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

Step 1:
Select Design Template

Click OK

To Choose an Existing Template

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

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 Business Accents

Helvetica suggests Process Industries

Accents

Futura suggests Environmental Firms

Accents

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

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

Blank Space: An empty area Directs viewers eyes Pushes or groups items and separates them from others

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 Good for projecting

E
Serif (tail)
Such as Times New Roman

E
Sans 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

32 pts Times Arial

Drop Shadows Reduce Legibility

Choose Effects to Support Points

Avoid slow moving or fancy effects: Crawl in Swivel Spiral Effects should have a point / support your concept Dont overuse special effects 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 youll 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
Parallel: Use keywords Avoid wordiness Opt for bullets
VERBS

Equivalence
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.

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 purely gratuitous!

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 Dont 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

Dont distort images

Use Legible Graphics

Dont stretch Web images to the point of graininess Dont 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 speakers 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

Lead through Excellence in Engineering Communication

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.