Even with good content, a slide can still look cluttered. In this case, the issue isn’t about how much content you have on the slide, but how the individual pieces of content are competing for attention. When everything vies for attention, nothing does. One thing novice designers might try to resolve this issue is to add more design, thinking it will clarify things. Instead, it just creates more clutter. Instead, use control over the viewer’s attention to clarify your message.
Think of the order in which you want the viewer to look at each piece of content. What should they see first? Second? Last? Start with the first piece of content that you want the viewer to see. Every slide should have a single piece of content that dominates the slide and draws the viewer’s eye to it immediately. This can be a word or phrase, a number, or a visual element. The rest of the content on the slide should support that dominant piece of content instead of competing with it.
To practice, take a cluttered slide and try covering different parts of it with your hand. Which one can you cover up and still communicate the core idea on the slide? That is your dominant content. Now try to rebuild the slide so that piece of content is unmistakable. Another common cause of clutter is a lack of white space. White space is the empty space around your text and visuals. When you don’t have enough white space between sections of content, the viewer’s brain interprets all those sections as a single unit, even if they’re distinct.
Increasing white space between different content sections allows each section to breathe and clarifies the overall structure of the slide. To try this out, duplicate a slide, then increase the white space between the text and visuals on the slide, but leave everything else the same. When you compare the two slides, you should find that it’s easier to distinguish between sections on the new slide. One thing that can make designers feel like they have clutter is a fear of empty space. It can make the slide feel unfinished, but white space actually helps clarify the message.
Sometimes you can even clarify a slide by removing an icon, a line, or a background shape. If you find that your slide is looking a bit bare after editing, don’t feel like you need to fill the space back up. If you find that your message is clear, that’s a good sign! If you feel the need to add something back, try to balance instead. Another trick is to limit the number of different visual styles on the same slide. Too many fonts, colors, and alignments will create discord and confusion.
Try to use a single style for titles, a single style for body text, and maintain consistent alignments. To try this out, take a slide and limit it to two different text styles and a single color for emphasis. You should find that it becomes easier to follow the content on the slide without needing to try so hard. At this point, if you’re still struggling to declutter, it’s time to move away from decorating your slide and think about hierarchy.
What do you want the viewer to notice first, and is anything competing with that? Use the hide function to temporarily remove items from the slide, one at a time, and see how it looks without that item. This can help you identify if the item is unnecessary.
Over time, this process will help you develop your eye for clutter. Decluttering is a skill, and the best way to learn is by doing. To practice, take 15 minutes to refine a single slide. Keep simplifying, bit by bit. With each version, either remove something or adjust something. After a few versions, the slide will start to feel de-cluttered and clarified. This process will also help you feel more comfortable making the decisions instead of relying on decorating your slide to solve the problem.