Designing charts for presentations, not dashboards

Dashboard charts are dense on purpose: the reader has time and a mouse. A slide gets somewhere between five and fifteen seconds of attention from across a room. Same data, different design job.

One message per slide

If the chart supports two conclusions, split it into two slides. An audience cannot hold two findings from one image while also listening to you.

Delete everything that is not load-bearing

Gridlines, axis lines, tick marks, legends and decimal places all compete with the shape you want seen. On a slide, most of them can go entirely.

Size the type for the back row

Twelve points at final size is the floor, and that usually means fewer categories rather than smaller text. If the chart needs eleven bars, it needs two slides or a different chart.

Highlight one thing

Grey everything except the bar, node or line you are talking about. This single technique does more for presentation charts than any other, because it makes the eye land where your sentence is pointing.

• Title states the conclusion.
• One highlighted element, everything else muted.
• Type at 12pt or larger at final size.
• No legend, no gridlines, no decimals unless they matter.

Keep the dense version for the appendix. The people who want every number will find it there, and everyone else gets a slide they can read.