2. Design Guidelines Guidelines to help avoid common presentation mistakes

3. 5/2/2015Hale - Huff - Patience 2 Design Guidelines Simplicity is your friend Lots of white Organized Path for the eye Rule of seven Color and contrast Typography Content

4. 5/2/2015Hale - Huff - Patience 3 Simplicity is your friend `Content `Content is center stage  Draw  Draw attention to presentation, not special effects  Text  Graphics  Sound  Background iColorsiColorsiColorsiColors eConsistency eConsistency - slides, bullets, fonts

5. 5/2/2015Hale - Huff - Patience 4 Simplicity Is Your Friend Content (and speaker) is center stage Draw attention to presentation, not special effects – Text, graphics and background – Sound Colors Consistency - slides, bullets, fonts

6. 5/2/2015Hale - Huff - Patience 5 Lots of White Space Too much filler will overwhelm the viewer Makes your eyes tired – You won’t bother to read it If you have a lot of information to share in a slide, consider either using PowerPoint to display the point and you discuss it, or break things up in to several slides You need a place for the viewer to focus on as you discuss a point - otherwise, he or she could just read it themselves...

7. 5/2/2015Hale - Huff - Patience 6 Lots of White Don’t want to overwhelm audience Place for focus Keep things short Break up into several slides

8. 5/2/2015Hale - Huff - Patience 7 Organized Audience feels movement to a conclusion Easy to see progress Pace of slides (rehearse) Too fast, exhausts them Too slow, put them to sleep

9. 5/2/2015Hale - Huff - Patience 8 Path for the Eye Oh, boy, another class… Confusing PowerPoint Presentation I survived …  This versus This (nothing dominant)  class… Oh, boy, another I feel so informed!

10. 5/2/2015Hale - Huff - Patience 9 Rule of Seven Thou shall not use more than SEVEN lines Thou shall not use more than SEVEN words per line

11. 5/2/2015Hale - Huff - Patience 10 Color Green Green Growth and movement Blue Blue Calm Red Red Power, energy, danger One to three colors is PLENTY Yellow Yellow Positive Purple Purple Spiritual Brown Brown Neutral

12. 5/2/2015Hale - Huff - Patience 11 … And Contrast Light background Black Red Orange Green Blue Purple Yellow White Yellow Orange Green Red Blue Purple Dark background

13. 5/2/2015Hale - Huff - Patience 12 Colors for Presenting Dark Room – dark background Light Room – light background 35 mm slides – dark background Overheads – light background Handouts – light background This one has a dark background to show the difference…

14. 5/2/2015Hale - Huff - Patience 13 Colors for Presenting Dark Room – dark background Light Room – light background 35 mm slides – dark background Overheads – light background Handouts – light background This one has a light background to show the difference…

15. Colors for Presenting Maintain a consistent color scheme throughout the presentation Be conservative Too many colors only confuse, distract, and “cheapen” the presentation Contrast between background and foreground Lettering is more important 5/2/2015Hale - Huff - Patience 14

16. Colors for Presenting Keep background simple Consider the people who have major problems Green and reds should not be placed adjacent to each other Example: Do not use green background with red lettering or place green beside red on a pie chart 5/2/2015Hale - Huff - Patience 15

17. 5/2/2015Hale - Huff - Patience 16 Typography - Font (44 pt) Smallest font 28-30 points (32 pt) Large for emphasis: Titles Simple fonts - Arial, times Avoid script Limit: 1 or 2 fonts No more than 3 sizes

18. 5/2/2015Hale - Huff - Patience 17 Typography - Style Don’t hyphen- ate Errors: check, recheck, someone proof Avoid italics – least likely to be read

19. 5/2/2015Hale - Huff - Patience 18 Typography - UPPER CASE DON’T USE ALL CAPITALS FOR LARGE BLOCKS OF TEXT. READERS READ FASTEST WHEN SENTENCES ARE PRINTED IN UPPER AND LOWER CASE - THE WAY THEY NORMALLY ARE SEEN IN PRINT. HEADLINES ARE IN ALL CAPS BECAUSE IT REQUIRES THE READER TO SLOW DOWN, GIVING EMPHASIS TO A FEW WORDS.

20. 5/2/2015Hale - Huff - Patience 19 Typography - Title Case Don’t Use All Caps for Large Blocks of Text. Readers Read Fastest When Sentences Are Printed in Upper and Lower Case - The Way They Normally Are Seen in Print. Headlines Are in All Caps Because It Requires the Reader to Slow Down, Giving Emphasis to a Few Words.

21. 5/2/2015Hale - Huff - Patience 20 Typography - Sentence Case Don’t use all caps Readers read fastest when Sentences are upper and lower case The way they normally are seen in print Headlines are in all caps It requires the reader to slow down

22. 5/2/2015Hale - Huff - Patience 21 Content Only the essence Few words Items in order No extraneous data you’ll ignore Relate graphics to content

23. Text Avoid long line of text Avoid too many lines of text Use phrases instead of complete sentences Avoid small text Remember the 6 x 6 rule No more than 6 lines, no more than 6 words per slide (bulleted items) 5/2/2015Hale - Huff - Patience 22

24. Bulleted Text Do not use a single bullet on one slide or use more than five bullets per slide Do not use more than two levels of bullets Use consistent wording 5/2/2015Hale - Huff - Patience 23

25. Clipart Use clipart that relates to the content and does not distract from the message Avoid temptation to “jazz up” a slide show with TOO much clipart 5/2/2015Hale - Huff - Patience 24

26. Charts Keep charts simple Pie charts with three or four slices and column charts with three or four columns Only use charts if they enhance your slideshow 5/2/2015Hale - Huff - Patience 25

27. Special Effects Transitions and special effects should be used sparingly Be sure to practice the presentation and if you find yourself waiting on things to appear, take out the transitions and special effects 5/2/2015Hale - Huff - Patience 26

28. Final Slide Final slide should provide a conclusion, summary or recommendation Show be obvious that it is your ending slide No put “The End” on the final slide Provide some form of handout so your audience can keep track of the presentation 5/2/2015Hale - Huff - Patience 27

29. 5/2/2015Hale - Huff - Patience 28 Design Summary Less is more! Anecdote from Presentations Magazine