Default or not default
One of the biggest mistakes you could make when designing your presentation is to use your computer software’s default settings. Not only does this show that you have a lack of imagination, but it also puts your audience to sleep even before you start speaking.
Apple Keynote's default
Microsoft's Powerpoint default
When you plan your presentation, you should also consider what your design will be. It does not take long to think of some ideas about what you want your presentation to look like.
A great tip you could use is to delete the default placements and start with a blank template. This way you will be forced to create your own style.
When creating your own style you should think of the colours you want to use, colours that you like, or if you are creating a presentation for your company, perhaps use colours from your company’s logo. Garr Reynolds of the excellent Presentation Zen blog has a great article on colour and places you can go to get sample colours.
You could also use the colour selector of your computer’s software to play around with some ideas. Taking time now to create some colour schemes for your presentation could go a long way to helping you to create a visually pleasing and interesting presentation.
Apple's iWork 09 colour selector
Moving away from the default settings in your presentation software and allowing yourself to be a little creative can not only make your presentation more interesting for your audience, but it can make preparing your presentation a lot more fun.
For more information on presentation design, colour schemes and much more try Nancy Duarte’s Slide:ology book
Or you can visit the slide:ology blog