10 Tips for Designing Effective Presentation Visuals
Scott Heimes, Presentations magazine, September 1997
Visuals are an essential part of every presentation. They can add interest and excitement to your presentation and most importantly they’re your key tools for helping the audience remember your message. Ray Anthony, author of Talking to the Top: Executive’s Guide to Career-Making Presentations (1995, Prentice Hall), offers the following 10 tips for designing presentation visuals: 1. Design each visual to make one major point or theme. The dominant idea or concept should jump out at the audience immediately, followed by bulleted summary information to support it. 2. Keep your visual simple, neat and uncluttered. Make sure it isn’t complex or busy. Don’t squeeze all the text or graphics into a small area in the center. Spread your elements out and make everything as large as possible for quick, easy viewing. 3. Limit the number of words and use large, bold letters. Use fewer than 45 words on each visual. A good guideline for text-based visuals is six to eight words per line and no more than five to seven lines per visual. Use only one font and use upper- and lower-case letters. Sans serif faces such as Helvetica or Futura are more readable when projected than are serif faces such as Times New Roman. Edit out words you don’t need until each statement is as concise and to-the-point as possible. 4. Diligently copyedit and proofread. Be consistent when it comes to noun phrases or verb phrases, and tense for text lines and title. Check spelling and use consistent punctuation. Verify accuracy of people and organizations. According to Tom Mucciolo of MediaNet, a presentation skills consulting firm, you should avoid using a period at the end of bullet points except in the case of a quoted statement. Double-check your data. Typos, misspellings and factual errors destroy your credibility as an expert in the minds of the audience. 5. Write titles that read like headlines. Each visual title should shout out a specific idea or point, grab attention and titillate interest. “Quality in Plant #2” is informative, but “Quality Rises Dramatically at Plant #2” is both informative and dynamic. 6. Highlight key words and graphics. Use a different color, size or text effect (bold, italics) to draw attention to key words or ideas. But use them only for special emphasis. Mixing too many type faces, such as italic and bold and various fonts, creates excessive contrast and slows reading. Other techniques for drawing attention to key ideas include using arrows, asterisks or enclosing words or graphics in geometric shapes. 7. Don’t mix horizontal and vertical formats. Stick with one or the other. A horizontal format is preferred because it appears larger and conforms to the TV and movie images we’re all used to. (Projection screens and LCD projectors are also oriented horizontally.)
10 Tips for Designing Effective Presentation Visuals
10 Tips for Designing Effective Presentation Visuals (cont.)
8. Avoid stark contrast. When you switch between starkly different design elements (colors, size or style) or content messages (between a deathly serious slide and a humorous one, for example) you give the audience mixed messages. Focus on being consistent in all areas of your presentation. 9. Use colors sparingly. Although color is effective for drawing attention to key points, don’t overdo it. Never use more than three colors on one visual, and consider using the same three throughout your presentation for consistency. Use colors to contrast, highlight and differentiate categories, separate groups of data or call attention to a key point. In general, light-colored text against a dark background is easier to read from a distance than dark text on a light background. 10. Don’t “overdesign.” Today’s presentation software programs provide you with an endless array of design options. Consider using the pre-designed templates these programs offer, and avoid radically changing backgrounds, colors, fonts and borders unless you’re customizing your presentation to your audience. When you’re designing your visuals, remember that elegant, simple design is always more effective than jarring, flashy design.
10 Tips for Designing Effective Presentation Visuals