Presentation Design
Plan, structure, and diagnostically improve slides and talks so the audience actually understands your message—not just pretty decks.
Overview
Presentation Design is an agent skill most often used in Launch (also Validate and Grow) that designs and evaluates presentations using audience-centered, assertion-evidence frameworks across any slide tool.
Install
npx skills add https://github.com/jwynia/agent-skills --skill presentation-designWhat is this skill?
- Audience-centered design principle with assertion-evidence structure fixes
- Quick-reference table for 5 common slide diseases (wall of text, bullet overload, kitchen sink, empty design, cognitive
- Phase 1 audience and content planning with essential vs expandable content
- Tool-agnostic guidance (reveal.js, PowerPoint, Keynote, Google Slides)
- Diagnostic + assistive mode for designing decks and reviewing existing slides
- 5 common presentation problems in the quick-reference table
- Phase 1 audience and content planning framework
- Diagnostic + assistive skill mode (metadata type: diagnostic)
Adoption & trust: 1.7k installs on skills.sh; 92 GitHub stars; 3/3 security scanners passed (skills.sh audits).
What problem does it solve?
Your slides are dense lists or decorative visuals, and the audience leaves without grasping the one message you needed them to remember.
Who is it for?
Founders preparing demos, launch talks, investor updates, or educational webinars who want structured slide critique—not generic templates.
Skip if: Brand-only visual identity projects with no spoken narrative, or automated slide generation without a defined audience and main message.
When should I use this skill?
Designing a presentation, creating slides, getting presentation feedback, structuring a talk, or reviewing slides.
What do I get? / Deliverables
You get a message-first deck structure with reduced cognitive load, visual evidence per slide, and diagnostic fixes aligned to your audience and talk goal.
- Audience-aligned talk structure with essential vs expandable content
- Slide-level recommendations (assertion-evidence, one concept per slide)
- Diagnostic review of an existing deck against common failure modes
Recommended Skills
Journey fit
Spans multiple journey phases - primary shelf plus alternate fits below.
Launch distribution is the canonical shelf for talks, webinars, and slide assets that get your product in front of people; the skill also supports earlier pitches and later educational content. Distribution covers how you present the product publicly; this diagnostic skill optimizes message, cognitive load, and visual evidence for those channels.
Where it fits
Turn a feature brainstorm into a tight investor or advisor deck with one main message and expandable backup slides.
Rebuild a product launch webinar deck to replace bullet lists with one concept plus visual evidence per slide.
Diagnose cognitive overload in a customer education series before publishing recorded tutorials.
How it compares
Use instead of default bullet-heavy templates when you need diagnostic frameworks for clarity, not just theme swaps.
Common Questions / FAQ
Who is presentation-design for?
Solo and indie builders who present their own product—pitch meetings, launch livestreams, meetup talks, or customer onboarding decks—and want agent-guided structure and review.
When should I use presentation-design?
At Launch when preparing distribution talks; at Validate when shaping a pitch or scope narrative; at Grow when building educational or support webinars; whenever you are designing slides or reviewing an existing deck.
Is presentation-design safe to install?
It is document and methodology guidance; review the Security Audits panel on this Prism page like any third-party skill before enabling it in your agent.
SKILL.md
READMESKILL.md - Presentation Design
# Presentation Design Diagnostic ## Purpose Design and evaluate presentations that communicate effectively. Provides frameworks for planning, visual design, cognitive load management, and evaluation. Applicable to any presentation tool (reveal.js, PowerPoint, Keynote, Google Slides). ## Core Principle **Audience-centered design.** Every decision should serve audience understanding, not presenter convenience. --- ## Quick Reference: Common Problems | Problem | Symptom | Fix | |---------|---------|-----| | Wall of Text | Slides are paragraphs | Assertion-evidence structure | | Bullet Point Disease | Lists instead of visuals | One concept + visual evidence | | Kitchen Sink | Everything included | Essential vs. expandable content | | Pretty but Empty | Design without substance | Message-first design | | Cognitive Overload | Too much per slide | One key concept per slide | --- ## Phase 1: Audience & Content Planning ### Key Questions 1. **Who specifically is my audience?** What's their knowledge level? 2. **What's the ONE main message?** What should they remember? 3. **What are 3-5 supporting points?** How do they reinforce the message? 4. **What evidence supports each point?** Visual, data, examples? 5. **What action should they take?** What's the call to action? 6. **What are time constraints?** What's essential vs. optional? ### Actions - [ ] Create audience persona(s) - [ ] Write one-sentence main message - [ ] Organize supporting points in logical flow - [ ] Identify evidence for each point - [ ] Define essential vs. expandable content - [ ] Sketch presentation flow --- ## Phase 2: Visual Strategy ### Assertion-Evidence Structure **Replace bullet points with:** - **Assertion:** Clear, complete sentence stating the point - **Evidence:** Visual that supports the assertion **Instead of:** ``` Key findings: • Data shows increase • Users engaged more • Revenue improved ``` **Use:** ``` "User engagement increased 43% after redesign" [Graph showing the increase] ``` ### Visual Principles - **Limited palette:** 3-5 colors maximum - **Typography hierarchy:** 2-3 fonts with clear roles - **Whitespace:** Let content breathe - **Consistency:** Same layouts, same treatment - **Visual progress:** Help audience track where they are --- ## Phase 3: Cognitive Load Management ### One Concept Per Slide Each slide should answer: "What's the ONE thing I want them to take from this?" ### Progressive Disclosure Reveal information sequentially instead of all at once: 1. Show initial state 2. Add first element with context 3. Add second element building on first ### Spoken vs. Shown | Show on Slide | Speak Aloud | |---------------|-------------| | Key assertion | Elaboration | | Visual evidence | Context and explanation | | Critical data | Interpretation | | Next step | Why it matters | ### Code Examples (Technical Talks) - Syntax highlighting always - Highlight the critical line - Build up complex examples - Remove boilerplate when possible --- ## Phase 4: Structure Patterns ### Horizontal vs. Vertical (Multi-Level Navigation) **Horizontal slides:** Main narrative flow **Vertical slides:** Supporting details (optional deep dives) Example: - Horizontal: "Three Key Factors in Customer Retention" - Vertical (under that): Detailed slide for each factor ### Time Flexibility Mark content as: - **Essential:** Must cover in any version - **Standard:** Include with normal time - **Expandable:** Include only with extra time --- ## Evaluation Framework ### 1. Audience-Centered Design (Rate 1-5)