitely a good book to put you on a different and more fun way.

[Andy Beal]

It took me many years of speaking to refine my slides and delivery to those outlined in this book. If you're new to public speaking, you can skip the trial and error and just follow the advice of Karia.

P.S. The advice applies to just about any event, not just TED.

[Michael D]

It's "fine". A quick read that is a nice overview of the principles that can contribute to a sparkling presentation. It probably doesn't have quite enough meat to be your only resource, however. For a beefier introduction I would recommend "The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs".

[Deb Eastwood]

Great advice for presentations

Covers many e cel lent ideas for creating top rate presentations. Plenty of examples to make his points clearly. Highly recommend if you make presentations frequently.

[Mark Polino]

There is a lot of good advice in here but most of it isn't new. If you read some other presentation books by solid presenters you'll see a lot of similar advice.

[Todd]

Quick and Practical

A good and quick read full of excellent examples. I found some good tips that will make my presentations better.

[Dipanshu Sharma]

quick read. a good refresher to use Photos!

[Jitka Egressy]

Quick read with great value plus tons of bonus material.

[Pctrainer98]

Good book for tips of how to create your slides for ANY presentation! I was reading on my phone so I did not watch all the TED talks referenced but I plan to watch them all.

[Alvaro]

A very good and well written handbook on preparing and delivering a nice talk. Easy to follow and ready to apply.

[Todd Taylor]

Great advice, but a lot of it seemed to be cut and pasted from elsewhere. If it had shown more examples of great slides, instead of just a few per point, I think it would be much more valuable.

[David Cross]

Pretty basic stuff. Really not worth the money.

[Adam]

Quick read; full of practical advice for improving your slides, TED or no TED. My favorite: design your slides as if they were billboards in terms of simplicity and style and ease of understanding.

[Eric]

Very helpful

I thought this books gave some great recommendations on presenting and overall planning a presentation. Gave practical ways on improving a presentation.

[Juancho]

Awesome, great tips, great examples

It delivers what offers, easy to consult. The real presentations examples are a plus, it gives a best expierience for the reader!!