Presentation graphics are the visualization of information and ideas Presentation graphics are the visualization of information and ideas. This show will give you some guidelines on some graphics dos and don’ts to keep in mind as you prepare your visuals.

Why should you worry about Poor Design in your visuals Why should you worry about Poor Design in your visuals? Have you ever been to a presentation where the presenter apologized for his slides? What did you think? When I hear people apologize for their slides, I try to figure out WHY they are apologizing and don’t really listen to the speaker. If you have to apologize, even to yourself, for a poorly designed visual, don’t use it.  

When you have too much going on on your visual, your audience will be trying to figure out what is being shown, rather than listening to you and your information. With all the clipart and sounds and fonts and colors that current presentation software packages provide for you to use in a show, it is very easy to have graphic overload. Don’t wow your audience so much by the graphics and animation that they don’t hear what you are saying.  

Here are some general goals of a visual for presentation Here are some general goals of a visual for presentation. The text must be readable and the audience must be able to comprehend the information easily. The visual should be kept as simple as possible. Complex visuals decrease readability and increase confusion. Think of your visuals as your billboards of information. Billboards generally have 2-7 words and one simple graphic. Keep your slides like that and your audience won’t have trouble deciphering the information. Also, keep your visuals consistent. Use the same colors for backgrounds, titles, bars on graph for same item, same location of title, etc. This helps your audience to learn how to read your slides and read them faster.  

The number one thing people do wrong when they create visuals is have too much information on a single slide. Don’t put up whole sentences or paragraphs of text. When you do this, your audience will be reading the slides and not listening to what you are saying.  

You should have no more than 25 words per slide You should have no more than 25 words per slide. If your visual contains more than one main point, separate it into more than one slide. Fewer words makes simpler graphics which makes it easier for your audience to understand what the visual is portraying. Remember your slide is your billboard. Also if you have very few words on your visuals, you won’t be tempted to READ your slides to your audience.  

Most visuals used in presentations are text slides Most visuals used in presentations are text slides. Text must be easy to read. With all the fonts available, it is tempting to decorate your visuals using different fonts. Avoid this and use only 2-3 fonts per presentation. Use fonts that are bold and blocky without thin lines or serifs on them such as Helvetica or Arial . Use bulleted lists for your punctuation and don’t hyphenate words. If you have to use periods and colons, you have too many words on your slide. Don’t underline your text .

When you decide on the size of the font for your presentation, keep in mind those who sit in the back of the room and those who may not see all that well. The size of your font is very important in the readability of your information. If your font is too small, people won’t be able to read it. If you have to decrease the font size to fit everything on the slide, you have too many words.  

These are some general guidelines on font sizes to use These are some general guidelines on font sizes to use. Never use a font size smaller than 24 point. And since screen shows have lower resolution than 35mm slides, you need to keep the font a bit larger. Video has even lower resolution than screen shows so the minimum font size for TV is 32 point.

Use upper and lower case lettering. Don’t use all capital letters Use upper and lower case lettering. Don’t use all capital letters. We’re not used to reading text that is all capitals so it take us longer and is more frustrating. When we read, we scan words and read by what shape they are. When you have all upper case lettering, there is no shape change between words so we cannot scan as fast. With upper and lower case, we have shape changes and can read the text faster and easier. To emphasize something, change colors, type, size and weight to distinguish information rather than using all upper case lettering.  

Proofread your visuals Proofread your visuals. And then have someone else check your spelling and grammar.

Avoid bullets that are too thin, big, or small and don’t place them too close or too far away from your text.

Drop shadows help pop the text and graphics up from the background and make your information more readable. Drop shadows should always be a darker color than the background.

Here is an example of text with and without drop shadows Here is an example of text with and without drop shadows. You can see how the one with the drop shadow is more crisp and clearer than the one without. Drop shadows help readability and legibility.

Make sure the drop shadow is darker than the background so it doesn’t create an optical illusion. I usually use black as my drop shadow color.

What colors should you use on presentation graphics What colors should you use on presentation graphics. For backgrounds stay with the cool colors as they recede away from your eyes. Dark greens, grays, blues, purples and blacks are good choices for background colors. For text and graphics, you want to use warm colors as they tend to come toward your eye. Warm colors will be the first thing your eye sees when you first see a visual. Warm colors include white, light reds, yellows and oranges.

Be careful which colors you use together Be careful which colors you use together. You don’t want your visuals to scream at your audience with the colors. Too many colors can confuse the message. Also be careful which colors you use next to each other as some colors vibrate against each other and create a fuzzy look which will decrease the readability of your slides.

Don’t use blue and black together unless the blue is a very light bright blue. Blue on black looks fuzzy and is hard to see.

7-9 % of the male population and 1-2 % of the female population can’t see the difference between green and red and are considered to have a red/green color blindness. Those with this type of colorblindness see red and green exactly the same and would see the top box with no text. Those without this colorblindness will be able to see the red text in the green box as in the bottom example. You can use red and green on the same slide, just don’t place them on top of each other or very close to each other.

With computers today, we have the possibility of having over a million colors. So instead of underlining or bolding text, use a different color to create emphasis. Put the most important information in the brightest color so it will be seen first. When you underline text, it decreases readability as the descenders on the letters get chopped off. Sometimes bolding text doesn’t show very differently than regular text so use different colors.

Use graphs or charts or other visuals to portray your information…and use colors to differentiate the information so it is quickly understandable.

For basic design of your slides, keep the information in the top 2/3 of slide and in the brightest color. This is where people will look first so this is where you want your important information. Do not overcrowd the visual. Designers call the open space, white space. Leave plenty of this around your information as it helps your audience to see the information easier.

Keep your visuals in a horizontal orientation Keep your visuals in a horizontal orientation. With slide projection units, you are constrained to horizontal or landscape orientation. With 35mm slides you can have either but having vertical slides may result in your visual extending up and down off the screen. Also changing orientation from slide to slide is harder for your audience to read your information.

Use pictures, graphics, clipart, charts, and graphs in your visuals, but don’t over do it. Just because you have it doesn’t mean you should use it. Use images only if they are pertinent to your information and help to convey what you are trying to communicate.

Design your graphic for the intended output Design your graphic for the intended output. Things produced for a printed page are usually not suitable for presentations as the fonts and lines may be too small and too thin. Also a stark white box around your information is too bright for you audience to see suddenly after they have been viewing darker slides.

To make your visual look really nice and be totally readable, you may need to recreate the graphic or adjust it so it is readable in the medium you will be presenting in.

Data on a graph should be the very first thing that your audience will see when a visual like this is presented. Next should be the accompanying text and last should be the grid lines of the graph. Remember you are trying to communicate your information so make sure that is the most visible part of any visual you create.

Graphs can be animated to show one line at time similar to how bullet lists are animated. This visual shows the first line of this graph and the next visual shows the next line.

Here is the second animation of this graph with the second line added Here is the second animation of this graph with the second line added. This technique could help break up very complicated information into smaller parts to help make it more quickly understandable.

Pie charts should have 6 or fewer slices Pie charts should have 6 or fewer slices. If there are more than 6 slices to your pie, group all the smaller ones into a slice labeled misc or other. Labels should be next to or inside the slices, not in a legend. Labels should all be next to the slices or inside the slices, not mixed.

People retain 25% of what they see, 45% of what they see and hear, and 75% of what they see, hear and do. Poorly designed visuals can interfere with communication. So use good design for your presentations.