How long should a presentation be? That is a popular question for which many presenters seek a magical answer. However, most of them leave one critical point out – it is not the length of the presentation that matters, but the number of informative and engaging slides.
You’ve read it right. The number of slides can predetermine the success or ultimate failure of your project. Very often, presentations packed with too many slides distract and overwhelm the audience, affecting their attention negatively. At the same time, too few slides leave the viewers wondering whether they’ve grasped the presented matter fully. Moreover, sometimes, there are gaps that the audience can’t fill in on their own.
Today, we’ll share our professional view on presentation time counted in slides. Do you wonder how many slides in a 5-minute presentation would suffice the purpose or how many slides for a 45-minute presentation you require to keep the audience interested and alert? We’ve got more than that to offer!
The Rule of Thumb for Slide Count
Many professional presentation design services outline the Rule of a Thumb strategy as a starting point that can help you figure out the precise number of slides you need. The Rule relies on the 1:1 ratio, aka one slide per minute. While this universal standard comes of use in some situations, it is not the solid pillar on which to base your presentation every time.
The ideal slide count depends on various factors, such as presentation style or complexity of the subject. This means that some more technical topics would require additional information for the audience to grasp the message fully. At the same time, a more conversational presentation usually requires fewer slides since it depends on the spoken narrative…
