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WRITTEN BY JOSHUA JOHNSON, PUBLISHED ON 3RD SEPTEMBER 2010. FILED IN GRAPHICS.
Powerpoint has produced more bad design in its day that perhaps any other digital tool in history with the possible exception of Microsoft paint. In this post were going to address the epidemic of bad presentation design with ten super practical tips for designer better looking and more professional presentations. Along the way well see a number of awesome slide designs from Note & Point along with some custom examples built by yours truly. Lets get started!
Not a Designer?
Most of the content on this site is targeted specifically towards professional designers and developers, or at the very least those interested in getting started in this field. This post however, is for everyone that has ever created a presentation. Whether youre a student, the leader of a self -help group, or a corporate executive pulling in six figures, the second you open up Powerpoint or Keynote, you become a designer whether you like it or not. Youve chosen a visual tool to communicate and should therefore take the time to learn a thing or two about visual communications. One of the major reasons for
this, especially for people in the professional business world, is that your colleagues will subconsciously make judgements about you based on the visual appeal of your presentation. Follow the ten tips below and see if you dont start getting comments about your awesome presentation design skills. Just watch out, if your co-workers notice you getting good at it theyre likely to start asking for to help with theirs!
Heres a design secret, this slide sucks; as do many of the default themes youll find in Powerpoint. Granted, theyve definitely improved the offering in recent years and Keynote (Apples presentation software) has some awesome templates, but you shouldnt view these as the go-to method but rather a last resort if you need to create a presentation in record time. The point here is that something custom makes a much stronger statement. Your colleagues know and use the templates in Powerpoint and theyll recognize immediately that you didnt put any work into the aesthetics of the slides. I know for non-designers leaving behind templates may seem a bit radical, but you can do it! Just be sure to read the other tips below before striking out on your own.
Otherwise you might end up with something much worse that even the Microsoft designers could come up with (and thats saying something).
As an example, compare the slide above with the one below. See the difference? The image in the slide below is unique, attractive, and void of cliches. Dont get stuck in a pattern of using cheesy stock art when you can nab free high quality photos that make a much stronger visual statement.
As an example, the photo above is from Lauren Tucker, and is a Flickr Creative Commons item.
The slide above is a perfect example of using very plain design and little effort to create something that actually looks really nice. Whether youre a designer or not, you could make this right? The key here is to be very cautious about your color choice. Something too bright bright and fun will blow the audiences eyes out. Also make sure to use plenty of contrast in your secondary color. A crash course in color theory will go a long way. If you need help building color palettes, check out the free tools below.
Kuler
Kuler is the quintessential online color tool. Choose from thousands of awesome pre-built color schemes or generate your own with advanced but user-friendly tools.
Piknik
Piknik is one of the most basic color tools on the planet and definitely one of my favorites. Simply move your mouse around to change the color, scroll to change the luminosity and click to copy the values to your clipboard. I use this daily when building websites to get a feel for what a color will look like when it covers the whole screen, which makes it perfect for presentation slides as well.
0to255
0to255 is another one of my favorites and is an amazing tool for finding variations of a color. This makes it perfect for hovers and borders in web design but it can also be great for finding an accent color for typography or other elements in a presentation.
Remember that typefaces can communicate a mood, a point in time, or any number of other factors. Instead of browsing your font list and looking for something cool, instead think about the message you want to convey. Consider the fonts below as an example of how typography can communicate just by virtue of its design. Old style serif fonts tend to fee formal and professional while sans-serif fonts feel modern and clean.
The biggest mistake that people make with fonts in presentations is assuming that the first three font styles listed above are boring. This causes them to jump to something like the font on the bottom because it feels more unique and interesting. If youre not a professional designer, remember that the first three styles above arent boring, theyre safe. Theyre great looking typefaces that have been professionally designed to make you look good and thats exactly what they do. Never be afraid of standard-looking fonts. Using them can help ensure that your design remains inside the realm of clean and professional and away from cluttered and ugly. Notice how the slide below uses relatively boring fonts but varies the size and weight to add visual interest and create something that is ultimately quite non-boring.
As the image above illustrates, one great trick for using crazy fonts is to only implement them in a headline while leaving the rest of the text plain. When you have too much of a complicated font or start mixing complex styles, what you get is an impossible to read mess. Above weve left most of our messaging in a typeface that you can actually read while still bringing plenty of awesomeness to the page with the headline.
Here we have a really captivating image, but its wreaking havoc on the readability of our text. Even if we make the text bold and try different color variations, it still comes up short. This can be immensely frustrating to new designers. The solution however is quite simple: use tip #3 (solid colors rock). By creating a simple color bar behind the text we increase the readability by leaps and bounds and still maintain a stylish looking slide.
This is an extremely common tactic carried out in a number of different ways. Check out the examples below for some inspiration.
Skinny Bar
Fat Bar
Paper Scraps
#6 Simpler is Better
This is a major stumbling block for non-designers. The problem stems from a basic misunderstanding of what a presentation slide should be. In most cases, the slide should not be the ultimate source of content and information. Instead, the speaker is what makes the presentation valuable. The speaker should provide the vast majority of the content, information, insight, bad jokes, etc. After all, if the presentation slides contain all the information begin conveyed, then why would the audience even need a speaker? You could just provide everyone with a download link and bid them a good day. Ive seen far too many people give presentations with slides that look like the one below:
You might think Im being facetious with my design but trust me Ive seen slides that were far worse. Presentation slides are not to be confused with magazines. You cant cram this much content onto a slide without completely losing the functionality. Even if you organize all of the information nicely and create a beautiful slide, youve still missed the mark. Again, remember that your speech is the reason youre up in front of people. The presentation should serve as a drastically simplified visual aid that, when flipped through, would present a rough outline of your speech.
Use your slides to grab and hold the audiences attention through attractive visuals. People get bored easily listening to speeches and having something pretty to look at helps us focus. Keeping your slide contents simple also discourages you from simply reading your speech from the slide. Its a cliche example but I have in fact seen multiple presenters place every word of their speech on the slide and then simply read it off. As boring as normal speeches are, hearing someone read to you for twenty minutes is even worse! Notice how the slide below pulls you in with an incomplete statement. The graphic no doubt reinforces the answer but we wont know unless we actually listen to the speech to see what the answer is! This is an excellent example of using a slide as a visual aid that strengthens your presentation rather than serving as a giant printout of your speech.
The problem is that, like any good tool, bullet points can be abused. Presenters often get carried away and begin to repeat the mistakes of the previous tip only in bullet form. Placing forty-two points on a single slide is exactly like using multiple paragraphs; doing so kills the usefulness of the slide. Remember that bullet points are supposed to convey the important information. To do that effectively you must actually make a decision on what you think is important vs. what should just be left to the speech. Check out how the slide below uses three bullet points to convey factual statistics. Numbers are particularly hard to take in and remember unless you see it written down so using these as bullet points is a great place to start.
Keep it simple and remember that even the bullets dont have to be self-explanatory. Again, thats what youre there for.
With text you can use color, size, typeface style or boldness to create clear focal points. Keep in mind that its a good idea to have one primary focal point (like the word share above) followed up by one or two secondary focal points that arent quite as strong. Note that text isnt the only way to create strong focal points. Photographs and illustrations are also great ways to bring the viewers attention to a given area. Notice how the childs eyes in the slide below really catch your attention and then gradually bring you down the headline as you move on.
For more information on designing with faces, check out our complete guide. Ultimately, remember that the lack of clear focal points can cause a viewer to quickly lose interest. When something is designed well it gives people a clear idea of where you want them to look, even if only on a subconscious level.
Creating an attractive cover also provides you with the start of a visual theme that you can carry on throughout the rest of the presentation. This helps the presentation seem cohesive and professionally done rather than the random and scattered feel of seeing a completely different design on every slide. As an example, check out the beautiful cover design above by Fabio Sasso at Abduzeedo and then look at the sample content slide below to see how he applies this dirty grunge theme to the rest of the presentation.
Its often a good idea to design a cover along with a few different blank content slides that you can use throughout the entire presentation. You can then carry out a unified design and save yourself a lot of design work by having two to three blanks to pull from. If youre not a designer, then it can be intimidating to try to create a beautiful cover. In these circumstances, refer to tips #2 and #4 from part one and let professional photography in conjunction with simple typography handle all the work for you.
Remember that your goal doesnt have to be audible laughter from the entire room. Even the occasional smile from a few audience members goes a long way because it shows that theyre actually paying attention! My best advice in this area is to try not to pour the humor on too thick. The audience will notice if you seem to be trying too hard. Find the most boring or complicated parts of your speech and break them up with a funny slide or two. Be sure to always consider your audience carefully when deciding what sort of humor is appropriate. Offending the audience is far worse than boring them. If you find that youre not a particularly clever person with either pictures or words, try inserting a simple comic that illustrates your point effectively. Just make sure the comic is a quick, near instant read and not something with lots of dialog spread across four panels.
Again, notice how the example above is effective in setting a lighthearted tone to the presentation even though it is unlikely to actually make anyone actually burst into laughter.
Conclusion
To sum up, lets take a quick look at all ten tips for designing presentations that dont suck from both articles.
1. Dont Use a Built-In Theme 2. Use Quality Photography 3. Solid Colors Rock 4. Typography Speaks Volumes 5. Watch Your Readability 6. Simpler is Better 7. Avoid the Bullet Point Plague 8. Create Clear Focal Points 9. Create a Captivating Cover 10. Make em Laugh
I hope youve found these tips practical and easily implementable. Ultimately the goal here was to show you that you dont necessarily have to be a professional designer to create great looking and effective presentations. Leave a comment below if you want to join the discussion and share your own tips and tricks for better slide design.