Presentation Zen [49]
The slide above has a busy template which makes the useful area of the slide about 1/3 smaller…
This slide uses the image to cover the entire slide. The text on the second slide is clearly foreground and the image serves both as background and at times foreground, making the overall visual more dynamic and more unified with a cleaner, more dramatic look.
This slide features a typical graph exported from Excel. It is impossible to identify the countries as the text is too small and at an angle. The biggest problem is this is too much data for a display. This amount of information would be better presented in a handout…
The text and data are easier to see as the contrast between the foreground and background is much better in this slide. Only the key variables are chosen to include in the display, which allows the bars and figures to be larger. Information on the excluded variables can be put into a document to be taken away.
The background color on the top slide is not a good fit with the colors of the bars nor does it provide enough contrast; the text is hard to read. The background of the sushi photo adds unnecessary noise to the visual…
Here the background of the sushi photo “disappears” to match the white background of the slide. The text and bars and background have much better contrast and are easier to read on the bottom slide.
The more strikingly visual your presentation is, the more people will remember it. And more importantly, they will remember you.
—Paul Arden
In Sum
• Design matters. But design is not about decoration or about ornamentation. Design is about making communication as easy and clear for the viewer as possible.
• Keep the principle of signal-versus-noise in mind to remove all nonessential elements. Remove visual clutter. Avoid 3-D effects.
• People remember visuals better than bullet points. Always ask yourself how you can use a strong visual—including quantitative displays—to enhance your narrative.
• Empty space is not nothing; it is a powerful something. Learn to see and manipulate empty space to give your slide designs greater organization, clarity, and interest.
• Use the principle of contrast to create strong dynamic differences among elements that are different. If it is different, make it very different.
• Use the principle of repetition to repeat selected elements throughout your slides. This can help give your slides unity and organization.
• Use the principle of alignment to connect elements visually (through invisible lines) on a slide. Grids are very useful for achieving good alignment. This will give your slide a clean, well-organized look.
• Use the principle of proximity to ensure that related items are grouped together. People will tend to interpret items together or near to each other as belonging to the same group.
Chapter 7
Sample Slides: Images & Text
In this chapter you can review slides from several different presenters who make presentations often in “the real world.” (Because of limited space, only a small number of slides are shown from each presentation.) Not all of the sample slides are necessarily perfect. However, while we can judge a slide in terms of its adherence to basic design principles, it is difficult to judge the effectiveness of a slide design without seeing how the visuals are used in a live talk.
Though the content and circumstances are different in each case, what the slides in this chapter have in common is that they are simple, highly visual, and served (or could serve) a successful supportive role in a live talk, augmenting the presenter’s narrative and helping to make things clear.
Your slides should be engaging and “part of the show,” but they must also be easy to understand quickly. If you need to explain something quite complex, then build (animate) the parts of your chart or diagram in steps in a way that is logical and clear. Simplicity, restraint, and harmony are important considerations when designing slides or other multimedia. The goal is not to make slides “look good.