Information Density Is the Key to Smarter Slide Decks

Conventional wisdom about slide decks leads many professionals to think they should design minimalist slides, like the ones we see in TED Talks.

Slides from Matt Cutts’s TED Talk, “Try Something New for 30 Days.”

But slides like these rarely make sense in workplace settings where detailed information is necessary to make and support an argument.

Left to their own devices, many professionals swing to the opposite extreme: slides overloaded with text and graphics.

In short, many of the slides we see in popular talks online are minimalist, while the slides we often create and sit through at work are overloaded. What’s needed is clear guidance for how to make slides that fall somewhere between these two common extremes. 

And for this smarter slide deck design, we also need a vocabulary to talk about where slides fall on that spectrum.

Information Density

The term I use to describe how much information to include on a slide is information density.

I first used the phrase in 2019 while completing a study of TED Talks unrelated to slides. When I searched the academic literature, I found only a handful of studies attempting to measure information density. Each study was from a different field. None referenced each other. And none looked at workplace presentations.

So I spent the next four years conducting my own studies of workplace slides to develop a pragmatic way for professionals to think about how much information should be included on a slide.

Information density is measured using word count and information chunks.

• Word count: The total number of words on a slide.

  
  

• Information chunks: Any content your audience perceives as belonging to a distinct group, separate from other groups around it.

As word count and information chunks increase, so does the cognitive effort required from your audience to understand your message. 

With low word count and low chunk count, TED Talk slides tend to be low density. With high word count and high chunk count, many workplace decks are high density. And many decks go far beyond even that, exceeding the best-practice recommendations I share in my book Build Better Slide Decks.

Density in Practice

Because my job involves helping Cornell students prepare for the workplace, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about how to make high-density slides effective. Not every slide can—or should—look like a TED Talk. But every slide can be designed intentionally for its purpose.

Next, I’ll show you how we can take the very high-density slide presented above (at over 300 words and five information chunks) and redesign it into something clear and usable

High-density slide (170 words, 4 chunks)

Here’s a more reasonable version of a high-density slide that’s designed to be read. At 170 words and four information chunks, a slide like this works well as a pre-read, a leave-behind, or a deck that people can read on their own time. 

Low-density slide (14 words, 1 chunk)

Now imagine I want to present this idea live. Instead of giving my audience 170 words to sort through, I could use a slide with just 14 words and one information chunk. This slide keeps the focus on what I say, and gives me room to explain the details verbally.

Medium-density slide (86 words, 2 chunks)

Finally, here’s a medium-density slide. With 86 words and two information chunks, this version could work well in a presentation where I want the slide to support my delivery but still make some standalone sense afterward. 

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These three slide iterations show that there isn’t one “correct” level of density. The best choice depends on your purpose for the deck and your audience’s preferences. Once you start thinking about slides in terms of information density, you gain more control over how your audience experiences your message. When you adopt this approach, your slides become a more effective tool for delivering your message.