1

Basics of Presentation Design

Kate MacDonaldMCPHS12/7/99

2

Designing a Presentation

• There are options– Go with the professionals: use the standard

templates in PowerPoint– Do your own thing: learn to use the formatting

and graphical tools to adapt a template design, or create your own look from scratch

3

Doing Your Own Thing

• This is great, but remember, there are standards (or your presentation may not communicate very well)

• Basics– Page Layout– Design Scheme– Type Style/Type Size

- Color- Graphics- Special Effects

4

Page Layout

• Slide should be balanced between text areas, graphics, and blank or negative space

• Avoid common pitfall of crowding too much on one slide

• Plan slides ahead of time by reviewing content to eliminate extraneous, repetitive, or irrelevant material

5

Page Layout (continued)

• In reviewing material, look for frequent, logical breaks to the next slide

• Choose graphs and tables that will be easy to read and understand in a slide format

• Maintain flow over several related slides by repeating title with “continued”

6

Page Layout (continued)

• Don’t write a book!– Put only the major points of of key information

on each slide

• Fill in the supporting information as you speak– Use notes if necessary– Physical “props” whenever you can

• To shift attention from the screen

• To add variety to your presentation

7

Design Scheme

• Overall “look”: background color and master graphical elements, text color and style

• Templates available inPowerPoint– designed by professionals– follow standard design

rules for slide projection

8

Design Scheme(continued)

• Not all of the templates are appropriate models– avoid “jazzy” design schemes or vividly

contrasting colors; can detract from the message

– projection standards are reversed for printed copies of presentation

• dark background and light type will not print well for slide handouts or poster presentations

9

Type Style

– Hundreds of type styles available:

•Example 1

•Example 2

•Example 3– Choose no more than 3 type

styles per presentation for balanced design and consistency

– Variations; use for emphasis or highlighting; do not over-use:

• Regular

• Bold

• Italic

• Underscore

Also called “Typeface” or “Font”

» Shadow» Shadow

10

Type Size• Also called “point size”

• Should match the “weight” of the text levels– supporting points are indented and the type is

smaller• avoid making type smaller just to fit more text on

one slide

• Balance the number of type sizes on a slide– not too small or too large– not too many (distracting)

BIG

11

Color

• Note how colors are used in the templates (accomplished designers created them)

• General rule for slide projection is darker background color and lighter type; the original standard was medium blue background with white and/or yellow type (opposite of the print standard of black on white)

12

Color (continued)

• Limit different colors to 3 in one presentation

• Use different shades of one color to avoid an unbalanced or chaotic look

• Complimentary colors are always a good guide (the “color wheel” opposites and their related shades)

• Use color combinations that have associations to your topic when appropriate

13

Graphics

• Useful to Enhance the Message and Hold Attention

• Do not Over-use

• Limit to Same Style in Each Presentation– Cartoon– Illustration– Silouettes

- Photos - Color vs Black/White

14

Use One Graphic Style

15

Graphics (continued)

• Copyright Laws– They do apply to use of copyrighted graphics in

personal presentations– It’s a real risk– At minimum, be sure to cite the

source on the same slide

Copyrightpolice

16

• Sources for Graphics– Clip Art in PowerPoint– Your own Clip Art CD-ROM– Bitmap (.bmp) files you have on floppy– Graphic files you copy from the Internet/Web– Scanned images– Copyright issues may apply to the last three

Graphics (continued)

17

Scanning Graphics

• Photos, Drawings, Cartoons – Originals should be

high quality B/W contrast or sharp color

– Text, charts, graphs, tables do not scan well– Consider copyright laws– Plan and schedule time with Media

Office for scanning

18

Tables, Graphs, Charts

• Use Microsoft Excel– Spreadsheet program to create charts

and graphs– Access automatically through PowerPoint

• Use Microsoft Word– Create tables– Access automatically

through PowerPoint

19

Tables, Graphs, Charts (continued)

• Follow the same design/spacing rules for charts and tables as for text– Do not crowd a large, complex table or chart on

one slide, using tiny type to make it fit– Try to divide the table or chart into smaller

sections to place on separate slides

• If you must keep a complex table on one slide, have a handout for students to refer to

20

Special Effects

• These Work for Onscreen Presentations

• Include Transitions, Sound, Animation, Video

• Ask Kate, Emily, or a Computer Lab Assistant for Help if You Need It

• Be Consistent in the Use of Special Effects

• Do Not Over-Use

21