Good Design in PowerPoint

The Cain Project in Engineering and Professional Communication

ENGINEERING SERIES

Making Use of Design Elements

• Design elements allow reinforcement

• Strategic choices create interest

• Practice develops judgment

– Analyze what you like

– Borrow with what you like

– Use choices coherently

Your Design Options

• Templates

• Design rules

• Colors

• Fonts

• Effects and transitions

• Text

• Graphics

• Special effects

Choosing a Good Template

• What is the mood/image you want to convey?

• Very dark or very light backgrounds work well

• Simple backgrounds work well

To Choose an Existing Template

Select Design Template

Click OK

Step 1:

Select the one you want to use Hit “OK”Step 2:

To Choose an Existing Template

To Design Your Own Template

• Write down words to suggest the image you want your choices to convey– Such as “technical,” “professional,” “strong”

• Choose a background color appropriate for the room and lighting

• Choose a font and colors that – match your image choice – yield strong contrast and legibility

• Follow basic design rules

Palatino or Times New Roman suggests Financial BusinessAccents

Helvetica suggests Process IndustriesAccents

Futura suggests Environmental FirmsAccents

Typical Font and Color Combinations

Basic Design Rules

Rule 1: Use blank space to group or separate items

Rule 2: Use visual balance to please the eye

Rule 3: Create contrast to make objects stand out

Organize with Blank Space

• Blank Space: An empty area• Directs viewer’s eyes• “Pushes” or groups items and separates them from others

Identify groups of items separated by Blank Space in this Web Site

Use Contrast to Group, Emphasize

Contrast by font, color, or size

Contrast occurs when 2 elements are different

Engineering contrast should be functional, not decorative

Choose Colors for Legibility

Well-lit room use light background/ dark text and visuals

Dimly-lit room use dark background/ light text and visuals

Strong light reduces contrast on dark background

Avoid Vibrating Colors

Bright complementary colors that are close to each other in intensity

“vibrate” or reduce legibility

Learn Color Basics at Poynter!

http://www.poynterextra.org/cp/

Choose Easy-to-Read Fonts

Good for print

ESerif (“tail”)

Such as Times New Roman

Good for projecting

ESans Serif

(uniform shaft width)

Such as Arial

Font Aspects Affect Legibility

• Contrast between background and text

• Uniform shaft width

• Size of font

• Type treatment of font

S S32 pts Times Arial

Drop ShadowsDrop ShadowsReduce Legibility

Choose Effects to Support Points

• Avoid slow moving or fancy effects:

– Swivel– Spiral

• Effects should have a point / support your concept

• Don’t overuse special effects

– Crawl in

• Keep effects and transitions consistent

Use Text Properly

• Use keywords and phrases instead of sentences

• Avoid “orphans” – This is an example of an

“orphan”

• Be consistent in your capitalization• Use grammatical parallelism

Design to Match Audience Action

• Your audience...

– Skims each slide

– Looks for critical points, not details

– Needs help reading/seeing text

• So you . . .– Use only essential info

– Guide their eyes with hierarchy, color

– Use big. legible fonts and framing blank space

Displaying Text

Bullets

Short phrases

Grammatical parallelism

Bullets Help Audience

• Skim the slide• See relationships between information points• For example, this is Main Point 1, which

leads to...– Sub-point 1– Sub-point 2(To get back to previous level: use “promote” or “demote”

arrows at top)

To Use Bullets

• Select the “bulleted list” or “two-column list” slide (from the 12 pre-designed slide formats)

• Type a phrase then hit “return”

• Type a second phrase, hit “return” then hit “tab” to indent

• OR use “promote” or “demote” arrows at top to create a bulleted hierarchy

Matching Bullets to Your Image

• Go to “format” and then “bullet”

• Select the style, color, and size of the bullets you’ll use

• OR highlight text you wish to bullet and select the bullet button at top

Text Display Tips

• Use vivid, concise phrases or imperatives

• Write complete sentences only in certain cases:– Hypothesis– Questions

Use Parallelism

• Put similar ideas in similar forms– Same part of speech– Same type of clause or phrase– Complete sentences

• Reinforce with color, type treatment, place on screen

Use Parallelism Equivalence

Parallel:• Use keywords• Avoid wordiness• Opt for bullets

Not Parallel:• Use keywords• Wordiness is bad• You should opt

for bullets

Each verb expresses an action of equivalent importance.

List similar items in the same grammatical form.

VERBS

Revise for Grammatical Parallelism

• Not Parallel:Criteria to Assess Alarm System– Price– Effectiveness– How easily the alarm could be installed

• Parallel:Criteria to Assess Alarm System– Price– Effectiveness– Ease of installation

Parallelism: Your Turn

• Make the following list of sub-points parallel:

• Reliable data collection relies on– Consistent use of techniques (pipetting, making

solutions)– Correctly calibrated equipment, such as balances

and pipettors– Researcher bias is minimized (expecting data to fit

model; conflict of interest)

Displaying Visuals

• Insert needed visuals

• Use color

• Resize appropriately

• Draw attention That was purelygratuitous!

Resize Images: How to . . .

• Click on the visual you wish to resize• Go to “format” and then “object” or

“autoshape”• Select “size”• Change size and scale• OR simply click and

drag the corners of the image

Simplify and Draw Attention

http://www.indstate.edu/thcme/mwking/tca-cycle.html

Animating: Tips

• Custom animation allows you to animate text, visuals, or line work

• Custom animation should be used purposefully (and sparingly!)

– Animating should help audience comprehend your message

– Don’t animate solely for aesthetic purposes

Offer Familiar Images First

• Offer figure or image familiar to audience first

• Technical image next

• Water treatment example simplified for government officials

Give Technical Images Next

• Build toward technical understanding

• Sequence: Photo / diagram/ schematic/ cross-sections/other technical drawings

• Technical water treatment example

Present Images Realistically

Don’t distort images

Use Legible Graphics

• Don’t stretch Web images to the point of graininess

• Don’t shrink them to be too small to read

Avoid Overused, General Clip-Art

Make Choices Work Together

• Blank space and balanced items create meaningful organization

• Color, contrast, and point size indicate importance and direct viewers’ attention

• Text reinforces speaker’s voice but should not overload or distract

• Special effects and images indicate relationships and emphasize aspects

Rehearse with a Coach

• To evaluate how well your visual choices work with your spoken presentation

• To make sure images are legible

• To test visual aids under expected room conditions

More resources are available for you

• under “Engineering Communication” at Connexions at http://cnx.org

• at the Cain Project site at http://www.owlnet.rice.edu/~cainproj

• in your course Communication Folder in OWLSPACE.

Lead through Excellence in Engineering Communication