presentation on design system

InVisionApp, Inc.

Inside Design

A comprehensive guide to design systems

Will fanguy,   •   jun 24, 2019.

C ompanies like Airbnb, Uber, and IBM have changed the ways they design digital products by incorporating their own unique design systems . By utilizing a collection of repeatable components and a set of standards guiding the use of those components, each of these companies has been able to change the pace of creation and innovation within their teams.

Try Design System Manager for yourself.

Many organizations have what they consider to be a design system , but these collections typically amount to no more than a group of elements and code snippets. While a style guide or pattern library can be a starting point for a design system, they are not the only components. Let’s dig into the fundamentals of design systems, plan how you can build and implement one in your organization, and explore several examples of organizations that are using design systems to drive success.

“Design systems provide a convenient, centralized, and evolving map of a brand’s known product territories with directional pointers to help you explore new regions.” —Chris Messina, tech evangelist and former developer experience lead at Uber

The importance of design systems

What is a design system?

A design system is a collection of reusable components, guided by clear standards, that can be assembled together to build any number of applications.

What’s the difference between a design system and a style guide or pattern library?

A design system isn’t only a collection of the assets and components you use to build a digital product. According to Emmet Connolly, director of product design at Intercom, “… most Design Systems are really just Pattern Libraries: a big box of UI Lego pieces that can be assembled in near-infinite ways. All the pieces may be consistent, but that doesn’t mean the assembled results will be. Your product is more than just a pile of reusable UI elements. It has structure and meaning. It’s not a generic web page, it’s the embodiment of a system of concepts.”

Marco Suarez, one of our product designers here at InVision , adds that “understanding not only the what, but the why, behind the design of a system is critical to creating an exceptional user experience. Defining and adhering to standards is how we create that understanding.”

More simply put, the difference is in the standards and documentation that accompanies the assets. With a guide on why and how to use them, design components because easier to use and clearer to discern.

“Design systems are always evolving, and the way you share and encourage adoption of new iterations will evolve along the way as well.” –Diana Mounter, design systems manager at GitHub

More resources: Design systems overview

Design Systems, when and how much? from Diana Mounter, Design Systems Manager at Github

Examples from building design systems at GitHub, how this can improve the design and development workflow, and when you need to start building design systems and how much of a system you might need.

Designing at scale: How industry leaders leverage design systems from the InVision Blog

In order to quickly iterate with confidence, design teams need access to a single source of truth that allows for a scalable UI language and streamlined UX guidelines. With brand touchpoints reaching over multiple channels and platforms, consistent user experience can be assisted by leveraging a central design language.

Building a library of design patterns, rules, and UX guidelines prevent inconsistencies when shipping products at scale.

Designing Systems from Brad Frost’s Atomic Design

As the number of devices, browsers, and environments continues to increase at a staggering rate, the need to create thoughtful, deliberate interface design systems is becoming more apparent than ever.

Enter atomic design.

From Brad Frost’s Atomic Design methodology, 2013

The full stack design system from Intercom Blog

UI methodologies like Atomic Design bring logic and structure to individual screens. Now it’s time to extend that thinking to every aspect of your product.

On Design Systems: Sell The Output, Not The Workflow from Smashing Magazine

I’ve yet to encounter a client that would be genuinely, passionately excited about the atomic design methodology or a module naming workshop. However, everyone does get passionately excited about time-saving features and better, faster output that they can engage with … Next time you encounter somebody not seeing the benefits of a modular approach, try to convince them of the tangible benefits and the output, not the workflow you’re using.

On the Current State of Design Systems in UX from Innovatemap

I’ve been involved in no fewer than three different initiatives to create a design system in my career. 10 years ago, we simply called them pattern libraries. A few years ago, Atomic Design entered the scene and provided a more comprehensive grammar around design systems. Once Google unveiled Material Design in 2014, the concept of design systems had finally matured.

Now, the design system concept seems to spawn an article every day. The theme of these articles typically espouse values of systems as providing consistency, efficiency, and scale. But at what costs? Are design systems a panacea for all that ails UX design?

Design Systems’ Role in the Evolution of Enterprise User Experience from Projekt202

Projekt202 Senior UX Designer Anne Grundhoefer and Solutions Architect Drew Loomer provide an in-depth, informative look at the many ways that design systems have significantly impacted the enterprise user experience.

Your technical approach doesn’t matter as much as creating a living, breathing system that’s flexible, maintainable, stable, scalable, and successful in the long-term. —Katie Sylor-Miller, senior software engineer, design systems team at Etsy

Building a Design System

What are the key steps and benefits to building a design system.

• Conduct a visual audit The first step in building a design system is to do a visual audit of your current design, whether that’s the design of an app, a website, or some other digital product. Taking inventory of the CSS you’re using and the visual qualities of the elements can help you gauge how much of an undertaking this process might be.
• Color Common colors in a design system include 1–3 primaries that represent your brand. You may want to include a range of tints—a color mixed with white—and shades—a color mixed with black—to give your designers a few more options.
• Typography Most design systems include just 2 fonts: 1 font for both headings and body copy, and a monospace font for code. Keep it simple to avoid overloading and confusing your user. Keep the number of fonts low; it’s not only a best practice of typographic design, and it also prevents performance issues caused by excessive use of web fonts.
• Sizing and spacing The system you use for spacing and sizing looks best when you have rhythm and balance. A 4-based scale is growing in popularity as the recommended scale due to its use in iOS and Android standards, ICO size formats, and even the standard browser font size.
• Imagery The key to success with imagery in your visual design language is having a plan and sticking to it. Set guidelines for illustrations and icons, and use the best image format for the situation.
• Create a UI/pattern library Unlike the visual audit you’ve already conducted (which looked at the visual qualities of your design elements), this step in the process looks at the actual components of your UI. Collect all of the parts and pieces of your UI currently in production. That means every button, form, modal, and image. Merge and remove what you don’t need.
• Document what each component is and when to use it This step is important. Documentation and standards are what separate a pattern library from a true design system .

Before beginning work on your design system, take a moment to think about the team you’ll need to bring it to life. Who needs to be involved? Spoiler alert! You’re going to need more than just designers. Jina Anne, design systems advocate and former lead designer at Salesforce

For a great guide on getting started is our Design Systems Handbook,  which will help you learn how you can create your design system and help your team improve product quality while reducing design debt. In tandem, we also have our Design Systems Manager .

Building a design system from scratch is a major undertaking. InVision DSM helps you start from best practices.

Here’s a preview of what you can do with InVision DSM:

• Create a single source of truth  One place to manage brand and UX components,  coded elements, detailed documentation, and more so teams can stay in sync
• Design with ease  Integration with Sketch Libraries lets you upload files to DSM in a single click, sync changes, and push and pull design system assets.
• Iterate with confidence  Changes sync to the whole team, and users can switch to the latest version or roll back changes at any time
• Manage updates collaboratively  Roles and permissions provide complete control over who can view or edit the design system
• Share with external teams  An automatically generated and customizable documentation site lets any stakeholder preview and use design and code
• Keep code in sync  Spot existing components and styles with InVision Inspect. And get your production-ready code with a built-in Storybook integration.
• Protect your company’s most strategic assets Confidently create new versions knowing visual assets are safe and secure, with role-specific controls and design system-level permissions.

More Resources: Building a Design System

Paul Farino of Pivotal Labs “Design systems: Zero to one” Paul Farino will discuss the lifecycle and iterative nature of building a design system . He’ll cover creating buy-in with internal stakeholders and tactical ways to scale and maintain a design system.

Promoting a Design System Across Your Products From A List Apart

Approach a design system as you would a marathon, not a sprint. You’re laying the groundwork for an extensive effort. By understanding your organization through its product portfolio, you’ll strengthen a cornerstone—the design system—that will help you achieve a stronger and more cohesive experience.

Each screen isn’t a special snowflake: Brad Frost on design systems from the InVision Blog

Maintaining the system over time is extremely challenging. What happens when the horizontal tabs component gets a bug fix? What happens when that card pattern gets a visual design overhaul? What happens if the data table pattern gets a team 90% there, but needs tweaks in order to fully meet their needs? Establishing these processes before the system is complete is critical to its ongoing success.

Selling a Design System at Your Company from UXDesign.cc

Selling is a process, probably more than a single meeting. Look for teaching moments. Use your storytelling skills. Show your team that a better way is possible. Come up with a memorable name and say it a lot. Get people excited with a splashy presentation. Channel your inner Don Draper or 2007 Steve Jobs.

Designing a Design System | Jina Anne, Design Systems team at Salesforce UX From ‘You Gotta Love Frontend’ Conference 2016

Topics covered in this talk include strategies for how to approach, design and build an effective design system , how to successfully maintain the system to ensure ongoing usefulness, and elements that design systems need to be sustainable that are critical for success.

Examples of design systems (Who’s doing design systems right)

Atlassian’s design system.

Atlassian’s design system is about using personality to connect tools with people—or as they describe it, “practical with a wink.” It’s personal, peppy, and all about making a bold brand statement. “Dragon’s blood,” “cheezy blasters,” “hairy fairy,” “herky jerky,” and “sodium explosion” are all names of colors referenced in their secondary brand palette.

Accessibility is important to Atlassian and their design adheres to standard contrast ratios that ensure users with low vision can see and use their products. In essence, the Atlassian brand is optimistic and focused on being “human” over “humorous”.

Salesforce’s Lightning design system

Learn how the Salesforce UX team took it further with a living design system to help maintain brand alignment and quality.

Shopify’s design system

Shopify’s design system is called Polaris. It’s a system that reflects Shopify’s global, immense presence. It’s about scalability and ease of use. With precision in their copy and design, Shopify is solely focused on the experience of their merchants.

It’s easy to see how Shopify helps businesses manage global complexity, with an experience that gives “even the most inexperienced entrepreneur the best chance to succeed.”

Accessibility and intentional design are paramount in Polaris. Scaling a business is like climbing a mountain, so their design decisions seek to make any user feel like they’re up the challenge.

For more examples, check out our previous post on design systems from some of the world’s leading brands.

There are also some repositories of design systems , style guides, and pattern libraries at StyleGuides.io and collected in Alex Pate’s repository on GitHub .

More resources: Design system examples

Creating a design language that’s uniquely IBM from the InVision Blog

The overall structure of IBM’s corporate design program is “People + Practice + Places.” The motto represents the idea that “careful attention to those 3 things will bring the culture change we seek with respect to design in the company.”

Practice, the middle pillar, is a crucial part of the equation and the charge of the IBM Design Practices team. The team knew they wanted to build out 3 distinct Practices at first: Research, Language, and Thinking.

They started with the IBM Design Language .

Building a Visual Language from Airbnb Design

While this was a monumental task that ended up requiring efforts from many of our product teams, we found that creating our Design Language System was worth the investment and a huge leap forward.

“Here’s the simple truth: you can’t innovate on products without first innovating the way you build them.” —Alex Schleifer, VP of Design at Airbnb

An in-depth chat on design systems with Jina Anne, Brad Frost, Marco Suarez + Aarron Walter from InVision

Unlike cobbling together design components like pattern libraries and style guides, a design system functions as “ the official story of how an organization designs and builds products .” It includes ingredients, as design system expert and Atomic Design author Brad Frost says, like design principles, UI components, UX guidelines, code standards, processes, design toolkits, code repositories, resources, and more.

Design systems have the power to transform a typical organization into a powerful product design force. So we recently hosted a cozy fireside chat with design systems experts Brad Frost, Jina Anne, Marco Suarez, and Aarron Walter to unpack key insights—and answers to all your burning questions.

by Will Fanguy

Digital content wrangler | UX enthusiast | Recovering educator | Shameless nerd & GIF connoisseur | Hockey fan (Go Preds!) | Oxford comma or death | It’s pronounced FANG-ee

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Design Systems

What are design systems.

A design system is a set of standards to manage and scale design. It includes reusable components, design principles and guidelines to achieve consistency and efficiency across a company's digital products. 

Design systems streamline workflow, enhance collaboration and maintain brand identity. Design teams create them for scalable and cohesive digital experiences.

Design systems provide consistent styling and interaction guidelines for teams. For example, a design system might have:

Standard elements to use in interfaces. It includes input boxes, dropdown lists, and menu structures.

A list of approved brand colors and fonts. It also guides us on when to use them.

Standard buttons and other interactive affordances.

Interaction guidelines. The system includes decisions like using a slide-out panel. It also determines if expanding or pinching should resize images.

A flexible grid system lays out screens consistently. It comprises things like the styling of cards or content separators.

Rules about the placement of particular objects. For example, always keep the login/log out and profile icons in the top-right corner of the desktop.

Lists of icons and what they mean.

Content guidelines that specify how and when to use content. For example, decide if all menu items should be verbs or nouns. Or determine if the company refers to the user in the first or second person.

Rules about when to use icons and when to use text as labels.

Visual guidelines for where certain types of call-to-action buttons should be.

Rules about using things like auto-save vs explicit save/cancel buttons.

There are many other guidelines that a design system might have. Google's Material Design is an example of a consistent design system. It consists of different types of elements and guidance on when and how to use each element. 

Design systems extend beyond visually driven tools; they apply to voice-controlled systems, too. These systems focus on content and behavior. They provide different but equally valuable features. Effective design systems evolve with time. They adapt as the needs of a product or product suite change. 

Ideally, elements of a design system are code pieces developers can use in interfaces. This helps build features quicker or prototype faster. In other cases, they are design elements in prototyping tools for designers to reuse.

Advantages of Design Systems

Design systems are foundational tools in digital product design. They provide a unified approach to create user interfaces. These systems bring several advantages to the design and development process.

Improved consistency : Ensures uniformity in typography, spacing , and UI elements. This consistency extends across all platforms and devices.

In this video, Michal Malewicz gives some guidelines on typography on interfaces. A similar set of guidelines might be a part of a design system to ensure all designers and developers use the same styles.

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Enhanced efficiency : Streamlines the design process. Reusable components from the UI kit cut down design time. They also speed up front-end development.

Facilitate collaboration : Facilitates better communication between designers and developers. A shared language simplifies the design and development process.

Scalability : Makes scaling design efforts more manageable. As a project grows, the design system helps maintain design integrity.

Quality Control : Maintains high quality in design. Regular updates and maintenance keep the system relevant.

Inclusivity : Promotes inclusive design practices. A design system that includes accessibility and inclusive design guidelines will ensure everyone implements it in the final product. It creates inclusivity so that everyone can use the products. 

Brand Reinforcement : Strengthens brand identity. Consistent use of design elements reinforces brand recognition.

Essential Elements of a Design System

A design system guides the creation of digital products. It ensures consistency and efficiency across design and development. 

 A design system includes a blend of standards, tools and best practices. It shapes the way teams build and maintain their digital presence.

© Interaction Design Foundation, CC BY-SA 4.0

1.Component Library

The component library includes UI elements like buttons, menus and input fields. Designers can reuse each element whenever they need it. The purpose of the component library is to ensure a consistent user interface. Tools like Figma aid in creating these libraries. A well-designed component library:

Streamlines front-end development

Enhances user experience  

Maintains design consistency across products

Explore the essentials of user experience with this video. Ideal for anyone stepping into the world of UX design.

2. Pattern Library

A pattern library comprises specific design patterns or standard solutions to common design problems. Patterns help to create intuitive and consistent user experiences. For example, a pattern library might contain a contact form or a login flow (which, in turn, may include components, such as buttons and input fields). Front-end developers use these libraries to ensure that different parts of a website or app work well together and are easy to navigate.

3. Brand Style Guide

This guide outlines the visual representation of a brand. It includes typography, color schemes and logo usage. It's essential to maintain brand identity across various mediums. The guide also covers tone and voice for written content. It serves as a reference for designers and content creators. This ensures that all materials align with the brand's identity. 

4. Brand Values

Brand values include the core principles that dictate a brand's identity and culture. They influence all design decisions. Brand values align each product or service with the brand's culture. Brand values create a coherent user experience and maintain brand integrity.

5.Design Principles

Design principles act as the foundational ideas that guide the design process. They ensure that all design decisions contribute to a functional, aesthetically pleasing and user-friendly product. 

Principles like accessibility and typography are crucial to create attractive, easy-to-use designs.

6.Icon Library

This library contains visual symbols used in design systems. Icons communicate actions and ideas efficiently. They guide users and enhance usability and interface navigation. 

IBM's icon library, for example, includes detailed usage guidelines. These icons are integral to front-end design. They ensure a consistent visual language across platforms.

© IBM, Fair Use

7. Content Guidelines

Content guidelines dictate the tone, style, and language of textual content. They maintain consistency and clarity in communication. These rules cover grammar, vocabulary, and style. They help keep a uniform brand voice. 

8. Accessibility Guidelines

Accessibility guidelines ensure that everyone can use the products, including people with disabilities. They cover aspects like color contrast, typography and spacing. Accessibility guidelines are a core part of front-end development. They help to create user-friendly and accessible interfaces.

9. Design Tokens

Design tokens represent specific design elements like colors, typography and dimensions. Instead of hard-coded values (such as hex codes, font styles or pixel values), the team uses design tokens.

For example, the design team might define a token named “primary-color” and give it the value of an indigo color, #4B0082. Whenever the developers need to use that color, they use “primary-color” instead of the hex value. If the design team decides to change the underlying specifications of the token—say, in this case, to a slightly different shade, with the hex code #2e5090—then the team only needs to change the value once, at the definition of the design token. Once the definition of “primary-color” changes, the design automatically gets updated.

As we see in this example, design tokens provide consistency, scalability and flexibility. These tokens maintain uniformity in a design system. They keep coherent applications across different media.

Each element contributes to a robust design system. They work together to create a unified and efficient design process.

When Not to Use a Design System? And Why?

A design system may not suit every project. Consider avoiding it in small, one-off projects. Here, a full-fledged system might slow down progress. For such projects, simple style guides or a pattern library may suffice. 

A strict design system may limit creativity in unique and unconventional projects. In artistic or experimental websites, innovation takes priority over consistency. Designers often notice this difference in such scenarios. Here, the focus shifts to exploring new ideas rather than adhering to set standards.

While design systems provide structure and consistency, they also require maintenance. A small team may not have the capacity—time, budget and people—to maintain a design system. They will prefer to focus on crucial tasks, such as product development and customer engagement, without diverting resources.

The Difference Between a Design System and a Style Guide

A design system and a style guide serve different purposes in design. A design system comprehensively covers various design aspects. It includes a style guide as one of its components. Think of it as a master plan for creating a cohesive product experience.

On the other hand, a style guide focuses more narrowly. It outlines the visual design and brand elements like typography, color and logo usage. They are more about maintaining brand consistency. A style guide is a subset of a design system.

Design System

Style Guide

Definition 

A comprehensive collection of reusable functional elements like components and interaction patterns. 

A collection of visual styles used in product design. 

Components  

Includes UI components, design tokens, pattern libraries, and guidelines.

Covers visual styles like colors, typefaces, imagery, and spacing.

To create a unified, consistent experience across all digital products.

Defines the visual language of the product.

Broad. It encompasses various elements of design and interaction

Narrower. Focused on visual aspects of design. 

Google's Material Design, Atlassian Design System

Atlassian’s style guide

Learn More about Design Systems

Learn more about design systems and other methods and techniques used by agile teams in the Agile Methods UX Design Course .

The Inside Design Blog offers a comprehensive guide to Design Systems .

Explore Google’s Material Design to see the full potential of Design Systems .

See more examples of Design Systems here.

Learn about Material 3, the latest version of Google’s open-source design system .Learn More about Design Systems

You can learn more about design systems and other methods and techniques used by agile teams here.

Questions related to Design Systems

Figma can function as a foundational tool for a design system. Designers use Figma to create UI kits and templates. These are essential to achieve consistency in design projects. 

Figma also helps maintain a pattern library. This library helps in front-end development. With Figma, teams can share and collaborate on design components. This includes spacing guidelines and style guides. 

System design in UX (User Experience) design creates and organizes an interface's overall structure, behavior, and functionality. It creates a blueprint that outlines how different components and elements of the system will work together. A system design aims to enable people to interact swiftly with a product or service. Some essential aspects of a system design in UX include:

Information Architecture

Interaction Design

Navigation Design

Wireframing and Prototyping

Design Patterns

Consistency and Branding

Accessibility

Usability Testing

As a designer, building your design system involves the following steps:

Analyze the current design process: Review the existing design process within your organization and identify the current design tools. Also, evaluate the level of design maturity within product teams.

Identify the brand’s alphabet: Base the visual language on the brand's alphabet, including brand identity and language.

Conduct an audit: The audit will reveal inconsistencies in your design language and pinpoint the most important and used elements. 

Establish clear rules and design principles: Create a shared value system answering what, why, and how questions. Coordinate teams around a set of goals to maintain consistency and balance. 

Finalize the color palette and typography : Decide on the primary colors , system for building accent colors, and typefaces to ensure consistent information architecture across all products. 

Create component library: Evaluate and finalize components based on project needs and user/business goals.

Standardize all style properties: Finalize grid styles and other properties like white space to avoid inconsistencies.

The four key categories of the system design are:

High-Level Design (HLD): It focuses on defining the overall structure and organization of the system by addressing system architecture, including subsystems or modules, their relationships, and how they interact.

Low-Level Design (LLD): It delves into the specifics of each module identified in the high-level design. It defines how each module will function, specifying algorithms, data structures, and interfaces.

Logical Design: It focuses on the logical relationships and operations within the system, irrespective of the physical implementation. It is more concerned with the conceptual and abstract aspects of the system.

Physical Design: It deals with the actual implementation of the logical design.

It includes decisions about hardware, software, networks, databases, and other physical components required to support the system.

Answer a Short Quiz to Earn a Gift

What do digital product designers primarily use design systems for?

• To control the personal preferences of individual designers.
• To document the financial costs of design processes.
• To manage and scale design with reusable components and guidelines.

Which of the following is a standard part of a design system?

• Annual financial reports
• Reusable UI elements like buttons and input fields
• Temporary marketing strategies

How does a design system benefit a development team?

• It eliminates the need for project management.
• It focuses only on aesthetic aspects without functional guidelines.
• It provides consistency and speeds up the development process.

What role does a design system play to reinforce a brand’s identity?

• It decreases the brand’s visibility in the market which makes it more exclusive.
• It focuses only on external advertising efforts like social media campaigns and posters.
• It standardizes visual and functional elements across products which strengthens brand recognition.

Why is a design system important to scale design efforts across a large organization?

• It ensures that all products are completely different from each other.
• It restricts creativity to a few designers.
• It simplifies the design process as the organization grows.

Better luck next time!

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Literature on Design Systems

Here’s the entire UX literature on Design Systems by the Interaction Design Foundation, collated in one place:

Learn more about Design Systems

Take a deep dive into Design Systems with our course Agile Methods for UX Design .

Agile, in one form or another, has taken over the software development world and is poised to move into almost every other industry. The problem is that a lot of teams and organizations that call themselves “agile” don’t seem to have much in common with each other. This can be extremely confusing to a new team member, especially if you’ve previously worked on an “agile” team that had an entirely different definition of “agility”!

Since the release of the Agile Manifesto in 2001, agile methodologies have become almost unrecognizable in many organizations, even as they have become wildly popular. 

To understand the real-world challenges and best practices to work under the constraints of agile teams, we spoke with hundreds of professionals with experience working in agile environments. This research led us to create Agile Methods for UX Design .

In this course, we aim to show you what true agility is and how closely agile methodologies can map to design. You will learn both the theory and the real-world implementation of agile, its different flavors, and how you can work with different versions of agile teams.

You will learn about the key principles of agile, examples of teams that perform all the agile “rituals” but aren’t actually agile, and examples of teams that skip the rituals but actually embody the spirit.

You’ll learn about agile-specific techniques for research and design, such as designing smaller things, practicing continuous discovery, refactoring designs, and iterating.

You will also walk away with practical advice for working better with your team and improving processes at your company so that you can get some of the benefits of real agility.

This course is aimed at people who already know how to design or research (or who want to work with designers and researchers) but who want to learn how to operate better within a specific environment. There are lots of tools designers use within an agile environment that are no different from tools they’d use anywhere else, and we won’t be covering how to use those tools generally, but we will talk about how agile deliverables can differ from those you’d find in a more traditional UX team. 

Your course instructor is product management and user experience design expert, Laura Klein. Laura is the author of Build Better Products and UX for Lean Startups and the co-host of the podcast What is Wrong with UX?

With over 20 years of experience in tech, Laura specializes in helping companies innovate responsibly and improve their product development process, and she especially enjoys working with lean startups and agile development teams.

In this course, you will also hear from industry experts Teresa Torres (Product Discovery Coach at Product Talk), Janna Bastow (CEO and Co-founder of ProdPad) and Adam Thomas (product management strategist and consultant).

All open-source articles on Design Systems

Google’s material design - android design language.

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• Design Systems

Introduction to Design Systems

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Welcome to the course.

What is a design system? And how do you use visual design systems to make your web design work more effective and efficient? Find out in this free course.

Design systems have become a very popular topic lately, and for good reason. A design system can help your team or organization build products faster by adhering to a set of predefined components and principles.

Being a relatively new concept, there’s no one true way to implement graphic design systems yet, but several major companies have started creating design systems for their teams and are already reaping the benefits.

In this short course, you’ll get an introduction to what design systems are, learn about the benefits, see some examples, and also learn the first steps of creating your own visual design system. In the end, you’ll have all the information you need to create a design system for yourself or your team.

Unlock The Power Of Design Systems

Learn everything you need to get up and running with design systems in our complete guide with design system examples . And if you need inspiration for your design system's typography, check out the impressive collection of fonts on Envato Elements.

1. Introduction 1 lesson, 01:50

1.1 welcome to the course 01:50, 2. design systems 3 lessons, 17:21, 2.1 what is a design system 09:13, 2.2 the structure of a design system 04:00, 2.3 types of design systems 04:08, 3. creating design systems 3 lessons, 21:06, 3.1 design tokens and principles 07:18, 3.2 color, spacing, and typography 08:08, 3.3 going to the next level with design systems 05:40.

Design system: Ultimate guide with examples

Last updated

27 February 2023

Reviewed by

Jean Kaluza

Enter: design systems.

A design system is crucial in combining your central principles, best practices, brand identity, and usage guidelines into components and patterns. This helps your brand deliver consistent user experiences across customer-facing digital products and internal-facing systems.

That's just the tip of the iceberg on a design system and what it can do.

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• What is a design system?

As Alla Kholmatova points out in her book Design Systems,  

"There isn't a standard definition of 'design system' within the web community, and people use the term in different ways — sometimes interchangeably with 'style guides' and 'pattern libraries.'" 

A design system isn’t actually interchangeable with style guides or pattern libraries. Rather, it’s a combination of the two with some additions. 

The consensus is that brand design is a collection of reusable components, such as: 

Your brand's logo

Pattern libraries

These define its standard of use, creating a consistent visual and interactive design at any scale. The five key elements that make up an effective system include its: 

Design principles

Foundations

• Why is a design system important?

You need consistency across silos and teams, including how you interact and communicate with customers directly and how you operate internally. 

A design system streamlines communication and designs and becomes your entire organization's single source of truth. 

In turn, you reduce the risk of unintentionally misrepresenting your brand while speeding up brand exposure within your market. You also get to increase your revenue by 23% .

• How to create a design system

You can integrate a design system into your business in one of three ways:

Creating your own

Adoption is the most cost-effective option, offering the least customization with minimal brand differentiation. It refers to the complete adoption of an existing design system. 

Adaptation is a little more expensive and time-consuming. It requires adopting an existing design and adapting it to your business needs with unique modifications. It allows you to differentiate your brand significantly more than adoption. 

Creating your own design system achieves the most brand distinction. Yes, it comes with a high cost and requires more time and effort than the other two options. But designing your own system allows you to customize more components for your unique business needs. 

The best option will depend on your company's needs and budget. 

• Advantages of a design system

Consistency across your brand is vital. Here are additional advantages of a design system:

It's reusable

Ditch time-consuming, wasted efforts and starting from scratch on projects that you can equip with a design system. That means every team can conduct their business and represent your brand quickly and accurately.

Scales with you

Whether you’re rapidly growing, breaking into smaller pieces, or fluctuating with the season, a design system will adapt to your needs. When your teams use prebuilt, reusable design components and patterns, they only need to assemble a few elements for the final design. 

Protects your brand from misrepresentation and bad publicity

Even if your teams are siloed, a universal design system strengthens your team's efficiency, helping them complete projects that align perfectly with your brand.  

• Design system best practices

You can do a lot with a design system, especially if you make your own. These best practices should remain in the back of your mind as you embark on the journey:

Simple but smart

Your design system can provide beautiful experiences without getting overly complex. Experts recommend keeping it simple because a tricky system will likely discourage users. 

Find a balance between not being too strict, damaging your teams’ creativity, and not giving so much freedom that your brand voice disappears. 

Communication is key

Your team members might not be aware of the power of design systems. Establishing open communication throughout the process can instill confidence in your team, enabling them to use the system to everyone’s advantage. 

Establish success metrics that are meaningful to your business

The key to delivering on your goals and measuring your success is through metrics specific to your design system—i.e., adoption and outcome. 

Adoption metrics track and measure your ability to communicate the full value of your digital product to your teams and get them to adopt the new system. 

Outcome metrics refer to the more specific data that measures how well your design system reaches your goals. 

• What is an example of a design system?

Dozens of design system examples are at your fingertips. Let’s look at the most prominent examples from the Big Four: Google, Apple, Amazon, and Microsoft. 

1. Google’s Material

Google's Material Design System is in its latest version: Material 3 (M3). This adaptable system is jam-packed with dozens of components and backed by open-source code to streamline collaboration between your design team and developers . 

Core features of the system include: 

Mobile guidelines

Starter kits

Design source files

Material ’s foundations that form the basis of layout, interaction, and overall user interface include:

Adaptive design : How to design for all visual elements, screen sizes, and devices.

Accessibility : Cater to diverse user abilities to create more accessible experiences.

Customizations : Create consistent, user-friendly product experiences and simpler brand expression through M3.

Design tokens : Streamline core style values across code, design tools, platforms, and designs via tokens.

Interaction states : Communicate the status of interactive elements and components through visual indicators like interaction states.

2. Apple’s Human Interface Guidelines (HIG)

Apple Human Interface Guidelines is a design system exclusive to Apple platforms. Those designing for the following would benefit most from Apple's design system:

The system is rich with best practices and guidelines for making the most meaningful design decisions and amazing user experiences. It features buttons in components, touchscreen gestures in inputs, augmented reality (AR) technologies, and more.

The fundamental design elements create rich experiences through: 

Accessibility

Right-to-left

3. Amazon’s Cloudscape

Amazon designed Cloudscape for its web services (AWS), which the company still uses today. It has 66 components, 35 patterns, and 27 demos, with core principles like accessibility and responsiveness.

To help you create exceptional experiences, Cloudscape provides the tools and guidelines necessary to build the most accessible user interface (UI). 

To adhere to the multitude of screen sizes and devices users operate, Cloudscape is committed to building responsive content in a browser over designs for specific resolutions or devices. 

The visual foundation of their system comprises 'more than components and individual patterns.' It embraces: 

Content density

Data visualization colors

Design tokens

Iconography

Visual modes, style, and context 

4. Microsoft’s Fluent

Microsoft introduced Fluent, an open-source, cross-platform design system, as a framework for 'engaging product experiences.'

Each platform has its own set of tips and resources for flawless implementation and integration:

iOS , macOS , Android , and cross-platform can customize controls. 

Web can customize styles and controls.

Windows can customize controls, patterns, layout, style, and design and code Windows apps.

The core features of Fluent experiences include being intuitive and powerful by adjusting to behaviors and anticipating user needs. It’s also engaging and immersive as its design communicates in a way that feels effortless.

In summary, a design system is a way to ensure consistency across your business, whether that’s with your company’s colors or adhering to a social media style guide.

You can adopt an existing design system if you don’t know where to start. If you’re raring to go, you can create your own to ensure your brand truly stands out against your competitors .

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Build the perfect design system: 6 key considerations

Key principles that will help you build a perfect design system for your organisation.

Design systems help large industry players to standardise the design process and make it more predictable. A lot of companies try to take on the initiative of building their own design system. But quite often, despite everyone's best intentions, all the effort that a product team puts into making a thoughtful design system can go straight down the drain.

Over the course of this article, we will define what a design system is, what to consider before building a design system and how best to introduce a design system in your organisation. For more great resources, see our roundup of web design tools .

What is a 'design system'?

The name 'design system' can create a false impression of something that provides value only for designers. But in reality a design system isn't something that just concerns designers; instead it's about how an entire organisation builds its products (if that includes a website, you'll need a top website builder and brilliant web hosting ).

Successful design processes usually depend on there being a tight cross-functional collaboration between all teams involved in the creation of the product. And a design system is about building a shared language that empowers teams to collaborate more effectively. It's a complete set of design principles, rules and standards along with the toolkit (design patterns, visual styles and a code library of reusable UI components) required to achieve those principles, rules and standards. A design system enables a product team to create a product faster – without having to sacrifice any quality – by making the design reusable (make sure you have reliable cloud storage to store your assets).

The ultimate purpose of going to the trouble of implementing a design system is to help the business learn and grow. That's why a design system should always be based on the objectives of a business. For the very same reason, not all design systems are built the same but nevertheless, most design systems share a few common elements:

• Design principles – values that ensure the design efforts head in the right direction.
• Components and pattern libraries – these are the building blocks of a design system.
• Design guides – specific rules on how to design a particular part of a product. These can include style guidelines (typography, colours, spacing, etc) and UX writing guidelines (voice and tone, language, writing principles, etc).
• Design practices – help to keep the system alive and valuable for the product team.

Key considerations before implementing a design system

01. Consider product and company maturity

Before you start building a design system, you need a clear understanding of why you need one. Many companies introduce design systems to reduce their technical debt and speed up the product development process (by spending less time on tedious, monotonous activities). But not all companies face such problems because companies have different levels of design maturity.

Creating a design system from scratch is a time-consuming activity and small, fast-moving teams likely don't need a design system because it would slow them down. A three-to-five–person startup that is still trying to find a product-market fit would probably spend a significant amount of time creating a system. When resources are being spent on building a design system, they aren't being spent on building the product. Therefore, until a company is in the position of having established a clear direction with its product, investing time in creating a design system risks producing a lot of waste.

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02. Create a vision statement

A design system is about people – how they work together to achieve a shared goal. And people want to know the answers to the following questions:

• Where are we going?
• What do we want to achieve?
• Why do we want to achieve that?

Those are fundamental questions that you need to answer in order to build a shared vision. A shared vision will be a foundation for a design system that will give teams a guided way to build solutions for their product problems.

A vision statement defines what your team, product or company is attempting to achieve and, more importantly, why. It aligns teams around a clear set of shared goals and becomes a North Star for the entire organisation – it unites people involved in product development and guides them to a common destination.

If you're looking for a simple way to create a vision statement, consider describing what your product or organisation should look like in five years. By doing that, you'll define a target condition and it will be much easier to create a strategy that will help you to achieve it.

04. Establish guiding design principles

How do you define good design? How do you know when something is ready for implementation? When it comes to evaluating the quality of a design, designers often rely on their own set of standards. But following such an approach can introduce a lot of chaos in the product design process because every designer will have subjective ideas. That's where design principles can save the day.

Solid design principles are the foundation of any functioning system. They should capture the essence of what good design means for the company and provide practical recommendations for product teams on how to achieve it (design principles should always be actionable). Design principles act as standards for the product team and help them to measure their work.

Here are a few things to remember when working on design principles:

• Design principles should reflect the nature of the product. For example, when it comes to human-machine interface design for automobiles, the most important design principle should be 'Safety first' (the goal is to keep the driver and passengers safe). That's why every design decision should be measured for safety.
• Design principles should not sound like rules. They shouldn't block creative energy. Product creators should not feel limited or restrained.
• Design principles should be the result of an open discussion. In many cases, it's not hard to make people follow guidelines but rather it's hard to make people agree on guidelines. If an organisation has many design teams, then involving them in a discussion is vital. By getting their feedback on the design principles, you can adapt the principles to the needs of users.

05. Review the technology stack and conduct an interface inventory

Many companies tend to build a design system on top of the current interface but this approach is not the best for many reasons. Imagine that your company has been building a product for a long time without a system.

The product likely has some level of inconsistency in design. Inconsistency is usually caused by the duplication of design elements. Identifying duplication of design elements helps a team to avoid the scenario in which team members build an element from scratch and, after a while, find out that a version of it already exists.

That's why if you plan to introduce a design system, start with an audit – conduct an interface inventory to understand what's in use.

Explore existing interactions, collect all of the UI elements that make up the interface and review them. It's important to do this before building the actual design system because the procedure will help you to understand two things:

• How much design debt your organisation has and what are the areas that require more attention.
• The reasons for inconsistency and the changes you need to introduce in the design process in order to avoid such problems in the future. Maybe you will need to change the process or perhaps you will need to introduce new technology.

06. Establish a core team

Who should be involved in building a design system? Design is a team sport and creating a design system is no exception. The expertise and creative energy provided by cross-functional collaboration are required to build a design system. That's why the core team of people that actually creates a system usually includes engineers, designers, product managers and stakeholders. When you start building a design system, it's crucial to have a small size for the core team (six to eight people) because it will help you to create momentum and build something quickly.

Creating a design system

Consider implementing a design system as a project. And just like any other project, this one should have a solid process with the following steps:

• Sell the idea
• Complete a pilot project
• Design and build
• Launch and maintenance

01. Sell the idea

Selling the idea of a design system is the first and most crucial step in introducing a design system. Usually, it's hard to sell design systems due to the trade-offs – both management and product team members understand that resources spent on building a design system aren't being spent on shipping features. So it's natural to expect some pushback. In order to sell a design system, you need to do two things:

Get buy-in from stakeholders

A design system won't take off if the people who decide on funding don't approve it. It's much easier to get the buy-in from executives when you show that the system solves real business problems. Identify key business pain points (areas where the company loses money) and show how the design system can save the day. Write a strategy with a clear proposal and pitch it to the key people who make the decisions.

It's recommended you create a presentation (or series of presentations) to convince stakeholders to invest in this project. You can wrap your presentation in the form of a story. By telling success stories, you will have a better chance of engaging stakeholders.

Get support from your users

Getting buy-in from stakeholders is only half the battle. You need to get support from your potential users. First, you need to identify your target audience. Who will use your design system and how will they use it? Here are a few common groups of users:

• Product teams (ie designers, developers)
• Third parties (ie vendors)
• Business (ie marketing, sales, legal)

You will need to identify the pain points of different groups of users and show the value that the system will bring to them. Each group of users has different buying triggers – reasons why they would want to use a design system. For example, for developers, the trigger can be more consistency in implementation methods or spending less time refactoring code.

02. Select and complete a pilot project

As soon as you create a basic concept for your design system, it's important to validate it. The best way to validate the concept is to test it on a pilot project.

Select a sample real product and create a design system that powers a real solution. The project you select should be used as a foundation for your future design system, so you will be able to test whether or not the system is working for your organisation.

Here is a set of criteria you can use to determine a pilot's potential efficacy:

• A project should have the potential for common components and patterns. It should contain components and patterns that can be reused within other products.
• It should have good technical feasibility and not be hard to introduce all the required changes.
• The project should be accomplishable in a reasonable amount of time (ideally, a couple of weeks) and shouldn't require the involvement of many people from various departments (maintaining independence is essential).
• A project should have marketing potential. The project should inspire other teams to introduce design systems in their design process.

03. Design and build

Create reusable components

One mistake that I see time and time again is teams create components that are too focused on a single-use case. As a result, the system becomes too inflexible and its users have to create their own components each time they need to cover a particular scenario.

Try to develop components that are not tied to a single use case but can be reused in multiple contexts. To be reusable and scalable, components need to have the following properties:

• Modular: modular components are self-contained – they don't have any dependencies.
• Composable: it's possible to combine components to create new components.
• Customisable: it's possible to adjust and extend components to make them work in a variety of contexts.

Every time team members want to introduce a new component, they need to consider how it will work on the various platforms they are designing for. Ideally, every component they design should work on all platforms.

Show value through a sandbox environment

It's well known that the best way for people to see value is to experience it. So create a sandbox environment for product team members to prototype products using your design system.

04. Launch and maintain

Some product teams believe that once a design system is built, the work is complete. Not true. A design system is a product and it's vital to manage it as a product instead of a project – a design system requires ongoing maintenance and improvements as needs arise.

Encourage adoption of your design system

The same as any other product, a design system needs active users. You can create the best design system in the world but, if you don't actively promote it in your organisation, the entire effort will suffer greatly. That's why, from the first release of your system, you need to work hard to foster its adoption:

• Create a community of supporters. Put together a group of evangelists, led by authoritative influencers or designers, who will pitch and sell ideas about your design system. The evangelists should participate in activities like workshops and meetups that have a goal of raising awareness that the system exists and educating people on how to use it.
• Introduce updates. The waiting time for updates plays a key role in the adoption of the design system. Practise regular incremental releases, rather than big reveals and always ensure you ship updates with a changelog.

Analyse how people use the design system

Design systems rise and fall based on how easy they are to use. If you've just started incorporating a design system into your organisation's design process, conduct a series of interviews with users to understand how people use it. By doing that, you can pinpoint common problems that your target audience may be facing.

For systems that will be incorporated in a design process for some time, it's essential to measure the time required to keep the system up to date. If keeping the design system updated becomes difficult, it will quickly become outdated.

Test your design decisions

No matter how good you are at predicting things, it can be hard to predict how a particular change will affect the user experience. That's why it's important to validate your decisions.

Here are three types of testing that will help you:

• Usability testing
• Visual regression testing, which helps you to catch unintended visual changes to component styles
• Manual and automated accessibility testing, which ensures your components are accessible

Introduce versioning

Design systems should have versions because versioning makes it much easier to track changes. With versioned releases, users can reference a specific version as a dependency. They also have control over when and how upgrades to new versions are handled.

There are two types of versioning:

• Versioning the entire system. Here, everything in the system belongs to one version number. As users, we deal with versioning for the whole system when we update our mobile OS – when we update iOS, we're updating the entire piece of software.
• Versioning by modules. This involves having a version number for every component or style within the design system. Compared with versioning the entire system, versioning by module gives more flexibility – users can choose to upgrade just the elements they need.

Creating a design system is not a one- time activity; it's actually iterative. The people involved in creating a design system need to think of it as a living organism connecting the whole organisation. A successful design system becomes part of an organisation's DNA and helps produce consistent user experiences.

This content originally appeared in netmag.

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Let's Talk about Design Systems and Designing for Them

11-13-20 Ethan Muller

In this presentation, learn the difference between design systems, style guides, and pattern libraries and how to build more than just components in your design system.

After this brief talk for Sparkbox’s 2020 UnConference, you’ll know the difference between design systems, style guides, and pattern libraries. You’ll also be aware of some common pitfalls of design systems. Finally, you’ll learn how design and development teams can work together to build more than just components.

YouTube embeds track user data for advertising purposes. You can watch the video on YouTube if you prefer not to grant consent for YouTube embeds.

Review The Slides

Here are some resources from my presentation:

Expressive Design Systems by Yesenia Perez-Cruz

Designing for Design Systems article

More Presentations on Design Systems

It Takes a Village: Building Organizational Buy-In For Your Design System

Explore how building buy-in at the organization level for your design system is possible and how we accomplished this for a recent client.

Selling Design Systems

Learn how to sell your design system to your internal team in order to make it an effective, maintained tool for your organization.

Sparkbox and Gap Present Gap’s Design System

Learn the origin story of Gap’s design system from Drew Clemens from Sparkbox and Teresa Aguilera from Gap.

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What Is a Design System & Why Use Them + Examples

Design systems can be found everywhere and in almost everything. They are in the operating system running on your smartphone, the laptop you’re using for work, and even on the websites you visit.

But what is a design system anyway? What goes into a design system? Why use them? We’re going to answer these questions in this article while taking a closer look at design systems and their importance.

Design systems are not something exclusively used by big brands and design agencies. Even if you’re a freelance designer or a small business, a design system can go a long way to improve the quality of your work, designs, and products.

Let’s dive in and see how you can integrate design systems into your own design projects.

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Landing pages & email, what is a design system.

A design system can be defined in many different ways depending on how and what it’s used for. In general, it’s mainly a framework that you use to create standard guidelines for a specific project or product.

However, design systems are not just about style guides, UI kits, and component libraries. They are a combination of them all and more.

Take Apple App Store, for example. Apple has a set of rules and guidelines in place that makes every developer design and create apps in a specific way. This design system covers everything from how you design the interface of the app to the promo artworks you feature on the App Store page. This allows Apple to create a more consistent app experience throughout all the apps in the App Store.

It’s only one of many design systems Apple use. In fact, there are many different types of design systems you can use in various stages of a design project or product development.

Different Types of Design Systems

The word “design” in the design system refers to the overall process that goes into not just graphic and web designs, but also to various other product design and user experience designs. As a result, you’ll come across a few different types of design systems. We’re going to talk about the three major design systems that are commonly used today.

• Product Design Systems: A product design system is like a framework for creating a product. A good example of a product design system is the Salesforce Lightning Design System. It gives you a complete set of components for building apps.
• Brand Design Systems: Brand design systems are mainly used to create guidelines for designs being made by businesses. And it includes multiple sub-categories like identity design, visual design, style guides, and more.
• User Experience Design Systems: It’s important to use design systems to create user experiences that generate results. Like creating funnels to generate leads from website visitors to turn them into customers. That’s done with user experience design

Why Use Design Systems?

The main purpose of a design system is to create guidelines and components that you can reuse to create more designs, products, and experiences while maintaining consistency.

This actually leads to huge savings of your budget otherwise spent on rehiring the same agencies. As well as save time spent on creating the same components in each product development process.

According to a survey , many businesses opt-in for design systems for the benefit of reusability of code, efficiency in design, and UI/UX consistency.

Main Elements & Benefits of a Design System

A design system can be used in several different ways. You can use them to create consistent user experiences, create branded products, create scalable apps, and much more.

Create More Consistent Visual Designs

Depending on the type of product your making, the design system can be made up of many different elements. The main elements being a color system, typography system, code components, brand identity and guidelines, usage guidelines, etc.

It’s when you put all these elements together that you create a complete design system. However, as designers, the best benefit of using a design system is to be able to create more consistent visual designs.

Take an app design, for example. You need to create multiple screens, processes, and user interfaces that not only share the same design style but also offer the same user experience across each page. A design system helps you achieve this goal.

Provide Better User Experiences

Have you ever used a mobile app and then use the desktop version of the same app to find a completely different and confusing user experience? That’s a clear sign of a lack of a design system.

With a set of pre-made guidelines, visual elements, and code components in place, design systems allow you to keep consistency across any number of app or product designs. Which leads to more improved user experiences across platforms.

Make Easily Scalable Products

Products keep evolving and shifting focus. This is especially the case with modern startups. Your designs and user experiences usually change alongside these changes. A design system helps you scale and change your products while maintaining consistency.

Spotify’s recent shift of highlighting podcasts in the app is a good example of this. The app used a redesign to highlight the podcasts without interfering with the user experience. This was done with the Spotify’s GLUE design system.

Improve Efficiency of Your Teams

When you prepare your meals for a whole week, you no longer have to cook meals every day. The same can be said about using design systems.

When you have a color system, code components, and guidelines already thought out and in place, your teams can dive directly into the development of the designs and products. This will save a huge amount of time and effort that goes into product development. And in turn, make your teams more efficient and productive.

Outsource While Maintaining Quality

Outsourcing different parts of product development is very common these days. One of the most difficult parts of outsourcing is maintaining quality and communicating your requirements with external teams.

Design systems help you share your views with these teams better and maintain the quality of the product at each stage of the development.

Best Design System Examples

To understand what design systems look like, let’s take a look at some real-life examples of design systems in action.

GLUE – Spotify Design System

Spotify has developed its own unique design system called GLUE and even has a dedicated team just to make sure the design system gets improves and implemented properly with the app design.

Microsoft Fluent Design System

Microsoft’s Fluent Design System ensures that its user interfaces stay consistent across Desktop, Android, iOS, MacOS, and web apps.

Shopify Polaris

Shopify breaks down its Polaris design system into multiple sections including Content, Design, Components, and Experiences. Mainly to help craft a better product for its customers.

Google Material Design

Google introduced the Material Design system as a way to allow developers and designers to create better app experiences for Android, iOS, and the web.

Atlassian calls its design system an “end-to-end design language”. The company shares its design language with many of the apps they own, including its newest member, Trello.

How to Create Your Own Design System

Whether you’re a freelance web designer, a design agency, app developer, or even a corporate brand, creating a design system is one of the best investments you can make to create consistent designs with an effecient workflow.

Thankfully, there are now many different apps and frameworks you can use to easily create design systems without an effort. Here are just a few of the apps and frameworks you can use to create design systems.

InVision Design System Manager

InVision has one of the most comprehensive and dedicated tools available for creating complete design systems. It allows you to bring all the elements of your design system into one place to share your code components, visual styles, and everything with your entire team.

Storybook is a tool you can use to create UI components for your design systems. It allows you to keep all the UI components of your design system well-organized and in sync.

Lightning Design System

The Lightning Design System made by Salesforce is a complete system that allows you to effortlessly build enterprise-level apps while maintaining consistency and efficiency.

While Bootstrap is an HTML framework mainly used as a style guide for website designs, it can be the perfect starting point for web designers to create their own design systems. Such as creating your own themes for Bootstrap .

UXPin covers all aspects of product design from design to prototyping while collaborating with the team. It also supports the ability to create and organize code components. It’s the perfect tool for UX designers for creating more accessible design systems.

In Conclusion

A design system is not something that you create and forget about. It needs to be constantly improved alongside your product development. Even Spotify GLUE design system is constantly evolving with new components and elements being added to it from time to time.

Every designer, every agency, and every company should have their design systems. It’s an investment you make that keeps you in control and maintain quality.

There is so much more to learn about design systems. For starters, watch this introduction to Design Systems and this speech on design systems at Github .

• Design Systems Specialists
• UX Designers
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• Visual Designers
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The Benefits of a Design System: Making Better Products, Faster

Design systems increase collaboration, ensure consistency, and accelerate design and development cycles. Toptal product designer Molham Bakir lays out how—and shares insights and tips from his experience building them.

By Molham Bakir

Molham is a product designer who specializes in building design systems. His clients include Snap Inc. and e-commerce websites Dubizzle and Mumzworld, the largest online baby shop in the Middle East.

Previous Role

PREVIOUSLY AT

Technology leaders such as Google , IBM , and Salesforce rely on design systems to codify and scale design efforts across entire organizations. But design systems aren’t just for big-name brands: 65% of companies surveyed by Forrester in 2020 said they use one.

In essence, a design system is a set of patterns and practices that help teams across an organization—from designers to developers—create consistent, accessible digital products. There are different models , but most consist of a pattern library, design tokens , brand and style guidelines, and documentation on how to use the system.

The benefits of design systems are twofold. First, they speed up every stage of product development, from concept and design to production and testing. In a 2019 experiment , Figma found that designers working with a system completed their tasks 34% faster than those without one. Second, design systems improve the customer experience by ensuring consistency, familiarity, and accessibility at every touchpoint.

Recently another UI designer and I took a month to build a design system for a leading e-commerce site that provides baby products to mothers across the Middle East. Using insights from the experience of building a design system for this website and app–which I’ll refer to as “the baby product site” or “the baby product app”—I’ll lay out how design systems enable teams to improve products and increase efficiency.

Design Systems Speed Up Design and Development Cycles

Design systems save organizations time and money by codifying design decisions that can be replicated at scale. Let’s break down specifically how these systems support faster design and development cycles, and how to get the most of out of your design system.

A Streamlined Design-to-production Workflow

On the baby product site, before we implement a new design it goes through a series of stages. First, designers prototype and hand over a design to a UX researcher for validation, or alpha testing . Next, we share the prototype with stakeholders. Then we push the update to a small audience and track the results of the change with A/B testing. This learning cycle, also known as beta testing, repeats until we get a sufficiently high success metric. We may work on more than five variations of a design, discarding many of them throughout these stages to expedite finding the best solution.

These steps are crucial for ensuring that we only push quality work to our full audience. However, any process with multiple players and iterations is time consuming.

A design system streamlines various stages of this workflow. Designers can prototype screens in just minutes, instead of hours, because they can quickly search for components and patterns and then drag and drop them onto the screen. Designers across different teams can access shared components and styles in any new project. And engineers can quickly assemble new features without requiring a visual designer to lay out every single screen. For example, engineers can code patterns in a platform like Storybook , an open-source tool for building UI components and pages in isolation. Multiplying this efficiency across design and development teams in an organization can translate into real value for a business.

In your design system, linking each pattern with code that is performant and production-ready better facilitates experiments and updates. Developers should be involved in building design systems from the beginning and can create a variety of methods to distribute designs and patterns to teams. This resource offers a checklist for designers and developers to help them work together on creating a design system.

Streamlined product development means companies can launch, test, and iterate new features faster, which can be a huge competitive advantage.

Less Redundancy

Design solutions have to be prototyped, validated with users, approved by stakeholders, translated into code, and tested against existing designs—so any redundancy in the process wastes time, manpower, and money. Without a central repository for referencing past work, designers and developers must solve the same problems repeatedly and re-create solutions that already exist.

As Alla Kholmatova, author of Design Systems , notes: “Designers become frustrated always solving the same problems, or not being able to implement their designs properly. Developers are tired of custom styling every component and dealing with a messy codebase.”

A design system’s pattern library is cataloged by functionality. Each functionality should map to a single, production-ready pattern. Wherever that functionality appears in your product, that standardized pattern can be applied. Standardization eliminates the need for designers and developers to re-create similar solutions over and over, freeing their time to focus on new problems that do not yet have standardized solutions. We based our pattern library on atomic design , a well-known approach to creating design systems.

Once we implemented a design system for the baby product app, I could focus on more impactful design problems, such as creating new use cases, conducting user testing , and revisiting or creating new user scenarios.

A Shared Language From Code to Customer

When you have designers and developers working on products concurrently across an organization, a shared language for referring to design is critical for facilitating collaboration. A shared language consists of terms, phrases, and naming conventions that help cross-functional teams speak about a company’s product and streamline design decisions. The glossary in Google’s Material Design 3 is a great example of a shared language that’s easy for teams to access and understand.

Simply creating a language and imposing it on teams isn’t likely to succeed. Instead, it’s best to get input from all stakeholders. A shared language is most effective when contributions come from across an organization. For example, we relied heavily on input from product designers, UI designers , front-end developers, back-end developers, content designers, quality engineers, accessibility experts, and others.

You can encourage contribution to a design system in a number of creative ways. Atlassian's design principles and open-source contribution model offer effective examples for doing this. For instance, one of its principles focuses on facilitating collaboration across teams by prioritizing inclusion, accessibility, and openness in its products. A robust design system should contain and establish principles based on a company’s specific needs. For inspiration, check out these 195 examples of principles from well-known brands.

Design Systems Foster Higher Quality Products and Better User Experience

The process of building a design system allows you to consider how each pattern and practice helps achieve a product’s goal. To support the e-commerce UX in the baby product site and app, each element of the design system aims to decrease cognitive load for multitasking moms, make it as easy as possible to find and purchase items, and ensure that the products available to purchase are accessible and personalized to the user’s location.

A seamless and enjoyable user experience helps build customer trust and improve the likelihood that they’ll recommend products on a website or app to others. These are some of the design system benefits you can bring to your own customers, with examples from my own work on the baby product site.

A Familiar and Intuitive UI

Before creating a design system, the baby e-commerce site and app lacked standardized patterns and behaviors for each functionality. This meant users had to learn (or relearn) a new pattern each time they wanted to do the same thing, for example when selecting a category filter.

Below is an example of the filtering options for different baby product categories (such as “strollers,” “outdoor,” and “nursing”) on the app and mobile website. Each filter option looks and works a bit differently, creating a disjointed, inconsistent feel across these channels. For example, some of the filtering screens include buttons the user would press, others are tabs to toggle between. Some have images to represent the product categories whereas others have only text. The terms used for categories vary as well (for example “nursing” vs. “breastfeeding essentials”). It’s cognitively taxing for users to learn how new patterns behave, resulting in a frustrating experience.

We redesigned the pattern library based around UI standards found in Google’s original Material Design and IBM’s Carbon Design System . We chose Material and Carbon Design because they reflect our goal of showing users a simple and seamless interface to complete their tasks.

This approach allowed us to standardize each component’s behavior with globally recognized UI standards at the core. In addition to creating consistency across the site, implementing design patterns that behave in ways users are already familiar with reduces their cognitive load. As a result, when a user visits for the first time, the site feels predictable, familiar, and easy to use.

To create this intuitive UI experience, avoid reinventing the wheel. Although such standardization can seem limiting at first, it’s the way these components are combined and styled that offers competitive advantages.

Enhanced Product Quality

Before we developed a design system, the baby product site featured 184 unique colors and 299 total background colors. This created mixed visual messages and a scattered brand feel, which can reduce the perceived quality of a product. As Nielsen Norman Group notes : “A negative emotional reaction to some aspect of the design lowers the perceived value of the site and makes people abandon the site—often within a few seconds.”

A design system helps product teams define and standardize visual elements like color, typography, spacing, and imagery. These elements express the heart and soul of your brand and form a visual language. A well-defined visual language can enhance the perceived quality of your product.

Our goal for the baby products site is for it to be attractive and easy to use for busy moms, and we established a color palette that felt elegant, fresh, and inspired by nature. Creating our design system allowed us to select colors to shape how the product is perceived by customers in a reliable, scalable way. Of course, guidelines for how and when to use the colors in the palette—and how not to use them—are essential. This example from the University of Oxford’s digital style guide shows the level of detail that guidance can provide.

A well-defined visual language can also enhance the actual quality of your product, measured by speed and performance. I saw this firsthand: Each of the hundreds of unique colors on the old baby products site represented a piece of code that the browser had to load. Each one also introduced the possibility of a bug or error. Loading time and bugs affected the speed and performance of the site. After implementing the new design system, our checkout page went from a page load speed of four to six seconds to 2.8 seconds. When a design and its corresponding code are standardized, this can result in a lighter, faster-performing site , not to mention fewer bugs and breaks in the code.

Similarly, design systems improve the quality of interactive elements . Designing interactions outside a system makes it hard to replicate elsewhere in the product. In a design system, however, these interactions (and their corresponding animations and attributes) are defined and assigned to master components. So wherever you use a particular component or interaction within the product, it behaves the same. This way, developers and product managers can see how interactions work as you’re iterating. You don’t need to take time to explain the interaction for each use case to them.

This is particularly useful because some components have different sizes based on where they are in the templates and how they behave within a pattern. A design system allows you to easily see how the same component behaves and looks when it sits in different patterns.

Accessibility Prioritized From the Start

An estimated 15% of people worldwide have a disability. And even more experience temporary disabilities or situational limitations , such as not being able to see a screen in bright sunlight. Another part of accessibility for global products is localization—making sure that content is adapted for local contexts, including but not limited to language translation. A design system allows product teams to integrate accessible design and localization into each pattern.

It’s beneficial to first get to know your audience and the specific challenges they may face in using your product. For our audience of moms, we knew that 95% of users browse and shop from their phones. And they’re often shopping at 9 or 10 PM when their children are asleep, and the brightness on their phone is reduced. That’s why we built accessibility features like high color contrast into our design system.

A design system also helped us build in localization from the very beginning. We used internationalization best practices to ensure a genuinely cross-cultural experience, including flexible design for varying language length and font size, right-to-left language support, and support for local currencies, units, dates, times and address formats. Our UX writer ensured we had a consistent voice in each language with high-quality translations. In addition, we agreed that every team would contribute to supporting localization, and we built it into all new feature releases.

When building a design system, you should adhere patterns to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines to ensure all designs prioritize accessibility from the start. For example, test to be sure your product works with assistive technologies . My team took inspiration from eBay MIND Patterns , which features guidelines on building accessible components for e-commerce websites.

The Lasting Benefits of a Design System

Design systems save organizations time and money by codifying design decisions that can be replicated at scale. A key goal of these systems is to prevent duplication of efforts, leading to quality work at efficient speeds . Improved efficiency creates a fulfilling work experience for designers and developers because they can focus on overcoming significant design challenges instead of repeatedly fixing the same issues. Design systems also improve the customer experience by ensuring consistency, familiarity, and accessibility at every touchpoint.

In my experience, creating e-commerce design systems is well worth the time and effort. With this particular app, the tangible benefits we saw—faster design and development cycles, page loading times, and checkout speeds—underscore its lasting value.

Further Reading on the Toptal Blog:

• The Power of Structure: A Guide to Design System Models
• Understanding Design Systems and Patterns
• Atomic Design and Sketch: A Guide to Improving Workflow

Understanding the basics

What is a design system used for.

A design system is a set of patterns and practices that help teams across an organization—from designers to developers—collaborate to create consistent, accessible digital products. A key goal of these systems is to standardize design decisions and prevent duplication of efforts, leading to quality work at efficient speeds.

What does a design system include?

A design system consists of a pattern library, design tokens, brand guidelines, and documentation on how to use the system.

Why is having a design system important?

Design systems save organizations time and money by codifying design decisions that can be replicated at scale. They also improve the customer experience by ensuring consistency, familiarity, and accessibility at every touchpoint.

• DesignSystem

Molham Bakir

Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Member since March 4, 2022

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Blog Data Visualization 18 Presentation Design Tips For Success

18 Presentation Design Tips For Success

Written by: Midori Nediger May 15, 2023

Bad presentations. We’ve all had to sit through them.  Heck, we’ve probably all given one or two. I know I have.

You know the type: twice as long as they need to be, slides chock-full of text, no visuals in sight. 

How can you ensure you don’t fall victim to these presentation faux-pas when designing your next presentation for your team, class, or clients?

In this blog, I’ll walk you through tips on how to design an impactful presentation along with presentation templates that can help you deliver it with style to leave a lasting impression.

Tips for designing and delivering an impactful presentation

What makes a presentation memorable?

It usually comes down to three things:

• The main idea.
• The presenter.
• The visuals.

All three elements work together to create a successful presentation. Just like how different presentation styles serve different purposes, having a good presentation idea will give the audience a purpose for listening.

Here are some top tips to consider to help you design and deliver an impactful presentation:

• Include less text and more visuals in your presentation design
• Identify one core message to center your presentation design around
• Eliminate any information that doesn’t immediately support the core message
• Create a strong presentation outline to keep you focused
• Use text to reinforce, not repeat, what you’re saying
• Design your presentation with one major takeaway per slide
• Use visuals to highlight the key message on each slide
• Use scaffolding slides to orient your audience and keep them engaged
• Use text size, weight, and color for emphasis
• Apply design choices consistently to avoid distraction
• Split a group presentation by topic
• Use a variety of page layouts to maintain your audience’s interest
• Use presentation templates to help you get started
• Include examples of inspiring people
• Dedicate slides to poignant questions
• Find quotes that will inspire your audience
• Emphasize key points with text and images
• Label your slides to prompt your memory

1. Include less text and more visuals in your presentation design

According to David Paradi’s annual presentation survey , the 3 things that annoy audiences most about presentations are:

• Speakers reading their slides
• Slides that include full sentences of text
• Text that is too small to read

The common thread that ties all of these presentation annoyances is text. Audiences are very picky about the text found in presentation slide decks .

In my experiences speaking at conferences and in webinars over the past few years, audiences respond much more positively to presentations that use visuals in place of text.

Audiences are more engaged, ask more questions, and find my talks more memorable when I include lots of visual examples in my slide decks. 

I’m not the only one who has found this. We recently surveyed nearly 400 conference speakers about their presentation designs and found that 84.3% create presentations that are highly visual.

A great example of a high visual presentation is the iconic AirBnB pitch deck design , which includes no more than 40 words per slide. Instead of repeating the speaker’s script on the slides, it makes an impact with keywords, large numbers, and icons:

Learn how to customize this presentation template:

To help you take your presentations to the next level, I’d like to share my process for creating a visually-focused presentation like the one above. I’ll give you my top presentation design tips that I’ve learned over years of presenting:

• Class presentations
• Online courses

You can then apply this process to our professional presentation templates  or pitch decks , creating unique presentation decks with ease! Our user-friendly editor tools make customizing these templates a breeze.

To leave a lasting impression on your audience, consider transforming your slides into an interactive presentation. Here are 15 interactive presentation ideas to enhance interactivity and engagement.

We’ll cover the most important steps for summarizing lengthy text into a presentation-friendly format. Then we’ll touch on some presentation design tips to help you get visual with your slide decks. Read on for the best creative presentation ideas .

2. Identify one core message to center your presentation design around

We know from David Paradi’s survey that audiences are easily overwhelmed with lots of text and data, especially when presentations are long.

(You when you see a presentation with lots of text and data and it’s long)

So unlike in a white paper , report , or essay , you can’t expect to tackle many complex ideas within a single presentation.

That would be a recipe for disaster.

Instead, identify a single central message that you would like to communicate to your audience. Then build your presentation around that core message.

By identifying that core message, you can ensure that everything you include in your presentation supports the goal of the presentation .

As seen below, a great presentation tells you exactly what you’re going to learn (the core message), then gets right to the facts (the supporting information).

To ensure you create an asset that’s clear, concise, impactful, and easy to follow, design your presentation around a single core message.

3. Create a strong presentation outline to keep you focused

Think of your outline as a roadmap for your presentation. Creating a strong presentation outline straight away helps make sure that you’re hitting all of the key points you need to cover to convey a persuasive presentation .

Take this presentation outline example:

• Introduction and hellos
• Vision and value proposition
• Financial profit
• Your investment
• Thanks and questions

These are all things that we know we need to talk about within the presentation.

Creating a presentation outline makes it much easier to know what to say when it comes to creating the actual presentation slides.

You could even include your presentation outline as a separate slide so that your audience knows what to expect:

The opening moments of your presentation hold immense power – check out these 15 ways to start a presentation to set the stage and captivate your audience.

4. Eliminate any information that doesn’t support the core message

Next, use that core message to identify everything that doesn’t belong in the presentation.

Aim to eliminate everything that isn’t immediately relevant to the topic at hand, and anything remotely redundant. Cut any information that isn’t absolutely essential to understanding the core message.

By cutting these extra details, you can transform forgettable text-heavy slides:

Into memorable slides with minimal text:

Here’s a quick checklist to help you cut out any extra detail:

Get rid of:

• Detailed descriptions
• Background information
• Redundant statements
• Explanations of common knowledge
• Persuasive facts and figures
• Illustrative examples
• Impactful quotes

This step may seem obvious, but when you’re presenting on a topic that you’re passionate about, it’s easy to get carried away with extraneous detail. Use the recommendations above to keep your text in check.

Clarity is key, especially if you’re presenting virtually rather than in-person. However, Lisa Schneider (Chief Growth Officer at Merriam-Webster) has had plenty of experience making that adjustment. She recently shared her tips for adapting in-person presentations into virtual presentations on Venngage that you can check out. 

Watch: How to design a presentation [10 ESSENTIAL TIPS]

5. Use text to reinforce, not repeat, what you’re saying

According to presentation guru  Nancy Duarte , your audience should be able to discern the meaning of your slides in 6 seconds or less.

Since your audience will tend to read every word you place on each slide, you must keep your text to an absolute minimum. The text on your slides should provide support for what you’re saying without being distracting.

Never write out, word for word, what you’re going to be saying out loud. If you’re relying on text to remember certain points, resist the urge to cram them into your slides. Instead, use a tool like Venngage’s speaker notes to highlight particular talking points. These can be imported into PowerPoint — along with the rest of your presentation — and will only be viewable to you, not your audience.

For the actual slides, text should only be used to reinforce what you’re saying. Like in the presentation design below, paraphrase long paragraphs into short bulleted lists or statements by eliminating adjectives and articles (like “the” and “a”).

Pull out quotes and important numbers, and make them a focus of each slide.

6. Design your presentation with one major takeaway per slide

As I mentioned above, audiences struggle when too much information is presented on a single slide.

To make sure you don’t overwhelm your audiences with too much information, spread out your content to cover one major takeaway per slide.

By limiting each slide to a single simple statement, you focus your audience’s attention on the topic at hand.

My favorite way to do this is to pick out the core message of whatever I’m talking about and express it in a few keywords, as seen in this presentation slide below.

This helps ensure that the visuals remain the focus of the slide.

Using the text in this way, to simply state a single fact per slide, is a sure-fire way to make an impact in your presentation.

Alternatively, pull out a significant statistic that you want to stick in your audience’s minds and make it a visual focus of the slide, as seen in this popular presentation by Officevibe .

This might mean you end up with a slide deck with a ton of slides. But that’s totally ok!

I’ve talked to many professionals who are pressured by their management teams to create presentations with a specific number of slides (usually as few as 10 or 15 slides for a 30-minute presentation).

If you ask me, this approach is completely flawed. In my mind, the longer I spend sitting on a single slide, the more likely I am to lose the interest of my audience.

How many slides should I use for a 10 minute presentation?

A good rule of thumb is to have at least as many slides as minutes in your presentation. So for a 10 minute presentation you should have at least 10 slides .

Use as many slides as you need, as long as you are presenting a single message on each slide, (as seen in the lengthy presentation template below). This is especially important if you’re presenting your business, or delivering a product presentation. You want to wow your audience, not bore them.

7. Use visuals to highlight the key message on each slide

As important as having one major takeaway per slide is having visuals that highlight the major takeaway on each slide.

Unique visuals will help make your message memorable.

Visuals are a great way to eliminate extra text, too.

You can add visuals by creating a timeline infographic to group and integrate information into visual frameworks like this:

Or create a flowchart  and funnels:

Or by representing simple concepts with icons, as seen in the modern presentation design below. Using the same color for every icon helps create a polished look.

Using visuals in this way is perfect for when you have to convey messages quickly to audiences that you aren’t familiar with – such as at conferences. This would also make the ideal interview presentation template.

You can alternatively use icons in different colors, like in the presentation templates below. Just make sure the colors are complimentary, and style is consistent throughout the presentation (i.e. don’t use sleek, modern icons on one slide and whimsically illustrated icons on another). In this example, presentation clipart style icons have been used.

Any time you have important stats or trends you want your audience to remember, consider using a chart or data visualization to drive your point home. Confident public speaking combined with strong visualizations can really make an impact, encouraging your audience to act upon your message.

One of my personal favorite presentations (created by a professional designer) takes this “key message plus a visual” concept to the extreme, resulting in a slide deck that’s downright irresistible.

When applying this concept, don’t fall into the trap of using bad stock photos . Irrelevant or poorly chosen visuals can hurt you as much as they help you.

Below is an example of how to use stock photos effectively. They are more thematic than literal and are customized with fun, bright icons that set a playful tone.

The content and visual design of a presentation should be seamless.

It should never seem like your text and visuals are plopped onto a template. The format and design of the slides should contribute to and support the audience’s understanding of the content.

8. Use scaffolding slides to orient your audience and keep them engaged

It’s easy for audiences to get lost during long presentations, especially if you have lots of slides. And audiences zone out when they get lost.

To help reorient your audience every once in a while, you can use something I like to call scaffolding slides. Scaffolding slides appear throughout a presentation to denote the start and end of major sections.

The core scaffolding slide is the agenda slide, which should appear right after the introduction or title slide. It outlines the major sections of the presentation.

At the beginning of each section, you should show that agenda again but highlight the relevant section title, as seen below.

This gives audiences the sense that you’re making progress through the presentation and helps keep them anchored and engaged.

Alternatively, you can achieve a similar effect by numbering your sections and showing that number on every slide. Or use a progress bar at the bottom of each slide to indicate how far along you are in your presentation. Just make sure it doesn’t distract from the main content of the slides.

You can imagine using this “progress bar” idea for a research presentation, or any presentation where you have a lot of information to get through.

Leila Janah, founder of Sama Group, is great at this. Her  Innovation and Inspire  talk about Sama Group is an example of a presentation that is well organized and very easy to follow.

Her presentation follows a logical, steady stream of ideas. She seems comfortable talking in front of a crowd but doesn’t make any attempts to engage directly with them.

9. Use text size, weight and color for emphasis

Every slide should have a visual focal point. Something that immediately draws the eye at first glance.

That focal point should be whatever is most important on that slide, be it an important number, a keyword, or simply the slide title.

We can create visual focal points by varying the size, weight, and color of each element on the slide. Larger, brighter, bolder elements will command our audience’s attention, while smaller, lighter elements will tend to fade into the background.

As seen in the presentation template above, this technique can be especially useful for drawing attention to important words within a long passage of text. Consider using this technique whenever you have more than 5 words on a slide.

And if you really want your audience to pay attention, pick a high-contrast color scheme like the one below.

When picking fonts for your presentation, keep this technique in mind. Pick a font that has a noticeable difference between the “bold” font face and the “regular” font face. Source Sans Pro, Times New Roman, Montserrat, Arvo, Roboto, and Open Sans are all good options.

The last thing to remember when using size, weight, and color to create emphasis on a slide: don’t try to emphasize too many things on one slide.

If everything is highlighted, nothing is highlighted.

10. Apply design choices consistently to avoid distraction

Audiences are quick to pick out, and focus on, any inconsistencies in your presentation design. As a result, messy, inconsistent slide decks lead to distracted, disengaged audiences.

Design choices (fonts and colors, especially), must be applied consistently across a slide deck. The last thing you want is for your audience to pay attention to your design choices before your content.

To keep your design in check, it can be helpful to create a color palette and type hierarchy before you start creating your deck, and outline it in a basic style guide like this one:

I know it can sometimes be tempting to fiddle around with text sizes to fit longer bits of text on a slide, but don’t do it! If the text is too long to fit on a slide, it should be split up onto multiple slides anyway.

And remember, a consistent design isn’t necessarily a boring one. This social media marketing presentation applies a bright color scheme to a variety of 3-column and 2-column layouts, remaining consistent but still using creative presentation ideas.

11. Split a group presentation by topic

When giving a group presentation it’s always difficult to find the right balance of who should present which part.

Splitting a group presentation by topic is the most natural way to give everybody the chance to attempt without it seeming disjointed.

When presenting this slide deck to investors or potential clients, the team can easily take one topic each. One person can discuss the business model slide, and somebody else can talk about the marketing strategy.

Top tips for group presentations:

• Split your group presentation by topic
• Introduce the next speaker at the end of your slide
• Become an ‘expert’ in the slide that you are presenting
• Rehearse your presentation in advance so that everybody knows their cue to start speaking

12. Use a variety of page layouts to maintain your audience’s interest

Page after page of the same layout can become repetitive and boring. Mix up the layout of your slides to keep your audience interested.

In this example, the designer has used a variety of combinations of images, text, and icons to create an interesting and varied style.

There are hundreds of different combinations of presentation layers and presentation styles that you can use to help create an engaging presentation . This style is great for when you need to present a variety of information and statistics, like if you were presenting to financial investors, or you were giving a research presentation.

Using a variety of layouts to keep an audience engaged is something that Elon Musk is an expert in. An engaged audience is a hyped audience. Check out this Elon Musk presentation revealing a new model Tesla for a masterclass on how to vary your slides in an interesting way:

13. Use presentation templates to help you get started

It can be overwhelming to build your own presentation from scratch. Fortunately, my team at Venngage has created hundreds of professional presentation templates , which make it easy to implement these design principles and ensure your audience isn’t deterred by text-heavy slides.

Using a presentation template is a quick and easy way to create professional-looking presentation skills, without any design experience. You can edit all of the text easily, as well as change the colors, fonts, or photos. Plus you can download your work in a PowerPoint or PDF Presentation format.

After your presentation, consider summarizing your presentation in an engaging manner to r each a wider audience through a LinkedIn presentation .

14. Include examples of inspiring people

People like having role models to look up to. If you want to motivate your audience, include examples of people who demonstrate the traits or achievements, or who have found success through the topic you are presenting.

15. Dedicate slides to poignant questions

While you might be tempted to fill your slides with decorative visuals and splashes of color, consider that sometimes simplicity is more effective than complexity. The simpler your slide is, the more you can focus on one thought-provoking idea.

16. Find quotes that will inspire your audience

A really good quote can stick in a person’s mind for weeks after your presentation. Ending your presentation with a quote can be a nice way to either begin or finish your presentation.

A great example of this is Tim Ferriss’ TED talk:

Check out the full talk below.

17. Emphasize key points with text and images

When you pair concise text with an image, you’re presenting the information to your audience in two simultaneous ways. This can make the information easier to remember, and more memorable.

Use your images and text on slides to reinforce what you’re saying out loud.

Doing this achieves two things:

• When the audience hears a point and simultaneously read it on the screen, it’s easier to retain.
• Audience members can photograph/ screencap the slide and share it with their networks.

Don’t believe us? See this tip in action with a presentation our Chief Marketing Officer Nadya gave recently at Unbounce’s CTA Conference . The combination of text and images on screen leads to a memorable presentation.

18. Label your slides to prompt your memory

Often, presenters will write out an entire script for their presentation and read it off a teleprompter. The problem is, that can often make your presentation seem  too  rehearsed and wooden.

But even if you don’t write a complete script, you can still put key phrases on your slides to prompt jog your memory. The one thing you have to be wary of is looking back at your slides too much.

A good presentation gets things moving! Check out the top qualities of awesome presentations and learn all about how to make a good presentation to help you nail that captivating delivery.

Audiences don’t want to watch presentations with slide decks jam-packed with text. Too much text only hurts audience engagement and understanding. Your presentation design is as important as your presentation style. 

By summarizing our text and creating slides with a visual focus, we can give more exciting, memorable and impactful presentations.

Give it a try with one of our popular presentation templates:

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Systems Design Powerpoint Presentation Slides

Improve product quality and performance along with providing the value to the company using content-ready Systems Design PowerPoint Presentation Slides. Create a customize application or design with existing or new hardware through ready-to-use systems designs PPT presentation templates. This professionally designed systems integration PowerPoint presentation deck covers topics like star integration, common data format, vertical and horizontal integration, and more. Incorporate relevant system integration process steps to help your company save time and money. Choose the best system to manage business operations. With systems design PPT presentation, enhance employee communication and collaboration, increase productivity, intensify real time data visibility, etc. Improve data accuracy, organizational change readiness by executing the system design process accurately. Add system integration PowerPoint templates for better products and services. Not just this, it will help you evaluate your business, have all data in one place, improve system security, accelerate growth and innovation, and more. Get access to the system design PowerPoint presentation slides for improved systems to enhance performance of the business. Find the design that highlights your cause in our Systems Design Powerpoint Presentation Slides. Insert the image of your choice.

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PowerPoint presentation slides

Presenting system designs PowerPoint presentation slides. This deck comprises of 28 uniquely designed slides. Our PowerPoint experts have included all the necessary templates, designs, icons, graphs and other essential material. This deck is curated after an extensive research. Slides consists of amazing visuals and appropriate content. These PPT slides can be instantly downloaded with just a click. Easily editable. Compatible with all screen types and monitors. Supports Google Slides. Premium Customer Support available.

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Content of this Powerpoint Presentation

Slide 1 : This slide introduces Systems Design. State Your Company Name and begin. Slide 2 : This slide shows Our Agenda. Use it to add your business agenda. Slide 3 : This slide showcases System Integration Template 1. We have mentioned some of the relavant icon with text boxes. You can use as per your requirement. Slide 4 : This slide presents System Integration Template 2. Given are some of the parameters in slide- Products from different vendors, Application from different vendors, Cloud (Private, Public, Hybrid), New feature Implementation, Customization,  Data from diverse domains. Slide 5 : This slide shows System Integration Template 3. Some the important facors we have put in slide, you can add as per requirement. ERP, Internal Applications, Business Processes, Legacy Systems, Database, CRM. Slide 6 : This slide showcases System Integration Template 4. Major steps for integration we have mentioned such as- Planning, Implementation, Support, System Integration. Slide 7 : This slide presents System Integration Template 5. This is presenting in flow diagram with these parameters- System Integration Services, Understand Business Context, Identify Supporting Applications, Identify required Infrastructure, Gauge your Readiness, Create a Governance System. Slide 8 : This slide showcases System Integration Template 6 which is showing these main parameters- System Integration, Strategic Integration. Slide 9 : This slide displays System Integration Template 7 with relevant icons it is showing. You can add your content and use as per your requirement. Slide 10 : This slide showcases System Integration Template 8. This slide also include - Data Acquisition, Visualisation, Networking, Control & Automation. Slide 11 : This slide diplays Icons. You can use as per requirement. Slide 12 : This slide is a Coffee Break image for a halt. Slide 13 : This slide is titled Additional Slides. Slide 14 : This slide showcases Our Team with Name and Designation to fill. Slide 15 : This slide displays Our Target with a background image. Slide 16 : This is a Venn diagram image slide to show information, specifications etc. Slide 17 : This is a Quotes slide to convey message, beliefs etc. Slide 18 : This slide showcases a Puzzle with imagery. Slide 19 : This slide displays a Bulb or idea image. Slide 20 : This slide showcases Project Locations with a World map and text boxes to make it explicit. Slide 21 : This slide shows a Magnifying glass with text boxes. Slide 22 : This is a Timeline slide to show milestones, growth or highlighting factors. Slide 23 : This slide forwards to Charts & Graphs. Slide 24 : This slide diplays pie chart for comparison of four products.  Slide 25 : This is a Bar Graph image slide to show product comparison, growth etc. Slide 26 : This slide shows Critical areas to be assessed and worked on. Slide 27 : This is a Radar Chart slide for product/entity comparison. Slide 28 : This is a Thank You slide with Address# street number, city, state, Contact Numbers, Email Address.

Systems Design Powerpoint Presentation Slides with all 28 slides:

Ensure gains all around with our Systems Design Powerpoint Presentation Slides. They help you dole it out.

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Systems Analysis and Design

Mar 15, 2019

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Systems Analysis and Design. Objectives. Define the terms system, analysis, and design Describe the principal functions of the systems analyst List and describe the phases of the systems development life cycle Describe the various data gathering and analysis tools

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Presentation Transcript

Objectives • Define the terms system, analysis, and design • Describe the principal functions of the systems analyst • List and describe the phases of the systems development life cycle • Describe the various data gathering and analysis tools • Describe a selection of systems design tools • Explain the concept of prototyping • Explain the role of the maintenance task in the systems development life cycle

Contents • What is Systems Analysis and Design? • Systems Analyst • Systems Development Life Cycle • Preliminary Investigation • Analysis • Design • Development • Implementation

Systems Analysis and Design What is it? • System • organized set of related components established to accomplish certain task • Natural • Planned and placed by people • Computer system • A system that has computers as one of its components

Systems Analysis and Design What is it? • Systems analysis Process of studying an existing system to determine how it works and how it meets user needs • Systems design Process of developing a plan for an improved system, based upon the results of the systems analysis

Systems Analysis and Design Why do it? • Impetus for change • Internal force • External force • Authority for change • Approval of higher management

Systems Analyst • Professional computer employee who performs analysis and design • Change agent • Overcome reluctance of users to change • Typical career path • Programmer • Programmer / Analyst • Systems Analyst

Systems AnalystFunctions Coordination • Schedules and system-related tasks • Personnel • Manager • Programmers • Users • Vendors of computer equipment • Contractors

Systems AnalystFunctions Communication • Oral presentations • Written documentation Planning and design • Plans and designs new system • Involved from beginning of project through final implementation of the system

Systems AnalystPersonal Qualities • Analytical mind • Good communication skills • Self-discipline • Self-direction • Organizational skills • Creativity • Ability to work without tangible results

SDLCSystems Development Life Cycle • Preliminary investigation • Analysis • Design • Development • Implementation

SDLCPreliminary Investigation • Feasibility study / System survey • Determine the problem • Describe the problem • Understand management decisions • Organizational chart • Informal hierarchy • Produces rough plan and what to do

SDLCPreliminary Investigation Problem Definition • Nature of the problem Separate problem from symptoms of problem • Scope of the project Budget and schedule • Objectives of the project What user thinks system should do

SDLCPreliminary Investigation Report What you have found Recommendations Financially feasible

SDLCPreliminary Investigation Resulting Management Decision • Drop • Fix a simple problem • Authorize the analysis phase

SDLCAnalysis • Understand the existing system • Gather data • Analyze data • Establish system requirements

SDLCAnalysis – Data Gathering • Written documents • Interviews • Structured • Unstructured • Questionnaires • Observation • Visits by appointment • Participant observation • Sampling

SDLCAnalysis – Analyze Data • How the current system works • Determine system requirements • Basis for documentation • Tools • Data flow diagram (DFD) • Decision tables

SDLCAnalysis – Data Flow Diagram

SDLCAnalysis –Decision Tables

SDLCAnalysis – System Requirements • Detailed list of things the system must be able to do • Design is based upon system requirements • Agreement upon requirements is needed before proceeding

SDLCAnalysis – Report to Management • Summarize problems • Describe requirements • Cost analysis • Recommendations for next step • Obtain authorization to proceed

SDLCDesign • Planning the new system • Two phases • Preliminary design • Detail design

SDLCPreliminary Design Major system aspects • Centralized or distributed • Online or batch • PC-based? • How will input be captured? • Necessary reports

SDLCPreliminary Design • Make or buy decision • Packaged software • Meet at least 75% of requirements? • Change business procedures for part or all of remainder? • Customize for part of all of remainder? • Custom software • Programmers write code • Outsourcing • System is developed by external organization

SDLCPreliminary Design • Create an overall plan • Offer alternatives that meet requirements • Explain differences • Evaluate costs

SDLCPreliminary Design • Build a prototype • Limited working system of subset • Does not need true functionality • Output looks like anticipated system output • Working model that can be modified and fine-tuned • Uses high-level software tools – CASE • Best for small-scale systems

SDLCPreliminary Design CASE tools Computer-Aided Software Engineering • Supports specific analysis and design tasks • Integrated environment that supports the entire systems development process

SDLCPreliminary Design Presentation • All alternatives • Selected plan • Prototype of the system • Obtain authorization to proceed

SDLCDetail Design Parts of detail design phase • Output requirements • Input requirements • Files and databases • Systems processing • Systems controls and backup

SDLCDetail Design Output requirements • Medium • Type of reports • Contents

SDLCDetail Design

SDLCDetail Design Input requirements • Medium • Content • Input forms • Validation • Volume

SDLCDetail Design Files and Databases • Organization • Access • Format of records • Coordinate with database administrator regarding external databases and updating

SDLCDetail Design Flowchart Symbols

SDLCDetail Design Systems Controls and Backup • Insure that input is processed correctly • Prevent fraud and tampering • System journals • Backup of system files

SDLCDetail Design Report to Management • Detailed design specifications report • Presentation • Obtain authorization to proceed

SDLCDevelopment • Doing the work to bring the new system into being • Scheduling

SDLCDevelopment • Programming • Refine the design • Detailed logic flowcharts and pseudocode • Testing • Unit testing • System testing • Volume testing

SDLCImplementation • Converting to the new system • Training • Equipment conversion • File conversion • System conversion • Auditing • Evaluation • Maintenance

SDLCImplementation – Training • Begin during testing • User’s manual (Technical Writers) • Hands-on • Training consideration • Space • Equipment • Data • User’s schedules

SDLCImplementation – Conversion • Equipment • Planning • Installation of new equipment • File • Manual to electronic • Special programs to convert old format to new

SDLCImplementation – Conversion • System • Direct conversion • Phased conversion • Pilot conversion • Parallel conversion

SDLCImplementation –Auditing • Audit trail • Trace output back to source

SDLCImplementation – Evaluation • Working • Meets original requirements • Benefits • Meets budget • Improvements

SDLCImplementation – Maintenance Ongoing activity for life of system

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15 Best Presentation Software for 2024 (Full Comparison Guide)

Written by: Orana Velarde

In this comparison guide, we’ll analyze each of these tools and many more to understand what the difference is between them so you can  choose the best presentation maker for your business.

So, if you want to stand out from run-of-the-mill PowerPoint presentations and have a reliable presentation software that will help you collaborate with team members and design stunning slide decks in a fraction of the time, you’ll need this guide. 

Let’s get started.

Table of Contents

• Google Slides
• Microsoft PowerPoint
• Beautiful.ai
• Microsoft Sway

What are Presentation Tools

Presentation tools are software applications that enable users to visually present ideas or share knowledge. These presentations are delivered in a slide-show format using a combination of text, images and other graphic elements.

Presentation software is frequently used to pitch an idea to investors , present proposals to clients , introduce new products or services to customers, train staff on new policies or ideas , or teach your students new or complex concepts.

Best Presentation Software: A Visual Comparison

When choosing the right presentation programs for your projects, there are some things to consider:

• Does the price point fit your budget?
• Is it easy to use?
• Who is the program geared at: businesses, educators, bloggers or social media managers?
• Does it have lots of templates to choose from? Are they good quality and helpful?
• Is the built-in graphic asset library extensive and varied?
• Can you embed content, add videos or GIFs?
• Can you add audio to your presentations?
• Can elements be animated?
• Is it desktop or cloud-based ?
• Can you use it to create presentations on any of your devices?
• Can finished presentations be viewed offline?
• Can you have team accounts or business accounts for easy collaboration inside your company?
• Does it include a Brand Kit? Is it easy to use?
• Can the finished presentation be shared online straight from the presentation software?
• Can your presentations be uploaded to the cloud privately with password protection?
• Does the presentation software include analytics to see how your projects perform on social media?
• Can you use the finished presentation as a lead generator straight from the software?

We'll take a look at all these aspects in the following list of best presentation software so you can make your own well-informed decision.

Last updated on May 30, 2024.

Visme is a powerful presentation software and all-in-one content authoring tool. It has a user-friendly interface and an extensive set of tools that make it easy for both beginners and experienced professionals to design and deliver impactful presentations.

Presentations made with Visme go beyond the standard slide deck to incorporate interactive elements and easy, full-featured offline sharing.

Making professional presentation slides with Visme is easy and straightforward. Create slides from scratch using content blocks and the extensive slide libraries categorized by style. Browse the presentation template library to find pre-designed slide decks which you can easily customize to fit your needs.

That's not all that Visme can do, though.

You can also use Visme to create other visual content, such as digital documents, animated infographics, interactive reports and whiteboards. There are tons of customizable templates that come built-in with the app.

You can also use Visme to create other visual content, such as infographics, reports and interactive charts. There are tons of customizable templates that come built-in with the software.

Visme can be used for free to test it out for as long as you want. With a free account, you can create up to three projects.

To access all of Visme's capabilities, you can upgrade to one of the paid plans .

• Starter: $12.25/month paid annually
• Pro: $24.75/month paid annually
• Visme for Teams: Custom – learn more here

If you're a nonprofit organization, you may qualify for a discount. Visme also offers separate Education plans for students and teachers.

Ease of Use

Visme is incredibly easy to use. Switching from slide to slide is a breeze, and you can even save a slide to your content block or slide library to reuse later.

The editor comes with a handy sidebar that lets you browse media, graphics and data tools and drag and drop relevant elements onto your slides. You can also use the /shortcut feature to open a search bar and quickly find what you need.

The dynamic fields feature ensures you don’t miss out on any critical information. With single click, you can easily update content throughout your presentation.

Who Is It For

Visme is perfect for small and large businesses, enterprises, marketing teams, project managers, educators, content creators and so much more. The resources and tools available in Visme reach far beyond the ability to create presentations.

• Social media teams can create content for their company’s social channels.
• Sales agents can create branded and personalized proposals in minutes.
• Professionals can build visual CVs to find the next ideal job.
• Project managers can conduct team meetings with a collaborative whiteboard.

Template Options

The template options in Visme are extensive and varied in style. From minimalistic to photographic, there are many presentation styles to pick from.

Presentation Templates

Ecommerce Webinar Presentation

Buyer Presentation

PixelGo Marketing Plan Presentation

Product Training Interactive Presentation

Company Ethics Presentation

Work+Biz Pitch Deck - Presentation

Create your presentation View more templates

You can choose from dozens of fully designed presentations tailor-made for specific industries and topics or mix and match hundreds of slide layouts by choosing a presentation theme.

You can also start with a blank canvas, add new blank slides to existing presentation templates, and save custom slides to use later as your own templates.

Graphic Assets Library

When selecting the best tools for presentations, the visual capabilities and creative design elements should be a top consideration. Visme’s graphic library includes thousands of free icons, illustrations, stock photos, videos , 3D graphics , audio clips, charts and graphs to include in your presentations.

The best part is that every graphic asset that comes built-in with the Visme editor is fully customizable. Resize, rotate or change colors to fit your brand, content and theme.

AI-Powered Tools

Visme comes with a wide variety of useful AI-powered tools, making it one of the best presentation software.

Let's start with the AI presentation maker . This advanced tool is engineered to make your presentation creation process as quick and efficient as possible.

To create a presentation using this tool, you only need to provide a text prompt outlining your requirements. The tool will then generate the slides, complete with text, images, illustrations and any other content you specify.

After that, you can use Visme's presentation tools to personalize the AI-generated slides and add the final touches.

Next up is the AI writer . This user-friendly tool is your key to overcoming writer's block and crafting engaging copy for your presentation. It can help you create layouts, edit and proofread text, summarize the content and much more. Explain to the AI writer what you want to generate, and it will take care of the rest.

Visme offers several AI image editing tools , including erase and replace, background remover, unblur, and upscaler. These tools can be used to edit the image content or enhance its quality. For example, you can use the Image Upscaler to resize your image without sacrificing quality, ensuring your visuals always look high-quality.

And as always, you just need to provide the right text prompts. Feel free to tweak the prompts as many times as you want until you achieve the perfect outcome.

Videos and GIFs

It's easy to insert or embed videos and GIFs inside a Visme presentation. This is another that makes Visme a powerful video presentation software .

To insert a video, upload a video from your computer or cloud storage and place it on a slide of your choosing. Once you’ve uploaded it, it’ll be in your Media library for future use.

If you don’t have videos of your own, Visme has hundreds of stock videos to choose from in lots of categories. Browse them by clicking the / shortcut on your keyboard and opening the videos tab.

Edit your videos with the integrated timeline feature. Trim video clips and customize playback settings. Resize the video on your slide easily by dragging the corner. Or you can resize any video into another shape for more flexibility.

GIFs are available through the Giphy integration, which you’ll find in the Media tab. These are a great choice when you want to make a meme-based presentation.

Take note that all presentations that have videos or GIFs in the slides must be shared as a live link or downloaded as HTML5 or MP4. If you download it as a PDF or PPTX, all the interactive elements won’t play back.

Adding audio to a presentation is easy on Visme. Either along with a video or as the audio on its own. You can also record a voice over.

Another great option is accessing our Presenter Studio to record a video of yourself presenting your content. You can turn on your camera or record audio only before sending a link to your audience. This is a great way to present asynchronously or save your presentation for people to view again and again.

Embed Third-Party Content

There is more content that can be embedded into Visme presentations, like polls, quizzes , forms , online videos and any content that can be turned into code to insert in an iframe.

You can also take advantage of several integrations to embed even more engaging and interactive content into your slides.

Some of our integrations include SurveyMonkey, Hubspot, Giphy, and many more.

Animations and Transitions

With Visme, you can animate your content and create interactive experiences such as:

• Hover effects or clickable pop-ups, link your slides or content blocks to objects
• Pre-animated assets like characters, illustrations and gestures
• Custom animation and motion effects

Features inside Visme presentations can be animated, and we also have a number of seamless slide transitions that make your content pop, like "Enter from Side" or "Staggered Fade."

If you want to make your content even more dynamic, you can access our Custom Animation feature. This is perfect for creating video presentations or making your elements look like they're floating on your slide.

Visme also comes with a 3D Character Creator that helps you elevate your storytelling and connect with your audience. You can create and customize 3D animated characters to embody your brand or message.

Tweak everything, from gender and hairstyles to outfits and skin tone, until you achieve the perfect look. You also have the ability to choose their entry, waiting and exit poses.

Desktop or Cloud

Visme is an online cloud-based app that can be easily used on your computer. We also provide a desktop app that you can download and use outside of your regular browser for seamless content creation.

And if you need to create content on the go, you can easily edit existing projects right from your mobile device or tablet using the Visme iOS app .

Data Widgets

Visme offers a wide selection of data widgets that allow you to creatively visualize statistics and figures in the form of gauges, clocks, pictographs and icon arrays.

Data visualization in Visme goes beyond widgets. Add tables, graphs, and charts to your presentation slides and connect them to a live data source . Create a data stream from Google Sheets or Google Analytics into customized data visualizations.

Offline Viewing

Finished presentations can be viewed offline in four different formats.

The best option is to download it as an HTML5 file. That way it will maintain all the animations when opened on Google Chrome, even without internet. Downloading as an HTML 5 file is a premium feature. Presentations can also be downloaded as a collection of JPG or PNG images, as a PDF or as an editable PowerPoint file.

Create a stunning presentation in less time

• Hundreds of premade slides available
• Add animation and interactivity to your slides
• Choose from various presentation options

Sign up. It’s free.

Collaboration Possibilities

Visme has a premium teams plan that lets all team members customize and complete projects together. Leave comments with edits and feedback, edit projects simultaneously and easily share with other people on your team to move the project along.

Plus, Visme's workflow management features give the project admin complete control over your team's collaboration process. You can assign tasks, manage roles, set deadlines and more, all from a centralized platform. These features are useful for streamlining communication and reducing the time between briefing and final presentation design.

Branding Capabilities

Visme's brand design tool makes it easy to keep all of your content on-brand regardless of who's creating it. It works in three easy steps:

1. Upload all of your branding assets (colors, fonts, logo) to Visme with the Brand Wizard . Input your website URL and watch as our Brand Wizard automatically pulls in all of your branding.

2. Access a bundle of 30+ automatically branded templates that have your logo, fonts and colors already ready to go.

3. Easily access thousands of other templates and input your brand fonts and colors with just a click in Visme's editor.

Then boom! All of your content will always have the same branding, helping increase brand strength and recognition.

Share to Social Media

Once a presentation is finished, it can be shared to social media seamlessly right from the editor. It can also be downloaded.

Privacy and Password Protection

Presentations on Visme can be published privately with password protection so that only the people you want can access it. It is advisable to only use strong passwords for this purpose. There are a few free password managers that could help you do that and keep your account secure .

Visme’s analytics is what makes it stand out as the best tool for presentation. When a presentation is shared via a live link, it can be analyzed for views and sharing.

Access in-depth analytics that show you how much of your presentation is typically viewed, for how long and which slides seem to be the most popular.

Lead Generation

You can add a signup form to your presentations to collect leads that could potentially become clients. Simply head over to our  Advanced Settings tab before sharing your project and turn on  Requires Registration to collect emails from each person who views your content.

The best part of using Visme is that you get access to an interactive online form builder that's proven to generate 2X more conversions than traditional forms. You can choose your preferred form type and customize every aspect, including character appearance, color, background and animations to match your design and branding requirements.

Prezi offers a great alternative to the traditional presentation format that goes slide by slide. The creative idea behind Prezi is you can create an animated, non-sequential flow with topics and subtopics that are hidden until you zoom in.

While Prezi's interface can be slightly complicated to use, it's a good option for people who need to add a creative touch to their presentations.

Prezi is free for basic capabilities and limited templates.

For the paid plans, there are three tiers.

• Standard: $5/month
• Plus: $12/month
• Premium: $16/month
• Teams: Upon Request

There are separate plans available for students and teachers.

Prezi has a slight learning curve, but once you create a couple of presentations, you get the hang of it. However, it doesn't offer too much customizability inside the templates.

Businesses and educators who are in need of a different style of presentation. Prezi offers a “conversational style” of zooming and moving around between information. So, who Prezi is for really depends on who needs this sort of presentation style.

There are plenty of templates to choose from, and you can also start from scratch. The templates are different in color and style, but the idea of zooming into topics and subtopics is the same.

AI Presentation Assistant

Prezi has an AI assistant that automatically generates presentations for users.

The assets library has some icons and shapes available, the usual ones like arrows and buttons. Premium plans get access to over 80,000 icons and 500,000 images.

Videos can be uploaded or embedded from YouTube. Embedded videos are not viewable in offline mode. GIFs aren’t supported.

Voice over can be added in premium plans.

No other content can be embedded into Prezi presentations.

Prezi is all about animations between topics and subtopics. The presentations themselves are viewed as animations.

Prezi is a cloud app but can be accessed to view offline with premium plans.

Available to Create on Multiple Devices

Prezi presentations can only be created on a computer but can be viewed on all devices.

Prezi for teams is available upon demand and has a Slack integration.

Brand Kits are only available with Prezi's team plans, but each presentation can be customized to fit your brand with color customizations and some available fonts.

Prezi presentations can be shared to social media via a special share button at the top-right of the Prezi page. They can be shared to LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.

Prezi presentations can only be downloaded from the Prezi app. There are two options, as an EXE file for PC and a ZIP file for Mac. Presentations can then be viewed without internet connection or the need to connect to the Prezi app.

Presentations are public unless you have a paid account.

Analytics are available with premium accounts but it only applies to Prezi presentations you share via a link to someone.

There are no lead generation capabilities with Prezi.

3 Google Slides

Google Slides is the presentation software available via your Google account. Just like you can create documents and spreadsheets with Google Docs and Sheets, you can create presentations with Google Slides.

The setup is very similar to PowerPoint and is free to use for anyone with a google account. There is a business version called G Suite, which includes the same things with more storage and management capabilities.

Google Slides is free to use for anyone with a Google account. All features are available to everyone.

There are plans for business accounts so that teams can be created and information can be managed in a more organized way. Plans start at $6/user/month and go up to $18/user/month.

Compared to other examples of presentation software, Google Slides is very easy to use. The controls are very similar to Google Docs and Sheets.

Business professionals, educators and students who need fast and easy access to a presentation software that can get things done.

There is a general collection of templates, but there are not very many. Presentations can also be started from scratch.

The graphic assets are average and simple. The shapes are classic and generic. Photographs can be uploaded from your desktop, your Google Drive, a URL or searched online.

Videos can uploaded with a YouTube link or from Google Drive. GIFs can be added just like images.

Audio and Embed Third-Party Content

Anything from your Google Drive can be added in. Also there are some available “add-ons” that can be integrated for icons, stock photography and audio.

Elements inside each slide can be animated and so can the transition between the slides.

Google Slides is a cloud-based program.

Google Slides can be used fully on any device with their respective apps for Android and iPhone. Presentations can be edited and viewed on all devices.

Collaborating with other people is easy with Google Slides

There is no brand kit feature.

Presentations can be shared via email or link.

Google Slides can be viewed offline with a Chrome Extension and the use of Backup and Sync.

Presentations can be shared privately, but there are no password capabilities, only invitations.

Analytics and Lead Generation

These features are not available.

Read this article about Google Slides vs Visme to get a detailed overview of each tool and find the perfect presentation software for your needs.

Keynote is the native Apple presentation software — one of the original PowerPoint Alternatives. Anyone with an Apple ID can use the Keynote editor. It is the most similar to PowerPoint and also Google Slides.

Keynote is free for downloading and also accessing via the cloud with an apple ID.

If you know how to use PowerPoint or Google Slides, Keynote is a breeze. This feature makes it stand out as one of the best tools for presentation.

Keynote is good for businesses, educators and anyone who needs a practical presentation software.

The templates are limited but come in standard or wide sizes. Templates can also be found outside of Keynote and uploaded into the program.

There are plenty of classic symbols and icons available which are also customizable in terms of color and gradient. Images can only be added from your computer.

Videos are not embeddable in Keynote slides but that is sorted with a plug-in like LiveSlides. GIFs can be added as .gif images.

You can upload existing audio files in Keynote to play on specific slides. There's also an option to record your own voiceover to create a narrated presentation.

Including these is not available

Slides and objects can be animated in a number of ways, including path creation, scaling, bounce or jiggle effects, and more.

Keynote is available on both desktop and cloud.

You can create keynote presentations on any apple device and PC.

Keynote presentations can be downloaded as .pdf or as .pptx to view offline.

Keynote presentations can be collaborated on via a link or email with permission settings set to “can make changes”.

Brand Kit, Share to Social Media, Analytics and Lead Generation

None of these are available on Keynote.

Presentations are private until shared and there is no password protection capabilities.

5 Microsoft PowerPoint

This list wouldn't have been complete without the most popular presentation software in the world. Even though there are tons of more advanced presentation tools out there now, PowerPoint is still a favorite of many because of its familiarity, ease of use and availability.

The desktop-based PowerPoint program is part of Microsoft 365, which has different plans for businesses that start from $6/month and go up to $22/month. You can also buy an unbundled digital PowerPoint account for $159.99

PowerPoint Online is free on any device, including mobile.

Most, if not every, computer user knows how to work a PowerPoint. The traditional sidebar interface is easy to use simply because it's familiar. But for people who are using PowerPoint for the first time, there might be a slight learning curve.

Businesses, individuals, students, teachers and anyone who uses a Windows PC or device. PowerPoint is also a good fit for people who want to create simple, conventional presentations, and aren't looking for fancy new features or capabilities.

There are dozens of themes that come built-in with PowerPoint, and there are all customizable so you can play around with the styles.

You can browse stock images, icons, stickers and more by searching for relevant keywords in PowerPoint's graphic library.

Videos and GIFs can be uploaded from your computer. You can also embed videos from YouTube and other online sources. However, this feature is only available to Windows users.

You can upload audio files from your computer. You can also record audio directly inside PowerPoint and edit the settings for playback.

You can embed files created in other Microsoft Office applications, such as charts created in Excel, or any other programs that support Object Linking and Embedding (OLE.)

There are tons of animation and transition options available in PowerPoint, which can actually get confusing at times. However, if you know your way around these options, it gets easier to create a professional-looking slideshow.

There are both desktop and cloud versions of PowerPoint available.

You can download the PowerPoint mobile apps on both Android and iOS devices.

It's possible to share your presentation with specific people.

Brand kits are not available, but you can save custom themes.

Presentations cannot be shared to social media.

You can download your PowerPoint presentations in various formats, including PPTX and PDF. This makes it easy to access them on any device offline.

You can mark your presentations as read-only to prevent users from editing the file.

This feature is not available in PowerPoint.

Ludus is one of the best-looking presentation tools available online. The main attractions with Ludus are the clean black screen to edit on and the number of integrations that give importing capabilities for all sorts of content. From photography to .svg to code builds.

Ludus starts at $14.99/month for teams of 1-15 people. Teams that need more licenses are encouraged to contact for more pricing information. Ludus does offer a 30-day free trial.

Ludus is quite easy to use and includes lots of keyboard shortcuts. It is easy to learn how to use and pretty straightforward. It seems to be easier for designers than for non-designers to use.

This presentation software is geared more towards designers or business owners who have some design knowledge to totally be able to use the broad capabilities.

There are no templates to choose from. You have to start from scratch or use smart blocks that you can create to use over and over easily. Smart blocks are kept in their own library.

Ludus has minimal in-house graphic assets like simple shapes, but the integrations are epic. You can import .svg icons and edit them inside Ludus quite easily. Photos can also be imported via Unsplash, Instagram, Facebook or uploaded.

Videos and GIFs are easily imported via the integrations like YouTube, Vimeo, Giphy and more.

Audio can be embedded as an audio file from SoundCloud, Dropbox and other integrations.

You can pretty much embed anything into Ludus. The integrations are impressive and there are also iframe and HTML options.

Internal elements can’t be animated but there are so many integrations that animations can be done in different ways.

Ludus is a cloud-based app. No need to download anything.

Presentations can only be edited on computers. Finished presentations can be viewed on all handheld devices that have access to the internet via a URL link.

Collaborations are possible with the team plans. This includes live collaboration, workspaces and more.

With collaborations, smart blocks and the Brandfetch integration, a brand kit can be organized quite easily. But it’s not an internal feature.

Finished presentations can be easily shared to social media straight from Ludus.

Ludus presentations can be downloaded as .pdf or .html to be viewed offline.

Pro Plans have password protection.

There are no analytics or lead generation capabilities available in Ludus.

Slides is the only presentation software that promotes itself as being “pixel perfect” as the editor includes a built-in grid to help with composition. Slides has a lower cost at the highest price tag which is good for smaller businesses.

Slides is free to use, but finished presentations will be public and available. 

The paid plans start at $5/month, and the Pro plan sits at $10/month and go up to $20/month for features like unlimited collaborators, privacy, shared media library and Google Analytics.

Slides is very easy to use, the editing board is minimal but all tools are at easy reach. No need to get confused with Slides. There are no templates so presentations are built from scratch.

Small business owners or startups. Individuals that know what they want and don’t need templates to help them along. Also for developers because it has HTML and CSS building capabilities.

Slides has a very limited template library with just a handful of different options to choose from.

The available shapes and icons are common and minimal. Photos have to be uploaded or imported from a URL.

Videos and GIFs are easy to add. Videos can be uploaded or linked and GIFs can be uploaded as .gif or .mp4 as video.

Including audio is not possible with Slides.

Anything with code can be added in an iframe.

All elements and features can be animated to fade in, fade out etc. Length of duration can be customized.

Slides is a cloud-based presentation software that can only be used online.

Slides can be used on the computer and handheld devices. To edit and to view.

Paid plans have very capable collaboration possibilities. Users can leave comments with feedback for the creator to review and make edits.

There is no set section for a brand kit but branded decks can be created and then cloned to use as a template.

Yes, quite easily.

You can also share presentations via URL, email or embeddable code.

A Slides presentations can be downloaded as a ZIP file with an .html file inside that can be viewed offline on any browser.

Privacy and Analytics

Possible with paid plans.

This is not possible on Slides.

8 Slidebean

Slidebean is an easy-to-use presentation software with interesting templates and customizable content blocks.

The highlight of this presentation software is that it uses artificial intelligence (AI) to help you put together the best possible slide layouts and configurations. They also have a team of experts that can both write and design your pitch deck for you if you don't want to take the DIY route.

The free plan has limited capabilities but it's enough to see how Slidebean works. To export your presentation, you'll need to upgrade.

There are three price levels from $8/month to $19/month to $149/month. The last one is the Founder's Edition plan, which includes help from the experts on your presentations.

If you choose to get their help on your presentation design, it starts at $29 per slide or $1,999 for the full project.

Slidebean is quite easy to use. You can choose between templates or start from scratch. Adding content is simple and to the point from a popup.

Editing can be done in outline or design mode. The editing is limited to how the content blocks are set up, but there are lots of choices. There's no free size changing or moving around.

Startups, small businesses and entrepreneurs.

There are plenty of template options. They are organized in sections and niche. The template collection has presentations by known brands like Snapchat and Buzzfeed.

There are plenty of icons and images to choose from. However, there are no shapes, but icons can be used as shapes.

GIFs can be added via the Giphy integration in a content block. Video can be added in the paid plans.

There are no audio capabilities.

The code snippet content block has lots of options so a lot of different kinds of third-party content can be added in.

Content blocks and their elements can be animated with a couple features.

Slidebean is an online program on the cloud.

It can be used to edit or view on any device.

Collaboration is possible in the paid plans.

This feature is available in the paid plans.

Sharing to Social Media

Slidebean presentations can be exported to download as both .pdf and .html files to view offline.

This feature is not available.

Analytics are available in the paid plans.

9 Zoho Show

Zoho Show is a presentation software that mimics Microsoft PowerPoint in the way it is set up, with a menu up top for all the actions. However, Zoho's version is much nicer and polished.

Zoho is a complete CRM for businesses and the company offers different types of apps for teams and office use — Zoho Show is only one of their programs.

Zoho show is completely free and without ads.

Zoho Show is pretty easy to use. The content blocks can be chosen as themes but they can also be moved around freely and resized. The presentation can be viewed in three ways, with a handy grid view to see all slides next to each other.

Businesses, entrepreneurs, educators and students. Anyone who needs to make a presentation.

There aren’t exactly templates, but there are themes. These do not come with images or lorem ipsum but are more like visual canvases that can be customized in terms of color, layout and more.

The shapes are pretty good, there are quite a bit to choose from. An added bonus is the possibility to draw shapes or scribble anything yourself with the trackpad.

Videos can be added via the YouTube integration and GIFs can be added as an image.

Audio can be added via Soundcloud with an embed code.

There are a number of sites that are supported via Embed codes but not that many. Zoho Show says that you can ask your needs to be added in the permitted list.

All elements and transitions can be animated.

Zoho Show is a cloud bases program and can be broadcast from anywhere and on any device. The live broadcast includes a chat window and the audience can download the presentation if they want to.

You can only create presentations on a computer.

Teams can easily use Zoho Show, even in the free version.

Custom branding is only available in the highest paid plan.

Sharing to social media is not possible unless downloaded as a PDF file and then uploaded to something like SlideShare.

Presentations can be downloaded as .pptx or .pdf files for offline viewing.

Yes, this is possible on all plans.

Analytics are possible on the paid plans.

10 Beautiful.ai

Beautiful.ai is a presentation software that helps you create great-looking slides with the help of Artificial Intelligence. This means that your presentation will look professional every single time, regardless of who designs it.

Beautiful.ai currently offers a Pro plan at $12/month and a Team plan at $40/month, both billed annually. They offer a 14-day free trial to test out their tool.

This is probably the best thing about Beautiful.ai — it's incredibly simple to use. All you need to do is add smart slides, plug in your content, and choose from different preset layouts.

Of course, that also means that you have limited customization options. But if you're looking for a simple solution and you don't trust your design skills, this may be a good option for you.

Beautiful.ai is a great tool for absolute beginners and non-designers who are looking for a no-nonsense presentation software.

For example, startups and entrepreneurs can use this software to create a nice-looking pitch deck or proposal quickly without any design help.

There are a handful of slide themes available, but they're mostly basic in terms of design. You can play around with the layouts inside each theme to put together a unique presentation.

The graphic assets library comes with a bunch of free stock photos and icons to choose from, but the options are pretty limited.

Videos and GIFs can be uploaded from your computer. You can also import videos from YouTube and Vimeo to embed in your slides.

Audio can be uploaded from your computer.

It's not possible to embed third-party content into Beautiful.ai presentations. However, you can add interactive links to your slides.

Each slide comes with a preset animation style that you're unable to customize. However, you can change the speed, timing and triggers for the animations. 

Beautiful.ai is a cloud-based application.

The software only works on your desktop computer.

You can invite people to collaborate on your presentation by either giving them "view" or "edit" access. Collaborators must have a Beautiful.ai account to view or edit the presentation.

While there's no brand kit feature available, you can customize a theme (colors and fonts) and save it to your library to use in future presentations.

There are several options to share your presentations. Send an email invite, share a public or private link, generate an embed code or share directly to social media.

You can export your presentations to PDF or PowerPoint to view offline.

There is no password protection, but you can use the Secure Viewing option to only share your presentation with other Beautiful.ai users via an email invite.

This feature is only available in the paid plans. You can access a number of viewing and usage statistics for your presentations.

This feature is not available in Beautiful.ai.

11 Genially

The main idea behind the Genially presentation software is interactivity.

This program is good not only for presentations and video presentations but also for other visual graphics. It’s great for adding a modern, interactive feel to your presentations.

There is a free plan in Genially, which gives you unlimited creations but limited resources. The paid plans are as follow, paid yearly:

• Pro: $7.49 / month
• Master: $20.82 / month
• Team: $79.15 / month

Genially is easy to use if you are accustomed to programs with lots of choices. There is a lot that can be done with the features in Genially.

Any change can be applied to all slides with a single click of the button in the menu. When editing, there is a "design view" and a "layers view."

Professionals and educators of any field who can benefit from interactive presentations.

There are plenty of template options. Some are free and some are only available via the premium plans. Presentation templates are also available as "video presentations."

The graphic assets in Genially are quite varied; there is plenty to choose from. Images can be uploaded or found on the Pixabay integration.

Videos can be added via a YouTube link and GIFs can be imported with the Giphy integration.

Audio can be uploaded from your computer, added via SoundCloud and a couple of other integrations, or recorded directly in Genially.

Third-party content can be added to your presentations with Genially integrations. For example, you can add an interactive map via Google Maps.

All elements can be animated, as can the transitions between slides. Animation effects are quite extensive. There is a similar tab called “interactivity,” which are pop-ups and hyperlinks supplied with lots of button choices.

Genially is a cloud-based presentation program.

This program is only available to edit on computers but can be viewed on any device.

It seems that a professional plan allows 5 team members, but the pricing plan shows that all plans have collaborative capabilities. Collaborators can be added in the dashboard where  all creations are stored.

Brand kits are available in the premium plans. It is an internal feature with easy access.

Finished presentations can be shared to social media.

Finished presentations can be downloaded as a set of .jpg images, as a .pdf or as an .html5 file which will keep all animations.

Premium plans have these features.

This is not available in Genially.

Canva is not only a presentation software but also a full editing program for all visual needs. Presentation creation is only one of the possibilities with Canva. It has become a favorite with bloggers and home-based businesses.

The free version of Canva is pretty extensive. The only restrictions are the use of premium resources that can be either bought separately or through the Canva Pro plan. Canva Pro is charged at $12.99/month or $119.99/year.

Canva Teams is $14.99/month + $14.99/month for every team member after the 5th.

Canva is easy to use as all elements are easy to find and are mostly customizable. Presentations are viewed scrolling; there is no master view and you can’t change something on all slides at once.

Bloggers, small home-based businesses and startups

There are lots of customizable template options, and each slide inside the templates can be used individually.

There are plenty of options in the graphic assets library, including shapes, icons, photos, frames and stickers. Some are free, while others are paid.

Videos and GIFs can be uploaded to Canva.

You can add music to your presentations using the available options inside Canva.

Canva offers dozens of integrations and media embed options, including YouTube, Google Maps, Vimeo, Pinterest, Tumblr, Twitter and more.

There are several animation options that apply to entire slides inside Canva. You can also add animated stickers to your slides.

Canva is a cloud-based app. Presentations can be seen on any device.

Canva is available as an iPhone app and an android app for editing capabilities.

Presentations can be shared for editing with team members.

Canva Pro has a brand kit feature.

Presentations can be shared on Twitter and Facebook.

Presentations can be downloaded as a group of .png or .jpg images or as a .pdf. You can also download it as an MP4 video for offline viewing.

All designs on Canva are private unless they are made public or shared via a link. There is no password-protected sharing though.

These features are not available in Canva.

While Canva offers a wide range of features for various visual design needs, you can explore better alternatives to find solutions that may better fit your requirements. If you want to explore other options, read our article about 12 excellent Canva alternatives .

13  FlowVella

FlowVella is a downloadable presentation software that can be used offline. The main attraction of FlowVella is the Kiosk Mode, in which you can create interactive presentations like the ones used in museums or information counters at malls or hotels.

FlowVella is free to try out. You can use it free forever but the options are limited and the finished presentations has a watermark. P aid plans are as follows:

• Premium : $10/month or $60/year
• Pro : $20/month or $200/year
• Enterprise : Upon request

FlowVella is pretty easy to use, and the controls are straightforward and uncomplicated.

This presentation software is for professionals and educators that need to be able to create presentations offline. Also for those who can take advantage of the Kiosk Mode.

The template options are quite varied and well designed.

The graphic assets library is very limited. Photographs and images need to be uploaded from your computer.

Videos can be uploaded or found via YouTube, iCloud and Dropbox integrations when online. GIFs can be added as images.

Audio can be uploaded from your computer, or added via iCloud or Dropbox.

You can add PDF files.

Only the transitions are animated minimally.

This is a desktop-based application. It must be downloaded.

There are iPad and device apps available for editing on those devices as well.

Paid premium plans can work with teams.

Brand kits are not available.

Presentations can be shared on Facebook and Twitter.

Since this is a desktop application, offline viewing is not a complication.

These features are available in the paid plans. Analytics can be viewed once the presentation has been published online.

This feature is not available on FlowVella.

14  Haiku Deck

Haiku Deck is a presentation software that is straightforward with a simple interface that makes quick and practical presentations. Presentations can be created on the computer and on mobile devices.

Haiku Deck can be tried for free with one available presentation. The Public plan is USD 7.99 a month, Pro plans are USD 9.99 a month billed annually and USD 19.99 billed monthly, and Premium plans are USD 29.99 a month.

Haiku Deck is quite easy to use and menus are easy to follow. There are word size limiters and specific text placement choices for each slide. Charts are simple to create and can be customized. The editor can be connected via cloud to all devices. The new addition, Zuru, is an Artificial Intelligence system that creates creative presentations from simple PowerPoint files or outlines.

The Haiku Deck presentation software is geared mostly toward educators and classrooms. Businesses and bloggers can also use it for practical purposes.

Templates on Haiku Deck are more like an inspiring collection of photographs for a specific niche with some suggestions on where to place the text and what charts to include.

The available graphic assets library in Haiku Deck are millions of photographs, numerous font choices and charts and graphs.

YouTube videos can be embedded easily in a Haiku Deck. GIFs cannot be added to Haiku Decks but a finished presentation can be turned into a video or into a GIF.

Narrations and voice overs are easily recorded on a presentation in Haiku Deck.

Only videos can be embedded.

Features can't be animated in Haiku Deck

Desktop or Cloud / Available to Create on Multiple Devices

Haiku Deck is a cloud-based app that is available for editing and viewing on your laptop and also as an app on phones and tablets.

Haiku decks can be downloaded as .pptx files for offline viewing.

Presentations can be easily shared to social media from the editor.

Haiku Deck offers team possibilities upon request.

There is no brand kit, but you can add your logo to the finished product.

Pro and Premium plans have private and password-protected capabilities.

Premium plans have analytics for who has viewed your presentations.

Emails cannot be captured with Haiku Deck but slides and presentations can be sent with invitations to your existing email contacts.

15  Microsoft Sway

Microsoft has its own alternative to PowerPoint — Sway.

This online presentation software is completely different from PowerPoint and introduces a new concept of building "Sways" instead of "presentations."

Sway is free to use for anyone who has a Microsoft account.

It's super easy to use Sway and kind of fun too. It has a non-traditional storyline editor, which lets you add "blocks" of content that the software configures into layouts.

Sway is mostly for people who don't want to spend too much time designing a complex presentation. For example, students and nonprofit organizations.

There are several templates for different purposes, such as photo slideshows, sales trainings and even personal portfolios.

You can upload your own media or search from various sources inside Sway, including Flickr and Bing Images. There are no shapes and icons included.

You can upload videos from your device or embed from YouTube.

You can add audio to Sway by uploading or dragging and dropping the audio file onto your storyline from your computer.

You can embed images, videos, maps and other content from tons of websites, including Google Maps, Soundcloud, Twitter, Facebook and more.

Sway automatically adds animations to your slides. You cannot change or customize them; you can only increase or decrease the level of animation added to your Sway.

Sway is an online, cloud-based software.

Sway works on any device with an internet browser.

You can invite people to view or edit your Sway presentation.

Sway presentations can be shared directly to Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.

You can download your Sway as a Word or PDF file to view offline.

There is no password protection available, but you can choose to share your Sway with specific people, anyone with a link or only people in your organization who have a link.

You can view reader statistics for your Sway if you have a Microsoft Office 365 subscription.

This feature is not available in Microsoft Sway.

Presentation Software FAQs

Still have questions? We've compiled answers to some of the most frequently asked questions about the best presentation tools available.

Q. Which Is the Best Software for Making Presentations?

There are many presentation tools out there but Visme stands out as a top pick and a creative presentation app with a full suite of advanced features tailored to the needs of individual users and businesses. Visme offers real-time collaboration, interactive and animated elements, hyper-customization options, robust data visualization tools and a brand wizard to maintain brand consistency across your presentations.

Q. What Is Better Than PowerPoint?

Visme is often considered a top presentation software and offers several advantages as a PowerPoint alternative software. Its intuitive interface and extensive template library make creating visually stunning presentations seamless, even for beginners. Visme's collaboration features are superior, allowing teams to work seamlessly. On top of that, Visme is packed with advanced interactive and animated elements to keep your audience hooked.

Q. Is PowerPoint or Prezi Better?

PowerPoint and Prezi each have strengths and are suited for different presentation styles. PowerPoint is easy to use, has a clear structure, and is widely available, making it suitable for traditional slide decks and formal presentations. On the other hand, Prezi excels at non-linear, visually engaging presentations with its zooming and panning features, making it ideal for creative or storytelling presentations. The best choice depends on your content, audience and desired presentation style.

Q. What Is the Best App to Do a Presentation On?

Visme offers a powerful presentation app that allows you to create, edit and present your slides from anywhere. Its mobile app is designed for on-the-go editing and presenting, ensuring you always have your presentation at your fingertips.

Q. Is Canva Better Than PowerPoint?

Canva and PowerPoint are tailored to suit the diverse preferences and requirements of different users.

Generally, Canva is known for its drag-and-drop interface, extensive library of design-focused templates and emphasis on visual appeal. It is an excellent choice for those who value aesthetics and want to create content quickly. On the other hand, PowerPoint offers more traditional features and is super flexible. It is often preferred due to its integration and compatibility with other Microsoft Office tools.

Q. What Is Replacing PowerPoint?

Visme is quickly gaining popularity as a PowerPoint replacement and a free presentation software with a user-friendly interface, tons of customization options, and powerful tools that make creating presentations a breeze. With a plethora of templates, interactive elements, and powerful data visualization tools, Visme empowers you to create presentations that truly captivate your audience and leave a lasting impression

Don't just take our word for it. Hear what Kendra Bradley, Graphic Content Developer at WOW!, has to say about Visme:

“Previously we were using PowerPoint, which is fine, but the interactivity you can get with Visme is so much more robust that we’ve all steered away from PowerPoint.”

“PowerPoint templates are plain and boring, and we want to create more fun and engaging content. Visme has multiple slide templates to choose from, which makes this so much easier.”

“I just made a deck recently and it took me about 15-20 minutes. I found a template I really liked and tweaked it and put it in our brand colors. In PowerPoint, it would take anywhere from an hour to an hour and a half.”

Read the full case study to learn how they streamlined their presentation creation process and found a better alternative than PowerPoint.

Looking for a Presentation Software?

Choosing the best presentation program for your business is a great first step towards better and more effective slide deck development. In this guide, you learned about 15 different types of presentation software and we gave you a checklist to help you decide.

If you're looking for an easy-to-use presentation maker that also comes with unique features that you won't find in most other tools, Visme might be a great option.

You can look for the right pricing plan for your needs and even apply for a discount if you're a nonprofit organization. And if you just want to try out Visme to see if it's a good fit, sign up for a free account and use it for as long as you like — no strings attached.

Which of these best presentation software options fits your needs? If you have any questions or comments, we'd love to hear from you below.

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About the Author

Orana is a multi-faceted creative. She is a content writer, artist, and designer. She travels the world with her family and is currently in Istanbul. Find out more about her work at oranavelarde.com

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Setting the Stage with the Radici Buffet System

Discover excellence with the award-winning italian-designed radici collection, redefining buffet presentation, boasting full modularity & superior design., june 20, 2024     3 minute read.

In the world of dining, our experience goes beyond the taste of the food; it encompasses the ambiance, service, and presentation. Sambonet has revolutionized the way we perceive buffet dining with the award-winning Radici Buffet System, redefining the culinary landscape. Entirely developed and designed in Italy, Radici was honored with the Iconic Design Award 2024 for product design and the German Innovation Award 2024 for B2B solutions.

Radici is unique for its functional concept at the intersection of superior design and versatility. This line was introduced to fill the aesthetic gap of traditional buffet displays, with a complete system to host your guests and impress. This innovative system is entirely customizable and modular, allowing each service to stand out featuring its own style and functionality. Radici can be tailored to your specific needs and can adapt to every location, from the most contemporary to the most luxurious.

Superior Design & Quality

Sambonet's Radici Buffet System stands as a testament to its tradition of impeccable design and exceptional quality. Crafted with precision and finesse, each component of the system exudes sophistication and elegance. From sleek serving platters to innovative chafing dishes, every detail is meticulously crafted to enhance both the visual appeal and functionality of the buffet setup. The use of premium materials ensures durability and longevity.

Customizable Style

Radici sets itself apart with its customizable style, offering a diverse range of options to cater to every taste and preference. Radici allows users to personalize their buffet setups through different colors, shapes, and materials. From acacia wood to contemporary stainless steel, the system offers endless possibilities for creativity and expression. This versatility ensures that Radici can seamlessly integrate into any event theme or decor scheme, adding a touch of sophistication and refinement to the dining experience.

Modular and Adaptable 

One of Radici's most notable features is its modular design, which makes it incredibly adaptable to fit the specific needs of any menu, space, or display. With interchangeable components and flexible configurations, you can easily customize the setup to accommodate different culinary offerings, venue layouts, and guest capacities. Whether it's a small intimate gathering or a large-scale banquet, Radici can be tailored to ensure optimal functionality and visual impact, making it a versatile solution for a wide range of events and occasions.

Cutting Edge Production Technologies

Behind Radici's superior design and quality is a commitment to innovation and excellence in production. Sambonet employs cutting-edge technologies such as laser and water cutting, folding machines, and more to ensure precision and consistency in every aspect of manufacturing. These state-of-the-art processes not only enhance the aesthetic appeal of Radici but also optimize functionality and durability. By leveraging the latest advancements in production technology, Sambonet continues to push the boundaries of buffet presentation, setting a new standard for quality and craftsmanship in the industry.

If you are interested in the Radici Buffet System for your operation, reach out to your Sam Tell rep today! 

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Everything You Need to Know About Commercial Kitchen Design

From beginning steps and common configuration styles to tips and insights about equipment, layout, and implementation, this useful guide is a valuable resource for achieving the perfect commercial kitchen design.

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Introduction To System Analysis and Design

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EDA: The Birthplace of Semiconductor Innovation – Insights from Maheen Hamid of Breker Verification Systems

Maheen Hamid is co-founder of electronic design automation (EDA) company Breker Verification Systems and a member of both the ESD Alliance Governing Council and the SEMI North America Advisory Board. She is also a passionate supporter of the semiconductor industry’s design sector and believes it is often overlooked and undervalued.

I recently spoke with Hamid about the EDA industry and her perspectives on the sector where electronics begins .

Breker will demonstrate its Trek Test Suite Synthesis and SystemVIP solutions at the 61st Design Automation Conference (DAC), Booth #2447 (second floor), June 24-26, 10:00am-6:00pm at Moscone West in San Francisco

The company is a Gold sponsor at Verification Futures , Tuesday, June 18, at the University of Reading in Reading, U.K., and a Silver sponsor of the RISC-V SummitEU , June 25-27, at the MOC Event Center in Munich, Germany.

Registration is open for DAC , Verification Futures and RISC-V SummitEU events . To arrange a demonstration or private meeting with Breker Verification Systems at any of these events, email [email protected] .  

Smith: How do you define the design sector?

Hamid: When I think of design, I marvel at how small the EDA space is compared to the rest of the electronics supply chain. Every piece of equipment on the manufacturing floor is controlled by a chip or multiple chips designed and verified by hardware engineers using design tools. The semiconductor ecosystem is ever more interdependent.

In many ways, design and EDA define the success of the entire supply chain. How does this happen? The process of building a chip incorporates many stages, and the design stage comes first. The functional design of the increasingly complex chips incorporates every tiny detail of the chip/systems specification ( what is it supposed to do? ) to its verification ( can it do what it’s supposed to do? ). And that’s before it enters the phase of physical design that maps out the transformation and implementation of the functional design onto a physical chip. This is followed by prototyping and validation, which eventually leads to manufacturing and packaging.

Within this long, complex flow, the design category focuses on the buckets of logic design and verification, physical design, and building the embedded software stack and validation after initial prototyping.

Smith: Why does electronics begin with design?

Hamid: As human beings evolve in how much we push the boundaries and integrate the use of technology in our daily lives, the brain of this evolution lies in complex chips or systems on chips. As we multiply and accelerate the pace of innovation in devices and end applications of technology, the uncluttered function of this brain becomes critical.

The ever-increasing intricacies of chip design require careful planning and is analogous to cities that are lauded for their urban planning versus poorly planned ones that lead to chaos and decay as the population grows. Without a well-defined design that has been tested for its planned functionalities and is followed by a mapping of the most efficient and economic implementation of the design, the industry cannot scale.

Every spin of a chip due to functional flaws is expensive, both in materials and in time lost. There is only so much that can be patched via software. Preserving natural resources – with future buffers in mind for the exponential growth in chip production and planning for present and future manufacturing capacity – presupposes a blind trust in a strong design stage. Hence, having due emphasis and an understanding of the design category is critical for the electronics industry.

Smith: What would the semiconductor industry look like without a design tools and services category?

Hamid: The design component is like the salt in the folklore of the king who asked his daughters to explain how dear he was to them, and the youngest’s understated response of “as dear as salt” was dismissed until its importance is realized. When the king is forced to have his elaborate meals minus this innocuous ingredient, he understands how much he has taken it for granted. Similarly, even though the design community is a fraction of the entire electronics supply chain, it is like the salt without which the rest of the supply chain – i.e. the far more impressive looking parts of the feast – cannot be savored.

Smith: Where has design made the biggest impact?

Hamid: Perhaps a better question is where would the semiconductor industry and its supply chain be without design and EDA?

Smith: What aspects of the development process are the most important and/or complex?

Hamid: Historically, depending on the source, the verification and validation budget comprises 60%-70% of development costs in the design phase. Within that range, generating sufficient test content, understanding coverage and debug alone represent about 60% of the verification challenge.

Pushing the boundaries of imagination of what a chip can do seems to be easier than making sure that it will be able to do.

Smith: Given that the design category keeps evolving and adapting to meet the needs of the semiconductor industry, where do you see it going?

Hamid: EDA and the design community thrive on the mantra: Cheaper, Faster, Better. There is no other reason for design tools and services to exist. EDA companies continue to drive internal innovation to deliver on this promise to their customers.

I think we will see a hybrid conclusion where certain intuitive tasks and decision making – i.e. the art of chip design – will always require a human at its helm. The design category will continue to evolve and expand automation within the design and verification flow.

About Maheen Hamid

Maheen Hamid is the co-founder, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer at Breker Verification Systems. Hamid has a wealth of financial engineering experience from investment banking and small business management in diverse industries. She has been instrumental in establishing Breker as an important stakeholder in the EDA industry. Hamid holds a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from North South University in Bangladesh and an MBA from the University of Texas at Austin.

Robert (Bob) Smith is Executive Director of the ESD Alliance, a SEMI Technology Community.

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