The most fundamental feature of my presentation design app SlideMagic is the strict use of a grid to layout your slide. And there is a good reason for that.
Every slide I design start with counting. How many points. How many options. How many pro's and con's for each argument. How many years. How many competitors. How many types. How many team members. How many steps.
Even or odd number of items? If you end up with a nasty number (11, 13 for example), you find ways to combine 2 points, leave one of, split one up.
Then think of shapes, which boxes are "long" (text), which boxes are square (images, icons), which boxes vary in text content, which are the same.
Then comes the thinking about layouts: 3x3 5x1, 1x4, 2x2?
Almost every slide has a table hiding in it.
Image from WikiPedia