How do you create a presentation that holds attention in the age of infinite scroll?

10 ways to make your next presentation impossible to ignore

You know when you start a presentation you put SO much love into 🥹 and, before you even reach the third slide, half the room has already checked out? 📱

Well, it’s not personal.

While you’re talking, your presentation is competing with five-second videos, endless notifications, DMs, dancing dog videos, emails, and ten other tabs open in the background. And we’re not going to win that battle by throwing even more information at people. ✋

Carol, our Creative Director at Pappum, wrote about what’s changing on the big stage last week. A survey of event organizers found that 70% of presentations on the main stages of major events are 30 minutes or less. Which means every slide really needs to earn its place.

You’ve probably heard that our attention span is shorter than a goldfish’s 🐟: 3 seconds. Or 8. Or 12. Spoiler: it’s a myth. ⚠️

A 2015 Microsoft study made the rounds back then, but its origins are a lot more complicated than the headline suggests. There is no established scientific measure saying humans have exactly 8 seconds of attention. And recent research shows that goldfish are actually much more attentive than we thought. 💅

So what changed isn’t our ability to pay attention. It’s the amount of stuff competing for it.

So having good content isn’t enough. You need to make people want to keep looking. And even better, make them remember it later.

That doesn’t mean a crazy animation on every slide, giant type, or turning everything into 3D. It means thinking about your presentation as a visual experience. I don’t love the word “experience” either, but unfortunately, it’s hard to find a better one here. 🙄

So I put together the tips I find myself repeating most often to our Pappum clients:

1. Start with the beginning 🙃: Instead of jumping straight into making slides, take a breath and ask yourself: what do I want this person to see, understand, and remember? Only then think about how that should show up on screen.

2. One idea per slide ☝️: If you need a whole paragraph to explain the slide, the slide is doing the job of a document. Documents go in emails. Slides are there to help the idea click.

3. Separate what you say from what you show: There’s a huge difference between what’s important to say and what actually needs to be on screen. If people are reading the entire slide while you’re talking, they’re not listening to you. One of the two loses, and it’s usually you. 🫢

Instead of: “Our company achieved 35% revenue growth during the last quarter, driven by the expansion of our international operations.” The screen could simply say: “+35% revenue". And you tell the rest. The number hits harder, the message is clearer, and people pay attention to you.

4. Let the image (or the number) take over the screen 📷: A big, well-chosen image has more impact than six icons fighting for space. And that one piece of data that changes everything might deserve the whole screen. Less is more? Sometimes. Sometimes, more is more. The important thing is knowing why that visual is there.

5. Think visually 👁️: You don’t need a beautiful photo on every slide. Use visuals to help people understand.

Want to show growth? Use a chart.Want to create impact? Go full-screen with an image.Want to compare two things? Split the slide in two.

Design isn’t there just to make the slide pretty. It’s there to help the brain understand.

6. Use motion when there’s a reason ▶️: Animation isn’t decoration. A chart that builds as you explain it can keep the audience with you. Motion can explain a transformation, create anticipation, and control the pace.

If you can’t explain why something is moving, it probably doesn’t need to move.

7. Create rhythm (and, preferably, break the pattern) 🎬: Think about a movie. Not every scene has the same length or intensity. A presentation works the same way. A more information-heavy sequence. Then, suddenly, a giant image. A number. A short sentence. A pause.

When every slide has the same structure and the same amount of information, the brain picks up the pattern and attention starts to drift. A black slide after a colorful sequence, a question, an unexpected image: these are great ways to pull people back in because they create curiosity about what’s coming next.

8. Make your slides talk to each other 🤝: Storytelling doesn’t necessarily mean opening with a childhood story. It means making one slide set up the next. Letting one number answer a question you planted earlier. That way, your presentation stops feeling like a bunch of separate pages and starts feeling like one story.

9. Have one visual language 🎨: Colors, fonts, image styles, and rhythm should feel like they belong to the same family from beginning to end. Consistency is what makes your brand memorable.

10. Rehearse with the screen 🗣️: Your words and your slides need to work together. Run through the presentation out loud several times and pay attention to where you’re competing with your own screen.

In the end, making your presentation stand out is about making better choices.

When an image can explain it better, use less text. When you need a pause, give it space. Empty space is part of good design too. When it makes sense, use motion.

That way, every slide has a reason to be there.

It’s not about how long people can pay attention. It’s about what you do with the attention you get.

Before opening PowerPoint, Canva, Figma, or Google Slides, ask yourself:

What do I want this person to see, understand, and remember?

From there, every choice gets easier: what stays, what goes, what becomes an image, what becomes a word, and what doesn’t need to be there at all.

And you? What’s the last presentation that actually held your attention?

Tell me in the comments. I want to know! 👇