Kathy Sierra has another thought-provoking post titled Stop Your Presentation Before it Kills Again.  In it, she shares her “Do My Slides Suck” test:

1) Do your slides contain mostly bullet points?

2) Do you have more than 12-15 words on a slide?

3) Do your slides add little or no new info beyond what you can say in words?

4) Are your slides, in fact, not memorable?

5) Are your slides emotionally empty?

6) Do your slides fail to encourage a deeper connection to or understanding of the topic?

7) Do your slides distort the data? (That's a whooooole different thing I'm not addressing now)

8) Do your slides encourage cognitive weakness? (refer to Tufte)

A "Yes" to any of those could be a huge red flag that something's wrong.

If you're still committed to slides, or if you're certain you need them, here's my favorite overall recommendation:  Put each slide on trial for its life. Ask it to defend itself. Show no mercy.

As I finish up my preparations for the ABA Techshow, I’ll be giving my slides another once-over.  I’ll post them up by tomorrow.