Icons — One simple hack that will make your PowerPoint presentations more valuable

What are your PowerPoint presentation plans for this year?

If you are a hardcore optimist and have been fortunate so far, your strategy might be continuing wishing audience will not notice small oversights in your PPT. Right!

But mind it if you are looking to take your PPT skills to the next level, you just cannot afford to ignore the power of even a small aspect related to your PPTs.

And if you are ignoring few small aspects then that’s not a good strategy for anyone.

Good news is that intelligent presenters well understand this, but sad part is that still they fail to practice it. And one such small but significant aspect that every second presenter overlooks is use of Icons.

Maximum presenters underestimate the power of icons and the value icons can bring in by putting little efforts and time. Crux is that the majority of presenters are unaware of the potential benefits of using icons.

That’s the reason even after knowing the importance of every small aspect they sometimes deliberately ignore icons.

Taking this into consideration here we are going to cast spotlight on the significance of icons in turning an ordinary PPT topic into a striking one.

What is an Icon?

Before going into much depth let’s first have a quick glance about icons.

An Icon is a graphical symbol to signify a specific style, thing or expression without using words. So, without reading audience can easily and quickly get the message just by looking at icons made of abstract shapes. In nut shell, icons make a presentation slide easier to read and understand.

Icons made of a line or plain visuals are simple to understand. On the other hand, icons comprising technical symbols are bit complex to understand. Best part is icons are vector graphics; hence without compromising resolution presenters can apply them to fit in available space.

Most exciting thing is plenty of icons are available to express a specific expression, style or thing. Many icons are available free; however, just by paying few bucks one can also get original and precise icons.

Also Read: 10 Ultimate Data Visualization Techniques to Make Your PowerPoint Presentation Stand Out!

Examples casting spotlight on use of Icons

Now, let’s start with an example of presentation on Product Development. While designing the cover slide by and large all presenters use an image representing the topic. Often, in absence of any good options, they settle for a bland image like the one below:

Well, just by using the icon one can easily make such a boring cover slide pop-up and look more attractive. Now, check the sample slide below.

Isn’t the second sample PPT slide look more professional and appealing? It is indeed! All in all, just by applying little smartness and time, the tone of the whole slide has changed.

Now, coming to internal slides then again by using icons one can craft magic. For instance, below check the regular sample slide highlighting data in boring bulleted style.

Now, by replacing bullet points with visual icons a presenter can easily bolster the message. Additionally, visual elements act as metaphor and hence helps quickly understand a message. Further, icons cover up the white space which otherwise looks lacklustre. Now, check the final polished result having icons.

Next, let’s have a look at slides explaining a process. Usually, such slides are full of uninteresting rectangular boxes or simply textual information. Check the sample slide given below.

Now by applying the icons to show the process flow, presenters can easily create an enriching experience.

Benefits of using Icons

Now a days from business professionals to technical experts everybody is trying to fit the slice of icons in their PPT slides. Not just because icons efficiently engage the audience for hours but because icons allow communicating a longer message in lesser space.

Presenters can also apply them as logos to bolster their brand’s impression in the mind of the audience. Besides this, being graphical symbols, an icon efficiently augments design and hence looks more appealing to the eyes.

By applying them presenter can easily give rest to the monotony of plain black and white text. Their universal relevance also helps presenters to break language barriers.

Quick glance at benefits of Icons

• Icons support text
• Icons use less space
• Icons increase readability
• Icons cover up white space
• Icons effectively draw attention
• Icons make a message standalone

Concluding Thoughts

Designing an engaging PPT presentation is not that simple. Just because you have done all the big things absolutely right in your PPT does not guarantee a captivating effect.

You need to focus on every small aspect also. To put in other words, you need to look at it from every angle to make it absolutely flawless.

So, if you are to take one tip from the above examples, you need to focus on small aspects like icons. The biggest advantage with icons is that just by investing little time icons potentially change the tone of a PowerPoint presentation. In addition to this, the biggest advantage is that you don’t need much skill to apply icons.

Bottom line is that to truly stand out of the crowd you need to create the best experience for the audience. And the use of icons is the best move to create such an appealing experience.

For further insights, you can also connect with experts at SlideGeeks.

So, share in the comment box below in recent times what other icon trends you have noticed.