slide-quality_skill

Overview

This skill evaluates presentation slides against a research-backed 12-point checklist to produce an evidence-based quality score and prioritized fixes. It is designed for technical presenters who want clear, accessible, and audience-friendly slides for conferences or team briefings. Use it to get concrete, actionable recommendations that follow cognitive-load and accessibility guidance.

How this skill works

Load the canonical presentation guidelines before analysis to ensure checks align with the evidence-based criteria. The skill inspects one slide at a time for the 12 criteria (one idea, meaningful title, element count, word count, visuals, font sizes, contrast, colorblind safety, standalone comprehension, phrase style, white space, and explainability). It returns a numeric score, a per-criterion pass/fail list, identified critical violations, and prioritized, concrete recommendations including quick-win edits.

When to use it

• When asking to analyze slide quality, review slide, or check slide design
• Before a conference talk or technical demo to ensure accessibility and clarity
• When preparing slides for asynchronous sharing or publication
• To validate slides against cognitive-load and WCAG-informed guardrails
• When you need prioritized, research-based fixes rather than generic feedback

Best practices

• Ensure each slide communicates exactly one central idea and a title that asserts the takeaway
• Limit simultaneous elements to six or fewer and keep body text under 50 words
• Include at least one supporting visual and use phrase-style bullets (3–6 words)
• Maintain accessible font sizes (body ≥18pt, heading ≥24pt), contrast ≥4.5:1, and colorblind-safe encodings
• Use white space generously (≥10% margins) and confirm slides are explainable in ~90 seconds

Example use cases

• Pre-conference audit to turn a draft deck into a publication-ready talk
• Quick pass to fix critical violations (one-idea, word count, element count) before rehearsal
• Accessibility review to verify font sizes, contrast, and colorblind-safe encodings
• Converting dense technical slides into a sequence of focused, explainable slides
• Validating titles so the slide sequence tells a clear story for distracted viewers