A slide presentation should assist the speaker in making a point. A good design includes
  • A clean, consistent, and bold design
  • Good color choices
  • Slides that are easy to read

Design Tips for Great Slides

Some general things to keep in mind
  • Be consistent
  • Keep it simple
  • Make it bold
  • Use a horizontal page setup unless there's a good reason for doing otherwise
  • Choose a few design elements to use and stick with them
  • Style your text, then repeat those styles throughout
  • Make sure your design elements are simple and not detracting
  • Information needs to be packaged in small units
  • Keep the colors few and simple
  • Font size no smaller than 14 pt
  • Line weight should be heavier than for printed matter
  • Colors should be bold rather than pastel

Choose Your Colors Carefully

Be thoughtful about the use of color--you want it to enhance, not compete with your message.
  • Use high contrast between foreground and background
  • Light on dark works better than dark on light, and is easier on the eyes
  • Be careful with the color red -- it's intense and we respond to it
  • Red is good as an accent color
  • As a background color, red is too strong
  • Red on blue or green vibrates
Choose a simple color scheme.

Readability--Read It and Don't Weep

 
 

Make your slides readable by using a small amount of text in an easy-to-read font.
The arm's length rule deals with the size of your text. If you can read a slide when held at arm's length, your audience will be able to read it when it's projected. Problem: the slides must be in hand to apply this rule.
Limit the amount of information on a slide. The 7x7 rule states: No more than 7 lines of text per slide and no more than 7 words per line.
Be careful when choosing your fonts. A font for the heads or titles; a font for the text. If you choose another, you better have a good reason.
All caps are ok for short heads. All caps are bigger and bolder, but if your heads are long or if they include Latin names, use caps and lower case.

 
 

Other Tips

 
 

  • Images (photos, illustrations, maps, and graphs) help a listener focus, comprehend, and remember the info presented
  • Key words improve comprehension and, if repeated, help the audience retain the information
  • Include enough slides to have a couple of slides per minute. Leaving a slide on too long can make your audience feel restless. The flip-side is having too many slides. This makes your audience feel they can't absorb the information presented because there's just too much.
  • A consistent and bold design
  • A simple color scheme--light on dark
  • A small amount of bold text

If you have any questions about this seminar, please contact Gretchen Bracher.

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