What is well designed? I. Advice you often see Backgrounds Projecting? Use a dark background with little variation Printing? Use a light or.

What is well designed?

I. Advice you often see

BackgroundsProjecting?

Use a dark background with little variation

Printing? Use a light or white background to save ink

Showing on a computer screen? Can use multicolored background, but

check background-text contrast

Colors Contrasting

Complimentary

Function consistently across slides

Show Personality

Pictures Expected by most viewers

Contribute to the point of the slide

Shouldn’t overwhelm or obscure the text

Should be used consistently through presentation

Animations Fit the slide’s point

Don’t overwhelm the slide’s point

Transitional animations Used to make points clear

Consistently done inside a slide

Coherently done across slides

II. Advice you don’t often see

What’s missing from such advice?

Recognition that Audience, Purpose, and Function are key to a presentation’s success -- e.g., This bullet is “DUMB” from a design standpoint. Can

it ever be appropriate?

Tons of text -- like you find on this slide -- is “TABOO” in most presentation tips sheets. Can you think of when such an approach fits your audience’s needs?

What’s missing from such advice? Recognition that your presentation

design creates an image of you Suppose you are an avid boater (see wheel) or a

person who identifies as a caring person (see heart). Those stylized bullets could be important to your IMAGE

Of course, using BOTH (as we do here) confuses the message of the image, so you need to be careful to make the image SINGULAR and CONSISTENT

You also need to be sure that everyone understands the symbol as you do. What if we read the wheel as “Captain Hook” or the heart as “Red Hot Lover”?

What’s missing from such advice?

Recognition that you might be talking to a group that is “turned off” by corporate look

Can you make the same type of presentation to a gaming company that you make to your marketing professor?

Would you pitch a movie the same way to Kevin Smith as to Steven Spielberg?

III. Building your own sense of “what fits”

Use design principles that make sense

Contrast:

Repetition:

Alignment:

Proximity:

avoid differences that are similar (if elements -- type,color, size, line weight, texture, space, etc. -- are different, make them very different)

repeat visual elements to develop coherence

avoid arbitrary placements on slide (e.g., maintain meaningful hierarchies and minimize margins)

group related items close to one another

See Robin Williams’ Non-designers’ design book

Break design rules when demanded

Audience:

Purpose &

Function:

Image:

Assess your audience’s needs and potential responses to design, and put those needs first

Keep your audience focused on what you want them to do or think after the presentation

Design to reinforce your image -- conservative (stay close to design principles) to edgy (keep a few but break them in interesting ways)

What is well designed?