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Let me begin with this: I didn’t intend to have a presentation featured on SlideShare. I put up the deck for “Fearless: Adopting Brave Experimentation” because a couple of folks requested it following my talk at an AWDG meetup. Countless talented people actually design their slides for sharing online, so, how did mine end up featured, giving me nearly 20,000 views?

Turns out, I actually followed some of SlideShare’s own suggestions for getting featured. They give seven helpful tips, and I’d like to augment them with how I did on each, and how they can also help your live audience (the most important “views”). I think it’s quite possible to design a deck for presenting and sharing online.

Aesthetics

1. Write a powerful headline.

In this case, the headline of a slide deck should correspond to the title of a presentation. I’ve found that having an interesting and accurate title for your talk can set the proper context—it can also be the difference between a full room and an empty one. Take the time to come up with something interesting, then bounce it off others to see if it makes sense. Being clever is only awesome when it’s also helpful. Some of my recent ones include “No one cares about your content (yet)” and “Temporary Cache Assistance (The Transients API)”.

2. Create an enticing cover slide to draw in your audience.

Your cover slide is what your audience will be staring at for 2-30 minutes prior to your presentation. Don’t make them second guess their decision to hear you that quickly! 🙂

Here’re a few of mine:

3. Be well designed (no one likes looking at ugly slides).

I have the advantage of being a designer already, so that makes slide design a bit easier, obviously. If you want better looking slides, but don’t feel like you can design them well, go buy one.

Whether you design your own or not, make them easy to read, simplistic, and keep a common theme throughout. I like to use big images that I wash out with color to help with contrast.

Story Arc

4. Keep us engaged. Make your deck so captivating, the reader effortlessly clicks through to the end.

Easier said than done, am I right? I’m not even sure I would say my deck accomplished this, but it’s an important thing to strive for. Tell a story, and place the listener/viewer squarely inside of it. Narratives help explain complex concepts in small amounts of time—which sounds a lot like a presentation.

5. Fully communicate your message (keep it short, but still like a story).

I’ve struggled to end a talk well more than once—it’s tempting to throw in extra points that didn’t fit into the greater presentation, or to feel like a specific ending is a bit too dramatic. But, knowing how to end means that you’ve encapsulated a message, and that’s crucial. If you can’t fully communicate a message within a set of slides or your allotted amount of time, simplify your message.

Relevance

6. Tackle a news related or trending topic (lists are good, too!).

“Fearless…” is relevant to ‘hot’ topics insofar as it’s about UX, failure, and data. I think SlideShare’s tip here should be applied in a broader context, though: talk about something people already care about, and say something unique (or say something uniquely).

7. Be trend setting in terms of design, style, or content. Be something others want to emulate.

This is more easier-said-than-done advice, and a bit of a moving target. Ultimately, thought leadership and trend-setting is done by those who have something interesting to say and are able to convey it clearly. Go for that.