PresentationsGood and Bad Design Principles

(Date)Amresh Torul

Outline

1. Outline page2. Slide structure3. Fonts4. Backgrounds5. Graphs6. Hyperlinks7. Spelling and Grammar8. Conclusion page9. Questions

Include an Outline Page

What to expect

Respect the order

Main points only

Slide Structure – Good

Point form (2 to 4 points) Key words and phrases only

Slide Structure - Bad

This page contains too many words for a presentation slide. It is not written in point form, making it difficult both for your audience to read and for you to present each point. Although there are exactly the same number of points on this slide as the previous one, it looks much more complicated. In short, your audience will spend too much time trying to read this paragraph instead of listening to you.

Animations - Good

Show one point at a time:

Better concentration

Prevent audience from reading ahead

Presentation more focused.

Animations - Bad

Distracting animation

Going overboard with animation

Inconsistent (too many different styles).

Fonts - Good

At least 18-point, if not 20-point

Different size for main points (28pt) and secondary points (24pt)

Standard fonts.

Can you all read what’s written here? (14-point)

CAPITALIZE ONLY WHEN NECESSARY. IT IS DIFFICULT AND IRRITATING TO READ.

Fonts - Bad

Font Colour - Good

Contrast with background

Different colours Improve slide logic (e.g. title and body) Emphasise on a word

Font Colour - Bad

Limited constrast: hard to read Decoration can be distracting and annoying Using a different colour for each point is

unnecessary Using a different colour for secondary points is also

unnecessary Trying to be creative can also be bad.

Background - Good

Simple

Light backgrounds are better

Consistent.

Background – Bad

Avoid backgrounds that are distracting or difficult to read from

Background – Bad

Lack of background consistency

Graphs

Helpful with tabular data

Profits from January to June (Million – US $)

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun

45 56 45 34 23 12

Graphs - Good

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun

Profits from January to June

Million

(US $)

Using Graphs

Easier to understand data

Comparisons

Demonstrate predictions

Graphs - Bad

Minor gridlines (unnecessary)Font is too smallNo title

Hyperlinks

Avoid pasting web links and URLshttp://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/football/

manchester-united/

Man Utd blog

Use Action Buttons instead

Spelling and Grammar

Check your slides for:

speling mistakes

the use of of repeated words

grammatical errors you might have make

Conclusion

Conclusion slide: Summarise main points

Additional information

Effective and strong

Questions

Simple question slide: Invite your audience Be polite

Thank you