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What Is Good PowerPoint Design (w/pics)

presentationzen.blogs.com — A great explanation of how to design better PowerPoint presentations that get the point across.

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  • RedGiant, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Good read. I've always needed help, and feel my audience is lost whenever I do a PowerPoint.
    • kgtech, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I'm happy to see a site like this, it needs to be printed out and given to every professor that teaches with power point. It should be given to every student that uses powerpoint, and probably should be given out as a manual for power point.
  • ScottTaylor, on 10/12/2007, -21/+4Thanks great read and brilliant for a presenter... :)

    --
    http://www.diggfans.com - Digg Community Forums
  • SouthernDigger, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8what about graphics and sounds? Nothing screams professionalism like a screeching car crash sound effect while text flys across the screen :) jk. Good tips though, I know a lot of people that could benifit from reading that article.
    • lobbster, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6some kid had people clapping as a picture of a ww1 gas victim flew accross the screen, you should have seen the look on the veterans faces
      ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

      a good read hopefulff this will help my in my presentation
    • t3hX, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Yeah. Or the "Laser" sound effect being used with text being shot onto the screen, letter by letter...

      Or red text being used on a green background, excessive use of wordart, stupid clipart etc...
    • elnerdo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Reminds me of our fourth grade hyperstudio projects. I remember every single person's slideshow was completely filled with meaningless noises, animations, and either a slide had NO information or it had a HUGE paragraph of information.

      Those were the days.

      Actually, now that I think of it, everybody's was like that in eigth grade, too!
  • Minidisc, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Good read. I'm tired of cluttered PowerPoint slides with presenters just reading straight off them. It takes away from the presentation and doesn't portray confidence in the knowledge of the material that they are presenting. Although I have once been at the stage where I bombard my audience with music, slide transition affects, stretched images as backgrounds, etc... I think my PowerPoint techniques have improved greatly since then.
  • rm999, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I think the most professional powerpoint presentations have simple or no transitions, no sound (unless theres video), very simple backgrounds that don't distract, and very little text (it should be enough to help you keep your talk on track, not enough to give your audience your entire point). I think that last one is the most important powerpoint advice and the one most often not followed.

    The powerpoint is there to supplement your talk/presentation, not replace it.
  • FilCab, on 10/12/2007, -5/+3Isn't it an oxymoron? Good Powerpoint designs?

    You should use LaTex Beamer... Now those presentations are clean, elegant, and beautiful.
    • Xiol, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I've dabbled around in LaTeX before, but trying to use Beamer just confused the hell out of me.

      It's not for beginners.
    • elnerdo, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Just because it's made by Microsoft doesn't mean it's bad. You need to get over your bias. Powerpoint is a fine slideshow program. It's easy for beginners to learn, and there are plenty of advanced concepts in it to make it good for experts, as well.
    • aaronm67, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1whoops
  • mr_england, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7I just moved to mac and i think that Keynote is much better than its microsoft counterpart with its transitions and ability to export to flash movie etc. Plus it just looks plain cooler really
    • t3hX, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7I do have to agree with that - Keynote is awesome. Stuff like dragging objects around the slide, live - the next version of office is supposed to get that. Or having an object snap, with guidelines, to be inline with another. Or to be able to crop / mask a picture to a funny shape. Still, you can make awful keynote presentations...

      Anyone who hasn't used it seriously doesn't know what they are missing.
    • fizzeh, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Keynote is amazing. I swear last time I gave a presentation with keynote, the people were looking at the transitions more than the content (maybe not to great for getting my point across in the presentation). The group of people watching asked me to repeat several transitions (and I then learned that when you go back a slide, it automatically does the inverse of a transition).

      Also, at first I did not know about presenter tools for Keynote, which is possibly the best Power Point feature (if you have a dual-monitor support). This allows you to give yourself notes on your monitor and display the slides on the large monitor or projector. Then when I learned how to do this with Keynote (and in fact it looks better on keynote when you do this), PP lost hands down!
    • elnerdo, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2Last time I made a slideshow on a Mac, I was using Hyperstudio, and I'll have you know: Hyperstudio SUCKS.
    • dankow, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1Interestingly enough, it looks like the "good" examples from this article were made using Keynote, while the "bad" examples were made in PowerPoint. I'm no font expert, but the font in the good slides looks a lot like Keynote's default font, and the gray gradient is definitely a Keynote theme.
    • aaronm67, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1changing fonts isn't hard in powerpoint, and a grey gradient could be made very quickly and set as the background. it would be nearly impossible to tell what program the slides were made in just by looking at a screenshot of the slide. Or, if all of them were made in Keynote, it would be fairly easy to import the powerpoint backgrounds, etc.
  • ThomasCS, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3The principle is sound, but I was disappointed that the article didn't really advance beyond "Simple is usually good. Also, remember context is important".

    The slides the author used were excellent, but I think for most people using digg the problem will be "how much time am I willing to spend finding relevant artwork and making the template?".

    In a presentation I just did, I realised that it's quite a substantial problem to create an attractive template, mainly because I wasn't really prepared to create one from scratch. In the end, I gave in and decided to do it in photoshop, but if the toss up was between creating a template and spending extra time preparing the speech itself, I would probably practice more.

    Don't get me wrong. Reinforcement through visuals is absolutely essential, but how many of us really have the time to google for relevant artwork in the right resolution and then put it together in photoshop? I guess the "simple is good" theme theoretically mitigates that, but I'm not sure this applies as generally as the author seems to think.
    • DJosephDesign, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0This is why its good to partner with someone who can do that stuff for you. Presentation design is my specialty as a freelance designer, but many graphic designers can create a basic template for you. Just give them these specs:

      Lots of "white space"
      1024 x 768 px.
      Dark background, light text
      Design for the text or primary image to be the focal point

      While there is a lot of relearning for presentation design, any graphic designer should be able to adapt. Find someone that you can work with, and hire them to design your presentations for it. It *really* makes a difference!
  • ajpatel, on 10/12/2007, -5/+3Cliff Atkinson: Beyond Bullet Points
    http://www.beyondbullets.com/

    this is the end-all resource
    • ThomasCS, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1There doesn't appear to be anything except self-promotion on that page. I certainly wouldn't call the website a "resource", however good the book might be.
    • ajpatel, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3yeah, the book is the end-all resource lol, not the website :)
    • DJosephDesign, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Good book, but he neglects, and in personal correspondence with Cliff, he even rejects the need for good design in a presentation. His opinion is that there should be almost nothing on the screen except the point that you're making. That "nothing" means no well-designed template.

      He means well, but he's still approaching things from a "business" viewpoint and not a personal perspective.
  • gmax, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Good PowerPoint presentations are made with Keynote... then exported to PP :P
  • matx, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1My lecturers really need to read this :D

    One thing I really hate is when lecturers decide to use yellow writing against a dark blue background. They tend to burn my eyes.
  • fatalea1, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Well I just finished a power point presentation for this afternoon... thanks... although this is something "you should have brought to my attention yesterday!"
  • TheWalkingDude, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Depending on how the room is set up, I find a wireless PowerPoint clicker with integrated laser pointer to be useful. Although, if you want to look like an uber nerd, I recommend flipping slides by using your Nintendo DS:
    http://www.lifehacker.com/software/remote-computing/control-your-computer-with-your-nintendo-ds-158616.php
  • veracon, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1A nice guide indeed, though I greatly prefer Impress to PowerPoint. But that's really a matter of opinion.
  • Brodan, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Apples KeyNote is best.
    • KillerX, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2People absolutely freak out when they see the quality in a presentation done with Apple's Keynote.
      If you want to truly capture your audiences attention during a presentation use Keynote, it's far better than PowerPoint and a breeze to use!
  • lannybudd, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0http://www.norvig.com/Gettysburg/sld001.htm
  • DJosephDesign, on 10/12/2007, -3/+0I read this article when it came out. It's good to finally see other people acknowledging the need for presentation DESIGN. So many people, like Atkinson, are just on the hype of preventing information overload in presentations. But even these professionals deny the power of a presentation created with the principles of graphic design.

    I specialize in presentation design, and you can see how I implement ideas from sites like this in my presentation designs: http://www.djosephdesign.com/portfolio/presentations.php?entry=02
  • TokenUser, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1For the Keynote is better than Powerpoint crowd ... good design does not depend on the application it is presented in. Keynote has better transitions? You know what ... you should not be using transitions in a presentation ... especially if you are presenting remotely. The content of the presentation should be what the audience is left with, not the wizz bang tech used to deliver the message.
  • DJosephDesign, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1You're right about Keynote vs. PowerPoint. Keynote just comes with nicer stuff out of the box. PowerPoint can have awesome stuff too (like I do with it), but it takes talent.

    I disagree about transitions. *Smooth* transitions (like a crossfade) are necessary for many reasons. It's the corny stuff that ruins a presentation.
  • sbrodovicz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2No presentation software can make up for bad speaking, poor print communication skills, or unacceptable work on a project. Often these presentations are a horrible medium for displaying information. I suggest just talking with PDF handouts. Google Edward Tufte and powerpoint for a better guide. See his books on displaying information.
    • TokenUser, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Tufte is the master of presenting InfoPorn.
  • LycoLoco, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2Powerpoint is the Myspace of presentation products. There are so many wonderful things that can be done with it, but since the user is given so much freedom, it often crashes and burns horribly.
  • sp4rky, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I've given multiple presentation in my life, and I not your average user when it comes to PowerPoint or Keynote. I came over to the Mac world for college, and without a doubt Keynote is great. I think a few people here are speaking with out ever playing with Keynote.

    Some are saying it not the program it the user that makes the presentation what it is, and well this is true. I have to say though that Keynote offers a great amount of options that PowerPoint does not.

    I guess its like MS paint compared to Photoshop. If you took someone that was really good at making a presentation on PowerPoint and put them in front of Keynote they would be able to output something better than they could in PowerPoint. Keynote also has a very nice presenter screen when you running dual display that helps alot.

    But anyways like some have said, nothing makes up for a bad presenter. I have always told people that ask me about presenting, do and use what ever makes you the most confident when your up there and you will be fine. So for me its Keynote and my blue tooth remote.
  • kirkio, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Check out the rest of his site too. It contains much more information about PowerPoint and presenting in general.
  • loxi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0http://www.design-sites.net
  • ric6000, on 01/05/2008, -0/+0Check out this site for free templates download for PowerPoint http://www.templateswise.com
    Great post :P
  •  

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