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Importance of Presentation Structures in PowerPoint
Presentation structure is one of the important parts of PPT designing, yet many presenters simply…. ignore it.
This blog will enlighten you on “how to structure” your presentation correctly, even if you are totally new to presentation Design
You will be learning the following:
- What is the structure of the presentation?
- Why structure your presentation
- Type of structure
- How to find the proper structure for your presentation
Ok, let’s understand what a structure is.
The structure of the presentation is equal to the architect’s drawing of an upcoming building.
Just by going through the structure, you can imagine how the entire presentation is going to look like
It consists of sections & slides & It decides the flow of any presentation.
You must have seen a few presentations where you need help figuring out the connectivity of one slide to another. That’s because of broken or missing structures.
This leads to confusion & disconnection; hence, the audience loses interest.
On the other hand, a structured presentation keeps the audience in sync with the slides and offers them a clear understanding of what is being displayed and how it relates to the bigger picture.
Let’s take an example here: if you are explaining the software and its features, then talking about security in depth and leaving the main software behind will impact the audience, and they will feel disconnected.
That is why structuring a presentation is essential.
Structuring is the bird’s eye view of the presentation. It can showcase an overview in one glance and help you balance it.
The very first thing after deciding on the topic of the presentation is how to structure it.
Let’s understand the types of Presentation Structure
Types of Presentation Structure
- Linear presentation structure
- Story presentation structure
- Indexed presentation structure
- Non-linear presentation structure
The two key factors that determine the sort of structure to be used in a presentation are
- Type of audience
- The complexity of the presentation subject
Let’s understand these types of presentation structure
Linear Presentation Structure:
The safest way of structuring your presentation is a linear structure.
Generally, it fits most audiences.
It is very simple….It has a beginning, middle & end
It follows step by step process. The flow is straight, and most of your audience will guess what will next slide or section of the presentation will be.
While accommodating most of the audience types is the advantage of this structure, its straight approach kills the surprise factor, and for some, it is boring when you know what to expect.
The structure is like 1,2,3… 10, where you can easily guess the series and predict what is going to come next.
Next is
Story Presentation Structure :
This structure is not for everyone.
As the name suggests, it is built on a story, and hence, the structure is named “Story Structure” . It is kind of non-linear and used when the presenter has to make a point by narrating a story through slides.
It maintains the highest engagement and is difficult to predict, but at the same time, using this structure may be risky cause If your story is not woven well through slides, the audience might lose interest or get lost in the narration.
The story structure should be short, like 20 slides at the most, and the presenter must involve the audience with his speaking skills.
The next structure is
Indexed Presentation Structure:
This structure is bound to its index of topics. It is like a book where different chapters are bound with their index. A presenter can always refer back to the index and may break the continuity after a section/ chapter in our case, section or slides
This structure is helpful in designing a product/service booklet or explaining multiple benefits of any product or service.
The entire presentation is bound with the main subject( like history) but is not necessarily bound by section or chapter flow.
You should use it when you have multiple pieces of information belonging to one subject but not necessarily connected to each other.
We are now left with the last structure, that is
Non-Linear Presentation Structure:
This is the most dynamic structure, and very few people take advantage of it. It requires a good grip on presentation skills, designing skills and content writing.
It does not follow a pattern, but the presenter places & picks the slides as per his talk flow or people’s queries.
Although it still contains sections, one section is independent of another, and any section can be picked, so there is no beginning, middle or end, but the presenter uses the section as per the audience or time.
This covers the very first part of the series, that is, structure.
Before you even write a single line or open a PowerPoint application on your computer, decide upon the presentation structure first. I have seen people making changes from one structure to another without understanding that changing structure, in the end, is a disaster.
If you finding it difficult to build structure, reach us here and we would be happy to help
Author : Harish K. Saini
Publishing Date : 5 February 2024