Designing a good presentation

Design tips and MS PowerPoint® features

Adapted from © 2002 Jennifer Spink Strickland

Basic Design Principles

Keep it Clean Keep it LeanKeep it EasyRemember your audience is not you.Less is more.

Adapted from © 2002 Jennifer Spink Strickland

Use Colour wisely - DON’T OVER DO IT!

Don’t use every colour at once Use colour that is easy to read High contrast is easier to read - especially from a distance

Adapted from © 2002 Jennifer Spink Strickland

Text Fonts

Lower case is easier to read than upper.UPPER CASE and BOLD IMPLY YELLING

(font-shouting)Make it easy to read (Font and size)This is 36 point Tahoma, Curlz This is 22 point Tahoma, Curlz no smaller than this

Must be consistent with topic

Desserts Deserts

Adapted from © 2002 Jennifer Spink Strickland

Keep it clean!

Don’t use too much clutter!

Remember most users SCAN not read!

Keep in mind basic newspaper or magazine layout –

highlight important stuff, minimize the least important stuff!

Putting too much text on the screen does not work and may be contrary to your objectives. If the amount ofinformation you want people to read is greater than four or five lines of short bullets, then use handouts so they can take the notes home with them and read them after your presentation. Assume that your audience wants to listen to and see you and not a completely filled page. Handouts with space for notes are a good alternative to a complete verbatim script, unless you’re quoting from a literary text. Keep the goal of your presentation in mind and use this to help create an environment to communicate this. Always ask some people to look at what you have created and ask for feed back – even ask them pointed questions! Keep in mind that legal documents usually look like this – now you know why – they are hoping that you don’t read it! So if you have something important to say – be precise and to the point.

Use brief phrases…

Adapted from © 2002 Jennifer Spink Strickland

The images chosen should highlight the information

being presented.

Your images must be clear.

Using Pictures

Adapted from © 2002 Jennifer Spink Strickland

Backgrounds

Busy backgrounds distract viewers from your content

Adapted from © 2002 Jennifer Spink Strickland

Use Animations sparingly

Animations slow you down and make you dizzy!

Adapted from © 2002 Jennifer Spink Strickland

Animations can enhance a presentation but they can also distract!

Transitions and Custom Animations

Move the reader with transitions Don’t over do the special effectsPage transition effects should

complement your meaning not distract

Adapted from © 2002 Jennifer Spink Strickland

Always think of purpose and audience

Content Text: language, spelling,

grammar, text type Images: photos, clip-art Speech Content

Graphical elements Layout, Background Fonts Colours

Technical elements Animations Page Transitions Speech sound quality

Good design • balanced • consistent with purpose &

audience